| As a homeschool family, if you had to change | | | | The follow up question in either case, whether |
| your life in such a way as to prevent you from | | | | you had trouble with this exercise or whether you |
| homeschooling, what would you miss most? It's | | | | didn't, is to ask yourself what this one thing |
| an interesting question to ask. Then, if you had to | | | | speaks more to - you, or your children's education |
| put that thought into a written sentence about | | | | and training. Is the focus on yourself, or on your |
| that one thing, how would it read? That is my | | | | children, and how does that affect what you do |
| challenge to you. Limit yourself to one thing only, | | | | each day? |
| for the sake of this exercise, and don't think in | | | | Knowing the reason that you homeschool and |
| terms of conjunctions and compound sentences, | | | | what you treasure most as a homeschooler will |
| although I know you will be tempted to! Write out | | | | ultimately impact all of the decisions you make, |
| one sentence about the single thing that you | | | | both for good and bad. For instance, if the one |
| would miss the most if you had to give up | | | | thing that you would miss the most is the |
| homeschooling. What does it say about you and | | | | relationship you are building with your children, |
| your homeschool program? | | | | then you will most likely spend a great deal of |
| Chances are, in the process of answering that | | | | time interacting with your children each day. This |
| single sentence, you may have thought of several | | | | is a fantastic benefit of homeschooling, for both |
| things pretty quickly that you would miss, but | | | | the parents and the students. But, you need to |
| limiting yourself to a single thing was a bit harder | | | | monitor a possible tendency to err on the side of |
| than you thought. Homeschooling is full of rewards | | | | getting along rather than on holding a standard. Or, |
| and full of benefits, and the reasons that lead | | | | you might tend to err on the side of "play" when |
| homeschoolers into doing what they do are as | | | | you should be doing school. |
| varied as there are homeschoolers. We don't fit | | | | If you are clearly aware of what drives you the |
| neatly in any one "box" anymore, but the reasons | | | | most, you can use that motivation to self-check |
| that motivate us personally, can be the reasons | | | | your homeschool program. Checking your motives |
| that we succeed and sometimes the reasons that | | | | against your methods is never a bad thing, and |
| we fail. | | | | homeschooling done well will always include some |
| If you found that this exercise was more difficult | | | | regular form of assessment. There isn't an |
| than you expected, then you may find that your | | | | outside "principal" to do this for you, so you need |
| homeschooling program has strayed away from | | | | to be sure to include some type of evaluation of |
| the core principle that got you into homeschooling | | | | how you are doing with your homeschool |
| in the first place, or perhaps that core vision has | | | | program. So based on this exercise, assessing |
| changed and you didn't even realize it. If you | | | | your motives and methods, and knowing that |
| were quickly able to identify that one thing, then | | | | grading reports are a common result of an |
| you probably have a clear sense of the | | | | assessment, what grade would you give your |
| motivation for doing what you do each day. | | | | homeschool program? |