Our 10 Summertime Goals

Ladies and gents, my girl has made it through 1st grade! As summer hits, and as an enneagram 1 mom, I can't help but set some summer goals.

I'll let your mind wander and guess what it was like to get a 7-going-on-17-year-old to sit down on her last day of school and set summertime goals with me. I mean isn't goal setting what every kid wants to do on the last day of school?!? Not exactly. I did bribe her with a trip to Sonic.

And a sleepover.

And a new puppy.

And a water park in our backyard.

(Just kidding about those last two.)

As much as I knew goal setting wasn't on her priority list, I wanted to understand what she hopes to get out of summer. Summer goals for kids are important, and a great way to teach them organization, goal setting and responsibility.

Teaching Kids Goal Setting

I did think twice at first: Maybe this was overkill. But then I went for it. Why? I think setting goals is a great activity (and sometimes a skill) that gets a bad, business-y wrap. But I believe setting goals can bring happiness and connection. The feeling of accomplishment and fulfillment is amazing. I am hoping setting goals together will:

• help us spend our time wisely
• serve as motivation for good behavior
• maximize the FUN this summer

Helping my kid set goals

Watching my daughter write down goals told me what she defines as fun (and helped me know what to prioritize and incentive). It helped me think critically about what I hope to accomplish the next few months too.

Now I didn't make sure they were SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely); although a lot of them were off to a great start.

I'm proud of how quickly she got her list made and pumped for the days ahead.

Here's what each of us wants to do this summer

So, what do we hope to do? Over corndogs, tots and orange pop here's what we each came up with. I tried to avoid adding too many "adult" things on my list, which was harder than I thought it would be!

Mae:

1. Play
2. Pool
3. Playdates
4. Grandma's house
5. Movie theatre
6. Get books at the library
7. Make books
8. Great Wolf Lodge
9. New pet
10. Eat ice cream

Mama:

1. Read books
2. Bake new things
3. Road trips
4. Hike
5. Write my book
6. Organize the house
7. Exercise
8. Visit St. Louis
9. Art classes
10. Movie theater

Fortunately - there's a lot of overlap here! We've got a lot of books and movies in our future.

Update: We accomplished our goals and did this the following summer! And, I came up with a fun challenge: Finding the best French fries in town.

The best French fries in town

In the midst of having summer fun and setting goal with kids, one thing I came up with is a scavenger hunt called "The best french fry in town." We invited our neighbor to come with us, and we set out for the month of June to taste test the french fries around our city.

As we kicked off, I gave the girls these instructions:

Dear French Fry Lover, You are being invited into a quest this summer to find the best french fry in town. We're on the hunt for the crispiest, freshest, best-tasting fry in town. A lot of fast food restaurants claim they make it, but do they really? We are trusting you to find out. We need you to test them all. To scrutinize every bite. Use ketchup, ranch or sauce if you want—the choice is yours. You are entitled to your opinions, judge based on what you think. The combined scores will declare our winners. Shout "I'm in" if you accept this challenge.

Then, I handed each of them a judging sheet. Each week, we stopped at four different fast food restaurants and tried their french fries. At the end of the month, we compared all of the sheets and declared a winner.

Who won in our town? Chick-fil-a.