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Bridget
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| Posted: Jan 19 2006 at 2:17am | IP Logged
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Has anyone written up a mission or vision statement for their family? Kevin and I are planning a time on Sat. to do this. We are both so burnt out and overwhelmed, we often feel we are not on the same page, or even in the same book. We hope that if we write out a vision statement it will give us a rubric for making decisions and get us both pointed in the same direction.
We want to write a general statement and then specific goals for each child for the year.
Has anyone done this and would you be willing to post it here? It would be nice to see an example to give us a starting point. Thanks.
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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Bookswithtea
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We have talked about doing it several times. I first got the idea from the Elijiah Company book I Saw The Angel in the Marble. They talked a lot about this sort of thing.
Honestly, we found that it is a very time consuming process, one that could take months to really finalize. It was too hard, in addition to all the other stuff that was overwhelming me.
So what we did was to take a Saturday morning and we just listed our goals as a family for this year. Spiritual goals, academic goals, practical goals. Then from there, we simplified life to try to meet these goals and to not worry about the stuff that was not part of our goals for this year.
This took several hours, but it was worth it. It took some of the pressure off me for things that turned out to not be very important, and helped us to be on the same page again.
~Books
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kingvozzo
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We haven't done it here, yet. It was first suggested to me during one of my years paricipating in FAMILIA, but I wasn't really feeling called to do that. It seemed a bit "hokey" to me at the time 
But, dh and I have talked about it several times, most recently when we were moving (about 5 months ago) and we both read A Mother's Rule of Life. I really need to revisit that book, along with the idea of a family mission/vision statement. The fact that my husband actually read MROL and then was willing to implement some of the points should have hit me more plainly.
Thanks for bringing this up!
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Noreen
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Mom to 4 great kids and 10 sweet ones in Our Lady's arms
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ALmom
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We have a form that we are supposed to fill out with our homeschool group (not to be turned in but for our own benefit) before choosing curriculum. We have done it every year that we have homeschooled - some better than others (not at the general level but at the goals for each child level). It is great to have because mid-year when the school blahs hit (generally from Jan until the end of the year), I go back and look at them and realize that even if we haven't finished any "books", we have generally achieved our main goal for each dc and as I read our Additional Goals, I remember some of the things we are getting derailed from that are more important than the academics. I guess it is kind of like working on virtue development - you cannot tackle everything at once, so we pick something we feel most important and doable for each dc and that makes it somewhere in our goals - particularly our "Additional Goals". One year we sat down and wrote a "Why we homeschool" statement for our own benefit and that too helps us stay the course when the going gets rough.
The form lists sections for each subject area:
Religion, Math, Language Arts, Science, Music, Art, Homemaking/Woodworking, Health, and Additional Goals.
We are not expected to fill in every slot. I tend to set my priorities in the Additional Goals section - with 6 dc, I tend to need to focus on what is really essential for each dc. This year my oldest dd Additional Goal section stated:
- had been very diligent in her studies. Her goals involve a music performance degree. Whether she gets into a music school will be based on her audition early in the year. She must have time for serious practice.
We also realize that once she is away from home, she will not take a lot of academic courses, beyond the minimum. We do want learning to be a life-long pursuit for her and thus, while we still want to emphasize great, foundational literature, we would also like her to find some joy in it. In an attempt for greater balance, we will be requiring certain books, but will allow a great deal of selection in other literature to read for enjoyment.
We will be involved in serious study of the Bible from the Fr. Laux book. However, knowing that she will be attending a secular univirsity with all that that entails, we want this year to re-inforce and strengthen personal prayer, the Sacramental life, meditation and Spiritual reading. This is essential for all of us, but especially as we venture from the support of home into a very pagan world. We will do all we can (through example, encouragement and prayer) to help her make this a rock solid part of her life.
