How We Set Summer Goals
One of our family traditions is setting summer goals each year.
On a Sunday afternoon around the end of the school year or in the first week or two of summer, we all sit down together around the table, pass out a small sheet of lined paper for everyone and we work on our goals for the summer.
The girls always know in advance that we’ll be doing this, so they have a few days or a week to think about what goals they might want to set.
Here are two things to know about our summer goal setting:
- These summer goals are child led. We don’t choose goals for them although we might help them brainstorm if they ask. Summer feels like a time to explore your own interests and think about what you want to accomplish and learn. We want these summer goals to feel fun and engaging, not heavy and onerous.
- These summer goals are pretty low-key. We don’t have rewards for for meeting them (with the exception of their earning goals, which I’ll talk about below), there isn’t a punishment for not meeting them, and we don’t have rigorous checking in on them. Again, we want summer goals to feel exciting, not like an anchor ruining summer.
After everyone has listed their goals, we go around and everyone shares whatever goals they’d like to share (usually it’s all of them, but there is no requirement to do so – if you want to keep some private, you’re more than welcome to).
The only goal that everyone has is an earning goal. We help each girl choose a number that feels reasonable to make during the summer (it ranges from about $250 with our 9 year old to over $2000 for our 15 year old).
At the end of the summer, we have a fun family outing (usually a nice dinner out and pedicures or facials or something like that) for everyone who has met that earning goal.
Here are some of the goals we set for this summer:
A few of my 9 year old’s summer goals:
- Be able to do a front handspring on the trampoline
- Make dinner with Mom 3 times
- Be able to throw the rope wake surfing
- Get to 80 wpm in typing
A few of my 11 year old’s summer goals:
- Swim a 50 second 50m freestyle
- Learn to wake surf on the trick board
- Do 10 minutes of daily ASL practice
A few of my 13 year old’s summer goals:
- Complete a coding course and get her ears pierced
- Be able to do a 360 on the surf board
- Beat all swim times from last season
A few of my 15 year old’s summer goals:
A few of my summer goals:
- Catch up on my Goodreads reading goal (I’m currently 19 books behind!)
- Replace our front door (it’s in SUCH bad shape with peeling paint and bubbling texture)
- Clean out the dryer vent (I did this a few years ago and unscrewed and cleaned out the whole vent system)
- Start a new puzzle immediately every time I finish one
- Catch up on all my trip videos (I have about 4 to do right now)
Everyone hangs up their goals where they can see them (in their closet or on a mirror or something) and then about once a month during the summer, we review our goals and see how everyone is doing.
Sometimes goals get accomplished early, some get adjusted, and some get tossed out.
I feel like so many people have such bad experiences with New Year’s Resolutions or goal setting and my aim is to have my kids understand that goals are to help you be clear about where you’re trying to go and to improve your life, not to be something that makes you feel shame or can’t be adjusted based on your changing life.
Any questions about our summer goals? I’m happy to answer!
If you liked this post about our family’s summer goals, you might like these other posts:
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