Summer Goals for Kids: 2017 Edition

We're a month into summer, which means our summer goals are well underway. Everyone has a different way of achieving the balance between structure and flexibility during the summer months, and the way I do it is with summer goals. This is our fourth summer setting goals, and I relish this time to teach and mentor my kids and encourage them to stretch themselves in new ways.

I first wrote about our summer goals in this post in 2014. Although the goals have changed each year, the process has stayed very much the same. I'll do a brief recap here, but I'd invite you to go back to that post if you want more information.

As the end of the school year approached, we sat down as a family and decided what things we wanted to work on over the summer (don't worry, I came with a pre-made list of ideas to try to sell to them). We like to set a variety of goals that fit into three overarching categories: educational, practical, and fun. If reasonable progress is achieved, we reward ourselves with a fun activity or treat at the end of each month (past rewards have included miniature golfing, snow cones, an IMAX show, a camping trip, etc.).

I thought I'd share the goals for each child and any specific thoughts on how they're going now that we've been working on them for a month. Some of the goals overlap between kids, while some are specific to them individually. I should also mention that we measure progress on these goals in a variety of ways; some of them are a "do it once, check it off" type of goal; others are more of the slow and steady variety. For example, I've learned from past years that setting a goal like, "Complete 4th grade math book" is just too much for only three months of summer, so now we might still have a 4th grade math book goal, but it is more about weekly progress instead of cramming to finish the whole thing.  (Goals from past summers: 2014 - 2015 - 2016)

Aaron, age 8 (almost 9)

• Practical
• Clean bathroom (this includes cleaning the counters and sink, the mirror, the toilet, the floor, etc.)
• Sort, wash, fold, hang, dry laundry (this, along with cleaning the bathroom, make up his daily chores)
• Chop fruits and vegetables
• Improve backstroke
• Educational
• Memorize six paragraphs of The Living Christ (this is a family goal, and, sadly, we're already behind on it)
• Finish Piano Adventures Level 3A
• Work on Khan Academy (this is a math curriculum on the computer that both teaches and tests, and I like it because it sees what they know and then goes from there)
• Coding (this was Mike's goal for them, and I believe he's using Scratch to help teach them)
• Work on creative writing (I'm using this book for him, and I like it so far)
• Learn U.S. capitols
•  Fun
• Learn three magic tricks (he'll use this book for ideas) 
• Hike Mt. Wire and Mt. Grandeur
• Complete four projects from Awesome Lego Creations (he got this book for Christmas, but I noticed that he never made anything out of it, and I thought he would like it if he actually gave it a try)
• Take stuff apart with Dad (when Mike was a kid, he loved to buy things at the thrift store and then take them apart to figure out how they worked; this is Mike's way of reliving his childhood while passing along some skills at the same time)

Maxwell, age 7

• Practical
• Wash dishes/utensils (a daily chore--he washes the breakfast dishes, and I think our immune systems are all being bolstered in the process)
• Learn to tie shoes (this is the third year this has been one of his goals--hopefully he'll master it this time)
• Weed garden and flower beds (another daily chore)
• Improve side breaths
• Follow a recipe (my favorite food blogger, Mel, is doing a Cooking with Kids video once a week(ish), and we've been following along with that)
• Educational
• Memorize six paragraphs of The Living Christ 
• Memorize multiplication tables
• Finish Piano Adventures Level 1
• Work on creative writing (I'm using this book for him) 
• Coding
• Learn 50 states
• Fun
• Learn three magic tricks (using the same book as Aaron) 
• Do three science projects from Zap! Science (we've had this book for a couple of years and never done anything with it, so hopefully this will provide some motivation)
• Hike Mt. Wire and Mt. Grandeur
• Take stuff apart with Dad

Bradley, age 5.5

• Practical
• Make sandwiches/lunches (it took a little effort to teach him, but now he does it pretty much on his own, and it's so nice to be able to grab the lunchboxes when we go to the pool)
• Learn to tie shoes (we'll see if we have better luck with him . . . )
• Improve freestyle/side breaths
• Wipe down kitchen table and sweep (one of his daily chores)
• Educational
• Memorize six paragraphs of The Living Christ
• Work on 1st grade workbook (he doesn't have to finish the whole thing, but he's supposed to do a few pages in it every week)
• Write in journal (he tells me what he wants to say, I write it down, and then he copies it into his journal)
• Learn 50 states
• Fun
• Hike Mt. Grandeur and Mt. Wire
• Complete three projects from Awesome Lego Creations (Aaron and Bradley are currently sorting all the Legos by color to facilitate this goal. Related: we have way too many Legos)
• Walk to the library (we live very close to the library, but we rarely walk, and he always asks to do it, so this was his own idea for a goal)
• Walk to Sonja's house (Sonja is his aunt who lives a five-minute drive away--he's never walked there before, and I think he wants to see how long it would take)
• Take stuff apart with Dad

Clark, age 3 (this is Clark's first year of summer goals)

• Practical
• Make bed
• Pick up toys
• Learn to use the toilet 
• Educational 
• Learn the letters of the alphabet (all of my other kids knew their letters by this age, and Clark has about zero interest in it) 
• Learn shapes
• Learn how to write name
• Fun
• Put together a 24-piece puzzle

And that's it! As for my summer goals, well, just helping four kids complete their summer goals feels like a big enough goal to me. :-)

How do YOU achieve the balance between structure and flexibility during the summer months?