You just wrapped up the 2018-2019 school year, but already, your eyes are looking forward, toward what lies ahead. You’re measuring progress, assessing goals, weighing curriculum options, and wondering what, exactly, 2019-2020 is going to look like.
Before you start charting your course, you probably have some sort of compass you consult to make sure your direction lines up with the overall vision of your homeschool. (You do have an overall vision, right?) Maybe you pull up your local district’s scope and sequence, gauge improvements via test scores, or ponder which areas you saw your children exhibiting growth or weakness this year. You probably ask yourself where your child seems to be headed. College track? Vocational? More of a creative type, or with a decided STEM bent? You think about upcoming commitments, activities, and stages of life.
In short, you ask some really great questions… then you move forward.
Lessons Learned
Up until a few years ago, I would have agreed with that method of planning. “Start with prayer,” I always thought, “stay close to your goals, and plan away!”
But the experience of guiding my older children through the process of high school at home, college/vocational/career searches, and navigating higher education has given me new eyes when it comes to my annual planning sessions. So what’s this magic question?
Why did God give me this child?
Pretty simple, isn’t it?
On first glance, this question— why did God give me this child?— has nothing to do with what math curriculum you’re going to invest in. But look deeper.
If you believe, like I do, that God put every family together intentionally, with a careful eye towards the giftings and failings, the strengths and weaknesses, then you can’t ignore the individual you’re planning for. Sure, the school district says it’s time to learn the multiplication tables. But your third grader struggles with number sense, and lately, you’ve seen him losing patience with anything remotely challenging. You, on the other hand, tend to have a “keep calm and carry on” attitude towards life in general. Maybe God gave you this child so that you could pass on that unflappable streak, and focusing on that while remediating some foundational math concepts is really much more what’s needed this year.
Or maybe you’re like me—a hopeless introvert, surrounded by five of the most outgoing, social young children the Lord has ever created. Why did God give them to me? He knew he was pairing up apples and oranges. Of course he did! He also knew that it would take a crew of kids who crave friends and activities and interactions to pull me to a place of deeper engagement within my community, and to be open to a different educational approach than we’ve used with our older kids. After all… this homeschooling journey isn’t just about our kids. It’s about us, too.
In the end, it’s critical to remember that our school plans need to go beyond our academic and character goals for our children. God created us and placed us in families with a purpose of refining and growing everyone under our roof. No matter whether your personalities all meld together perfectly (does this even exist?) or your interests are all over the board, the Lord expects us to ask Him why we share our lives with these people, and what He wants us to learn through the relationships He has given us. It is only by asking this question first that we line up our vision with His, and truly succeed in pursuing His plan for our homeschool journey.