When we first started home educating I read somewhere that it was a good idea to come up with a list of objectives to aim towards. This very broad list was my attempt to do that. Now, more than a decade later when I come to review them, I still think this is a good list of goals to aim towards.
Our children will hopefully enjoy learning, retain an appetite for learning and achieve to the very best of their ability, never see themselves as failures, even if they turn out not to be academically gifted.
Hopefully they will embrace life-long learning, never to want to be ‘done with’ education, but will cherish their ‘schooldays’.
We hope to provide a good grounding in all subjects, but since they will most likely not enjoy all subjects, they should be encouraged to find their own interests and develop them.
They should be able to qualify academically for any career or profession of their choosing.
Although it would be useful for them to gain all the knowledge necessary for life/ a job, the most important thing is that they gain tools for learning, so that they may find things out for themselves.
Our children will hopefully learn relevant life-skills: survival skills for town, country or wilderness etc., to be able to feed & clothe themselves and their family, how to manage money and a household, how to relate to people, to be creative and practical, caring and considerate.
They will hopefully be thoughtful and hardworking, should learn caring skills such as childcare (for possible future roles as father/ mother), cookery & handicrafts, house and car maintenance, gardening, bicycle repair and suchlike.
We will also encourage character traits which are valued for work: punctuality, respect for authority, good communication and so on.
Our children will hopefully be happy and fulfilled, and they should never feel that they have no-one to talk to or who would understand.
They should be confident in themselves, knowing that they are loved and valued as persons.
They will hopefully be of ‘good character’, honest and courageous.
They will hopefully feel a bond with nature (creation) and see their part in it [it would also be my hope and prayer that my children would continue in the traditions of the Christian faith, and I will therefore make my faith known to them, but I acknowledge that Daddy does not share my faith and that it must be of their own choosing and so, for that reason, I will endeavour not to push or “indoctrinate” them].
‘Christ-like’ character traits including the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ will, however, be encouraged: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control as well as honesty, understanding, generosity and compassion, “against which there is no law.”
Little Bears Home Education 