By Ashley Vaughan

As we stand at the beginning of a new year, with the shimmer of all of its bright possibilities, I can feel a thrill of excitement. The year lays before us like a blank slate, fresh and new. It reminds me of the passage, The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22, 23 ESV).

The beginning of the calendar year is traditionally a time for reflection and setting goals, whether personal or related to your homeschool. And after the craziness of the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year’s season, a kind of reset can be super appealing.

Whether or not you are a big “goals” person, whenever you are pursuing a worthy endeavor (like homeschooling) there is benefit in periodically assessing the situation and making course corrections as needed. It’s something that is commended in Scripture, The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps (Proverbs 14:15 ESV).

But how do you get started on this reflection and goal setting for this next half of the school year?

My process has changed over the years, but this is what I’ve done the last few years. First, I start by reflecting on the previous year by using my own version of the Wheel of Life exercise common in life coaching. (Click here for a PDF version you can work through on your own.) I have broken my reflection into twelve categories of life, and I reflect on what went well, what didn’t, and any wins that happened in each of those categories.

This has been super helpful for me. First, as a natural problem solver, I can tend to overly focus  on the things that went wrong and need to be fixed, and then forget to praise God for the things that did go well, or the wins He brought. This purposeful reflection helps me to see these latter things and be encouraged. Every year, I find out that the last year wasn’t a complete bomb like I’d been tempted to think! For evaluating your homeschool, what big or little breakthroughs occurred last year? (Like Susie learned to write her name, or Jared is finally retaining math concepts and making progress in his book.)

But it also helps reveal some blind spots that might need to be addressed. This then helps inform some of the goals I set for the new year. For instance, through my personal reflection last year I learned that my “finances” category needed some attention, which led to goals related to saving more and spending less. For your homeschool, this could be a potential reading disability in one of your children that you want to get checked out.

If you can’t get to this reflection exercise this week, that’s perfectly okay! Last year, I didn’t get around to it until mid-February. It still proved useful and encouraging.

And of course, this reflection sheet we’re providing is just a tool. If you have another system that works for you, or if you want to tweak mine, feel free!

Below are some additional  resources for helping guide reflection and evaluating your spoken (or unspoken goals) for your family and seeing how they line up with God’s will for your lives.

• A Mid-Year Makeover Part 1
• A Mid-Year Makeover Part 2
• When Parents Set the Bar Too Low
• Ten Questions for a New Year

Some closing points to remember as you work through any of these reflection/goal setting exercises:

First, as you reflect, keep God’s grace at the forefront of your mind. Any wins or successes this past year happened only by God’s enabling grace in you and your family’s lives. And any places where there was failure, remember that it is in your weaknesses that God puts an exclamation point on His love for you.

Second, as you set goals for next year, remember that The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps (Proverbs 16:9 ESV). That doesn’t mean that we don’t plan or set goals! But it does mean that, while we do our best to accomplish them by God’s grace, ultimately we hold them loosely and surrender the results to God’s good and sovereign will.

May God richly bless you and your family this coming year!

About the Author: Ashley Vaughan

Ashley is a Gen 2 homeschooler who is passionate about carrying on the torch of homeschooling. After serving as the CHEC Independent School Registrar for seven and a half years, she recently moved into a marketing position with CHEC and joined Unbound as an executive assistant. When she isn’t working for CHEC or Unbound, you will likely find her reading with a cup of tea, baking, painting, singing, writing thoughtful Instagram posts, having deep conversations, or playing games with her family.