We want the academic load to be reasonable so that, while fulfilling our duty in this regards, we do not place a stumbling block before her in terms of the Spiritual life
One of the dc, I knew most areas he teaches himself so Math might just be complete "textbook" at a gentle pace. But in Language Arts we noted that we would be completing vision therapy at the beginning of the school year and that we would need to focus on developing the mechanical writing skills as soon as the vision was in place as well as spot checking to make sure about reading comprehension. We hoped to lead him to write a short report at the end of the year on anything. We emphasized flexibility as we discovered where the "challenging but not too hard" level was for him. My additional goals for him were all related to regularly completing chores and for all of us I wanted a more regular schedule for waking, eating, and sleeping and attention to basic hygiene (like changing bedsheets, cleanliness of the room, regular baths).
A lot of specifics change over the year as we find things that work or don't - but it really helps me to re-read and re-evaluate if we are really focusing on our priorities or getting derailed in the particulars of academics. KWIM.
I don't know if this helps (and probably revealed too much of our family warts - the stuff we do well and routinely doesn't make it in the goals section - usually its the glaring deficiencies that we need regular reminders about - and yes, in our household we need reminders to change the sheets).
Janet
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JennGM
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Interesting. I was just making up a mission statement for myself while I'm reading Dave Durand's Time Management for Catholics. But his view is what is your overall aim in life: vocation, obligation to God, etc.
In a simple way, our mission statement is in the Baltimore Catechism: "God made me to know Him, Love Him, and serve Him in this world to be happy in the next."
It seems you could have a mission statement for your life, but then yearly goals under that.
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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Bridget
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| Posted: Jan 20 2006 at 4:44am | IP Logged
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kingvozzo wrote:
It seemed a bit "hokey" to me at the time
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It seemed hokey to me too. But now I'm excited about it. Kevin and I both like to concretize things and it makes sense to him since that is how they operate in his professional world.
We have both been pulled in so many directions in the last couple of years and the stress level has been high. We are about to enter the teen years and most likely the end of our baby years. We don't want to squander this time as a family. We know that nothing goes as planned and we want God's will for us always. So we hope that a vision statement and goals will give us a map we can both follow even if we go off the path here and there.
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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Bridget
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jenngm67 wrote:
In a simple way, our mission statement is in the Baltimore Catechism: "God made me to know Him, Love Him, and serve Him in this world to be happy in the next."
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That is the perfect starting point for our discussion! And the one point we are both in agreement on thank goodness.
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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Bridget
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Bookswithtea wrote:
We have talked about doing it several times. I first got the idea from the Elijiah Company book I Saw The Angel in the Marble. They talked a lot about this sort of thing.
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Thanks for mentioning the book, I'll have to look into it!
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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Bridget
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ALmom wrote:
I guess it is kind of like working on virtue development - you cannot tackle everything at once, so we pick something we feel most important and doable for each dc and that makes it somewhere in our goals - particularly our "Additional Goals". One year we sat down and wrote a "Why we homeschool" statement for our own benefit and that too helps us stay the course when the going gets rough.
Janet |
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Thank you for sharing all that, Janet. I knew there would be someone here who was way ahead of me in this.
After Kevin and I have had a chance to work on this together, we'll include the children in further discussion and brain storming.
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God Bless,
Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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esperanza
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Bridget,
I loved Stephen Covey's book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective people...he has an audio... How to Develop a Family Mission Statement.....(can't post more..my 2 yr ds needs some help)
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Tammy Gonzalez in VA
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mom to Tara-'85, Noelle-'88, Jeremy-'91, Elizabeth-'93, Emma-'96, Dominic-'99, Gabriel-'01, Elijah-03
and Jacinta-06
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LLMom
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We made one years ago after I read Popcak's book. Here it is. We probably should revise/update it.
1. We will all learn to know, love and serve God.
2. Honor and obey parents and God.
3. We will all follow the Golden rule.
4. We will be thankful for all that we have.
5. All members share in the care of our home according to abilities.
6. We will handle anger and frustation in an acceptable manner.
7. We will all work according to our state in life. (this means dad has a job, mom is the primary homemaker, kids are engaged in striving towards educational goals for their future)
This really is incomplete but it was a start for us. It got us talking and seeing where we as a family could improve and why we do the things we do. HTH.
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Lisa
For veteran & former homeschool moms
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: Family Vision/Mission Statement
