10-20-30GO!

Last week at RBTE, I had the pleasure of meeting a very cool Catholic dad - Bo Govea, founder of 10-20-30GO! Bo and is wife, faced with the pressures of a growing family and a deeply held desire to help their children grow closer to God, took the initiative to design an "accountability system" that can help any family to find time for prayer, reading and household chores.

The basic blueprint for 10-20-30GO!: children spend 10 minutes each day in prayer and meditation; 20 minutes each day reading; and 30 minutes each day performing assigned chores.  The system helps you motivate your kids, keep on track, communicate prayer requests, and reward everyone at the end of a great week.

Having had time to study the facets of 10-20-30GO!, I’m very excited about implementing it this summer with my son Adam.  Honestly, around our home summer is the time when things begin to get a little lax and unstructured.  In many senses, it’s terrific to have a break from the rigorous schedule of the school year, but not when it comes to prayer life and reading.  At fifteen, Adam certainly isn’t too old for a system such as 10-20-30GO! which makes it easy to keep track of our family’s expectations, to quantify them, and to reward or discipline our sons appropriately.

Along with speaking about 10-20-30GO!, Bo and I shared a fascinating conversation about the Govea family’s personal faith journey.  I was so inspired by Bo and his wife’s ability to channel a tremendous health challenge their twins faced into a tremendous boost to their family’s spiritual life.  And now, they are taking steps to help draw other families closer to Christ and one another!

How does accountability work in your home?  Do you pay your children an allowance?  Are certain chores required and do you enforce daily reading time?  I’d love to hear what makes things tick around your home and hope you’ll check out 10-20-30GO! and support the great work being done by the Govea family with this cool system!