Mike Smith:
This week, Chris Tigges, a homeschooling mom of six, joins us to talk about a new tradition in her family’s homeschool. Chris, welcome to the program.

Chris Tigges:
Thanks, it’s great to be here!

Mike:
Chris, you and your husband instituted a year-end review with your children to give them the opportunity to provide feedback on what they’re learning—and what they would like to learn that you might not be teaching them! Tell our listeners about the motivation behind this practice.

Chris:
Well last summer, I attended Virginia’s annual homeschool conference in Richmond. One of my favorite seminars was a class where Gregg Harris spoke on desire-directed learning. The class left me with this aching feeling knowing that maybe our schooling was not as desire-directed as it could be. I shared the conference CD with Jon, and he reminded me that we had heard Gregg share the same thoughts in the early ’90s at our first homeschooling conference. I had forgotten this. We were convicted that we had fallen prey to checking boxes instead of really listening to our children’s hearts.

Jon felt an assessment tool would help us gain clarity and affirmation of our children’s God-given strengths. Parent-teacher conferences from my early public school teaching days gave me the idea of gathering the kids individually to share the results and ask them some questions.

Mike:
Chris, thanks for joining us today! I think this is going to be a tremendous encouragement to other homeschooling parents. And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.