Writing A Homeschool Mission Statement

A homeschool mission statement is simply a statement about what you want to accomplish by homeschooling.

This statement becomes your philosophy – your purpose for homeschooling.

Why You Should  Have a Mission Statement

I love this statement Dave Ramsey made about having a mission statement. He said, “”Without a mission statement, you may get to the top of the ladder and then realize it was leaning against the wrong building.”

None of us want to spend years helping our child get to the top of their learning ladder only to realize it was leaning against the wrong building. But having a mission statement can help ensure that doesn’t happen.

A well-crafted mission statement will also:

• give you a clear sense of purpose for homeschooling and what you want to achieve
• help save you money and time because it will give you guidelines for what to teach and what curriculum and resources to invest in
• help you know what to say no to
• help you stay focused on what is really important to your family
• help you distinguish between what’s best for your family as opposed to what is just good

Brainstorming

So let’s discover what your homeschool mission statement is.

First, spend some time with your spouse praying for wisdom, direction, and discernment concerning what’s best for your family as homeschoolers.

Next, do some brainstorming.

What’s your vision of homeschooling? Use this list of questions below to help you brainstorm ideas. Write out your thoughts. There is a link below so you can download and print these questions out.

1. What are your convictions? principles? values?
2. What do you want your child’s homeschool experience to be like?
3. What are your priorities? What do you hold dear?
4. What motivates you to homeschool?
5. What do you want your children to learn and how will you know if that’s been accomplished?
6. What impact do you want to make on your children by homeschooling them?

Tips

1. What makes your homeschool mission statement specific and clear
2. Keep it short and focused and limited to a few sentences. Remember this is a statement not a list of goals.
3. Keep it worded positive.
4. You want to dream big, but keep it reasonable.
5. Think about what you want to achieve (with the Lord’s help ) by the time they’re adults.

When you first start writing, you may need to review and reword your statement a number of times before it reflects what you’re thinking. Eventually, you should reach a point where the general philosophy of your statement doesn’t change much if any – maybe just the wording.

Example of My Mission Statements

Here’s the mission statement we had before our daughter started kindergarten. ( I was still learning and didn’t know I should have had one for the preschool years too.)

You can do a Google search for “examples of homeschool mission statements” to read some more.

Our Mission Statement

“Our objective for homeschooling Heather is to ensure she enjoys continual growth academically, spiritually, socially, and emotionally in such a way that God is not separated from learning and neither is separated from the rest of her life.”

After your mission statement is done, you’re ready to work on your homeschool goals. If you’d like help writing yours or are just looking for some ideas, check out Goals for Homeschooling.

Be sure to check out these other homeschool articles:

• Preschool Homeschool Curriculum
• What’s a Scope and Sequence
• Homeschooling Requirements by States