Back to school 2019 was slightly delayed this year! The main reason for the delay was because I’ve been on leave since the 13th of December and was a little unprepared with the preparations!
Every year since the 2012 for Logan and 2013 for Oli, we’ve taken a photo of the first day of school for the year.
Both Oli and Lu rolled their eye at me when I reminded them of the tradition on the 2nd day of school. I simply answered them by saying that one day, they would look back and appreciate these photos!
Naturally the whole idea of looking back was intriguing enough for me to dig into the archives of our back to school tradition and compare the photos year by year.
Logan | 2012-2018
2012 
2013 
2014 
2015 
2016 
2017
Oli | 2013-2018
2013 
2014 
2015 
2016 
2017 
2018
Back to School 2019
In celebration of going back to school and the spirit of goal achievement – I have a little printable available!
Download the “What is your 2019 Goal” Kids Printable right here!
Best of all, you have the option to download the printable in English or Afrikaans! (If anyone is prepared to translate in any other languages – I will gladly make the printable available?)
What are Executive Functions?
I have noticed that executive functions are virtually non-existent in most of today’s workforce. It is something that troubles me immensely (naturally, that is a post for another day) but it has been the force behind developing executive functions in my kids.
Teaching kids to have a goal and helping them achieve their goal, not only boosts their self-esteem, it also develops executive functions.
I’m sure you must be wondering – what exactly is executive functions and why am I going on and on about them!
To put it real simply, executive functions are the skills you need, to do, what you decide to do.
We’ve starting playing chess at home, and added Rummikub to the equation. These games teach you how to solve problems, manipulate information and reuse it to your advantage.
Goal setting on the other hand teaches you how to follow through with a decision you’ve made, persistent perseverance. It teaches us to align certain tasks (planning) in order to achieve our goals.
Self-talk and monitoring is developed, and with the guidance of an involved parent – this is positive and not negative self-talk!
Both Logan and Oliver will use the goal setting printable, in conjunction with the GAP calendar. I know this will teach them how to plan their activities within a timeline and grow a better understanding of getting things done sooner, rather than later.
I’m pretty excited for the new skills that are being developed and I will be sure to share their journey right here.
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