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Homeschool Goal Setting

The TOS Crew has been sailing for about 2 months now and it is now time for the blog cruise to get on its way.

What is the blog cruise, you may ask? It is a sort of blog carnival where members of the crew share about a specific topics and how it plays out in their homeschooling. Every two weeks there will be a new topic, so let's board!

The first topic for this year is about homeschool related goals for the year.

To be honest, I am not a big goal setting person. I think it is because I do not like to fail, so I shy away from specific goal setting. I do not usually have new year resolutions for example.

That said, I do believe that setting goals is important. Someone well said : “aim at nothing and you will be sure to reach it every time.”, that says it all.

So what do I do about this?

This year I will use this blog post to set some goals for our homeschool year. Usually even if I do not set specific goal,s I do have an overarching goal of finishing up whatever curriculum I purchase. I do spent a lot of time researching the boys' curriculum precisely because I intend to finish them, and because I cannot afford to keep switching throughout a school year.

Now, if I want to be more detailed about what we will attempt to achieve this year I have to know what it is I am trying to accomplish.

I want the boys to be thinkers, develop wisdom and meet academic standards, without making it the goal to be achieved no matter what.

To that end:

Language Arts:

  • Continue to improve their reading. They both read well-above grade level but there is always improvement to be made.



  • Learn to spell. They are not good spellers, mainly because they hate spelling.



  • Improve their handwriting.



  • Improve their comprehension skills



  • Improve their grammar skills and understanding



  • Continue their exposure to different literary genres


Math:

  • Cement Math basics (fact and mechanics)



  • Continue to develop their mathematical thinking skills



  • Improve their logical skills


Improve their critical thinking skills

Social studies:

  • Continue learning about history



  • Continue learning about the world around us (geography and civics)


Music Appreciation:

  • Expose them and teach them about composers and orchestras



  • Practice an instrument - Zach violin, Joho piano


Science:

  • Continue learning basic scientific facts: this year is all about biology.


Languages:

  • Teach them french

  • Continue with Latin


Others:

  • Continue learning diligence



  • Improve their responsibility skills



  • Improve their physical skills



  • Continue learning about godly wisdom, christian doctrine and christian living


So these will be my goals for the year. We shall see how it goes . . .

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Comments

Linda said…
I like the way you used words like "improve", "continue", and "practice". These are goals I could get behind! I shy away from goals in homeschooling, maybe because of that fear of not reaching them. I decided that this year my goals would try to make school more fun, use more learning games, (like LearningGamesForKids),
and aim for more art, music, and foreign language. Thanks for sharing your goals, they are inspirational!
October 2, 2011 at 8:10 PM
Homeschool Goal Setting « said…
[...] http://homeschoolblogger.com/joelle/2011/10/goal-setting/ [...]
October 5, 2011 at 4:18 PM
Blog Cruise ~ Homeschool Goals at TOS Homeschool Crew said…
[...] Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory details Homeschool goal setting. [...]
October 11, 2011 at 3:02 AM
Julie Coney said…
spelling. one of mine hates it too. It is one of our goals this year as well.
October 11, 2011 at 7:25 AM
brandy said…
Spelling and handwriting are on the goal list at our house!!
October 11, 2011 at 10:58 AM
Diana said…
Thank you for your kind comment on my Scruble Cube review!

I am a new Crew member. I didn't even realize the Blog hop had this topic, yet I just made a similar entry on my blog because my plans have changed so much in 6 weeks!

D
October 14, 2011 at 8:00 AM
joelle said…
This is not part of the blog hop but the blog cruise. I know it can be confusing.
October 14, 2011 at 5:28 PM
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