Once you've made that monumental decision to go on a homeschooling journey, the first step is setting goals. Skipping this step is like planning a trip by booking airline tickets, renting a car, or jumping on a train.....without knowing your destination!
First you decide where you want to go, THEN you decide how you're going to get there.
Choosing books, curriculum, classes, or assignments to use is your mode of transportation.
So where are you trying to get to? What does goal setting look like for homeschool?
While I can't tell you what your goals should be, a word about what they don't need to be:
You don't need to :
do everything the public school does (only better!)
know and teach everything about everything
be the perfect homeschooling parent
have your child love everything about homeschooling
produce a child who is accepted into an elite university, is a National Merit Scholarship Finalist, an Olympic athlete, winner of the National Spelling Bee, etc., etc.,...If your child does happen to do one of those things, there's nothing wrong with that.....and many of the students who do those things are, guess what....homeschooled! In fact if one of those exceptional achievements is your goal, homeschooling is a great way to prepare your child.
However if your child does not happen to achieve one of those amazing accomplishments....
It. Is. Okay.
You are not a failure. Your child is not a failure. Harvard only accepts 5% of its applicants. That means....95 % of it's applicants don't get in.
1.6 million students enter the National Merit Scholarship competition every year, and out of those...15,000 go on to become finalists. That means.....more than 99% don't win the scholarship.
In 2017, only 36% of the eighth graders in the nation performed at the Proficient level.
That means....64% of students are going into high school at Below Proficient levels. That's most of them.
So wherever your student is academically, they are certainly not alone, even if they're not preforming at the standard that the government has decided represents 'proficient'.
Your child has many gifts and talents which they can use to be successful. Homeschooling is a great opportunity to develop those gifts and talents, and your goals can focus on developing those strengths which working to overcome weak areas.
See you tomorrow for Step 2 in this week's Homeschooling series....Knowing your State.
