How To Make Short Term
|
| Step One: Growing Roots or Giving Wings? |
A good first step in setting short term home schooling goals is to think in broad categories. In general, short term home schooling goals fall into two categories:
- Roots. In this category your child deepens skills in some specific subject (math comprehension, math computation, spelling, reading comprehension, or grammar, to name a few). These are key foundational skills or bits of information your child will use over time. It isn’t that curriculums with this focus can’t foster a love for the material, it just means that their main goal is to give a grounding in the basics.
- Wings. In this category your child develops a love of learning in some subject (start enjoying reading, learn how math applies to life, etc.) and takes off. This kind of learning can be all over the map as your child explores and discovers and makes a connection with the material.
The key point is to discern which is more important in your child’s life right now. Take a few minutes to journal some thoughts about where your child is now.
Examples of Root-building home school curriculum:
Math:
Language Arts:- Easy Grammar
- Winston Grammar (although I haven’t used it personally)
- Spelling Power
- Sequential Spelling
- Bob Jones science materials (although I haven’t used them personally)
Examples of Wing-building home school curriculum:
Math:
- Living Math materials
- Jacob's Elementary Algebra
(it seems to be, although we haven’t used it yet)
- Zome Tools
- Brave Writer materials
- Language games like Coodju Lite, Scrabble
- Sonlight science programs
- Lots of other hands-on science programs from Edmund Scientifics
If you are getting the sense that Root-building home school curriculums are more drill and textbook oriented, and Wing-building ones are not, you are right. But do you know why I didn’t just categorize them as textbook and non-textbook at first?
You see, before you choose whether you want a textbook or not, you need to know if you want to develop your child’s roots or wings. It isn’t merely that the format is different for these various home school curriculums: their very purpose is different. Until you know what purpose you have in mind, you won’t know if you want a Root-building or Wing-building curriculum. Once you know this, you are already narrowing the choices probably by half!
Do you want to give your child roots or wings right now?
| Step Two: What One Thing? |
The next step in developing some short term home schooling goals is one I learned from Julie Bogart in her Brave Writer materials. She often talks about focusing on one thing, and after you do that well, add in something else. What one thing do you want to focus on this semester? This week?
For instance, you may want to read poetry to your kids, make sure they know the “i before e” rule in spelling, and recognize a run-on sentence. All right away. By 2:30 today, please. So you try a bit of them all and no one ends up happy. Been there?
But instead, you focus on one thing, and cover it really well. You teach it, you explore it, you live it. You an have – what’s this? – success! You and your child can experience doing something well. What a great feeling to have and build upon! After this you can move on to another subject or add another subject to what you’ve already incorporated successfully. Make your short term home schooling goals stepping stones of success. I can testify it is working for us.
What one thing do you want your child to have success in over the next few months?
| Step Three: What Tools Will Help My Child in His Short Term Character Goals? |
While major character goals of honesty, responsibility, compassion for others, and similar character issues are certainly long term goals, developing good character in your children needn’t be only an ideal to be hoped for. You can think about how to make practical opportunities to help your children grow in character now. See if there aren't ways you could incorporate those kinds of opportuntities into some short term home schooling goals.
For example, I wanted my 8-year-old son to develop more responsibility for his work. Thus, I wanted a tool that would help him see what he needed to do without always asking me. I have found The Homeschool Student Planner to be a very helpful tool for him and all my children. Now that I have this tool, I wouldn't want to be without it. I tried making my own simplified version to save money, but honestly, the real thing is worth it. There are lots of features you can't make yourself. It's been a great help for us.
Here's another example. Compassion may take a lifetime to develop, but having tools such as books about people from other lands can help in remarkably natural ways.
- Sonlight Eastern Hemisphere Core Materials are books that offer a fascinating window on cultures that I hope my family doesn't miss out on. Also
- Hero Tales are great stories we often use over breakfast to discuss both history, Bible and character qualities.
There are ways to help develop other qualities too. You can build up greater honesty by increasing the times he can self-check his math problems, for instance. In this case you could use just about any textbook, but maybe would modify how you use the answer key.
What tools do you need to give your child a chance to take a small step in developing some character quality?
| Step Four: What Boxes Will You Check Off? |
As a reforming compulsive-box checker, I am finally learning to use a good tool (boxes to check off) for good purposes (to help me do what I want to do instead of what someone else says I need to do!). For instance, if your short term home schooling goals include giving your child “wings” for math, make sure you include reading some good living math books or math history books, both of which can be found at www.LivingMath.net. Try making just one of the suggestions for games or a read-aloud that you find there a box you want to check off this week.
If you want to help your child gain proficiency in multiplication tables while making it fun, try Timez Attack and let his play time be a box you can check off for math at the same time.
You can read more on this topic at the Brave Writer Blog entry Checking Boxes.
Short term home schooling goals needn’t be burdensome. In fact, thinking creatively yet concretely about short term goals can actually remove some of the burdens you may have been under. Here's a novel thought: try to set some short term home schooling goals that will really bring you joy and deepen your relationship with your child!
What boxes can you write that you and your child will enjoy checking off?
I hope these thoughts on short term home schooling goals will help bring you clarity in what to buy as well as joy in being with your child and using what you have. Feel free to drop me a note if you have any comments on what you've read here.
Back to Long Term Home Schooling Goals
Back to Home Page from Short Term Home Schooling Goals
Looking for something? Search for it here:
