The Start of a New Year

Tomorrow is the last day of Summer vacation.  Our bucket list is almost complete.  We have a few unchecked boxes, but for the most part, we did all that we set out to do this Summer.  Still, it feels too short and it all seemed to go so fast.  Tonight, per tradition, we had our back to school dinner.  This year our theme is "Consistency is Key."  I had the kids each pick a key out of our old key stash and decorate it any way they wanted - with nail polish, sharpie, or paint and then put a ribbon on it. Then we printed out keys on cardstock and hung them from the ceiling fan, decorated the window with the theme, and made a banner for the wall.  Benjamin also drew a man opening a door to his goals with his key of consistency.  Then I finished up by making little place cards, gathering their favorite toys and setting the table.

They selected spaghetti, garlic bread, and lemonade - the same exact menu as last year. :)  As we ate we talked about how we don't have to be perfect at anything right away, but if we just practice a little bit every day, if we do something consistently every day, we'll get better and better and achieve any goal we set.  We calculated that if you just do something 15 minutes every day, by the end of the week, you'll have done it for nearly 2 hours.  By they end of the month, it'll be 8 hours.  At the end of the year, you'll have done that thing for approximately 96 hours or what would be the equivalent of 14 school days - nearly 3 school weeks practicing piano or math or reading your scriptures with just 15 minutes/day!

We watched a video from lds.org about a prospector who looked for gold nuggets and never found any so he wanted to give up, until an older prospector taught him the importance of patient accumulation of gold flecks to achieve great wealth.  Each child set a goal for something (or a couple things) they were going to do consistently every day this coming year and thereby get better and better at it.  Then we attached the keys to their backpacks so they would have them with them to remind them.

 After it was all over, Kelly gave each child a father's blessing. There are a lot of mixed feelings around here regarding school - excitement, fear, sadness.  But over all, I know it'll be a great experience and I'm looking forward to all that they'll get to learn and the time I'll get to spend one-on-one with my little Christian buddy.  He's already made several plans for our first few weeks together. :)  It will involve a lot of monopoly, guess who, and trips to Greenfield Village so he can ride in front in the Model T and without ever having to take turns. :)