The New Year’s Resolution for My Homeschool

The buzzword lately is resolutions.

Do you make them?

I’ve never been into the whole new year’s resolution thing. I believe if you want to make change, it can (and should) take place at any time of the year.

However, the new year comes as we enter our last half of the school year so it seems natural to use this milestone to make goals and change educational direction.

photo credit: mistockshop on Pixabay

Every school year I set goals for myself and my children. I document them in my homeschool planner and I reference them throughout the year. Then, I reflect on our days and note what worked and what didn’t.

I came to the conclusion that this year has been a tough one.

The reporting required from our homeschool board has intensified and I’ve had to submit monthly assessments for our aligned subjects. The learning schedule is maintained by our board and the pace for our aligned subjects doesn’t have much flexibility.

I often feel overwhelmed by what’s required and I’m not enjoying homeschooling as much as I used to.

As I reflected, I realized that the one word resolution which I’ve embraced for the new year, will apply to our homeschool as well. The word is:

SIMPLICITY.

I thought about what simplicity would mean for my homeschool and here’s what I came up with.

Enjoy the process

I want to enjoy the process of homeschool once again. I don’t want my mind to dwell on what needs to be done, but rather rest in the learning which unfolds naturally around us.

Let go of the curriculum

Maybe it’s my Type-A personality, but I like to complete all the questions, read all the pages, and do all the assignments. This need to complete everything makes our learning process stressful and complex. It’s time to let it go *cue the music from Frozen*.

We only need to do what is needed for my child to progress from learning to mastering a concept. If that means several incomplete pages in every chapter of a textbook, then that’s what will happen.

Plus, no more hanging onto old curriculum and textbooks because we might return to using them or look at them again. If I chose to dump a curriculum because it wasn’t working for us, it’s unlikely my opinion will change.

Make time for what we love

I hate having to cut out activities we love. Sometimes this happens though because we don’t have time to do what’s required of us.

I want to make time for what my girls love.

Our Morning Time Basket adds such joy and peace to our days. I want to rest more in those activities. I want to do more read-aloud books, poetry, art, and music appreciation.

Rest

I found out during Christmas break how much my children and I yearned for rest. We lounged about the house with no need to rush to Girl Guides, swimming lessons, Bible study, or KungFu. We had time to rest in each other’s company. We baked, we played board games, we read, we made crafts, and we watched a lot of The Price is Right.

I want to include more opportunities for rest in our days. It may mean dropping a couple activities or rearranging our schedule so that multiple activities occur on the same day but the rest will be worth it.

Reflect

So, that’s my new year’s resolution for our homeschool. Do you have a resolution as well? If so, I would love for you to post it in the comment section below and then share this article with your homeschool communities!

Jennifer Bly

Author of My Kitchen, My Classroom: An Introduction to Homeschool and creator of The Deliberate Mom. Jennifer writes about parenting, homeschooling, her faith, and life with her husband and two girls. Jennifer has a Bachelor of Applied Human Service Administration Degree with a specialization in Early Learning in Child Care.