Apples of Gold Home School News

What explorer ever starts out on a voyage without careful forethought and planning? What dieter successfully loses weight without sticking to a course of action? What building is constructed without committment to precise measurements and exacting detail?

So it is with homeschooling. In order to achieve continued success, and at the very least to stick to the task, we must plan a course with goals in mind and establish the means to reach results. In order to do that, we have to take inventory of ourselves. We have to take a realistic look at our shortcomings as well as our strengths.

Therefore, there are two questions that we should ask ourselves.

1.) What's one thing am I good at? (What are my strengths?) 

2.) What's one area where I lack? (Where am I weak?)

Don't go beyond these. Don't deride yourself by saying, "Well, I lack in a lot more areas than one, thank-you-very-much!" You know the old saying, "How do you eat an elephant?--One bite at a time." That's how you deal with those areas in which you don't feel proficient?one small chunk at a time, as you can handle it. And be honest with yourself. Are these areas where your spouse or your children might agree?  

Knowing the answers to these two questions and beginning there, it's easy to establishing both short term and long term goals.

In  those areas where you feel confident, forge ahead. For instance, if you feel that history is your strength, while you know nothing about chemistry, then by all means, go with that. Don't stop to berate yourself over what you don't know. Then, in those areas where improvement is called for, go ahead and set a steady course of learning for yourself that might or might not include your children. In the long run, modeling how to learn is probably much more important than what to learn, anyway.

As you reach each new level of skill or accomplishment, or simply feel adequate to muddling through with the training, then it's time to bite off another small chunk. Go ahead and ask yourself the questions again. With each little bite you chew, set your new long-term goals.