In trying to set up a collection of homeschool goals, I needed to consider my child's strengths and weaknesses.
It sounds easy, doesn't it?
He's good at reading, but not so good at math. He's good at music, but not so good at handwriting.
But then it gets tricky. And then it gets trickier.
For example... He can grasp an author's style to the degree that he can, for example, write a novel story that sounds eerily like the work of Rudyard Kipling. Yet he can't define the main idea of the same story, and then tell you a few details. What's more, his grammar and punctuation are atrocious.
He can play clarinet at the level of an advanced high school student if he hears and repeats it, yet he can't quite grasp the nuances of reading the notes on the staff. He loves band camp where he spends five hours a day practicing, yet moans if I ask him to spend ten minutes on the clarinet.
He loves fine art, and can talk at length about the works of Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso. Yet he can tell you nothing about the period during which the artists lived, nor can he accurately explain the difference between France, Holland and Spain.
What's he good at? Where are his challenges? As a linear thinker myself, I am finding it incredibly hard to develop a meaningful answer. He's a good writer and a rotten writer... a fine musician - or not. A knowledgeable young man or an ignorant kid.
He's all of the above.
OK, then. Time to write some goals!
