13 Goals for Your Homeschool . . . & How to Implement Them

Before we dive into the approaches to Christian homeschooling, let’s take a step back and talk about what goals you have for your homeschool. First, we need to look at you, your family and your kids. Only then can you determine what approach to use & what curriculum to buy for your homeschool.

Think about this for a minute:

What is education to you?

Is it . . .

Memorizing all your multiplication facts?
Writing a research paper?
Getting a job?
Learning to cook or sew or garden?
Obtaining the tools of learning?
Reading, Writing & ‘Rithmetic?
Serving others?
Getting a high school or college degree?

 (That’s 8 goals for your homeschool)

Once you determine what an educated person is, you can determine your goals for your family and your children. This will include both long-term goals, such as know, glorify and enjoy God forever and short-term goals, such as working on a particular virtue.

Long-Term Goals

What type of long-term goals might you have for your children?

Obtain a Job
Go to College or Technical School
Prepared for Adult Life
Self-Learner – Independent Thinking
Mature in Jesus Christ

 (5 more goals for homeschooling)

Depending on the goals you have, your homeschool might look different from other homeschoolers. The goals above are just examples for you. Let’s take a look at how you might homeschool with any given goal.

Implementing Your Goals in Homeschooling

If your goal for your children is to obtain a job, you should spend time developing work ethic, integrity, perseverance.

Or, maybe you want your child to go to college. In high school, you’ll spend time preparing them for the SAT & good study habits.

What if your goal is preparing your kids for adult life?

You’ll spend time on real life skills. These may include preparing them for a job, for marriage, for family, for ministry, for home management. Specifically, you might teach your kids carpentry skills, auto care, home maintenance, taking care of children, cooking & baking skills, sewing, gardening and cleaning.

One of our favorite ways to teach real life skills was through a family business. With our family business, our kids had a variety of learning experiences, growing in character & real life skills.

If your goal is for your children to be self-learners, you need to provide the tools of learning and encourage independent thinking in your kids.

One of the most important goals in our family was to grow in maturity in Jesus Christ.  If you have a similar goal, you’ll want to train your kids in righteousness, truly loving & following God’s commands regardless of how difficult it is. That’s an awesome task. It goes back to wisdom & virtue, along with truth, goodness and beauty.

For me personally, I had a full-orbed philosophy of education. I believe education is more than just academics; although academics are a huge part of our homeschooling. Our family had all the goals listed above. We used different strategies in our homeschool to meet each of the goals.

Kerry Beck homeschooled all three of her children for 10 years. She is now an empty-nester that encourages homeschool moms online and at live workshops. She wants to give you a free ebook: Everything You Wanted to Know About Homeschooling that you can grab by clicking here. She also has a free Lucky Charms Graph & St. Patrick’s Day Activity Guide for you.