January means New Year’s Resolutions!
In Homeschool Mom Land we have Resolutions all the time in order to keep pressing towards excellence. Let’s make some New Year’s Homeschool Resolutions.
Happiness comes into my world through success and completion of tasks. I definitely prefer being happy… you too?
So, If I have something I want to accomplish, like teaching my 6 year old to read, I break it down into succinct measurable goals. Keep in mind, the goal should NOT be, “Did he learn to read? Yes or no?” It is healthier for a child to measure the work they put into it. So don’t say, “You’re a great reader, Logan!” Say, “You did 12 lessons this month, Logan! Way to work hard!” Then they will learn to be proud of the work they put in regardless of the product. We need to reward hard work because life doesn’t always work out perfectly.
Succinct Measureable Goals.
For instance, we decided on a curriculum called “All About Reading”. Their website suggests that Level 1 is for 1st grade, Level 2 is for 2nd grade, Level 3 is for 3rd grade, and Level 4 is for 4th grade. I set off for the store and came home with Level 1 since I have a 1st grader. Great!
No! I wasn’t done yet… There’s nothing measurable about that… So what now?
I prepare the materials for a trial lesson day, and we practice. I time us. I know we can complete one lesson a day.
So now I ponder my schedule. I see that we will have a full day on our Classical Conversations campus once a week and the girls have another co-op on Thursdays I figure we’ll finish at least 3 lessons a week minimally. Knowing there were about 45 lessons in the entire book, I can now calculate that we will do the book in 15 weeks. There are about 18 weeks in a semester. So I set a goal to complete the book before Christmas. And. We. Did.
So now in January we are moving through Level 2 at one lesson per day as well, and still about 3 days a week. This time though the book has 57 lessons. We will set our goal of 3 lessons a week for 19 weeks. Totally measurable! This is a great New Year’s Homeschool Resolution!
So that’s how we think in measurable goals. But before that, I consider what are all the categories I care about setting goals?
Quick category brainstorm: health, education, family, writing, blogging, gardening, organizing, crafting, piano…
Go ahead, make your list… what would it be?
Take a look at mine here.
(And don’t judge… we all could probably do more… or less… our goal is to do “enough”…)
Next I go through each category and set no more than 5-7 measurable goals for each one! (Maybe only one goal…) I might make “Educate my son” a major category, and “Complete 12 Lessons in All About Reading each month” the measurable goal. I might have a math goal, a science goal, a music goal, and a history goal for him for the year. – or I might measure only a few priorities and still work on other things as well.
Come the end of January I will look at my son’s reading lesson and decide if he has done his 12 lessons. If yes, I will write the number in the square and shade it in green. If we came close, and I know I can recapture those missing lessons in February I’ll shade it in yellow. If it’s a total loss, I shade it in red and move on knowing I’ll do better next month because it’s no fun to use the red pencil!
This chart needs to live inside your weekly planner so you can briefly reflect on it weekly when you are making your plans. I do my planning on Sunday nights, and I always refer back to this chart so I can remember what all I’m striving for. There is no way I’d remember my New Year’s Homeschool Resolutions in this detail.
We are not a reflection of our products… we are a product of our planning…
Click here for worksheets – Homeschool Planner Resolutions
There you have it! A red light, green light chart of your successes at the end of the year!
So you can go be SuperMOM!
Cheers,
Jen @ Log Cabin Schoolhouse
Be on the lookout for my Planner, COMING SOON!