Back-to-School Dinner

Last Sunday we had our annual Back-to-School Dinner.  Our focus this year has two separate but connected parts.  At the table the girls found captain hats.

Our first focus is to be the captain of our own lives.  We get to choose what happens in our lives and how we feel about things.  

In our parenting Geoff and I sometimes see a dynamic, or a specific behavior, that we don't necessarily love and realize that we've unknowingly created it.  For example, my days are full to the brim and to keep things moving I have often done a lot for the girls, for expediency sake.  But now I'm wishing they took more control of their lives and realize that my doing things for them, while more efficient, was really discouraging their independence.  Thus encouraging them to be the captains of their lives.  I'm stepping out of the captain's chair and they're taking more control.  What does this look like?  Instead of the excuse, "I couldn't practice piano because mom wasn't there to help me," the girls identify what they can do during a piano practice on their own when I'm not available.  Instead of, "I'm hungry and grouchy because mom hasn't made lunch, yet" the girls create their own "tide-over" until lunch is ready.  Small steps which will make big differences.  They (well, Adele and Ceci) loved the captain hats and wore them a few days this first week of school to remind themselves that they are the captains!

The second focus is striving for excellence in all that we do.  After dinner Geoff taught a little lesson on excellence.  He shared several quotes asking the girls to listen for common characteristics of excellence so we could define what excellence is.  Here are some examples (the girls LOVED these):

All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.  -Spinoza

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry.  He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, "Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."  - Martin Luther King

Anything worth doing is worth doing right.  - Hunter S. Thompson

If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have the time to do it over?  - John Wooden

People of excellence go the extra mile to do what's right.  - Joel Osteen

We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.  - Aristotle 

Be a yardstick of quality.  Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.  - Steve Jobs

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters.  Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.  - Colin Powell 

Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.  - Booker T. Washington

No student ever attains very eminent success by simply doing what is required of him.  It is the amount and excellence of what is over and above the required, that determines the greatness of ultimate distinction.  - Charles Kendall Adams

Don't strive to be perfect.  Strive for excellence.  - Victoria Pincipal

There were many more quotes but I'll stop there.  We're rotating these quotes on the bathroom mirror throughout the year to remind us of our school year theme.

Geoff talked about the difference between perfection (no mistakes) and excellence (100% effort and focus).  That difference is critical to understand and we're making the distinction often in piano practices, school work and other efforts.

Lastly, I typed up all of the girl's daily/weekly jobs listing the tasks of each one. The girls evaluated how they are currently doing on these "small tasks" and noted room where they could improve.  We talked about excellence in small things leading to excellence in big things.  They really got the concept and were eager to be better.  After our first week of school I can say that they are all making a huge effort to be the captains of their lives and are striving for excellence in all they do.  We've had a great start.

One more thing we squeezed into the evening is the lottery drawing for books read over the summer.  Prizes included gift cards to Jamba, Barnes & Noble, Claires and a few other little prizes.  Luckily they were equally drawn and everyone was happy (phew!)  Tennie earned all three Golden Tickets, Adele earned two and Ceci was just short of two.