Goals!

One of the things that I love about the “Against The Tide” curriculum guide I purchased from Generations of Virtue is the list of goals that my children should learn for the year.  I always set academic goals for my kids each year, but could feel the Lord tugging on me to set character goals as well.  Especially now that a little princess will be here soon, my boys have a little refining to do! 

Here are the goals for my mustangs (from the guide, I will be adding to these soon):

• Table manners
• How to be a good sport
• How to be a good host or hostess
• How to share their toys
• How to behave at a social gathering
• How to greet other people politely
• They should always clarify with their parents the things they hear from their friends or each other
• What constitutes a good work ethic
• Why it is important to do a good job on the tasks you are given
• A good attitude toward work & chores

Here are the goals for Tyler (all the above plus . . .):

• Why God tells us to wait for relationships
• The Bible speaks to us about God’s guidelines for everyday topics
• How to find answers in the Bible
• Good Character is more important that wealth, physical appearance, or popularity
• He can come to his parents about puberty, sex, & relationships

 

Here are a few ideas I have for adding to the suggests from the Against the Tide program :

Table Manners

- Recently, my church held a “Glam Day” for the youth girls of our church.  *I will share more on this in detail soon, but one of the topics was etiquette.  An older (self claimed, “Blue Hair”) lady, whom I highly respect & admire, suggested having every Sunday evening dinner be a special etiquette meal.  She said she would prepare a lovely meal & her boys (3) would work on their table manners & she would instruct them on etiquette. 

How to be a good host

- I love the suggestion of creating A Hospitality Calendar in Large Family Logistics.  Each month I will have goal for opening our home & being a more active hospital family.  For example, one month we will invite a family from church over, another month we will invite an older couple over, another month we will invite a family we would like to get to know better, etc.  Large Family Logistics offers great suggestions to plan & prepare for guests. 

How to share their toys

- There are few smaller children we have over that my boys have a difficult time sharing with.  I plan to be more diligent about planning ahead & putting toys that are special or easily breakable away (this boy can tend to be rather rough); however, I will also remind my boys that the toys that are out are toys to be shared.  I have always had a deal with my kids that anything that is broken by another child I will be happy to replace for them. 

How to greet other people politely

- My children are rather polite, but there are a few bad habits (mostly out of nervousness) that need to be worked on.  Mainly, saying “what” & always looking the person you are talking to in the eye. 

Work ethics/happy hearts when doing chores/doing a good job

- Tyler has met all of these goals.  Recently, Tucker has become his helper & he is doing a great job of training him.  Tucker is young & has a long way to learn the ropes & develop a good work ethic, but I am going to make a huge effort to develop another chore chart/system.  This has been a need for quite awhile.

Purity, Dating, Sex, etc.

- Big Daddy & I have seen signs of Tyler beginning to go through puberty.  We’ve both had short little talks with him on what to expect & he is pretty comfortable with asking us questions.  We don’t do the whole boy-friend/girl-friend thing, but we have had to address it more this year because of other kids his age doing it.  Tyler is very obedient & our explanations seem to have been suffice for him him, but I am looking forward to opening the lines of communication more on this topic & continuing to direct him Biblically in this area.  Sex really isn’t an issue right now; however, I do believe that we, as his parents, should be the first ones to mention the topic rather than him hearing it elsewhere first & then coming to us.  I think this subject can be addressed at this point at an age appropriate level with his dad & I using our parental discretion.