To help guide and focus our goals, we have four areas that we choose to work on. We require that each person come up with at least one goal per area. Those categories are: Spiritual, Physical, Educational (School), and Personal.
Below are the resolutions we each committed to. We started with the youngest and worked our way up in age.
JJ (via Mom)
Admittedly, the potty training thing is a totally selfish wish on my part. But I'm thinking there is hope. JJ's speech teacher sent the following email message regarding his progress since starting his T/TH class mid-November. His speech at home has really exploded with his attendance there. He's imitating us more and more and what he wants to say comes out in (word approximation) sentences! I shared this with his teacher Meghan and this was her reply:
Hello!
We are so happy to hear this!! We love having JJ in our SMILE program, and we agree that he has been saying a lot more! It did take him a couple sessions to settle in and learn our routine, but that is totally expected since this is his first school experience. We actually noticed a big change in his speech AND behavior when another new student came (his age). I think JJ wanted to show off a little for him, and so he started attempting to use his words much more frequently and show that he knew how to behave well. I also think our older students in the class are good role models for him, and he likes to imitate them. We will be sending a progress report home after the break, so we will go into a little more detail then!!
That cracks us up that JJ wanted to show off. Seems like I should be able to use that to my advantage somehow so that he'll want to potty train himself....Any bright ideas? I'm open to suggestions! #dreadedmommydutyofalltime
CALVIN
I feel like I need to preface this by saying Calvin came up with every one of his goals on his own. In fact, he had them written down before most of us.
So yeah, this mom is totally impressed with the fact that my 6-year-old feels the best goal to have at school would be to play with someone who is alone. I hope he always lives by that standard. And the very fact that he thought of his personal goal without any "suggestion" from his parents is mind-blowing: "walking away from big problems" (instead of being one...). Wow. Whether or not that goal comes to fruition or not...he still gets Kudos from me for his line of thinking.
KARCYN
Her personal goal...always a good one!
COOPER
His 3rd spiritual goal made me raise my eyebrows...maybe I need to follow up with his Sunday School teachers a little more often...
His 3rd educational goal is definitely a challenge. There's comfort in the known, even when it comes to books, I guess. He takes after his Aunt Shell there.
JAKE
This kid has ambition. It really shouldn't surprise me that he wants to teach himself Algebra II so that he can test out of it and do PreCalculus next year. He is so not our kid. Jared and I were never that motivated. And Jake's not kidding either. He's already completed step 1. He got a gift card from Barnes and Noble for Christmas and yesterday he used it to buy "Algebra II for Dummies" :)
JENN
Not a whole lot of explanation needed here. Educational goals at my age are always hard to come up with, but I really hope I can make some leaps and bounds in my quest to learn family history. And yeah, my personal goal is hilarious. I'm only 6 months behind.
JARED
When Jared shared his first personal goal of "speaking with more softness" (at home), Calvin chimed in and said, "Yeah, Dad, you do yell sometimes." Jared replied, "Well, sometimes that happens when you don't respond to us by the third...or fifth time." In jest, I suggested, "Hey Calvin, if you start walking away from big problems and Cooper, if you were nicer to your siblings and obeyed your parents the first time, every time, there would be less yelling." Jared beamed and said, "That's right! If all of you succeed in meeting your resolutions, then I will meet mine!" :)
You may have noticed a saying at the top of the papers or partially in view. It says:
I CAN'T=I WON'T or I QUIT
We had a Family Home Evening lesson on attitude a few weeks ago (compliments of Grandma Lee who forwarded it on to us). It's true that much of our success depends on our attitude. Knowledge and hard work can take you far, but attitude takes you all the way.
I saw this quote on Facebook and love it. Definitely gives perspective:
Giving up on your goal because of one setback is like slashing your other three tires because you got one flat.
Here's hoping for positive changes and improvement in 2015!
4 comments:
I love the idea of making goals in multiple areas. WE need to write down ours because talk is good but cheap and less permanent :} I loved reading about your motivated children. I agree that once you have a degree your education goals are more challenging to think up.
I totally stole this for last night's FHE- I like the focused categories. Thanks!
We stole it too but had to modify the categories into three general ones (to do, to be, and to learn) for the 3 year old's attention span. We also tried to make specific goals that are worked on daily, weekly, and monthly to accomplish our three thematic ones.
Ha ha! You guys crack me up! I'm so glad there was stealing and modifying!! :)
Post a Comment