I have some loose family plans for the whole year and I know that this summer, I'll have a to-do list of stuff because I love lists. Making lists is one of my favorite pastimes. As with any important activity, being intentional with the plans is a critical component to success. When I had the girls, I prayed and hoped that I would be an intentional parent and I try to live that out by defining goals and then making a list with the little steps required to meet those goals. (Kinda similar to what I did in researching elementary schools for the girls)
With that in mind, I finally put pen to paper on my goals for intentionally parenting my 3 year old twins in 2014 and it looks something like this:
Notes
This list is very specific to us. The social-emotional goals are focused on issues that the girls can encounter as twins and as Nigerians living in North America. The ice skating goal is there because we live in Calgary. The spiritual goals are there because we are a christian family. The language-communication goals were chosen to address the current gap in language development between the 2 girls
Why do I do this?
- It helps in how I make everyday decisions that involve the girls. Activities to participate in, TV shows to watch, which books to read and how many and how often?
- It means when life is running on auto-pilot, I have a reference point to go back to.
- It reminds me of the little but important things like planting the seeds of self and body love today before the girls are old enough to open the pages of Seventeen magazine
- I find that when I make lists, my chance for success go up
It doesn't. The items on the list may change but the need for a list remains.
Thanks
I started doing some reading on child development before I wrote this list. I'm thankful for the resources on PBS and I can teach my child blog
