What Is Home Schooling Success?

...and can I order some of that home schooling success to be delivered by tomorrow morning, please?

As a home schooling mom of four, I want home schooling success -- for me, for my kids. And it would sure be nice to have it now. Or at least know that it is in the mail. I can easily get bogged down in the every day stresses of correcting math tests, looking over papers and giving spelling words to review, and I sometimes wonder are any of my kids learning any of this?! "Are we getting anywhere?" I ask myself. And while that is a good question, I have found there are better questions to ask in my desire to find home schooling success.

As home schooling families, our goals are greater than just getting through today's homework, aren't they? Sure! We are home schooling with high hopes and often with deeply rooted convictions. Nothing wrong with that. But because of these high aspirations, it is all the more important to take some time periodically to step back from all the mundane day-to-day details and take a look at the end you have in mind.

Keeping the end in mind is critical to knowing what you need to use to get there. As the saying goes, if you don’t know where you are going, it’s hard to know if you’ve arrived.

So, ask yourself, at the end of twelve years (more or less) of educating your child at home, what do you want to remember? What do you want your child to remember? To have accomplished? What does home schooling success look like for your family as a whole? For each indiividual child? The more specific you can think through this question the better.

Of course you can't know the future, and setting a goal doesn't mean you or your child will reach it. However, you can know some good questions to ask. Let's take a few minutes and look at some specifics about figuring out what home schooling success might mean for you.

For instance, when you look at the world, people obviously have very different images of success. Money in the bank? A cozy cottage on a lake? A life of service to the underprivileged? The variations are endless. So take a few minutes and answer what does success mean to you…

• Academically – How important are academics?
• Career-wise – What does career preparation mean?
• Spiritually -- What does maturing faith look like?
• In facts and knowledge – What should your child know and does he know how to think and learn for himself? What skills should he know?
• Inwardly – Is your child discovering a passion for something and learning to see that tied to his purpose in life?
• Relationally – What values will your child apply when relating to other people once he is on his own? Is he learning to be kind and compassionate?

These are only a sample of some questions. And your answers don't have to be long. But think about them as specifically as you can.Take a few minutes even tonight to brainstorm ideas that can become a foundation for what you believe in and that you can affirm wholeheartedly about what success will look like for your child. I would recommend going through this every year as you and your children both grow in wisdom and direction.

After you write down your thoughts on what is home schooling success, use them to decide what you need and which curriculum might be the best fit those values you listed.

Blueprint for Home Schooling Success

So while it is tempting to want to look in a catalog to find home schooling success, it really is more involved in that. Because you are more unique. Your children are more unique. No, there is not an instant answer to find out what your definition of home schooling success is, but once you come up with even a few key points, you will find that your whole attitude to the ups and downs of your home schooling days and weeks will change. I know this is true. I've experienced it. Not always, by a long shot, but when I keep our "blueprint for success" in my mind, it makes all the difference between feeling frustrated and helpless to feeling delight and joy in our home schooling.

Want to know more? To find out more about finding the best home school curriculum, keep reading the pages you'll find listed in our site map.

Top of page

Back to Home Page from Home Schooling Success: What is It?