Why is Homeschooling the Best Choice for Your Family?

Define Your “Why” and Discover Your Purpose with a Free Printable Homeschool Mission Statement Worksheet

If you’ve decided to homeschool your child you probably have started thinking a lot about schedules, curricula, after-school enrichment. But before you get to any of that, it’s important to discover your Why. 

Companies create mission statements to clarify the purpose of their business. You can take this practice and make it your own to plan a homeschool and family life you love. 

Step 1: Brainstorm

In a Google Doc, scrap of notebook paper, or my free printable worksheet, come up with a list of the top 10 reasons you are choosing to homeschool. If you are partnered do this exercise with your spouse or SO. If your kids are old enough, have them participate in the brainstorming. Are you in it for the emotional connection with your kids? The superior education? The flexible schedule? To make more art and do more projects? For the warm, cozy read-aloud time? For the science projects? The field trips to interesting places? The ability to focus on your family’s ethical, cultural, or spiritual values? Do you want to homeschool on the road or to work around a child’s area of specialization, like a demanding sports- or musical instrument schedule? Write it all down. These ideas will be the raw materials of your mission statement. 

Step 2: Choose your top two or three reasons

Go over your initial list of homeschooling reasons and choose the top 2 or 3 that feel most important. Again, if you are married or partnered, work with your SO on determining your highest priorities. Same goes for your kids if they are old enough to offer meaningful input. (Tip: they are.)

Step 3: Distill your Why into one or two sentences.

A mission statement’s power is in the fact that it is clear and short. When you are having a challenging day, you want to be able to recall your mission to be reminded of your purpose and how much good you are doing for your kids and family. So the next step is to take the brainstorm ideas you chose in Step 2 and clarify them into one simple statement. 

For example, if your top two brainstorms were “the emotional connection with my kids”, “give my kids a superior education,” and “focus on our family’s cultural values” your mission statement might look like: 

For me that looked like: 

“The mission of [Your] Homeschool is to offer the best education for my children, one in which our values as a [your spiritual belief or ethical system here] are reflected in everything we do, and kids grow up knowing they are valued and loved.” 

“The mission of Trampoline Treeclimber Homeschool is to offer the very best education for our kids: one that is imbued with great books, a commitment to spending time outside and in the real world, strengthening community ties and developing civic virtue, and in which every family member knows that she or he is valued and loved.”

You could also bullet point your mission statement if one-line slogans aren’t your thing.

Trampoline Treeclimber Homeschool Mission:

1. Best education for our specific kids
2. Great books + lots of experiences in the world
3. Community- and civic virtue-minded
4. Everyone knows they are valued and loved

Easy? Let me know in the comments. 

And once you’ve outlined your mission- your Why- you’ll want to think about your vision statement. The mission is your why, and the vision is your How.

Head on over to learn how to make your vision statement.

If this post helped you, please pass it along to a homeschooling mom friend who could use some help and encouragement.