5 Steps for Homeschool Reflection
Written by Amber at Forging Foundations
It’s the time of year when our homeschool days can begin to drag or come to a complete stop. To help beat this mid-year slump, I propose spending time to reflect on the past few months of your homeschool. Reflecting on past experiences allows us to learn and gain an honest perspective, especially when related to identifying areas where we can improve. At the beginning of the year, I revealed to you my own reflection and today I’d like to share the 5 steps I take when reflecting on my homeschool.
Step 1: The Facts
During my years as an educator, I frequently wrote reflections for my lessons or units of study. One area I always started with were the facts. By this, I mean the “meat” of my instruction. This was not a time for opinions or review of my performance but rather a record of the information I taught, the resources I used, and how I communicated the information.
Now, in my homeschool, “the facts” relate to the curriculums I use, the teaching methods I implement, and the manipulatives or other materials I include to help enhance the learning. It helps to think through a typical homeschool day/week when collecting this information. List out what subjects you teach, the resources you use, how you go about teaching the material, and how much time you spend on any given topic. I have found by listing out this information I am able to glean a few insights.
- I can assess if a curriculum or program takes too much or too little time (too challenging or too easy).
- I can evaluate how often I use different approaches to learning (hands-on, music, crafts, etc).
- I can determine what manipulatives or resources I use more often than others.
All this information helps me make decisions about the remainder of my homeschool year. After listing “the facts”, it is time to assess your goals.
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Step 2: The GoalsGoal setting was an important task I completed as a teacher. I learned the importance of developing an action plan early in my career and have carried it into my homeschool. I start the year with the end in mind. When setting goals, I take into consideration what is developmentally appropriate for my son at his age (five-years-old) along with what I’ve observed over the past few months in regards to his abilities and progress. From there, I set a goal for where I’d like to see academic growth by the end of the school year. For example, I began the Pre-Reading Level for All About Reading with my son last fall. My goal for the end of the year was to work toward a mastery of letter-sound recognition along with an understanding of basic blends and maybe even sounding out a few CVC words (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) such as “dad” or “mom”. As part of my reflection process, I took a look at my progress on these goals. For our family, December was a month of homeschool slump, which affected our headway toward these reading objectives. With this knowledge in hand, I’m able to readjust and make new goals with a fresh outlook. |
Step 3: Celebrations
When reflecting on past progress, it is always important to consider the areas you can celebrate (and maybe break into your happy dance). What lessons stand out as winners? How did you teach those concepts? What did your kids enjoy about those lessons? Reflecting on these types of questions is a great way to re-energize your homeschool perspective for the new year. Those positive aspects of your homeschool can be the motivation you need to push through the slump that comes this time of year. Make a list of all the things that went well the past few months and hold onto it so you can revisit those ideas for motivation when feeling beat or discouraged.
Step 4: Growing PainsAlthough it would be great to just focus on the positives, let’s be realistic. Homeschooling is not always all sunshine and rainbows. To make any progress or growth as a homeschooler, we must look at what didn’t go well. Ask yourself: what curriculums/resources didn’t work? What lessons were complete flops? What made those lessons fail? It is okay to answer these questions honestly because it can be freeing. I feel a weight being lifted off my shoulders when I acknowledge these missteps. Everyone makes mistakes and everyone experiences failures. Henry Ford once said, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” And he was right! Failures or “growing pains” as I like to refer to them should push you to do better next time. I can’t tell you the number of things I did wrong the past four months of school, but I will take the lessons learned and move forward toward a goal of success. You all can do the same to get out of this seasonal slump. |
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Step 5: The Next Steps
For our final step, we need to take everything we have reflected on above and create an action plan for the remainderof the year. Using the facts, previous goals, celebrations, and growing pains, we need to create new goals and reevaluate some of the curriculums, resources, and methods we used for teaching new content. A “growing pain” may be a curriculum that isn’t working, so take a break from it and reassess after some time. A “celebration” may be that your child loves learning through music, so incorporate more songs in future lessons.
By thinking about your next steps, you set yourself up for success moving forward.
These 5 steps are what have helped me reflect on my own homeschool experience and I hope they help you as well. Use them to propel you forward into a positive outlook and approach to the remaining months of your homeschool year.
Amber Marie from Forging Foundations: I am a former educator turned homeschool mom. homeschooling is a relatively new adventure for our family. I have two lovely boys ages five and two. We follow no specific method of homeschool, however, we do participate in Classical Conversations. My blog, Forging Foundations, is a place for sharing my experinces (successes and failures), homeschool methods, and teaching strategies I acquired from my professional career. I believe we all have valuable insight. I offer my site as a resource and medium to share/explore new ideas and facilitate discussion. I hope to encourage and challenge new and existing homeschoolers, so that together, we may forge everlasting and strong foundations.
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