Sample Homeschool Goals and Objectives

photo credit - Rybson

We recently moved to Maryland and I am learning the homeschool laws and requirements here. But before we moved we were residents of Pennsylvania which requires yearly:

Notarized Affidavit of Intent to Homeschool
Goals and Objectives
Evaluations by certified Evaluator
Testing in grades 3, 5 and 8
Portfolio turned into your local superintedent (to include samples of work for every subject to show sustained improvement, evaluation and test grades if applicable)

I would just tuck my affidavit and goals and objectives for the following year in with the portfolio to avoid having to do it at the beginning of the school year.

If you will allow me to step up on my soap box to say I think that is more than enough information for any school district to ask for. And as such I refuse to go above and beyond. My reasoning for this is if you keep giving more, they'll keep asking for more and that makes it even harder for us, new homeschoolers and especially those with learning disabilities who may not fit the mold. So - if you must create a beautiful, overflowing, highly detailed portfolio, please save it for family and friends, youth group, the ice cream man...anyone but the school district. Follow the law to the letter, but please don't give them more and cause them to expect more from everyone else.

Okay, moving on. I apply my "less is more" philosophy to the goals and objectives too. And this year, more than any other, I was happy for this decision. It was so nice to be able to print out three blanket goals and objectives rather than itemized lists for each student. So I decided to share my goals and objectives in case you're looking for ways to make your homeschool life easier. Here's my blanket Goals and Objectives form that will work for any grade level, gender and subject with a little tweaking. Enjoy!

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES : YEAR/YEAR

English:
To continue to improve reading, spelling, grammar and composition skills. This will be accomplished through the utilization of materials such as fiction and non-fiction literature, audio books, movies, written and oral reports and varying curricula.

Math:
To complete mathematical curriculum at appropriate grade level, use these skills in daily life applications as well as master new concepts as they are introduced. Text books, free play, board and card games and live transactions will be incorporated.

Science:
To continue to introduce new concepts and master these through reading, observation, journaling and experimentation. Museums, nature centers and nature studies will be enjoyed throughout the year.

Social Studies:
Many subjects will be covered, including but not limited to geography, history, cultural studies and civics. This will be accomplished through literature, mapping activities, field trips, arts and crafts, food and timelines.

Health, Safety and Physical Education:
Regular opportunities for physical activity will be provided. Student will also participate in organized sports and hobbies. Topics such as health, nutrition and physical development will be covered as appropriate for age level. Fire safety and drug awareness will also be covered.

Arts and Humanities:
Student will have the opportunity to pursue interests in art, music, drama and/or language. A variety of media, tools and techniques will be used for self expression. Concerts, art shows, plays and more will be experienced.

Enrichment:
Student will attend a homeschool co-op this year as well as church activities and youth group. At least one group sport will also be required. Student will be offered ample time and encouragement to explore their interests.

New Meaning of the Phrase...

...Jumping Bean??

This was a fun new adventure Bram wanted to experience at Refuge Golf Amusements in Chincoteague, VA. I was really surprised he wanted to try it, and even more surprised he LOVED it! My baby is growing up to have quite the adventurous spirit.

Guess Where I Am

I'll give you a hint. We were here last September

.
Yep, Chincoteague/Assateague for a mini-vacation. Heaven. I miss my pug, Monroe though...we had to leave him at home with the house sitter. But we'll see him soon. In the mean time, if any of my blogging buddies are in the area and want to meet up, leave a message, we'll do coffee. Sugarbakers is open, right? Or maybe the Main Street Coffee House.

Nature Nature Everywhere

We moved into our new-to-us house about two months ago - no I'm not finished unpacking, thanks for asking. Yes I know I should have it done by now, thanks for reminding me.

Anyway, I. Love. It. Here. I am really excited about homeschooling my youngest, Bram in this setting. Science is going to be fun! While this property had been largely neglected for over a decade and is in need of some remodeling, repairs and major landscaping it has many blessings to go with all the work.

We are in the middle of an itty bitty town, but we have 8 acres, at least half of which is wooded. So while it's great being close to things like the grocery store and friends, it feels as if we're in the middle of our own little oasis. Shangri-la as our neighbor calls it. We have a large barn (where many birds have taken up residence), a creek (woot!) and a wide array of "shelters" for differing wildlife. We have the wooded area, the meadow, the marshy area where the cattails thrive the brambles and the creek beds.

We've seen so many birds and little animals, Bram has been ecstatic. In fact, last month we saw a big Black Rat Snake on its way up a tree to hunt for birds. This led to many discussions and books being read about snakes and their habits.

Then last week we had a baby deer! It's mom had been struck and killed on the nearby road. It was very sad, wandering the property bleating for its mom. My eldest, Fox, caught it with a sheet and we placed the sweet little thing in a bay of our barn until someone from DNR could come pick her up. Bram cried when she left, but the education and the FUN from bottle feeding her were worth the tears.

