Can you tell me how I’m behind and we haven’t even started classes yet? 😩 No, but forreal. Actually, I want to thank you because writing you has been motivating me to keep making progress because I really just want to lay down and nap.* hehe.

So, now that I’ve got the house *mostly* organized, I’m shifting my focus to planning for this upcoming month. I use a methodology called Backwards Design which is a 3-step process that is used in education to help plan with intention. Here’s the quick rundown on how it works: First, you set your goals, second you determine how you know when that goal has been accomplished, and finally you choose your learning activities (what you are going to do each day). Most of us (me included) want to get started at step 3, by choosing what we are going to do, but how can we know what to do if we haven’t set our goals yet? So that’s where I’m starting today-I’m setting our learning goals for this month.

To set our goals, I am considering a few things. As it relates to academics, I’m taking a peek at what our curriculum has slated for us and reviewing my son’s results from his academic testing for homeschoolers. I’m also thinking about what character growth I’d like to encourage over this next month along with what life skills, habits, and spiritual principles I’d like to instill. It’s not that complicated but does take time. This year in The Village, the sisters and I will be doing monthly goal-setting together and I’m looking forward to that because then I’ll be sure to get it done!

After I set the goals, I’m going to answer the question, “How will I know when this goal has been accomplished?” This question is step two of Backwards Design and is a lot easier to answer for the academic goals, so I’ll give a quick example. Say, I look at my son’s test results and it says he needs to work on identifying which number is greater when given two numbers between 0 and 10. Boom, that’s my goal.

Then, I need to determine how I will know when he has actually learned this-or what’s my evidence that learning has taken place. So I can use a worksheet as evidence or I can get creative and say that we will play the card game I Declare War and that if he can correctly identify which card is greater at least 85% of the time, that he has learned the concept. Make sense?

Honestly, while this method is super effective in helping us see progress in our homeschool, it is also easier when I’ve got some space to think and that time is limited these quarantine days. So, I’ll probably wait to work on this tonight once the kids have gone down.

And that’s my focus today! I’m diving into the things I’ve organized to set goals and determine my evidence for when those goals have been met. Phew, phew. I’m making progress, sis!

Mama Phenomenal, thanks for journeying with me.

Xoxo,

Brenaea

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*nap- Homeschooling in the middle of a global pandemic and national uproar is a lot. So if you’re like me and need to take a nap mama, take it! That’s my plan today.