WEEK 5. Dreaming of a secret wooden house.

(see more here)



When I was a kid, one of my dreams was to own a secret house. My parents had to work hard for our future and they did not have time to think of our weird quirks. My brother, I and our cousins built houses with towels and ropes; we hid in “silos” and finally found a giant laurel plant that became "the great host of adventures." It had its entrance, narrow hall and function room. It was the most magical place on earth.

Today, we often forget that we are here to fulfill dreams and not to accumulate properties that only bring a short pleasant feeling of pride and an eternal investment of time to guard them.

This week activity is to achieve a dream through the implementation of goals and obtaining rewards in return.

Materials:
Bank.
Budget for one season.
Activity Sheet (download here).

Process:

1 Define a dream. This is the hardest part of the activity as we're pretty rusty in fulfilling dreams. We decided to get a house of wood, then paint it and turn it into a kid house.
2 Estimated cost. In our case 500euros.
3 Establish a deadline. Ex 5 months.
4 Ways to raise money:
    a) Set goals and rewards. Each month, Dani and David had their goals. Eg Dani: brushing teeth alone, at least 6 nights a week. Reward 5 euros.
    b) Each time we went out and they asked for a whim: egg kindergarten, little toy ... if I thought I would have bought it, the I negotiated with them to put its cost in a piggy bank instead of buying it.

Children learned the cost of things, the value of effort and finally the satisfaction of achieving goals.

When we were already advanced in the activity, I saw a super offer of a house.

"Little house", size (2.7m * 1.8m), was a bit bigger than what I had on my mind, but I thought the low prize could compensate it. My husband was reluctant to set more junk in the garden. I needed one week to find the right time to inform the decision that we both had taken without his fully aware. We went to the store, and while driving, I told him that the house was very nice although a tad larger. His face changed, he looked up and said: "I am very worried about what means a bit big for you." Once there, we put up into the car, board by board, a pallet of 350kg. Our dream is on! I hope to have it mounted and decorated for spring. I will show you the result. I wish you many dreams achieved...

(You can see a house built by a mom here.)

Thanks to the anonymous benefactors, grandparents...