Our family have never set a formal vision for our homeschool. We always have plans. We have goals. But we have never written out a specific vision to guide those plans and goals. It's probably something I should have thought to do before now, huh? Oh well. As we look at getting our homeschool up and running in a couple of days, it's the perfect time to set our vision.
I had a busy day today. Lots to do outside of the house, lots of driving, lots of time to think. It was well below zero and I didn't want the girls to be out in this nasty weather. So while I was driving, I started thinking about our homeschool. It was one of those moments that God just dropped something in my mind, so clearly that there was no way it came from my cluttered brain.
Setting a vision for our homeschool was something I'd been considering for two reasons:
First, it's Biblical. Proverbs 29:18 says "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." I don't want my children to perish. Quite the opposite, I want them to flourish! So if my goal is for them to flourish, a vision would logically be necessary.
Second, our goal as a homeschool family is not just to educate them on their math facts and some historic dates. We want to educate them to be well-rounded and intelligent ladies. If our goal is going to be to teach more than facts, we have to always remember why we are doing so. So why are we doing this? What are we really trying to teach our children?
The vision that the Lord gave me while I was driving this afternoon is:
We have calculators on our phones or computers.
We have the entire internet to sharpen our memories of historical events.
We have endless youtube videos to demonstrate science experiments.
And yes, there is autocorrect - which is an argument against spelling lessons I hear regularly.
But the one thing our daughters, our students can't fake is knowing how to write a good paragraph or letter or report. They can't fake proper punctuation and grammar. They can't autocorrect bad handwriting when filling out a job application. They can't calculate an idea for a job proposal.
Good, honest writing is the one thing that the internet can't help them fake. It's my job to make sure our daughters are learning these skills now, before they enter the 'real world.' So this is what we will be focusing on. For Lael (7th grade) and Alyssa (5th grade), this will mean - you guessed it - lots of writing and rewriting. For Lauren (1st grade), our focus will be more on strengthening her reading skills with lots of examples of good writing. And for Addie (3 years old), this will mean she's going to get lots more books read to her. One of the best ways to learn to be a good writer is to read good literature. And if you've got to read, why not read to a very cute 3 year old?
Have you ever set a vision for your homeschool? Are you changing anything with the new year?
I had a busy day today. Lots to do outside of the house, lots of driving, lots of time to think. It was well below zero and I didn't want the girls to be out in this nasty weather. So while I was driving, I started thinking about our homeschool. It was one of those moments that God just dropped something in my mind, so clearly that there was no way it came from my cluttered brain.
Setting a vision for our homeschool was something I'd been considering for two reasons:
First, it's Biblical. Proverbs 29:18 says "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." I don't want my children to perish. Quite the opposite, I want them to flourish! So if my goal is for them to flourish, a vision would logically be necessary.
Second, our goal as a homeschool family is not just to educate them on their math facts and some historic dates. We want to educate them to be well-rounded and intelligent ladies. If our goal is going to be to teach more than facts, we have to always remember why we are doing so. So why are we doing this? What are we really trying to teach our children?
The vision that the Lord gave me while I was driving this afternoon is:
Our goal is to teach our daughters to clearly convey thoughts, ideas and research in written form. This should include handwriting, spelling, english, science and history.Nothing too earth shattering, I know. But the more I think about our society and technology, the more I realize writing is still so very important.
We have calculators on our phones or computers.
We have the entire internet to sharpen our memories of historical events.
We have endless youtube videos to demonstrate science experiments.
And yes, there is autocorrect - which is an argument against spelling lessons I hear regularly.
But the one thing our daughters, our students can't fake is knowing how to write a good paragraph or letter or report. They can't fake proper punctuation and grammar. They can't autocorrect bad handwriting when filling out a job application. They can't calculate an idea for a job proposal.
Good, honest writing is the one thing that the internet can't help them fake. It's my job to make sure our daughters are learning these skills now, before they enter the 'real world.' So this is what we will be focusing on. For Lael (7th grade) and Alyssa (5th grade), this will mean - you guessed it - lots of writing and rewriting. For Lauren (1st grade), our focus will be more on strengthening her reading skills with lots of examples of good writing. And for Addie (3 years old), this will mean she's going to get lots more books read to her. One of the best ways to learn to be a good writer is to read good literature. And if you've got to read, why not read to a very cute 3 year old?
Have you ever set a vision for your homeschool? Are you changing anything with the new year?
I'm a bit surprised that autocorrect is an argument AGAINST spelling lessons. How does one know if the autocorrect is making the proper suggestion? We all know how often autocorrect gets blamed for improper grammar, spelling, punctuation, and even nonsense words!
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