Every parent wants their child to succeed and one way we typically measure our children’s success is by the grades they receive in school.
Yet, the truth is that good grades don’t equal success.
A child can receive great grades in school and still have issues that take away from their all around success. From attitude problems to lying and deceit, to self hate and depression. Good grades can hide deeper issues our children have if we don’t pay close attention.
As parents we need to ensure that we don’t push our children to get good grades and then use that to rate their level of success.
Homeschool parents must ensure that our children’s homeschooling journey is about more than just their academic education. We need to include life lessons like quality character training, responsibility, a good work ethic and confidence building. These characteristics are of greater importance to our children’s adult lives than a 4.0 GPA.
When we focus our homeschooling on academics AND parenting we are homeschooling our whole child, not just a student. We are responsible for both raising and education our children, so we must ensure that our homeschool focuses on both.
Our children’s future depends on more than their academic education. Good grades will not carry them through a challenging work position, a good work ethic will. Good grades aren’t the answer for handling trials that will come their way, confidence in themselves will help carry them through each day. Good grades won’t teach our kids how to handle the mistakes they’ll make throughout their lives, responsibility is key to handling the mistakes they’ll make.
When we take time to teach our children the importance of a good work ethic and confidence in themselves, we’ll be encouraging them to work hard and diligently on their school work. So, while we may not be focused solely on their academic education at those times, we will likely be impacting it more than we realize.
Homeschooled kids have amazing opportunities given to them; they can learn about things they enjoy, have family unity and grow into well educated, confident adults. A lot of these opportunities are dependent on us, their parents. We must ensure that we give them the direction and tools they need to become the responsible adults they need to be.
Good grades do not create successful kids, but dedicated and responsible parents can impact their future success by educating the whole child.
How do you ensure that your homeschool isn’t solely based on academics?
