How To Make a Homeschool Mission Statement

A mission statement is a short outline of the why behind something, a guide of goals and visions, and offers a direction of purpose for whoever it applies to. This is easily something that we can create as homeschoolers to give us a foundation in our homes. So, in this post, we’re going to walk through exactly how to make a homeschool mission statement, what to include, and how to use it.

WHY HAVE A HOMESCHOOL MISSION STATEMENT?

The purpose of a mission statement is to have something to refer back to when you are questioning choices, feeling full of doubt, or making decisions. It’s the foundational cornerstone of a business, organization, or even a homeschool. For example, my mission as The Canadian Homeschooler is:

to connect homeschoolers across Canada with each other and with resources to help them on their journey.

Whenever I consider a project, an idea, a company to work with, or anything – I look at this mission statement to decide if it’s a good fit for me. If whatever I’m considering isn’t in line with that mission, I know I can put it aside or say no without guilt.

The same thing applies to homeschool. If you have a clear guideline of what exactly your homeschool is, then whenever you consider curriculum, extra-curriculars, programs, methodologies, resources, or anything else – you have something to look at and measure how well it lines up with that guideline. Then – if it doesn’t fit – you can say no without guilt and knowing that you are doing exactly what you need to do.

Having a mission statement also gives you a metric to be able to judge your success on (and something to aim for.) It’s a simple way to evaluate your progress. If things aren’t going how you want your homeschool to be as outlined in the statement, what changes do you need to make to your homeschool?

How Do You Make a Homeschool Mission Statement?

Before you can write out your homeschool mission statement, you need to examine some of the core things about your homeschool and answer some questions about yourself and your family. Here are some of them.

• What is the Why behind your decision to homeschool?
• What core foundations do you or your children have for life and for learning?
• What goals do you have for your children?
• What do you want to see your child achieve this year and throughout their education?
• What words are important to you?
• What words do you want your family to associate with their homeschooling adventure?

Let’s work through them one at a time. These are just thought starters. Not everything needs to be included in order to write the best homeschool mission statement, but you might find some key words as you answer these questions.

What Is Your Why?

There are a million different reasons that people opt to start homeschooling their children: faith, freedom, safety, individualization. It’s important to know WHY you are homeschooling. The truth is that homeschooling is hard; days will come when you will question everything or doubt your decisions. That knowledge of “why” can be the difference between success and giving up something that’s important to you.

It is more than possible that your homeschooling why will change as our children grow and learn, so it’s worth re-evaluating it once in a while .

What Are Your Core Values?

Most people have a variety of foundational values and beliefs that are vital to every aspect of their life. Faith could be a good example. Faith permeates all areas of a person’s life and might be of extreme importance in their homeschool. Other core values could be adventure, excellence, inclusiveness…. it really just depends on you and your family. So what are your core values? Which of these do you want to instill in your children?

When it comes to education / learning – what values do you have? It could be things like diligence or curiosity. It could be that you want your children all to value the literature. Again, there are so many options here. Are there any you feel are vital to your family?

What Goals Do You Have For Your Children? What Goals Do They Have?

Is there something that you want to see your child to accomplish with their life? What does success look like to you? Do you hope that your children will follow your faith? Be independent? Be happy? What about your children – do they have goals for themselves? Do they have something they want to do or have a vision of what they want life to be? Skills they want to master?

What Acheivements Do You Hope For You Children This Year? In 5 Years? In Their Lives? If you have an early learner, maybe your mission is to help them gain confidence in their reading, writing, and math skills. Maybe, by the time they graduate, you want them to love learning.

What Words Do You Want Your Children To Tie To Their Homeschool Experience?

No one wants to have their grown up children look back on their homeschool years with distain or a sense of disappointment. So, what intentional things do you want to associate with these years that should be part of your mission statement? Some ideas might be fun, inquiry-based, diligence, family, memorable…..

Any Other Words?

Every new year, some people choose a “word of the year.” This word guides them their intentions for the year. These are often actionable words like “brave” or “create” or “organize.” Taking that word, people can take steps to accomplish that thing. Is there a word of the year for your homeschool? Some examples:

• peace
• laughter
• bloom
• listen
• explore
• grow

Have you ever looked to see if your family name has a motto? My last name is Fletcher and the Scottish motto for the Fletcher family is “Alta Pete” which means “Aim At High Things.” I think that could easily be a great part of a mission. Check to see if there’s a motto for your family name.

What To Do With All These Words?

Now, it’s time to take all the words, ideals, and values and pull them together in a cohesive thought. Remember, it can be simple (and probably should be!) and it doesn’t have to include everything. Pick the key words only.

Some examples,

• to encourage my children to be curious, instilling a life-long passion for learning and love of God and others.
• to impart the foundations of academics so that my children can accomplish any goals they have for themselves in the future.
• to raise my children to be a valuable part of their family, their community, and their future careers.
• to expose my children to the world from a variety of perspectives so that they can choose the paths that they find passion in.

What is the mission of your homeschool?

Now What?

Write it down. Hang it up. Put it somewhere that you will see it and remember to refer back to it on days when you are struggling, when you are researching curriculum options, or considering adding or removing things from your school / life. This is your anchor in the storm called the homeschool life. Use it to your advantage.

And remember – this mission might change. And that’s okay. Every year, do a sound check to make sure the mission statement you made is still your mission. Edit and revise. Then start your homeschool journey.