Homeschool Goals for 2023
This may be a bit late, but as it’s still January I would argue that it is still the season for reflecting and planning and resolving and goal-setting. Last year also I wrote down a short list consisting of three goals for our homeschool we wanted to work towards throughout the year and we must have enjoyed it because here we are, doing it again. Looking back, the things we wanted to emphasize in 2022 were piano progress, outdoor time, and good books – and I can truthfully say that we did!
We started with a new piano teacher about a year ago and I have worked harder this year to make sure the two older boys are practicing, and often helped them when they need it. I will say, being on this side of the piano lesson equation (rather than the teaching side) is much different! I now have more sympathy for the parental effort required for children to sustain decent progress. One of our boys in particular needs a lot of help to stay on task while practicing which is a daily exercise in patience for me. However, although progress in music lessons is always hard to measure from week to week (or even from month to month), when I look back over the whole year I know they have improved significantly and I am proud of them.
To track our outdoor time I used a chart from 1000 Hours Outside and we made it up to 552 hours by the end of December. In case you weren’t sure, five hundred and fifty two is not one thousand hours, but my personal goal when we started last January was 500 hours, so I am pleased that we accomplished that! Many beautiful memories and family experiences are tied up in those hours. We’ve already printed off a new chart for 2023 and I hope to surpass 600 hours this year. On a related note, I think we officially kicked our daily screen time habit this summer and it has been amazing. I made a rule at the beginning of the summer that we would only watch a show if it was raining or if someone was sick, which I secretly thought would only last for the summer – but then we got in the habit of playing outside more and the children forgot to ask for a show every afternoon and here we are in January, and this “rule” is still going, except that it doesn’t really matter anymore because most days we don’t even think about it. It’s a beautiful place to be! Now, we might go back to the “watch a show every day” routine at some point – it definitely saved my sanity in some times of sickness or busy toddler seasons – and that is okay. It is more than okay. Don’t feel guilty if that’s what you need to do! However, now that I’ve experienced life without a daily “movie time,” I can say that this also is so, so good and absolutely worth the effort if you have the energy to do so. At this point it’s actually easier because the children are more creative, more self-motivated, and more independent when screens aren’t an option.
Regarding good books – I can only smile when I look back at the list of chapter books we read aloud during the past year. They were so good! And we enjoyed them so much! I was reminded lately of the progress these children have made in their listening skills. When we started out several years ago reading chapter books, we did it during lunch and I had to keep it very short and show lots of pictures and there were many interruptions and it took so long to make it through a whole book. Today, we can read longer chapters, with no pictures, there are a smaller number of interruptions, the kids always ask me to read more, and sometimes we’ll even continue in the afternoon if we’re all enjoying it and don’t want to stop. This is exciting, and encourages me to keep going with the habits we are working to instill! Granted, we still have those days where Little Sister spills her water and then Little Brother knocks over his yogurt and then Big Brother wants another sandwich and then Middle Brother is offended because Little Brother touched him and then Baby Brother doesn’t want his food so he violently chucks it across the room, screams like a banshee, throws his head around and smacks it on the back of the chair (reasonable) and it takes us 45 minutes to get through 2.5 sentences of our book. These pleasantries, however, are slowly becoming the exception rather than the norm. Pro tip: if possible, feed the baby earlier and then stick him in his room for independent playtime while everyone else has lunch. Bliss!
It’s interesting to me that none of those three homeschool goals can be tested or measured on a report card. Most of the best things that we do cannot be tested or measured! How do you put a grade on a hike, or a new piano piece mastered, or a chapter book shared together, or a child who shows compassion and empathy, or a meal cooked together, or a long discussion about heaven and eternity? How do you put a grade on LIFE? And if grades are all-important in your system of education, will subjects that don’t lend themselves to grading still retain the importance they deserve? Food for thought.
But! We must look forward to 2023. I have very little capacity in my brain for complicated recipes, elaborate philosophies, or lengthy lists, so once again I am sticking with three simple goals for the school year. They are… drum roll please… Narration, Strength, and Math. I can’t wait!
And yes, if you’re wondering, it does feel a little silly, a little vulnerable, a little risky to share our homeschool goals for the year publicly on the internet – but it also helps increase the chances we’ll actually make progress on them. Writing it down, telling a friend, and having a wee bit of accountability really helps – it’s a fact. So thank YOU for helping me along!
Narration is a staple of a Charlotte Mason-style education, but our use of it has been inconsistent and casual thus far. If you want to read an excellent explanation of what it is and why it works, check out Know and Tell by Karen Glass. I am convinced it is good and worthwhile and I want to make more use of it throughout our school days. To do this, I need to look through our schedule and plan for times when I can have the children narrate to me – otherwise it won’t happen. I’m also going to read Glass’s book again to remind me of why we want to do this.
Physical strength and endurance is something I am desperately lacking, so this goal is every bit as much for me as for the children. Carrying, birthing, and nursing five children has taken a toll and I feel the need to move my body more and regain some strength. We also have a few children who tend towards sedentary pursuits and would happily sit on the couch reading all day long, which is wonderful, but also not conducive to physical health and stamina. I don’t have time to shuttle kids around to sports all week, nor does it fit with our family vision, so the exercise we do will need to be done as a family – and preferably outdoors. Hiking, biking, and walking all fit the bill! As a motivation to help us along with this goal we are planning a family hiking trip at the end of the summer, and we’re going to plan it in such a way that we will not be able to complete it unless we work up some endurance before then.
I have a love-hate relationship with Math at the moment. I love it because it’s beautiful and fascinating and our kids love doing it; I hate it because every child is at a different level which means I cannot combine them which means in order to work on Math I need to find individual time with each child which is very, very difficult to come by. We have not been doing math every day – I must confess that there were even some periods last year when weeks went by with no dedicated math time – but that is only mildly concerning to me because a) the boys still love math, which I do believe is half the battle, and b) we do a lot of “life skills math” every single day through baking, cooking, playing board games, grocery shopping, singing math songs, or counting money. However, I know that we also need to keep working through our math books and I am working to set aside more dedicated time for that this year.
That’s the plan! Of course, these goals are just a tool to serve us, not a master to rule us, so we can change or adjust if needed – but I find it’s been helpful to have a vision in mind to keep us on track throughout the year. That way, when I think about adding a new book/product/resource I can ask myself, “Will this contribute to our Goals or detract from them?” If we have some free time or a wide-open day I can look at our Goals and decide how we should fill the time. This might seem overly simplistic but when the baby was up crying all night and I haven’t showered in three days and the kids won’t stop asking questions (“How tall is our house? Can I pleeeeeeease eat this? How do you spell ‘extraterrestrial’? Can I do an experiment with the blender? Where’s that one book I was reading last week? What would happen if Saturn crashed into Jupiter? When will I grow a mustache? Why is your belly so squishy? What are we having for supper? How many days until my birthday? Why are you looking at Dad like that?”), it’s very very helpful to have these decisions already made. I’ve also started writing down some personal goals and plans at the beginning of each year (which I will not share on the internet) and this also is worthwhile.
Finally, if you are wondering, we don’t plan to abandon Piano or Outside Time or Good Books anytime soon. My hope is that now that we have established these three in a good routine, we can continue on with those habits without much extra thought needed.
Because frankly, friends, my brain is mush. Rather like my belly.
Happy new year to you all!
Originally written January 26 2023
