Bonner County Homeschool Group

After you've read what I have to say, I encourage you to develop your own philosophy, if you haven't yet.  It won't be the same as mine, because you and your kids are not me and my kids.

I want my kids to have certain acomplishments before they leave my home to go into the world on their own.  I will list them in order of importance.

1. Firm belief systems in place, so that they cannot be manipulated and tempted by those who would destroy their roots.  This cannot be accomplished if they are merely clinging to what Mom or Dad believe, they have to be led to discover Truth on their own.
2. A knowledge of their mission in life.  I believe that each of us has a purpose and it is my hope that I can lead my kids to discover theirs early so they can begin on their work and not waste time and money persuing the wrong goals. 
3. Hard work.  I want them to know that work is not a punishment, but one of the rewarding activities of life, and it is for the spirit as well as the physical self.  I want them to not be afraid of working hard.
4. Basic knowledge and common sense about everyday living, like cleaning and maintaining a home, doing laundry, taking car of a car, nutrition, managing money, having good manners, and so on.
5. A love of learning and the ability to find the information and gain the skills they need to accomplish goals later in life.
6. A firm academic base.  Broad learning in the maths, sciences, history, arts, government, and languages, both foreign and domestic.
7. Extra academic subjects like sports, auto mechanics, drawing, gardening, piano playing or whatever extra interests they decide to pursue as hobbies.  Hobbies make life more interesting and fulfilling and can sometimes lead to careers as well.

There are certain things I actively do in order to ensure that these goals are being met in the education of my children. 

Our family has set times daily and weekly to discuss our religous beliefs, besides the time we spend actually in church.  We discuss behavior, attitudes, and expectations in the light of these religious beliefs.  We ask the kids lots of questions like, "why isn't it okay to take your brother's toy".  The question "why" is very leading and can help kids get to the core of beliefs.  Once they have answered that questions themselves, the underlying principles will be much more firmly in place than they will be if the kids are only lectured to.

I encourage my children to pursue their interests.  One son was obsessed with dragons so I got every book from the library about dragons, and that led to paleontology.  Then one day he suddenly decided he wasn't interested in that anymore and now wants to launch a rocket into space.  We could laugh at him and tell him it's not possible, or we can encourage him in his dreams.  Maybe he'll never do it, but maybe he will, so now he's going through the library's supply of books about rockets.  If he's still interested in a couple of years we'll see about NASA space camp for kids.  That is how you encourage and facilitate dreams, also known as a life's work.

Our kids definitely will know how to work.  That is one of the great advantages of homeschooling.  The kids have time.  Their days are not so full of school and after school classes that there's no time for work or play.  Our kids care for the pets, without reminders.  They haul wood, help in the garden, cook and clean and do laundry, which leads into the next topic.

Along with knowing some basic house cleaning, we want to teach our kids to do actual home maintance like wiring an outlet, building a wall, changing oil in a car, rebuilding a combustion engine.  Yeah, so they work with my husband on those things, because I don't have a clue.

The love of learning is easy.  They probably won't learn to love conjugating latin verbs, but who knows.  Meanwhile they read voraciously and if you develop a habit of that you're well on your way.  They also love science kits and building kits and trying things out on thier own.  I caught my ten-year-old (the budding rocket scientist) trying to light a piece of paper inside a bottle with a match.  I'm glad he was curious, but I did have to let him know he needs to ask permission before using the matches.

In order to achieve a good strong academic base kids need to do a little every day.  A math assignment, reading assignment and writing assignment, along with foreign language must be studied daily.  Other subjects can be studied less frequently, but probably weekly, or in units.  Kids should not just move on even if they don't nderstand a concept.  Another benefit of Homeschool is that no kids ever fails, because you stop and figure out the problemns along the way.  A teacher with a class of 30 probably can't do that.  The hardest thing for me about providing that academic base is the discipline I need to keep doing school with them everyday, even when I don't feel like it.  Because no one is watching, I don't really have to, but I know the consequences of my failure, so I press on.

Finally a well rounded person pursues interests or things they do just for fun as well as more serious goals.  I want my kids to take time to play games, watch movies, build models, go fishing and so on. 

All of these areas of goals I have for my children are consciously pursued and though many of them don't actually take much effort, being aware of them helps me in guiding my kids, which is the job description of Mom.