Bram and the fawn "Buzz" as he named her.

Memories, my friends. Great memories.

Healthy Progress and Discoveries

As my readers know, I have been doing (and loving) the Couch to 5K plan. I made it through week 8 of the 9 week program - going from barely being able to jog for 60 seconds to jogging for 28 minutes straight. Woot! I am really proud of this achievement. But at the same time I was really discouraged because in all of those 8 weeks I didn't lose an ounce - in fact I GAINED 4lbs! I tried not to let it bother me, figuring I was gaining muscle, but I still wasn't happy about it. Then, two weeks ago I was sidelined by a twisted ankle.


Ouch. I wish I could say I did it doing something really cool and dangerous, but the truth is I stepped in a hole while walking the dogs. Classy. Anyway - since I was benched I decided to tackle my eating habits. Until that point I had been taking one step at a time, concentrating only on jogging.

I started the Maker's Diet. It's not really a diet, it's more about retraining you to eat healthily based on the way they ate in biblical times. It's a fantastic book and I highly recommend it, not just for weight loss, it's for those with chronic illness too! The author was gravely ill with Crohn's and used this plan to regain his health and weight - it's all about health. I used this plan years ago when I went on my elimination diet to see what Bram is allergic to. Rereading this book - I realize just how far I've wandered from the healthy path, it's shocking how bad habits creep up on you and then the pounds follow. I don't follow the book exactly, the author recommends things like clenzeology, HSOs and a bunch of supplements that I don't have the time or money to fool with right now, but I'm following the eating plan.

AND I'VE LOST 9LBS!!!! WOOT!!!! While concentrating on my eating, I've been able to learn some valuable pieces of information about myself.

1. I am a grazer and that's bad. There's nothing wrong with eating more often (5 small meals instead of 3 larger ones) but I would snack all day - much more than I realized. I wouldn't sit down with a bag of chips, but I'd eat four chips here, a few grapes there, taste this, a bite of that and on and on. That resulted in probably hundreds of extra calories a day!!
   


2. I am a condiment queen. Gotta have smoked chipotle Tabasco on my eggs, ketchup on fries, dressing with my veggies, honey on my bread and mustard on everything else. Again, this meant hundreds of extra calories a day. Add that to my grazing habit and we're talking a thousand extra calories a day!!
   


3. Real food tastes good! I knew this and did eat plenty of natural, healthy foods daily. But when the good food is compounded with the processed junk, my body craves the sugar and cancer-inducing-processed nastiness. After the first few days I have had very few junk food cravings which is awesome in and of itself.
   


4. I'm an emotional eater. I never considered myself an emotional eater because I don't crave food when I am on an emotional high - whether the emotion is positive or negative. But I've discovered when I'm in that in between melancholy, slightly teary mood - kind of sad and a little stressed, but not overwhelmed. That's when I get my cravings and want to eat.

I've been dealing with two of those emotional situations this week. Do any of you have a friend who lies all the time but since no one calls them out on their BS they think that they're fooling everyone? When in reality, the only one they are fooling is themselves. You know the person - the one who thinks everyone is buying their crap but in actuality everyone has decided not to waste their breath trying to point them in the right direction. I've been emotionally dealing with one of those.

Plus, a sweet family member called last night. She's 8 weeks pregnant, has had some slight spotting and today is going in for a second sonogram because they couldn't find a heartbeat on the last one (after her spotting). The good news is she and the baby are measuring 8 weeks - but it is a tough situation. My heart aches for her, I've been there. So I'm wrapping her and the little peanut in prayer today. I would appreciate it if you would take a moment to pray also.

Anyway, after that phone call I had a crazy mad craving for a big, sugary bowl of cereal. Carbs! I want carbs!! It was my first major craving. I'm happy to report I ate garlic lentils instead. No, It didn't taste as good and I went to bed sulky. But this morning the feeling of triumph was so worth it!! As one of my getting healthy buddies, Honey, likes to say:

I'm not saying it's going to be easy, I'm saying it's going to be worth it.

Amen!

Teaching Boys To Be Leaders

When a Canadian couple caused a stir by refusing to share their child’s gender in order to take a stand against gender stereotypes, it got me thinking. While my brain understood this stance, my soul cried out “Why can’t we celebrate gender differences?”

I am of the opinion that God has created our boys and girls to be vastly different in all ways, physically, emotionally, chemically – you name it – for a purpose. And His purpose will not be dimmed through choosing an asexual name, dressing your infant in pink or blue or signing your toddler up for ballet or football...

... follow me to The Homeschool Village to read my post about teaching boys to be leaders.

Beating the "Ives"

Do you ever struggle with the “ives”? I do. Sometimes I’m

Impulsive

Inattentive

Explosive

Obsessive

And many others, but you get the idea. And I wonder, what am I teaching my kids? Am I honoring my husband with this behavior? And most importantly, am I glorifying God?...

