Set Your Vision for a Successful Homeschool Year

You have made the decision to homeschool! If you are anything like me, the fear, anxiety, and nerves soon start to weigh on your decision. The self-talk begins to chip away at the resolve over the well-researched, prayed-over, and supported decision you just made. Whether your first child is starting out at kindergarten, you have a student coming out of the public school system, or you have a new student joining your established homeschool routine, this is a new year of education, and we can choose to start strong right out of the gate! Doing so means we approach our new year of homeschooling with goals in mind, a plan established, and the flexibility to evaluate.

If you are familiar with our FAMILY Way, you understand that homeschooling is something unique and specialized to you, your family, and your students. If the FAMILY Way is something new to you, I recommend taking some time to watch/listen to our FAMILY Way Workshop on choosing the right homeschool curriculum. For a detailed read, Tara wrote an in-depth article for our New to Homeschooling page on How to Choose the Right Homeschool Curriculum. The emphasis here is that your homeschooling time is unique to what you and your students need. Each vision, goal, action, evaluation, and adjustment is personal. It won’t look the same as your best friend’s or neighbor’s; it might not even be the same between each child in your family. Depending on the learning styles of each child, your homeschool vision may differ to meet those specific needs of your unique learners.

What is your homeschooling goal?

This can be very ambiguous to some. However, while I have not been good at setting goals, when asked what my vision is, articulating it comes naturally. So let us rephrase the question: What is your vision for your homeschool? We can even take a larger picture view and zoom in on two key aspects:

1. What is your vision for this homeschool year and 
2. What is your vision for this homeschool semester? 

Depending on whether you are a macro- or a micro-picture person, adjust how you approach these questions. As a micro-picture builder, this helps ease anxiety for me: I start with what is most important to me: Christian worldview. From there I can build and develop my plan, subject by subject, till my school year is constructed. If I do not have to think about the 5-year trajectory, it is better for my planning. However, there are moments when having the bigger picture is helpful and necessary. When approaching high school, knowing your student’s goals may cause you to plan more specifically for the 4 years of high school into college. For example, what science courses will set a student up for success for nursing or math courses for an engineering student?

Knowing your why is crucial for setting yourself up for success on this homeschool journey. Identifying and reminding yourself of your why helps you take actionable steps to achieve your goal. Vision-setting can seem ambiguous, so here is a personalized acrostic exercise to set you in the right direction and get your vision planning started:

• Take the letters of your last name and write them down on the left side of a notecard or piece of paper.
• Attribute a want/desire/vision/plan/word/phrase/etc. for each letter for YOUR homeschool.
• If you’d like, post this reminder somewhere where you will see it often and be reminded.

Use this simple exercise to build and develop your homeschool vision. Here's an example with my last name, Groves:

• Good, true, and beautiful
• Religious/Christian worldview
• Outdoors, connecting/exploring the world around us
• Voracious readers
• Enthusiastically eclectic and flexible
• Support from family and friends

Start small

The task of homeschooling can feel daunting. Daunting things seem larger than life. There is that funny philosophical question: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, of course! With one bite in mind, remember your actionable steps toward your goal are small, step-by-step achievements. Play to your strengths when developing these small steps. You are a morning person, but your kids would rather sleep in a bit. Take your mornings to plan your day or week. You have a love for dates, names, and places; lean into a more rigorous history program because you are empowered for history teaching. You have a knack for group experiences, making sure that your oldest and youngest are enriched and engaged; group learning is a strong option. 

These small observations add up quickly and before you know it, your semester or school year is planned out right before your eyes. There is another tip: Write it out! This can be with pencil and paper, a phone note, a word document, or my personal favorite, sticky notes! Simply put, document your plan. I fall victim to thinking I do not need to write down my genius ideas, only to forget them the next morning.  Plans this important need documentation. (We got you covered there, too—check out our Curriculum Planning Worksheet and the Enriching for Success Worksheet to help you stay on track as you plan.)

Evaluating your pieces

Scheduling moments to take a step back and view your day-to-day schooling is always wise. Think of it as a parent-teacher conference or a teacher institute with yourself! These moments allow you to have a bird’s eye view of each student’s work, progress, and curriculum. Plan these moments based on what works best for you: once a quarter, at semester break, or once a month. The purpose of these evaluations is to see how your school year is going. Are there more tears than celebrations? Will we finish this program before the end of our school year? Do I need additional support to teach? Does my student need supplemental work with fractions (place other skills here)? Your evaluation time is focused around maintaining your vision. It is easy to stray and go on a side-quest that leaves you in muddy water. Stay the course and keep your eye on YOUR vision. 

There is truth in the saying “It takes a village,” and after identifying your strengths, it is also important to acknowledge your weaknesses. These are the areas where you know you will need support. For me, math has always been a struggle. I know that my curriculum selection will need to reflect a detailed teacher guide to help me as much as possible. I also know, at some point, math instruction will have to be outsourced. This is not a failing, it is a weakness that needs support. Like Aaron and Hur coming alongside Moses to support and hold his arms up, build a team of supporters around you to lean on!

A great joy that comes from building your support system is that you have people to celebrate the small successes with. Celebrating these small milestones is important not only for you but your student(s) as well. This instills a sense of accomplishment, motivation, and encouragement to keep moving forward. Celebrating these small moments places individual pieces into the larger puzzle of your homeschool journey. And after so many pieces are placed, you can really see the picture taking shape. 

Do you have your homeschool vision? Has your heart rate gone down a bit? Are you feeling better equipped, and dare I say, excited to start this year of homeschooling? I hope and pray you are! A great resource for you to have in your back pocket is us! The Rainbow Curriculum Consultant team is here for you. We understand that this is a journey, and you are not walking it alone. Give us a call, Live Chat on our website, or send us an email. We are happy to join you on this wonderful journey in homeschooling!