Helping Our Kids Live Their Lives on Purpose: A Practical Guide for Homeschool Moms

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It’s 10 am on a Tuesday, and you have complete freedom to shape your children’s day. Museum visit? Nature walk? Cozy read-aloud on the couch? But instead of feeling excited about the possibilities, you wonder, Is this what we should be doing? Are we wasting this precious time?

This is the homeschool paradox: we have unlimited freedom to design our days, but that freedom often brings worry about whether we’re using it wisely. We chose homeschooling because we wanted something different for our kids—but different how? And helping our kids live their lives on purpose can feel overwhelming when we’re not even sure what that looks like in practice.

Here’s what I know for sure (& I know you’ve heard this on repeat, but you haven’t watched it happen like I have yet): parenting is short-lived. That statement doesn’t always feel true in the middle of sleepless nights, endless trips in the mini-van to another hockey, jujitsu, or soccer practice, and math lessons that seem to drag on forever around the kitchen table. But it is. Our time with our children at home is limited, and how we guide them to spend that time matters deeply.

Let’s help our homeschool kids spend their time wisely so they have meaningful childhood memories and learn to live their lives on purpose.

So how do we help our kids live their lives on purpose?

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Helping Our Kids Live Their Lives on Purpose: What It Really Means

Investing Our Kids’ Time, Not Just Spending It

What do we want our kids to remember?

What do we want them to learn?

Their childhood doesn’t have to be filled with the cultural norms of online gaming, social media, or endless scrolling. But you can include that if you like. And it doesn’t have to be consumed by memorizing semi-useful facts just to regurgitate them for tests. You can also include that if you like.

It can be entirely different or it can be a combination of activities. This homeschool life can be anything you want, and anything they want too.

We can help our kids live life on purpose—exploring their interests, developing meaningful work habits, and making intentional memories.

What Purposeful Living Actually Looks Like

When we intentionally guide our children to live with purpose, we’re not adding more to their plates—we’re helping them focus on what truly matters. This kind of childhood produces:

Self-direction: They learn to identify what they want and chart a path to get there, rather than waiting to be told what to do next.

Real competence: Through completing meaningful projects (not just checking off educational boxes), they develop skills they can see and use in the real world.

Genuine confidence: When they overcome actual challenges—building something, mastering a skill, solving a real problem—they discover what they’re capable of.

A sense of purpose: They begin to understand their unique gifts and how they can contribute to their family and community.

Your goal isn’t about raising perfect kids who never waste time or always make productive choices. Is a life well lived only and entirely a productive one every moment? I believe it’s about helping them discover who they’re meant to become—and giving them the tools to get there intentionally.

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Four Practical Ways to Teach Kids to Live with Purpose

1. Create a Family Mission Statement

Kids thrive when they have a sense of direction, and a family mission statement can help. Sit down as a family and discuss:

• What values matter most to us?
• What kind of people do we want to be?
• How do we want to spend our time together?

Write it down, post it somewhere visible, and use it as a guide for decisions—big and small.

Example: A homeschooling friend of mine created a simple mission statement with her kids: “Learn deeply, love boldly, live fully.” Every time they planned their homeschool days, they asked: “Does this help us learn deeply? Love boldly? Live fully?” It became their compass.

Watch the video on Creating your own Homeschool Vision Statement.

Getting Started: Set aside 30 minutes. With younger kids, use simple questions: ‘What makes our family special?’ With teens, go deeper: ‘What do we want people to remember about our family?’ Don’t aim for perfect—aim for honest.

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2. Teach Kids to Set Their Own Goals

From a young age, kids can begin setting their own goals—whether it’s mastering a new skill, completing a creative project, or learning something that excites them.

Encourage them to:

• Set a goal (small at first, like finishing a book or learning a song on the guitar).
• Break it down into steps.
• Reflect on what they learned and how they grew.

Example: My son once decided he wanted to build a treehouse—completely on his own. I resisted the urge to jump in and do it for him. Instead, we brainstormed what he’d need, found books about simple structures, headed to YouTube to watch someone else build one, and let him problem-solve. It wasn’t perfect, but he did it—and learned resilience in the process.

