I have been toying with the idea of creating a mission statement for our homeschool. I know why we homeschool, but I thought I would feel better with a defined statement (and of course the implied vision for our future and all that jazz) rather than just a list of reasons we chose to homeschool, a haphazard philosophy of all of the homeschool styles we encompass, and no clear plan of where to go in the future.

Wow. Just typing it out like that stresses me out. I am a planner. I need a list of predefined objectives and goals. I need to know what the average 4 year old should be able to do so that I make sure my daughter is ahead of that list and that no one can criticize me for homeschooling. It doesn’t matter that part of the “flexibility” of homeschooling means I can teach whatever I want and she can be wherever she is. I need to know. And I know I am not the only mom out there who feels this way.

What I don’t know is how we are almost done homeschooling preschool and I still haven’t made a list of goals and objectives (something highly stressed in my teaching background), let alone a mission statement, a philosophy, and a clearly defined 12 year plan. I am living in the now and I think the main reason for that is simple: I’m not sure how to write a mission statement. In the past, I have always entered school districts where it was provided for me – I never had to think it up myself. So now I find myself seeking directions for how to get started.

There are multiple definitions for “mission statement.” Just ask Google. Here are a couple of my favorites:

• A brief statement indicating who a group is, what it does, and how it serves. It is oriented to present reality and generally is reviewed every three to five years.

• The needs the organization was created to fill and answers the basic question of why the organization exists.

• A statement of purpose an organization is to carry out.

Okay. I’m not sure that helps me, but let’s see how that applies to homeschooling. It seems to me that our mission statement should answer a few simple questions: Why do I homeschool? What can I provide that a traditional school cannot? What do I want my children to learn? How can I accomplish that goal?

Here are my answers:

• I homeschool because I want to provide stability for my children that the military is not going to provide, because I want to give my children a strong biblical background, and because I want us to be a tight knit family unit.

• I want my children to learn that God is the most important thing in our lives, followed by family, and then everything else, but I also want them to be strong academically. We plan to pursue an eclectically classical education because I like the idea of learning in chronological order, but I also want learning to be fun.

• To accomplish this goal, we will include Bible study in our curriculum and lots of family time. I will continually research different methods of teaching, and I reserve the right to try new curriculum and to change my mind when I don’t think our curriculum is working. I will listen to what my children want to learn and pay attention to how they learn in order to make schoolwork for them, but I reserve the right to make the final decisions about what they will learn.

So, I guess that is my mission statement. That is the big picture of what I plan to do, condensed into three little paragraphs, and it gives me a clear idea of where I am heading in the next thirteen (yikes… 13?!?!?!) years. I would encourage you to sit down and answer these questions to create your own mission statement, and remember, you can always change it later. A mission statement is something that can grow as your school grows, and change as your beliefs and your philosophies about education change. Just sit down and start writing!

Amy is a military wife and homeschooling mom to their four year old daughter. Amy has a passion for sharing the joys of homeschooling a preschooler, as well as homeschooling in a military family. Please visit her at her blog, Allen Academy.