Ok - so I'm using this as more of a place to remember this for myself, but I think it should help in my planning and goal setting for us this year:
Goals should be SMART:
Specific
Motivating
Acheivable (75% or greater chance.)
Relevant
Time Bound (Month or Quarter, Not Year)
Am I doing that currently? No. I'll let you know when I've mastered it a few times.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Monday, July 9, 2007
Back So Soon
I should explain a bit more about why I choose to blog. I want to blog to keep myself accountable! Accountable to the commitment I'm making to my children in homeschooling - I want to do this all the way, not just enough to get by. I also want to be accountable to my thoughts - I'm plagued by too many ideas. Ideas in and of themselves are great, if you can weed out the good from the bad and take the time to develop the good - which I have a real hard time at doing. So please if anyone besides my wife ever looks at this, ask me how it's going with my thoughts. How I'm doing with cultivating instead of just thinking.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Begin the Beginning
Always best to begin at the beginning!
Answer the questions - what, why, how, who, when.
We're going to homeschool our daughter. Why - because I'm an idealist who believes that I can have what I want - a family that works together on many fronts that isn't afraid to say we are sheltering our children from the society that has gone so far so fast. Yes, I went through public schools - got a good education that was bolstered by both my natural inquisitiveness and my desire to please others.
The problem for me lies here - twenty years ago I was exposed to way more than I'd like my kids exposed to and that was twenty years ago. Also - kids in my generation were still expected to show respect - kids now, not so - trust me I was a teacher, I know!
Can we do it? Yes - we live busy lives, but I've always thought if you really believe in something, you can make it happen. My wife and I are both trained and licensed teachers, but we certainly don't rest on our pedigree to think we can do it - we rest on the fact that we know Emma is counting on us.
Will it be hard - I imagine for us, it will be hard. It won't be hard to come up with great lessons and curricula (again we both taught and I own two educational companies), rather it will be hard to stay disciplined like I know we will need to.
I hope it will draw me to pray more than I do today. I hope that I will be challenged into thinking and doing in new ways - but most of all, I hope it will allow us to stay close as a family.
Our biggest fears - the socialization aspect of no school (then again, one thing we fear most about schools is the socialization factor).
Anyway, I probably didn't answer all I said I would, but I wanted to get this post down - the beginning is always the hardest.
Oh yea, since I'm not sure I'll have any readers on this blog, I plan to use it as a personal ideal and filing cabinet so for my sake:
Virginia Homeschoolers Org
How I do social studies for school teachers.
Creating a better learning environment through visual education.
Goodnight.
Answer the questions - what, why, how, who, when.
We're going to homeschool our daughter. Why - because I'm an idealist who believes that I can have what I want - a family that works together on many fronts that isn't afraid to say we are sheltering our children from the society that has gone so far so fast. Yes, I went through public schools - got a good education that was bolstered by both my natural inquisitiveness and my desire to please others.
The problem for me lies here - twenty years ago I was exposed to way more than I'd like my kids exposed to and that was twenty years ago. Also - kids in my generation were still expected to show respect - kids now, not so - trust me I was a teacher, I know!
Can we do it? Yes - we live busy lives, but I've always thought if you really believe in something, you can make it happen. My wife and I are both trained and licensed teachers, but we certainly don't rest on our pedigree to think we can do it - we rest on the fact that we know Emma is counting on us.
Will it be hard - I imagine for us, it will be hard. It won't be hard to come up with great lessons and curricula (again we both taught and I own two educational companies), rather it will be hard to stay disciplined like I know we will need to.
I hope it will draw me to pray more than I do today. I hope that I will be challenged into thinking and doing in new ways - but most of all, I hope it will allow us to stay close as a family.
Our biggest fears - the socialization aspect of no school (then again, one thing we fear most about schools is the socialization factor).
Anyway, I probably didn't answer all I said I would, but I wanted to get this post down - the beginning is always the hardest.
Oh yea, since I'm not sure I'll have any readers on this blog, I plan to use it as a personal ideal and filing cabinet so for my sake:
Virginia Homeschoolers Org
How I do social studies for school teachers.
Creating a better learning environment through visual education.
Goodnight.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)