Last time on the blog, I encouraged homeschooling parents to set a vision for their school year before diving into all the details that planning our year demands. Today I wanted to share some thoughts about my vision and how I developed it.

Before the 2017-2018 school year, I did a lot of praying about what God wanted me to focus on the upcoming year. I felt like God kept bringing the word “savor” to mind. When I looked it up, I found the definition to be “to give oneself to the enjoyment of.” That’s exactly what I needed in my homeschool day. I was craving more enjoyment and less busyness. More laughing and less anger. More cuddling and less criticism. Just like some people have adopted a “word” to focus on at the start of a new year, I decided to adopt “savor” as my word to focus on during the new school year.

Having this word before me was helpful in several ways. When my kids and I had a hard school day, I could ask myself, “Yes, [insert subject] was hard today, but overall did we savor our time together?” It helped me to look past the problems of the day and instead take a look at the whole picture. Overall, did I “give myself to the enjoyment of” teaching my kids that day? Or was I allowing one bad lesson to overshadow the rest of the good that came out of that day?

Having that word before me was also helpful when my husband needed to encourage me. “I hear that [insert child’s name] was a handful today, but overall were you able to savor your time with that child today?” My goal for the year wasn’t to get through all the math lessons or perfect their cursive handwriting or increase their reading level. My over-arching goal was to savor the year that God had given to me to invest in my kids.

Coming up with a “word” is not something that you have to do! It’s just something that God kept bringing to the forefront of my mind while preparing for my year. Is God speaking to you, too? Is there some theme that God keeps bringing up as you think about starting another year? Maybe it’s “math” or “nature” or “discipline” or “peace.” Listen to what God may be speaking to you as you plan your year.

After I had my focus word, I created several goals around that word. I went through the steps that I mentioned in this blog post. After thinking through what I hope my children will say about homeschooling 20 years from now, these were the goals I created for us:

I want to create a love for learning…
–in an unhurried environment
–where passions are explored
–good books are devoured
–and perseverance and faithfulness are instilled
…as little souls are shaped for eternity with the gospel.

Creating a love for learning in my children is the main reason why I’m homeschooling. I want to give them an environment where they aren’t hurried through their work to get on with the next subject. If they are passionate about a topic we are studying, I want to be able to pause and follow that spark. Creating a “book club” type of environment in my home while reading good books that stir on deep conversations with my kids is important to me, so that went on the goals list, too. I also thought about what character traits I wanted to be teaching daily, and persevering through hard assignments and being faithful to complete the tasks at hand were two that came to mind. And being a Christian homeschooling parent, incorporating the gospel into our homeschool day is important to me and my husband. I’m doing more than just teaching a math lesson or exploring nature with my kids. I’m shaping three little souls with the gospel.

So, what will your vision statement look like this year? What goals keep pressing to the forefront of your mind that you need to focus on this year? Even though these were last school year’s goals, my vision still remains the same this school year, too. And with my vision statement before me, it’s easy to know what to say “yes” and “no” to throughout the year.

***UPDATE*** After taking Sarah Mackenzie’s Master Class, Align & Focus 2.0, I have tweaked my vision statement into a Rule of 6. See image on the side of my blog! (Read this post to learn more about Rule of 6.)

CHIT-CHAT: Do you have a “word” that you are focusing on this school year? If so, please share!