Homeschool 1O

Mission HomeschoolCreating My

By Kathie Morrissey

Statement

In order to determine if you are accomplishing God’s goals for your homeschool, you must first identify them. Rather than randomly choosing curriculum, and planning activities for your homeschool, it would be better to define your goals and then create a plan to accomplish those goals. There is truth to the saying “If you aim at nothing, you will always hit it.” As a Christian parents, you must have a clearly defined vision for our homeschool. To set goals with confidence as you prepare for a school year, you need a mission statement for your homeschool. It will guide you through the many options of curriculum choices, and help you to be able to quickly determine if the curriculum fits the goals for your family. A mission statement will help you focus on what is most important, and help you not only set realistic goals, but also a plan for how to accomplish those goals. Basically it will remind you of the WHY of your homeschool, and what you want the results to be. A homeschool mission statement is important because that WHY is the foundation that you build your homeschool on. It will help you to stay on track and focus on your priorities. When you are discouraged, it will remind you of the purpose behind it.

©The Character Corner | www.TheCharacterCorner.com | Kathie Morrissey | 1

We made a homeschool mission statement when our kids were still in elementary school - this was before there were so many blogs telling us how to create a mission statement. We simply wrote ours to remind us and let others know what our homeschool was all about.

You can read our original mission statement on the next page.

You will notice that our activities were the things we did to fulfill our priorities and help us to accomplish our goals.

Since that first mission statement, we have made some changes and updated ours using the questions that are provided in this journal to help you create your own mission statement. Our first one gave us our why and our goals and was what we needed at that time.

We chose to update it later using the questions included in this guide because we felt it gave an even better view of our philosophy and goals. (So don't fret about making yours "perfect" the first time. Write what God lays on your heart, and you can always change it later.)


OUR MISSION STATEMENT

OUR THEME VERSE - Proverbs 1:5

"A wise man will hear and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels."

OUR COMMISSION - Deuteronomy 6:6,7

"And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."

OUR PHILOSOPHY

Home education is more than "book learning." It is a discipling process, leading our children to Jesus, and then equipping them to serve Him, and lead a Godly life. The Bible is our most important textbook, and prayer, our most important activity.


OUR PRIORITIES

1. Bible reading and memory2. Character training3. Academics

II Peter 1:5 "Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue, knowledge."

OUR ACTIVITIES

Bible Reading Every morning, the girls get up at 8:00 a.m and read their Bible for 30-45 minutes. Their goal is to read all the way through the Bible before we finish school for the year.

Bible Memory Joy, Ruth, and Mike memorize Bible passages together with Mom. So far they have memorized 24 passages (about 300 verses). In order to retain these verses, we review two of these passages a day. When we finish the list, we start it over again. We have reviewed the whole list 13 times so far.


Character Training We have a daily character lesson which includes learning what the character trait means, what the Bibles says about it, Bible examples, and how to apply it to our own lives daily. Mom and Dad watch for the kids to show good character, and use charts as a reminder to all that showing good character is important.

Academic Teaching We have scheduled time daily to focus on the three R's, while striving to develop a love of learning in our children, and teaching them how to learn.

Music All three kids participate in a weekly music class for homeschooled students. Joy and Ruth are also taking piano lessons.

Nursing Home Ministry Every month we go to a nursing home with another family. The children perform a play, recite Scripture, and sing for the residents. After the program, we visit with the people, and give them a Bible verse sheet the kids colored.


So are you ready to create your own mission statement?

Before getting started with the forms, read and print the following article: Keeping School In Its Proper Place.

When I was a new homeschooling mom of 31 years, I read this article in The Teaching Home magazine. It made a huge impact on me and encouraged me to focus more on things of eternal value. It reinforced what I believed in my heart — that homeschooling is more about discipleship than academics. This article breaks it down, showing what really matters in our homeschool, which is a key thing to keep in mind when planning for a new school year.

I found it was good to read it occasionally throughout the school year as well because I would find myself losing focus on the important things, and needed the reminder. For that reason, I kept a copy of the article right on my refrigerator where I could see it often. (I would encourage you to do the same!)


KEEPING SCHOOL IN ITS PROPER PLACE “We should all attempt to approach the education of our children with an open mind. By that I mean, let’s let go of the preconceived ideas of what schooling should be. Pretend there are no such things as institutionalized education or typical courses of study. Start with a blank slate. Here are our children: now, as Godly parents, how and what are we to teach them? I read once in a dictionary that the word “school” came from the Greek word “schole” meaning “spare time”. A group of young Greeks who would listen to teachers in their spare time were called a “schole”. This group was eager to learn about science and history. A homeschooling parents, are we spending our precious time teaching and emphasizing those things which should be considered spare-time enrichment? I have separated what I consider essential learning from spare-time activities. I divided learning into 3 categories. 1. ETERNAL VALUES. This category should be of first importance to the Christian home. Included here are character development, attitudes, behavior, and personal spiritual growth. So the time we spend dealing effectively with


https://thecharactercorner.com/keeping-school-proper-place/

such issues as lying, disobedience, or grumbling is time I consider well spent.

I also consider learning to read as a priority because of being able to read God’s Word. Reading the Bible and praying together with our children is a very important part of the day.

2. PRACTICAL LIVING SKILLS.

This section would cover daily chores, child care, and vocational skills. Along with these we need to teach basic math and writing skills. In our home, learning to do chores well and with a good attitude, comes before “schoolwork”.

3. SPARE TIME ACTIVITIES.

This is what we call “school”. School activities include lessons in science, history, or geography. Others are penmanship, art, music, phys. ed, and creative play.

If we have lots of time, there are friends, field trips, games, or good books. Of course, our goal is to become more efficient and cooperative so we have lots of spare time to enjoy together.


This breakdown helps me keep my day in focus. I can Çstop and ask myself “Is this worth our time? Are we Çusing priority time on spare time fun? Am I pushing to Çfill in blanks and workbooks and failing to discipline for Çwrong attitudes?”

Our goal is to keep school in its’ proper place and not let Çit take priority over the more important lessons in life.

As Christian homeschoolers, we all say a Godly Çupbringing is the priority. But day to day, what do our Çkids see us fretting about? Are we sending them a mixed Çmessage?

I believe that if we are faithful in the first two categories, ÇGod will bless us with rich learning experiences and Çguard us from wasting our time on those activities that Çhave less or no value”.


HOMESCHOOL MISSION STATEMENT

Answer these questions to help you get started:

1. What is your theme verse?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What is your commission? (a verse that identifies your call to homeschool)____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. What is your philosophy?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


4. What are your priorities?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Why did you decide to homeschool?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. What is the meaning of success in your homeschool?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


7. What do you want your children to develop in each of the following areas:

Spiritual ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Character ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Academics ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Life Skills ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. What activities do you have planned to accomplish your goals in each of these areas?

Spiritual ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Character ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Academics ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Life Skills ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9. Combine the answers above into a paragraph or bullet list that defines the WHY of your homeschool, as well as the goals for your homeschool.

10. Use the form provided to copy your homeschool mission statement on, then print it and post it in a prominent place where you will see it and be reminded of what really matters.


Mission StatementOur Homeschool

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Documents

Homeschool 1O