This past Sunday evening, or as I like to call it, First Day's Eve, was one of laughter and resolve for us and our three kids. As we do most every year when summer break is over, we sat down and met with them about the start of a brand new school year, our change in routine, expectations, and so forth. Now that our youngest has at least one year of middle school under her belt and our eldest is entering her last two years of high school, I could hear the maturity and self-awareness that is emerging from all three. They are now more aware of their responsibility to themselves as far as their education goes, and they are showing greater care and concern for their own learning styles. B. J. and I are truly loving this!

So to wrap up our family meeting we did two things this First Day's Eve. One is something new. I got the inspiration to video each of them stating their personal goals for this school year. That way they can make a personal connection with their own outcomes and results as well as have something to refer to that's live and in living color.

The other thing was the adoption of a couple of new motivational mottoes that are meant for their reference when things get a little dicey during the journey this year:

1. Mistakes are only bad if you don't learn from them.

We want our children to be purpose-driven, not performance driven. When you know the purpose of why you're pursuing an education, you understand and embrace the fact the making mistakes is a necessary part of the process, not something to be embarrassed about.

2. The comfort of knowing is better than the discomfort of not knowing.

We often remind our children that there should be no reason for not getting what you need to know. Be assertive and not passive. By now, all of them actually have personal experiences with missed opportunities like tutorials, unasked questions during class, etc, and they now understand how to push through to get what they need from every teacher. It feels bad to miss out because you just didn't make the effort you could have made.

With that, I think we're off to a great start for 2013-14. Here's to a great start for you and your young scholar(s) too!