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Three Buckets of Encouragement for a New School Year - Part Three

By Zach Lahn on September 07, 2022

Bucket #3: Remembering to celebrate transitions as they arise in each family member’s life.

The last piece of encouragement weaves into this one. When you’re meeting regularly and intentionally as a family you’ll be aware of transitions and achievements in your children’s lives. You’ll be ready to celebrate!

The question then becomes what should I celebrate and how?

There are the obvious things such as birthdays, teeth falling out, starting a new school year, ending a school year, religious milestones such as first communion, performances and recitals, and successfully completing a sports season. With a decent calendar and a bit of creativity, you’ve got those covered.

But I encourage you to pay attention to more subtle transitions. Walking into school alone for the first time, making an apology, admitting a mistake, befriending a lonely person, cleaning up someone else’s mess, persevering to achieve a tough goal – these experiences are the foundation of a strong character and deserve the limelight.

But how to celebrate them?

One idea that worked well for us was the Gotcha Jar. I labelled a big mason jar and had a stash of colorful puff balls in the kitchen. When a family member “got caught” doing something noteworthy, one of us would say, “Gotcha!” and the person caught in the act got to put a puff ball in the jar. When the jar was filled, each child got to choose a special place to have dinner or a fun family activity.

The Gotcha Jar is more than a fun way to celebrate growth. It teaches that when we see the good in each other and call it out, everyone wins.


[Blogs or portion of blogs may be adapted from the blog of our partner school founder and advisor, Laura Sandefer.]