But Consider Different Goals for Different Ages:

• 5-8: One-week goals (finish a drawing, learn to tie shoes)
• 9-12: Monthly goals (read a chapter book series, build something)
• 13+: Quarter-long goals (learn a skill, complete a project portfolio)

If you want to share your kids’ big adventures and listen to other homeschool mom’s share their stories of their kids’ big adventures, join us in the Confident Homeschool Mom Collective.

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3. Build Meaningful Routines (Without Over-Scheduling)

Living with purpose doesn’t mean cramming every hour with activities. (Though, by the way, that is exactly what I believed when I first began homeschooling, ya know, outprivate schooling the private school over here). Rather, it means choosing what truly matters and leaving space for rest, play, and creativity.

Try creating:

• A Morning Routine: A simple rhythm that sets a purposeful tone for the day.
• Connection Points: Daily check-ins over lunch, an evening walk, or a cozy read-aloud time.
• Work & Service Opportunities: Finding ways to contribute to the family and community.

Example: One of my kids loved baking, so we made it her “job” to bake something new each week. It turned into a passion project—and now she dreams of opening her café one day.

The Over-Scheduling Trap: If your kids groan at the schedule, it’s too full. Purposeful living needs margin. Aim for 2-3 structured things per day, max.

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4. Model Purposeful Living Yourself

Our kids watch us. More than our words, they absorb our actions. If we want them to live life on purpose, we need to model it.

Ask yourself:

• Do I spend my time on what matters most to me?
• Do I pursue interests and growth, or am I just surviving the day?
• And do I show them what it looks like to work hard, rest well, and follow curiosity?

It doesn’t mean being perfect—it means being real.

Example: When I started writing, I let my kids see the messy, creative process. They watched me struggle through drafts, get excited about ideas, and keep going when it was hard. And guess what? Now they’re writers too.

Example: We travelled a lot as we homeschooled. Across rural Canada and into every major Canadian city, up to the Arctic Ocean, over to PEI, down to Jamaica, into rural Africa, Italy, Netherlands, France, UK. We could see the value of travel, and volunteering, and seeing the world, and meeting people who aren’t cookie cutters of us as meaningful elements to life and living.

So it would come as no surprise that three of our kids would venture into their own international traveling experiences into Central America, Europe, and South America, and they’re only all in their early twenties now.

Start here: Pick one personal goal this month. Tell your kids about it. Let them see you work on it—including the messy parts.

You are your child’s most important curriculum.

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Reflection Questions for Homeschool Moms

Clarifying questions you can ask yourself:

1. What’s ONE value we’re not living out that I want to prioritize?
2. What’s ONE activity we’re doing out of obligation that we could drop?
3. Or what’s ONE new routine we could try that aligns with our values?
4. What’s ONE goal I can pursue this month to model purposeful living?

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Your child is a runner. You’re helping them find their lane.

Picture a track meet. There are runners warming up, stretching, getting ready. The conventional school system lines them all up at the same starting line and fires the gun: “Run the 400 meters. Everyone. Same distance, same pace, same finish line.”

But here’s what homeschooling lets you see:

Your child isn’t a 400-meter runner. Maybe they’re built for the marathon—steady, persistent, able to go the distance when others burn out. Or maybe they’re a sprinter—intense bursts of focus and energy. Some kids are hurdlers who thrive on obstacles.

(Not coincidentally this was me in grade 3 — I still have that blue ribbon!) Others are relay runners who shine when working on a team.

There are a bazillion kids out there, and conventional education assumes they all need to know the same things, in the same order, at the same age to become effective contributors to their families, communities, and society. But they aren’t cookie-cutter replacements for last year’s graduating class.

They were put on this earth to run their own race, in their own lane, at their own pace.

Your job isn’t to make them run someone else’s race. It’s to help them discover:

• What kind of runner they are
• Which lane suits their unique stride
• How to train for their specific race
• When to push hard and when to pace themselves

Parenting moves fast—faster than we realize in the middle of the laundry and lesson plans. But your homeschool days are your opportunity to shape not just what your kids know, but whether they feel compelled to choose their lives.

Let’s help our kids find their lane. To create space for them to discover their strengths, pursue their interests, and build skills that matter.

Let’s teach them to live their lives on purpose.

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