...Today I am guest posting about beating the "ives" with wisdom at Overcoming Busy. This is part of Marci's wonderful What Matters Most series. Come join me and read what matters most to other fabulous bloggers! Click over to read the rest of the post.

God's Timing Is Perfect

This afternoon I sent my 15 year old, Fox, to his room. He had been quite disrespectful all day and I'd had enough. I was done. "Get out of my presence I am not going to deal with your mouth for one more second!" That's what I told him.

*sigh*

I knew it was wrong, I let anger take hold of me. I was fuming mad. I stood at the sink, washing dishes and thinking of the tongue lashing I was going to give him. Three times I stopped myself from marching up the stairs to his bedroom, storming through the door and telling him just what I thought of his recent behavior. All my Fruitful Thursday progress had momentarily disappeared.

In frustration, looking for distraction from my anger, I plopped down in front of the laptop, checked my email and then my twitter stream. That's when I saw this tweet from Kris.


Out of curiosity I followed the link to this post at Jolanthe's blog Homeschool Creations. It moved me. I'm supposed to be reading that book - I'm currently very behind but I will now be picking it back up. It was the right message at the right moment. I needed to read it. Thanks to reading that post and hearing the message, Fox and I had a very different conversation - no tongue lashing involved. I'm still mad and so is he, but we are being gentle and patient with one another.

God's timing is perfect.

This Weeek: Lows and Highs - Weight Loss and Savvy Blogging

This has been a week of ups and downs. We had a fabulous Memorial weekend with many family members coming to visit us and see the new house. There was lots of checking things off our checklist as we rolled up our sleeves and got work done. That was all fabulous. But it was also an emotional, frustrating week for me in another way...


LOWS

I have been working hard to become healthy and lose the extra weight I've carried the last 2 years. I've been jogging 3 days a week on the Couch to 5K program. I have completed week 8 of the 9 week program. I am really proud of that accomplishment. BUT, I weighed myself for the first time in a long time and found rather than losing weight I GAINED 3 POUNDS!! Gained! How did that happen?

I realize I may be losing fat and gaining muscle, but it was a rather discouraging discovery.

I spent a few days in a "this is stupid, why am I killing myself getting healthy if it's not gonna shrink my fat behind" funk. I felt like I had been working really hard for no results and I almost gave up.

Instead, I checked in with my amazing get fit support group made up of Jamie, Carletta and our newest member Honey. They helped me realize that it's not all for nothing, the weight will eventually come off and the fact that I can jog 28 minutes non stop when 8 weeks ago I was alternating 60 second jogs then 90 second walks proves that I am making progress!

THANK YOU LADIES, I SO APPRECIATE YOU!!

So I'm not giving up. I'm either going to add a second jog in the evening on workout days, or maybe do some muscle toning exercises on the days I don't jog. I'm also going to get really serious about bettering the way I eat.

I'm gonna give my metabolism the kick in the butt it needs!


HIGHS

After all that down in the dumps, self pitying, God blessed me GREATLY. And I mean GREATLY. Guess where He's sending me?

To the Savvy Blogging Summit!!!! I wanted to go last year so so so badly. I applied, made the cut but then couldn't secure a sponsor, without a sponsor the trip just wasn't possible. The same thing happened again this year. I had given up - I wasn't going to make it to Savvy this year either. I told myself to email the Savvy team and tell them I wouldn't be able to make it, please give my spot to someone else. But I didn't.

There was a little tickle in the back of my mind telling me to wait. So I did, and as I waited I told myself over and over that I was stupid for waiting, I needed to just let it go.

But now I know that tickle was God.

Yesterday, quite unexpectedly, I was blessed with an anonymous sponsorship which covers a large portion of the costs!! I can hardly believe it, it's too good to be true! Months ago, there were so many companies I was willing to jump through hoops for and give up half my blog in ad space just so I could get there to learn.

And yet here is someone, with Christlike kindness, offering me a gift with no strings attached. And I am so thankful. So very thankful.

SOAP - Observations in Luke

Today I have the pleasure of guest posting at Mom's Toolbox! This is a wonderful website authored by my bloggy friend Amy -I had the pleasure of meeting Amy at Blissdom and again at Relevant - she's the real deal folks. I adore her, even if she doesn't homeschool . You may remember mentioning Amy from when I was participating in the Bible in 90 Days program she leads.

Are you familiar with SOAP? It is a fabulously simple, yet detailed way to record your observations on scripture, the messages you recieve in your reading. Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer - SOAP. And that's what my guest post entails today, SOAP observations in Luke.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this, and was glad I went through with it. I almost backed out. You see, my assigned reading was in the book of Luke...and I have a little bit of an emotional aversion to Luke. Luke is the name we gave to the baby we lost in our first miscarriage.

But guess what I found in the book of Luke? A message about keeping your arms open for God's blessings - even during trial. Check it out!