If you homeschool, chances are you’ve set some goals for the New Year. You know what you want to do better or just differently this semester. Maybe you’re tackling a new subject, changing your schedule, or even using different curriculum. But have you considered this – what will you leave unchanged this New Year? Have you decided what you’ll ‘keep’ from 2020?
Define your Strengths
Every semester and every year brings different challenges. Certainly, last year brought more than our fair share. But instead of focusing on the difficulties we all faced, I want you to consider the ways you and your family rose to meet those challenges. What worked? If you can define the things that worked, you can use those qualities to ensure the success of any new goals this semester.
Collaborate with your Student
Over time, I’ve become more adept at easing us back into our school routine after a break. We start slow with just a few subjects and use some of the extra time we have to talk about our plans. This informal time is crucial to getting us on track for the semester.
I save our more formal evaluations or progress reports for the end of the school year in May. That’s when my husband and I sit down with each child to celebrate their achievements and collaborate on goals for the following year.
Here, in January, it’s a little different. First of all, nobody is super motivated to get back at it and embrace a full school workload again. My goal in the first week or so is several short discussions with each child. We go over what they’re doing now, the goal(s) for this semester, and perhaps even long term goals (next year and beyond) as well.
Maintain a Growth Mindset
As always, I frame our goals in a positive manner. If you have difficulty with this – maybe you/your child are frustrated by their seeming lack of progress in an area – you might want to learn or revisit the concept of a growth mindset. A growth mindset embraces the concept of ‘not yet’. This is the belief that, with hard work and effort, the student can achieve mastery of nearly any subject.
Celebrate the Now
The New Year is an excellent time to look at yourself and your children in a positive light – to recognize the strengths you already have. What will you leave unchanged this year? Sure, we all have things we’d like to work on. We all probably need to work on some things too. But first, recognize how amazing you and your children already are.
Happy New Year!
