Goals......yours and the children's

I've been thinking about goals. Someone mentioned this on the Latin Classical Education group I'm on. Maybe you can give me some feedback on what you do.

I have a hard time setting goals in general. I'm usually so "weak" that I'll just go buy whatever it is that I'm using as my reward. When I analyze why I do this, I think the reason is I usually don't have enough "whatever it is" to reach my goal. I'm famous for starting something and never finishing it. I think this goes along with that first born tendancy. Have you ever read The New Birth Order Book by Kevin Leman? He says that first borns will start things but never finish or they will procrastinate so much because they want to do it perfectly....and since they think they can't do it perfectly, then it never gets completed.

I'm not so much worried about myself as I am my children. How do I set goals for them in their schooling? How much is too much? I'm famous for pushing Sweet Pea 1 because I know he is capable; and sometimes I push too hard. I've recognized this and I'm letting up a little.

I had a goal this year for Sweet Pea 2 (he is doing Kindergarten). I wanted to get him writing, learning the first 26 phonograms, and work though math. We are getting there on all these areas and things are going well.

I had no specific goals for Sweet Pea 1 this year, but we achieved quite a bit and I'm happy with what we did achieve. Once, I had the goal for Sweet Pea 1 that he enjoy reading. We've made that one. I want the same thing for Sweet Pea 2.

So how do I set long term goals? How do I be specific in those goals? Is it ok to change those goals if you don't see things going as you are hoping they should?

I want my goals to be more than "getting through these books"....which I am happy to say is not one of my goals. I want them to be more than "to get into college". I do want them to grow up to be wonderful, godly men like their father. I have wonderful spiritual goals for them, so I'm thinking more educational here.

Give me some ideas.......what are YOUR goals? I want you to think about this for you and your children as well as give me input on how to climb this mountain (or at least it seems that way to me.)