In preparing for school, I've tried examining what we've done and what we've missed, what I've wanted to do and what I never want to try again, what worked and what didn't. My biggest realization was that somehow I had slipped further and further away from having our faith be our biggest factor in our homeschooling.
As I sat down to do our lesson plans, I kept running across prompts from different sources asking me what my goals were for the year. Goals? Um....finish? Learn? I wasn't prepared to take it deeper. But it was unavoidable. Finally, I sat down with Cindy Rushton's "Let's Get Ready for the New School Year" and answered those questions. Wow.
It asked for my Spiritual Goals for the upcoming year. Obedience (from me, especially.) Worship. God as our "core curriculum." Academic Goals? For them to Love Learning. While that has always been my goal, I didn't realize that my kids never knew that. I had never conveyed to them that this was my primary objective. Over this last week, I have developed my philosophy of education.
Children learn by example. Enthusiasm is contagious. Children strive to meet the expectations set before them. I need to respect mine enough to give them challenging, yet practical expectations. Children respond well to routine and stability. They feel pride in a job well done.
So I must strive to eliminate distractions. The phone ringer will be turned off. Meals will be planned again. We all will be in bed before 1:00 a.m. and up at a consistent hour. Our schedule will be made around Daddy's schedule. Time with Daddy is precious to us and it cannot be treated as a distraction to our school day. Those are a lot of changes to implement over a weekend. But we're trying. School starts tomorrow.
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