Defining Your Approach to Home School

What do you want your children to achieve through their home school experience? What do you want from homeschooling? These are important questions that many parent-educators and other caregivers never truly answer. This resource will help you define your approach to homeschooling and help you make conscious decisions about the experience you provide.

Grade Level(s):

This resource is designed to help you define your approach to homeschooling your child (or children) in all grade levels.

Why to Use:

Use this resource to give your home school experience clarity and focus–so that you can be intentional about the lessons you provide and the learning experiences you choose. 

How to Use:

This resource can be used independently or added to your home school planner as a supplement. Start by listing the attributes you want for your children in each of the areas listed on Step 1. For example, for academic attributes, you might want rigor and well-roundedness, while for physical attributes you might want to focus on finding an outlet for staying healthy that your children can maintain throughout their lifetime (i.e., yoga or biking) or that they can use as a stepping stone for pursuing sports or other activities. 

Next, for each attribute, you will list the skills your child will need. Then, you will consider how your children will learn and practice those skills. Here, you might list things like expanded curriculum options, extra-curricular activities, or classes out of the house.

Finally, you will translate these ideas into your approach to home school.  You will establish mantras, goals, and expectations, and then you will use these to define your next steps. For example, if you want to provide a well-rounded and rigorous academic home school experience by increasing skills across a variety of subjects using an expanded curriculum and supplemental online classes, you will list the steps you need to take to make this happen.

When to Use: 

Use this resource at the start of your home school experience, the beginning of each year, or as a mid-year activity to ground yourself and calm any feeling of overwhelm you may be experiencing related to home school planning and decision-making. 

Parent-Educator Tips:

This resource is designed to take about 30 to 45 minutes to complete initially, but plan to revisit it at regular milestones and make adjustments to clarify your expectations and intentions as your child grows and hones in on their talents and desires.

Once you have completed all of the steps, have a discussion with your children that is tailored to their grade and maturity. For younger children, consider creating a fun chart with the goals and expectations you came up with to share and display in your home school space. For older children, use your key takeaways to invite them to share what they want for themselves.

Please note: All of our resources are for the purchaser’s use only. While we encourage you to use all of our resources as many times as you want to (including year after year), we ask that you do not provide copies to other people.