Achievement Awards 2013

The Brown Family Achievement Awards Celebration.

That is what I have decided to call this event/tradition. It used to be the annual Achievement Awards. Then it was The Semi-annual Achievement Awards and then we skipped about a year and a half. So now I'm just deciding to call it -

The Brown Family Achievement Awards Celebration.

That way we are not tied down to a specific time schedule. I won't feel bad one way or the other regarding how frequently it happens. There are too many other things to worry about. :)

With that out of the way - here is my report on our Achievement Awards. I really love this tradition, even though I'm not very consistent. I love recognizing the children for the good things they are doing, their goals and achievements.

SYDNEY - growing long fingernails

Award - Crackle fingernail polish because she stopped biting her fingernails and now has beautiful nails to polish

 

PARKER - mastering multiplication

Award - breakfast cereal because he woke up every morning at 6:30 to do flashcards with Dad

 

CAMILLE - excelling in her first year of ballet

Award - ballet tights because her old ones had runs and holes.

 

RACHEL - learning to read

Award - a new book to read. She's one smart cookie.

 

BRYCE -  potty training

Award - new underwear. You know, for accidents. :)

 

Karin - writing her first novel.

Ster - staying out of the nuthouse for one more year.

This year was special because in addition to the awards, Sydney put together some special entertainment. She wouldn't let me put any video on the blog but I did capture some still images from the video footage.

 

Here is the Master of Ceremonies.

 

First they performed a dance to the song, "The Great Divide" by the McClain Sisters and it was awesome!

 

 

 

Then they performed a funny skit using multiple songs, using their Dad as the protagonist/comic relief.

When all the performing and awarding were finished, we talked about our goals for the new year while we slurped Creamies for dessert. Sydney is going to learn to do cartwheels. Camille will dance in the "Sleeping Beauty" ballet. I want to learn to ride Parker's ripstick. To name a few. It was a fantastic evening. It will be hard to beat next year, or whenever we happen to do it again.

Previous achievement award celebrations:
2009
2010
2011

NaNoWriMo What?

I just posted about the Revival Recital HERE and HERE. This was a perfect motivation for my goal setting habits, allowing me to stretch myself and develop talents. In fact, I've already chosen my piano piece to master for 2013.

Nary you fear. My goal setting and self-improvement has not faltered. I've merely moved from the piano to another keyboard. The computer keyboard. My most recent goal of achievement is NaNoWriMo. What is the world does that mean? Nation Novel Writing Month. Get it? NaNoWriMo? The idea is this (from their 'about' page)

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000-word (approximately 175-page) novel by 11:59:59 PM on November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
In 2011, we had 256,618 participants and 36,843 of them crossed the 50K finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists

Sounds fun, right? And so for the month of November, I have been writing a novel. A retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood." If you think you know who the victim is...think again! The goal is 50,000 words. The organization sends peptalks to my special NaNoMail box. And I've been typing about furiously. I started out slow, as in staying stagnant for days at a time. By the time I really got my rear in gear, it was day 13. I was at 4,223 and the target words if you wanted to finish on time was 21,666. That meant I was approximately 17,000 words behind.

 I was at the point where I had to decide if I was going to do this or not. If I was going to do it, I wanted to finish a winner at 50,000 words. If you look at the numbers, only 14% of the participants make it to 50,000, so I had my work cut out for me. I expressed my dilemma at the crossroads to Sterling and he insisted whole heartedly that I could do it, he believed in me and fully supported my efforts. That was all I needed to dig in and get it done.

I made daily word goals. I stayed up late. I stared at the computer. I read encouragement from the NaNoWriMo community. The peptalks they provided have been right on target with what I was struggling with and what my experiences were. It was all new to me. My first experience writing something so long and so intense. But these WriMos have been there before and their advice was always just what I needed to hear.

It's been a glorious trip of adventure and growth and surprises. I have learned so much about writing, simply by writing. I love that my kids will see me at the computer and ask how many words I am at. Camille will sit by me and read along as I type. Parker and Sterling were at a NBA Jazz basketball game in SLC. Parker asked how many people were in the arena. Sterling said about 20,000. Parker said, "I'll be Mom's written more words than that!" I think he might be proud of me. :)

(I wrote this blog post on Monday, the 26th so these numbers are now grossly outdated. :)
AND SO....I am now at 38,180 words. I have 11,820 words left to write in 5 days. And guess what? I'm gonna make it.

Annual Achievement Awards 2011

Every year we have a special night for

"ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS"

This is one of my favorite family traditions.  This is a night when we put our kids on a pedestal and recognize some of the goals they accomplished and their achievements.  Without further ado....here are the awards.

BRYCE:  the "look who's walking" award

RACHEL:  the "awesome bike-riding skills" award

CAMILLE:  the "starting all-day school" award

PARKER:  the "bull's eye target" award

(he's been practicing with his BB gun)

SYDNEY:  the "proud owner of a bunny" award

The evening went well but I think the kids were a little less receptive of the whole concept because the awards came kind of out of the blue.  I feel like I need to focus more at the beginning of summer to help them make some goals to be consciously working towards and that may help them feel a little more confident and satisfied with their effort and awards. 

Karin : the "I got published" award
Sterling: the "I finally have a road bike" award

Other achievement award posts (they've been a little sporadic, obviously.  Sometimes its hard to get a new tradition up and running, and to find it a place in our tradition line-up.  For me, traditions are important.  I think it breeds unity in our family.  Ster and I both like to have traditions that are a little different than the norm.  We try a lot of different things and some stick around while others just don't seem to work out.  And sometimes it takes a while to find a good spot for a new tradition.  This is a great tradition but we're still trying to figure out if it belongs in January or Aug.  We shall see.)
Jan 2010
Aug 2009

Semi/Annual Achievement Awards

For any of you English editors, that is not Semi-Annual. It is semi/annual. I thought this was a yearly, beginning of January tradition. But as I looked back through the archive to see what we did last year, I found NOTHING in January. We had our awards ceremony in August. So what I thought was an annual event may turn out to be SEMI-annual. And I think that's a great idea!

AWARDS
Rachel: the Communication Mastery award (for learning to speak in full sentences.) Prize: a microphone.
Camille: the Alphabet Mastery award (for learning all her letters.) Prize: a notebook and purple pen.


Parker: the Spelling and Reading achievement award (for nearly 100% on spelling tests and passing off one level of take-home reading.) Prize: a 4-color pen.
Sydney: the Ballerina award (for exploring her new talent in ballet class.) Prize: some fancy ballet stickers.


After the awards, Sterling led us in a review of the goals we set last year. No one got 100% completion but everyone earned "Good Effort" credit.
And in my opinion, that's all that's required: Just give it a little Effort!