How Can Having Long Term Home Schooling Goals
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| Long Term Home Schooling Goals |
Keeping the end in mind is really essential as you plan a road map for your home schooling curriculum and other choices. While you can’t know exactly what will lie ahead for your child in the future, you can formulate a general sense of where you and your child hope to go at least in some respects. A friend called this giving your child an “identity trajectory.” By your choices you are helping to develop a trajectory or tracks that your child will run on and develop her identity on. Naturally she still has freedom to change the course of her life, but in a real sense, you are helping to give her certain tools and experiences that will help shape who she is.
Thus, given what you are learning about your child now, and what kind of an identity you hope to help her develop, where do you weigh in on the importance of each of these areas?
- Academics
- is only one part of a well-rounded education and shouldn’t be pursued to the detriment of other areas of life. My child is especially interested in (fill in the blank here), and I want him to be able to spend time doing it.
- is very important and we can honor God by our excellence in academic subjects and how we use our minds.
- A college education
- is a goal for all my kids since it opens a world of learning, challenges, opportunities and career possibilities.
- is optional for my kids. It is only one approach to learning, and these days there are many other options on-line or through apprenticeships.
- Career preparation
- is an important element of our home schooling program. We want our children to be able to support their families or provide for themselves, as well as use their God-given talents to honor Him.
- is less a concern than learning how to think and apply Biblical principles to all areas of life, including politics, career decisions and lifestyle choices.
- Maturity and character growth
Certainly academics and career-oriented goals are not all you have for your child. This is definitely worth more coverage than I can give it here. However, I do have more information on incorporating character goals in your short term home schooling goals.
If you want to read more on having written home schooling goals, I'd encourage you to read the article Written Long Term Home Schooling Goals Can Improve Your Homeschool Success.
Now, how do you translate this into what specific home school curriculum you'll choose? Read on for how to use this and other information.
On to Short Term Home Schooling Goals and Curriculum Choices
