Setting Goals

As I've said before, I love setting goals and casting vision.  It really helps to keep me focused!  I'm also a big 'to-do' list person.  Can anyone else relate?  There is something just so satisfying about checking things off...

Continuing in the tradition of my mother, I've been in the habit of making 'semester' evaluations since I was in college.  It is nice to take some time to sit back, pray and take stock of where I am at and what direction I feel the Lord is leading me towards in many different areas of my life.  Now that I have children, I've taken to setting semester goals for them as well.

Because we seek to live integrated and holistic lives, my goals for my children encompass far more than just academics.  We write down our priorities and goals for each of our children in the following areas:

• Spiritual - I pray about how to reach each child and help them draw closer to Jesus.  In this section, I outline areas that I would like to see them grow or things I would like to relay to them.   For instance last semester I hoped to talk to my oldest about communion, have opportunity for a clear gospel presentation with my middle and help my youngest start talking to God (prayer).
• Character - It is tempting to me to work on character development in a variety of areas, but that can easily get overwhelming and the impact is lessened if we are not focused.  So I try to pick one character trait per child to focus on specifically while allowing for life circumstances to certainly give clues to needed adjustments.  This last semester, obedience was a huge theme in our family and coincided nicely with our curriculum which is based around character traits and focused on this trait.
• Academic - While there are many things that we learn and explore at any given time, I've found it helpful - especially with core academic subjects, to have a special focus.  I try to always be mindful to make sure that goals and expectations are attainable and age-appropriate.  It is easy to get ambitious in these areas and set goals that our kids brains simply aren't wired to do yet.  Doing flashcards with your 3 or 4 year old in an attempt to get them reading early and reducing them to tears is one example that comes to mind... 
• Chores - With the arrival of our chore chart, this has become so much easier to keep up on.  I try and pick a new chore skill that I want my children to learn how to do per semester.
• Physical - Especially since I know how much movement and exercise play into other aspects of their lives - like neurological development and future academic success, not to mention burning off an abundance of energy allowing everyone to stay sane, I like to set goals for this area as well.

Of course, I don't leave myself out of the equation.  At the bottom of this sheet, I have a section for myself with areas to write goals for my roles as a child of God (spiritual), as a wife, as a mom, for my home and physical.

As I look back at last semester's goals I'm quite please, overall, with progress made and aware that some of our goals I failed to work on or are ones that are simply still in process.  But it sure is nice to have a general game plan.

I plan on unplugging for the next week or two and spending focused time in prayer as we seek His will on what our family needs to be focusing on.  In the meantime, I thought I would share my goal sheets with you all in case you might find them helpful.  I've included a one page goal sheet for 2,3 or 4 kids + mom as well as a sheet with more room to write if you want a separate sheet per child.  I prefer to keep one sheet with all of us on it and place it at the beginning of my lesson plan notebook so I can reference it often!

I'd love to hear how you set goals and any approaches you have found helpful as well.

I'll be back in a week or two...

SEMESTER GOAL SHEET download!