Bringing Focus to our Homeschool

This week we are kicking off another year of great Blog Cruise posts brought to you by the TOS Crew. We are discussing homeschool related goals. My husband and I have always had goals for our children as we educate them at home. Our first goal is to see them grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ and have a desire to live for Him and serve Him (2 Peter 3:18). This year, however, I took the time to write out more goals for our home and for each individual child. This has helped bring focus to our homeschool.

Here are some of our goals for this year:

1. Memorize one verse of Scripture each week as a family.

2. Do everything for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). This doesn't mean just getting our work done, but also doing it with happy hearts (attitudes pleasing to the Lord).

3. MORE JOY (choosing to give thanks, be joyful always, and pray without ceasing like 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 teaches.

4. Focus on one thing at a time and when that is accomplished move on to the next thing.

5. Progress at each child's individual pace

Goals for each individual child:

I used Diane Lopez's "Teaching Children: A Curriculum Guide to What Children Need to Know at Each Level Through Sixth Grade" as a guide to make goals by subject for each child. I printed them and placed them in my binder to give me a big picture of things I believe the children need to learn this year. I can go back to this list to assess how we are progressing throughout the year. I like to see things written down and then checked off and this helps me do that.

What are your homeschool goals for the year? If you haven't taken the time to sit down and write them out, I encourage you to do so because it has helped this homeschool Momma focus and I am thankful.