Homeschooling - Part 1?

Debra and I were both homeschooled growing up. Because of that we are obviously a bit predisposed to be interested in homeschooling our kids now that we have collected a few. However, up until now we haven't really talked about what we want that to look like or what our goals are.

We have said we wanted to give them a "good" and "christian" education, but that isn't very helpful for making a lesson plan. So today as we drove we discussed some of our broader goals for what we want to achieve before they run off on us.

• The old readin', ritin' and rithmatic (they are the three R's right?) are obvious so I put them here, but that wasn't really the point of our discussion.
• Communication: The most talented people in the world can do amazing things, but if they aren't very good at writing or talking about what they do they aren't going to get nearly as far. We want our kids to know how to present themselves and their ideas well through writing as well as speaking.
• Money sense: Good money management is a under taught skill and is one of the biggest single contributors (when lacking) to people failing to achieve their goals. I want our kids to start out life with a solid understanding of what is dumb and how to manage their money shrewdly.
• A broad understanding of the world around them: This is kind of hard to say simply, but we want them to have a mile wide inch deep (at least) understanding of the world. A good foundation so that in most contexts they at least a passingly familiar with what is going on.
• The freedom to pursue their strengths and interests. Once they have the above information and skills it really comes down to guiding them into what they want to do and helping them learn and grow into that. Even now when they are young I want them to have the ability to guide their educational focus in the directions that interest them. I want this educational journey to be an adventure for them. Not just the fulfillment of some school attendance mandate or the quest to check off all the prescribed check boxes.

Obviously it is just a matter of finishing off lesson plans at this point... or not. But it's a start. We have a better idea of our end goal so we can begin to define how this all can actually be accomplished.