I had found my homeschooling groove. Do you know what I mean? I had figured what worked for us and we were thriving in it. I had three kids within a few years of each other and they were excelling academically. Then, another child arrived on the scene. And then, two years later, so did another. I lost my groove. Have you ever been there? I became tired, stressed out, weak, and lost all confidence in what I was doing. How? How was I supposed to homeschool AND have two little ones with so many needs? I tried several different methods from online coursework to solely independent studies. Nothing seemed to get us back in the groove.
Nothing, until one night when I was unable to sleep. Thoughts were racing through my mind concerning each of my older children. One was extremely behind in spelling, another in writing, and another in math. I felt like a failure and wasn’t sure how I was going to potty train my youngest while making sure my other children were hitting the benchmarks that they needed to. I fell asleep and tried to forget about it all.
The next day when I woke up I began thinking again about all of the things that my children were behind on again when it hit me (which I believe was actually the Lord nudging me in the right direction). It hit me that maybe I should completely rearrange the way I look at home education. Instead of creating a schedule of grade-based material, maybe I should focus on what my kids actually need to learn. Basic, right? But how in the world would I actually begin doing this? Well, I thought about the different goals that I had for each of my kids. I immediately created a chart. I wrote down the name of each child and then gave them several goals to complete by the end of the month.
I gave each child a book that I wanted them to complete. One child was struggling with learning their multiplication tables so on the list it went. Another needed to learn how to write better, so I integrated that into his list. My teen needed a challenge so his goal involved the Periodic Table of Elements. I even included memorizing Bible verses on all of their lists. For some reason, having the goals motivated them. I even presented them with a small incentive for completing their goals.
This may sound like a simple approach to homeschooling but it has provided so much freedom in our homeschool. We still use some of our curriculum, others we have thrown to the curb. All that matters is that they reach their goals, I am not so concerned as to how. I provide them with the resources and then it is their responsibility to reach their goals. I never would have guessed that this would have worked so well! I can now focus on my little ones while simply guiding my older ones in the right direction. Sure, there are times when I have one-on-one school time with each of the older ones but it is not met with as much opposition as it was in the past, which makes a huge difference. Schooling does wear on me as much as it did now that their attitudes have changed and it doesn’t take as long because they aren’t dragging it out in drudgery.
If you are wondering how to know what to teach your kids if you are interested in trying a goal-based homeschooling approach, simply look up a Scope and Sequence for the age of your child and you can start from there!
