“The best way to predict your future is to create it.”
—Abraham Lincoln
It is a day parents look upon with a mixture of jubilation and dread…..back to school eve. It is a time when schedules become routine and demands increase. The kids return to school, and with that comes the minutiae of the school year schedule….forms, pictures, carpools, homework, sports, money, meetings, supplies, lunches, deadlines…
Both of my daughters were lucky enough to have the same, talented fifth grade teacher. At the beginning of the school year, he would ask the students to choose a word to focus on for the year. Students chose words like persistence, organization, friendship, kindness…and then made that concept a focal point for their fifth grade year.
As we move into the back to school craziness that will soon ensue, I challenge you to think about a word or concept for your family or for each individual child to focus on this year. Does your child need to improve in the area of punctuality? Initiation of homework? Organization of backpack? Checking email? Engaging with friends? Getting up when the alarm sounds? Choose one area on which to focus for a month, quarter, or the entire year. Discuss this area with your student and make a plan for how to focus on this area. Write down the ideas and then begin implementing them from the very first day of school ... .or even today, on back to school eve.
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