Setting Goals

I thought I would share about a little ritual our family engages in every morning. Each morning before we read family scriptures and practice our weekly scripture memorization we review our weekly goals.

On Monday morning each family member sets from 1 to 3 goals. These goals are of the individuals own choosing. Goals set this week included:

• Read one chapter in Robinson Crusoe
• Practice the piano every day for 30 minutes
  
• Work on 4 and 5 multiplication tables
• Schedule swimming lessons
• Order more campaign banners

Sometimes we have to guide some one on a goal. We might ask them to be more specific. Then each day we review the goals with them. They don't have to report we just read and remind. At the end of the week we tally up how many goals were completed. Then we add that many beans to our bean counter jar. (recipe ingredient from Thomas Jefferson Education) When our bean jar is full we will do a "wholesome family activity."

We find that this creates unity. Each family member is encouraging of each others progress. If someone struggled to obtain a goal we work with them on how to set a more realistic goal for the next week. We only accomplish about 2/3 of our goals in a week. But we each continue to work on and improve. We aren't interested in perfection only progression.

I also wanted to add that I know that "goal setting" is typically considered a scholar activity. However each person pursues goals based on their phase (or grade/age). We use phases in our family, shocking I know. Caleb, who is still solidly in core (with no intention of leaving anytime soon!), sets goals like: brush my teeth at night, take a bath every night, do my jobs without whining, etc. His goals are very much "core phase" goals. Jared and Luke's are directed towards love of learning goals. Olivia makes scholar goals; read 100 pages in 1776, write and essay about Dolly Madison, answer questions from my mentor about Plutarch, etc. Mine revolve around Mentored Scholar/Depth. And finally Alex's revolve around Mission phase; read incumbents voting record on public education, create an 'issues page' for campaign website, practice speech, reread Proper Role of Government, etc.

We have been successfully engaging in goal setting as a family since January and have found that it is a worthwhile part of our family time.

Our Days Now

So I thought I'd break down what our days look like now that we have been off the conveyor belt for two and half months. Who-rah!

Our "day" actually starts on Sunday night when we have a family meeting. We each review the goals we made last week and we each set a couple of goals for the coming week. All goals are completely up to the family member. No pressure or expectation to do anything. If they may be struggling with a goal we help them set a simpler goal if it was something important to them.

Week day: Alex and I drag ourselves out of bed at 7 AM. Yes, I know that's late, but we are working on it. But we are always up by then. We both read our scriptures, journal, read some conference talks (aka devotionals) and ponder until about 8 or 8:15.

Olivia get up at 7 also and her stewardship is breakfast. She's only been doing it for two months. She'll get another one in a couple of months. We've always had hot breakfast at our house. So she makes hot breakfast. She can make ANYTHING. She is totally cooking self-sufficient. Today she made homemade buttermilk pancakes with a special homemade butter syrup. Yummy!

In the mean time Jared's up and in the shower. He's read his scriptures and practiced his piano by 8:30.

Luke drags him self up by 8. He gets ready for the day and reads his scriptures. Sometimes he practices the piano and sometimes he doesn't do that until the afternoon.

Caleb wakes up at a different time everyday. He usually shows up to breakfast in shorts. He's in core phase. And being around him for 5 minutes you know it! He's obliviously happy with his life.

At 8:30 everyone has to report to breakfast deslobbed for the day and ready to go. After breakfast (during too) we have scripture study and usually a very lengthy discussion about something we read. Then we practice our scripture memorization for the week. We review our goals for the week. After family prayers Alex leaves for the day.

The boys finish their chores and brush their teeth. Then I usually spend a couple of hours with the boys reading books, playing games, or whatever they want. I usually try to spend some time with each one individually learning whatever they want. Usually the older boys will sit in front of our "love of learning" bookshelf and pull off random books and read about anything they want. (We call this "structure time, not content." Regulary one of the boys makes a goal to "do 30 minutes-or however long-of structure time, not content"). They'll spread all over the room and have books everywhere and hop from book to book. They usually can't wait to tell me what they learned. Sometimes we'll put an event or a person on our huge time line that takes up our entire library room. I've changed our family reading to the library room instead of the living room. This has been good because there are lots of things to do and we can really quickly look up something on the computer if we don't understand what we read or we want to see more pictures or whatever. Today we looked up to see when the Hebrew month Nisan was. Very cool you know.

In the meantime Olivia disappears for the day and reads and reads and reads and then writes essays in between. She only shows up at meal time or to walk to our land and check the horses.

Luke is in charge of lunch and so he prepares it for everyone. I still have to help him with it depending on what it is.

After lunch on two days we have to rush off to a scholar school/play date and piano lessons. We are gone for several hours on those days. When we come back from them the kids usually play outside until dinner. (I'm in charge of dinner, but Olivia usually shows up and cooks half of it because she just loves to cook). During lunch we have a big ole' discussion out of the Gospel Principles book about some theology topic. The kids enjoy our discussions and they don't let me forget to do this!

On the other days the kids just keep reading. Jared spends time with Caleb. Jared's stewardship is to mentor Caleb and so he'll usually do it then. We'll play more games or read more books. It just depends on their mood. There is more individual time in the afternoon then in the morning. Who ever didn't practice the piano by breakfast usually does it in the afternoon. Luke sometimes needs reminded to practice, but he does it willingly. They all practice and take piano willingly. I take lessons and practice right along side of them so I think playing the piano is like reading your scriptures-you just do it and don't think about whether you want to do it or not. Family culture?

There is no "school's out time." There is no magical, "Oh, now we get to watch a movie." We just keep on reading and keep on playing. The kids can play 30 min of the Wii in the afternoon-sometimes. They have to stand up and they have to cardio things like boxing.

During dinner we pull out a discussion question and have a big discussion about current events, theology or past history situations. This time is when Alex really gets to talk with the kids about what they think. After dinner if Alex is home we play ping pong while the kids do the dishes. If Alex was home for dinner he usually has to leave for somewhere else so he doesn't stay long. After dinner they play. Sometimes they read (okay a lot of the time). Sometimes we play more games. Sometimes I read more to them. Sometimes we go somewhere.

Caleb pretty much plays hard all day long. He can sort of last through parts of our family reading time. He does like reading to me and so he always sits down to do that. If Caleb has a whole day of playing games and/or playing dress up (dress up as a knight, or Native American or a Roman) he considers the day a success. Today he was in the bath tub for almost 2 hours. He also played play dough for an hour. He's just silly and happy.

We usually put the kids to bed around 9:30. Olivia stays up late reading. She doesn't have a bedtime because she's a scholar. (You wouldn't think an 11 year could study for 8+ hours a day, but she does. And she reads hard things). Luke lies in bed for 1 1/2 hours before he falls asleep. The kids all listen to books on tape or music as the go to sleep. Alex and I usually don't get to sleep until 11.

We stay busy enough with outside things though. It seems like we are gone somewhere for the afternoon or the evening. The kids have piano lessons, 4-H, Cub scouts, scholar school/social play date, and I have things regularly too.

Anyway. There you go. My kids always tell me, "I love my love mom! Thanks for home schooling me." When we drive by the school they say, "I'm so glad I'm home mom. " They've also told me many times that they feel sorry for those kids that have to go to school. "Maybe some day their mommies will let them come home."

Oh, today their piano teacher said, "You kids are always reading such big books!"

We love learning at home and we're happy. : )