Summer Goals ~ Part One: The Learning "peg"

I'm a list maker, a planner, a goal oriented girl. I need structure and a plan. I have so many "systems" to keep me focused through these 'stay at home... it really doesn't matter if you have a plan or a goal' years. But even though these days are loosy goosy and I'm not reporting to anyone at the end of the school year to see if I've met my goals as I once did as a teacher I still thrive on all of that.

So this summer is no exception.... well except that this summer I'm teaching my girls (more specifically Anna) how to have well balanced goals, a well balanced day, how to break those goals down into little parts and so on.

So much thought has gone into our new summer system that it's too much to share on one post. I thought I'd start with a bit here and there as I happen to snap some pictures.

An overview (sorry no pictures yet) Each day Anna has four goals. Morning, Learning, Zone, and Evening. I'll start with 'Learning' today since I snapped some pictures of those in action.

For her learning goal she does the following things every single week day. She must practice viola with a positive attitude, giving her total focus to her practice. (listen to herself play).

She has to practice her multiplication flash cards with me. I'm determined that she'll know every single one before she steps back into school.

And the last thing she must do every day is a "pick one". Her choices for pick one are: read non fiction (since she has no trouble with the fiction reading), or write a letter to her pen pal, or do some problems in her math workbook or her math problem solving workbook, or write a story in her notebook.

These 'learning goals' don't have to take up much time. Just short bursts throughout the day to keep her on track. And she loves it!

Here are a few pictures from her "pick one" part of her Learning Goal.

Her favorite and Abigail's too is of course their pen pals.



This is of course the only time I'll take a picture of Anna and Abigail's pen pal letters. Anna has told me that these letters are private and special to her. She loves writing to her friend that she's never met. (and one day hopes she can meet) Anna takes this letter friendship seriously and it's sweet. (since I love following her Mom's blog!) I sure do hope they meet someday.



These were the first letters; just introducing themselves. Since then they've gotten a letter back with pictures! Anna framed her pen pals picture and loves her secret friend!





Anna doing another "pick one" activity: writing outside. Ahh summer!

I'm working on lower case letters with Abigail who still writes her name: ABiGAil !!! So we spent the afternoon writing with a paintbrush and water on the driveway.



And then I wrote "big letters" and "litter letters". She had to run to match them before the sun erased those letters.



I'll share more as I go along this summer. Gosh, I still to love lazy mornings, evenings up too late, too much sunshine in the afternoon, and all that summer time offers. But this girls gotta have some structure... looks like mine do too!