Goals for 2020

At the start of the year I like to do what most people do and set myself some goals for the year. These are things that I would like to work on and improve over the coming year or something new that I would like to do. Sometimes I stick to the goals and my life feels better for it. Other times I fail miserably and that's ok. The point is to try your best and see how it goes, remembering not to be too hard on yourself if what you planned to do doesn't materialise.

Last year I had 6 goals: read more, become plastic free, cut down on sugar, become more minimalist, get fit and do something for me. You can read more about my 2019 goals HERE. Some of them I did, such as reading more which I managed to do by setting myself a reading challenge at the beginning of the year that helped me so much. Others, such as becoming more plastic free, were a lot harder than I imagined (I mean, so many things are made of plastic it's almost impossible to cut it out completely). However, I did make a good start by begining to use items such as metal straws and bamboo toothbrushes. And as for sutting down on sugar? Don't even go there! I definitely have a very sweet tooth and I gave up on that goal pretty quickly.

So this brings me to my goals for this year. Here they are:

Learn more Turkish

So as many of you know, my husband is from Turkey and we are raising our children to be bilingual in Turkish and English. My Turkish is pretty good but not as good as I would like. I know I need to make more effort to become more fluent and this is my main goal for 2020. I have always loved to learn languages and studied four languages at school - French, German, Italian and Latin. I didn't start to learn Turkish until I met my husband at the age of 18. I started by reading books on Turkish grammar and learnt some basic Turkish from the internet. After that, I seem to have acquired it simply by spending time with Turkish people. Unfortunately, I do not spend much time with Turkish people these days so I don't get enough opportunity to practise Turkish, and nor do my children. I am going to start by using the tips on learning Turkish that I wrote about two years ago - and have clearly gotten out of the habit of using - to try and improve my language skills again. When I followed these tips my Turkish improved a lot, I just need to get into the habit of using these strategies again. Check out my tips, which can be applied to any language you would like to learn, HERE.

Creative writing

I started writing some children's books over a year ago now but got so busy in 2019 creating and running my online courses that creative writing took a backseat. I would really like to dedicate more time to creative writing this year and finish some of my books! Who knows, I may even become a published author by the end of the year!

Nature journaling

I am a very creative person and love to do all kinds of arts and crafts. One of the things we do a lot of in our homeschool is nature journal. Nature journaling is going outdoors and painting things that you see in nature. My children do quite a lot of nature journaling because I often take their nature journals out with us when we go to a park or the woods. However, I am yet to get into this habit. It is mostly because I feel like I don't have time to do it because I am wacthing or playing with my littles ones. However, I know that this is not the case as a quick sketch or painting can actually be done very quickly.

I was particuarly inspired while on a retreat for homeschooling mums a few months ago. We listened to a talk by a mother who spent a lot of time nature journaling and she had become very quick at it. We even watched her paint over the weekend and she would take less than five minutes to complete a painting! If she can do it then why can't I? I know I just need to get into the habit of it and the more I practise, thr quicker I will become. To read more about it you can check out my blog post HERE.

Dance

One of my goals last year was to get fit. I didn't manage to go to any fitness classes so pretty much failed that goal! However, I did end up going to one or two dance classes and I would like to go to regular dance classes this year - dancing is far more fun than the gym in my opinion! You may not know this but I used to be a dancer. I did almost every variety of dance you can think of from ballet to hip hop and even used to teach my own dance classes!

My dance of choice is bellydancing and I am making it my goal to get back in touch with my old bellydance friends and dance again. Now that I have stopped breastfeeding Asiya it will be much easier for me to get out in the evenings so I really haven't got any excuse. I can't wait to get started!

Travel

I love the idea of worldschooling and would love to show my children different parts of the world. This year I would really like to visit a country I have never been to before, however, I know it will be difficult to go anywhere exotic on a tight homeschool family budget! If it is even for a week, I will be happy. I didn't travel much when I was younger as I married and had children pretty young, but now I hope I can see the world with my children! Is there anywhere in the world you would recommend us visiting? The only holidays we have abroad are to visit family in Turkey but I would really like to go somewhere I haven't been before. I want to explore the world and allow my children to experience different cultures first hand. Afterall, what better way is there to learn?

Do you have any goals for 2020? What are they? Let me know in the comments below.

This blog post is in collaboration with some other amazing bloggers. Check out their goals for 2020 by clicking the links below.

Rainbow Tiara

Muslim Mummy

Halal Mama

Jeddah Mom

Monday, 13 January 2020