The every day stuff and GOALS

I really like the idea of children setting goals and working towards them over the summer or well, over a period of time. My inspiration is here at 71 Toes blogspot. (By the way, Shawni Eyre Pothier is my inspiration in family/motherhood and other areas.)

From personal experience, goal setting is a challenge we give ourselves, a motivation, something that keeps us going and makes us better in whatever it is that we set goals for. Since Ella is little, her goal setting has to have some incentives tied to it, right? For example, she'll get to spend the day at "the cool" pool [a place right across from us that has very kid friendly water park paraphenalia. She picked this prize] at the end of two weeks of reading her scriptures daily. And then of course, the cycle starts again and she gets to pick another prize. Since she can't really read all by herself yet, I read to her but she's responsible for picking up her Scriptures Stories books and inviting me to read to her. Other goals for her right now are practicing piano and ballet (piano daily/ballet usually on Saturdays), rock climbing (she hit it right off with this one), journaling (drawing and labeling her drawings with a few words or short sentences), math (additions/subtractions and money), reading, and writing/ recognizing music notes. Does she do all of these every day, of course not but so far she's been able to do at least three things aside from scripture reading. Is that too busy of a schedule for a five and a half-year old? Well, maybe a little  but since she enjoys doing most of those things on her own anyway, I thought a little bit of structure and reward would be nice. Plus, staying busy keeps one out of trouble and "builds brain muscles" :) Anyway, I'm pretty proud of her that she somehow manages to fit these in after her full day in summer camp. So far.



Scripture reading chart:



If she forms this habit and sticks to it that's the biggest GOAL she can achieve and PRIZE  she can get in my book! :) This weighs so much becuase I want her to know and feel for herself starting now at an early age that there is so much comfort and knowledge that she can get from reading the scriptures.

[I know, totally random picture but it captures just one of those sweet moments that you never just sit down to write about... this is our sweetie pie after I washed and brush-styled her hair. She really loves the "curl out" style.]

Since summer has been here for a while, we've been doing a lot of grilling (burgers, fish, lamb, chicken, and veggies.) And since she loves getting her hands dirty, we've been getting her to help with family meals prep, desserts, table setting, picnic basket packing and such. I'm just so amazed at how excited and happy children get when they're tasked with things. And I know the same goes for us adults. There's nothing like feeling loved, involved, and needed.

Mixing the batter for strawberry shortcake:

And speaking of goals, I really need to get serious about my lap swimming goal.