I have had a 2-year hiatus from these posts. Quite honestly, I’m not sure why! We must have had family discussions about our hopes and dreams for 2022 and 2023 and a lot happened in 2022 so it would have been an exciting year to start with compared to the infamous 2 years before it. But I didn’t, and as one of my own personal goals is to write more; sharing my personal thoughts and our family updates through longer-form content more consistently, it only seems right that 24 family goals for 2024 is my first post of this new year.
I bring you this family goal post over a week into January, as I have to have time for the festive dust to settle. I prefer to process the previous year and then have some time to discuss the new year aspirations with family members over dinner time, bedtimes and dog walks. I as always leave out a few suggestions such as but without further ado here is our list of family goals for 2024!
Pickleball and Badminton Family Matches
We all tried out Pickleball in the holidays for the 1st time and we all enjoyed it! We will be hiring out a court at our local council-run gym more often (FYI, we don’t have a membership we just pay as we play).
Garden DIY Landscaping
We have been winging it on the garden front since we moved into our own home. Last year we dabbled in veg growing, cleared a very overgrown garden and Dougie built a shed from scratch! This year we want to bring a little more glam to the garden with a new seating area and work on veg beds a bit more. There will be more gardening research and learning which I’m sure I will discuss more on here as we progress. The kids have requested a fort in the rockery,so I hope we can work out a project that includes our teenage son aka our original den builder getting involved in creating it with us.
Celebrate Festivals and Traditions
Over the last few years we have added in more family traditions such as celebrating Summer and Winter Solstice, Advent and 3 Kings etc… This year I will be looking ahead, planning and sharing more traditions throughout the whole calendar year. It just makes the year a little more interesting, we all learn something and I find we appreciate the simpler things by doing so.
Make More Music
The kids have requested to play more music. We have a guitar, ukelele, electronic piano and electric drum set. The kids want to dabble between them all more and Florence suggested a band! I think we may have to consider the placement of these instruments in our home to encourage more of this. I forsee that when the eldest goes to Uni this year his room will be a part-time music room as well as other uses!
National Trust Adventures
Since moving here we visit our 2 local NT sites regularly as well as make the most of NT beaches but I would like to tick off more houses in the South West. The NT do a passport for their properties, who knows I may purchase one or just keep my own personal record for free!
Skate, Surf, Ski and Snorkel
The kids clearly find all the activities beginning with ‘S’ super cool to do! We have been asked to incorporate more time at weekends and holidays to do them. We have had a request to try out an indoor skate park, maybe only 2 of the 4 will be at the right level for this, so maybe an outing with just the older ones will be planned in. As for skiing, it’s pretty expensive compared to the other 3 activities and we have no plans for family ski holidays but Daisy needs to get practising ready for a school ski trip and the others want to really try it out as well, so who knows!
Hiking
Dartmoor and Exmoor are on our doorstep and we have enjoyed a few outings there over the past year. Now Flo is 7 we can start walking as a family a little further. This year I want to push my own walking fitness, share more walks on my blog and stretch our little reluctant walker’s legs a bit further. Teddy has a big walking challenge with school in 2025, so being able to build him up to this will be really helpful.
Play with Cardboard Boxes
Florence loves a cardboard box, so has requested more be kept for projects. It’s easy to forget as an adult the love a child has for a cardboard box!
Guinea Pigs
Again a child-inspired goal for the year. We have always dodged the small animal requests over the years, ending up with fish multiple times instead! Although I love our chickens and tolerate the Tortoise, I just haven’t been a fan of small animals. Reading Olga Da Polga last year has really encouraged them to want a Guinea Pig. We’re still not sold on the idea but I think it’s only fair that we include their plans on here so we can look back later in the year and see.
Clip n Climb
Dougie has been a rock climber since he was young, but in recent years a growing young family and the few shoulder gripes he’s had mean it’s fair to say it’s scaled back his climbing considerably. Now he may just be donning his shoes a bit more often, as all of them have requested to visit indoor climbing centres and the local bouldering wall to see where it takes them.
Weekend Breaks
Teddy has been asking on repeat since we last visited in 2019 to go back to Center Parcs I think we will just have to set a date soon and get saving. The price hikes of recent years have put me off a bit, but we all enjoy a trip there. It’s good for families with age gaps, so budgeting for a stay in 2024 will hopefully happen.
Florence has requested LEGOLAND; Again another place we haven’t visited since 2019 and so Florence is really keen to return as she was too little to remember it. Hopefully, with some careful planning and research, we can visit on a bit of a budget.
I’m hopeful we can plan a weekend away without the kids this year, as we didn’t have one in the whole of 2023! I would quite like a simple shepherd’s hut hot tub/sauna style weekend or a hotel stay for even just one night. Who knows but only we (most likely me!) can plan it, so if it’s written down here I’m held more accountable!
