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by Naomi Musch
It's common for new home schoolers to look at those who've been doing it for a while and are cruising along on schedule to think, "Wow, they've got it all together. They really know what they're doing." Getting through the books on time, however, whizzing through the tests that different folks deem necessary, and finding time for a myriad of other activities does not necessarily a successful teaching home make. Those beginning to home school, or those simply beginning a new year should be clear that what will make a successful home education is one that is geared by carefully established goals. To establish those goals and wear them as frontlets before our eyes, to clearly understand the philosophies on which they are based, will help anyone "get it all together".
Through triumphs and joys, trials and mistakes, our own family's goals have grown and become more defined since we first began home schooling. But they began with a solid conviction that our family could best glorify God by bringing our children home to school. The desire to honor the Lord in all we do is at the forefront of our home and school. Sometimes we fail, so the challenge remains constant before us. From this trunk we establish a more widespread branching of goals. Some are concrete, others are more abstract, but here is what
we hope to see accomplished in the lives of our children and ourselves. We endeavor to:
* make and become spiritually mature.
* discover the meaning and satisfying purpose that God has planned for us.
*learn patience, self motivation, perseverance, and be filled with love, courage, integrity, and humility. And along with that to...
*be trustworthy and trustful, non-materialistic, non-passive, non-violent, non-timid in the face of the unexpected, not easily distracted.
*make a unique individual, not a conformist, furnished with a godly will and spirit with which to tackle big challenges.
*provide independent study, apprenticeships, community service, adventures big and small, privacy and solitude, good books, exploration, time with siblings, family fun in quantity.
*be active in church and community.
*demonstrate concern and kindness, while learning the right way to handle negative feelings.
*find a way to love whatever we are doing, wherever we are, whomever we are with , how to live, how to die (Philippines 4:11).
Those are the long-term goals for our home as well as I can state them or have seen them stated. While we plan to finish the books and take part in activities, goals of character reaching beyond the immediate school year will build our children; our philosophies of life will define them.
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