A French Trip
The kids have been asking to visit France for a while now and it is on my radar to research, budget and book at some point. I’m not sure it will be this year with other plans we have but at least the older two will be visiting France on their school trips.
Give to Food Banks
I’m guilty of not donating often enough to a food bank as I mostly shop online. I have decided to order a few items in our online shop and drop them at our local food bank point instead. I don’t know why I haven’t thought to do this before.
Waste Less
This is a regular goal for me in some form or other. This year I’m determined to be more aware of wasting energy. Having multiple little people to switch them on obviously doesn’t help! I’m becoming far more aware of lights being left on in our house compared to our neighbours’ homes and it has got me thinking. We can utilise small lamps more and just keep explaining to the kids the importance of using less energy.
Kitchen Experiments
I enjoy trying my hand at new kitchen experiments now and again. Recently I have been trying out brewing kombucha after having been gifted a Scoby starter. I’m a little clueless about it, but my first batch so far hasn’t poisoned either of us! So next up I would like to bake more bread and in particular sourdough bread. I have been saying since lockdown (when many got the sourdough bug) that I would like to try my hand at baking more artisan loaves, so hopefully this year I get around to it. Any tips will be gratefully received!
Flower Faffing
Having fresh flowers as well as lots of house plants in the home really makes me happy. I hope with the help of Florence to grow more flowers to have enough for the garden pollinators and for my own kitchen table.
Reading Encouragement
2023 was the year when I read again! I joined a book club and found my love of reading adult books and not just kids’ books at bedtime. This year I want to continue regular reading for myself and to encourage the teenagers. I’m not sure we can convince our eldest as he is super busy revising and just doesn’t enjoy reading these days but we hope to encourage some good reading practices for our 2nd child. Hopefully, with some little incentives of a nice cup of hot chocolate, a lovely reading nook and by modelling regular reading, it will flow. As for the younger two, they are pretty keen readers still, so being more consistent with our passion for reading will hopefully cement this further.
Park Runs
Last year to help Teddy improve his school cross-country running a few of the family joined him on some park runs at our local NT property. One thing after another we haven’t done any for months, so we’re all hopeful that we can get back to arranging a few park run dates on Saturdays when the kids don’t have any football matches to play. I would like to try Florence out at running the children’s park run and then maybe we might venture to a few other park run locations; I have been told that The Eden Project do park runs!
Step Away Time
Florence suggested that Dougie and I have time together to just relax. She said that we were busy making Christmas lovely for everyone and that we deserved a rest.. I would like to take Florence up on this! I have seen a wild swimming pond in Taunton that does cold swimming and also a sauna to relax in afterwards. I’m hoping we can try this out in Winter and then have a brunch out afterwards. Hopefully, this will be the first of a few dates in the diary. Who knows maybe we could make time every month, to step away now that would be a first!
Family Game Nights
This Christmas we played several board games and we all enjoyed it. They’re pretty much now at an age where they can all join in and although Florence needs some help, she’s far more sensible than her competitive siblings! I think if we play a few more games we could iron out a few of the game squabbles and enjoy some game nights together.
Wild Camping
We regularly camp but not always wild camping. Dougie would like to do more wild camping after taking the kids on 2 trips last year. I also enjoyed camping out in the van with the girls (as I like a good mattress!) so maybe we could work a few dates to combine hiking, wild swimming and camping under the stars together.
Design a Dorm
Daisy suggested we help Fin arrange his room at Uni when he starts in Autumn this year. It will be an emotional milestone for us all, so this could be a welcome distraction!
YOTO More
We love our YOTO players, we have a lovely set of stories for the kids to listen to at night but we often forget to check out the YOTO freebies each month and the daily news. I want to try and incorporate YOTO into our morning routine or listen to it at bath time. Also, make up a travel box downstairs so they can grab their mini YOTO players all charged and ready to go for car journeys etc..
Take up something New
I have a feeling that the theme of this year will be to take up new challenges. Daisy will be trying out Skiing, Fin University and who knows what the rest of us will throw ourselves into! I can’t wait to share what new things we have all learned.
We know like in previous years that some of these may be subject to change, nothing is ever set in stone, we may choose to not pursue some and who knows what curve balls will be sent our way. I think it’s good to have hopes but not be rigid in our expectations to achieve them. I will, like in previous years, be back to review and evaluate how we have got on towards the end of the year. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading what our family goals for 2024 look like. Happy New Year and we would love to hear about your hopes and aspirations for the year ahead!
These all look great! I don’t know where you do your food shop but if you save clubcard points you can use them for Lego land (and other places) which makes it a lot cheaper. I took the girls to Thorpe Park with my points last year x