Patrol Family
The founding family worldschooling together — seven months on the road.

Complete missions together. Raise high-agency kids.

Run your family as a patrol.

The free app runs your family’s week — nightly tallies, weekly councils, real missions. Compass reads the record and preps every council.

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Your family’s rhythm, at a glance.

One screen for how your family is really running — each member’s routines and how they’re holding, your Daily Tally rhythm, the councils you’ve held, and how your missions balance across the six categories.

The Patrol Family app Home dashboard — pinned routines, the family rhythm (Daily Tally, councils), and Mission Balance across the six categories.

Parenting for the 21st Century

The Patrol Family Playbook

Definition

Patrol [puh-trohl]

a group of people with individual responsibilities and a common mission.

Mnemonic

P
Parent-Led
A
Agency-Oriented
T
Targets Tied to Missions
R
Rhythmic Approach
O
Orienting Over Ordering
L
Lasting Memories

One loop, run on repeat

  1. 1

    Daily Tally

    Nightly, every member: tally mission progress and paid chores, and drop in anything worth discussing.

  2. 2

    Parent Council

    Late in the week, the parents prep: review the week, plan each kid’s council, set the family council agenda.

    With Compass

    Compass arrives with the week already read: a weekly brief with recommended council items for each family member — and for the family as a whole.

  3. 3

    Personal Councils

    One on one with each kid: chores get paid, missions get discussed, next week gets inspired.

  4. 4

    Family Council

    The whole patrol: camaraderie first, review the family’s progress, align on the coming week’s missions.

The loop is the engine. Missions are what it drives.

Pro tip

Anything that comes up mid-week goes into the tally. Don’t litigate it in the hallway — drop it in that night’s Daily Tally and it’s captured on the upcoming family council’s agenda. Nothing gets lost, and the council always has real business.

Read the full playbook
The founding Patrol Family — two parents and their kids in traditional Thai dress.
The first patrol family
Proof · Running in our own home since 2024

First, get chores out of the way…

20
Months & counting
3,071
Jobs logged & paid
$3,413
Earned in real work
2 kids (w/ chores)
One system

Earnings over time

71 weeks
Lincoln $1854Serene $1559
$0$500$1000$1500$2000

With maturity comes higher-value work — as kids grow they take on the bigger-ticket jobs: mowing the lawn ($10), washing the car ($6). The work, and the pay, grow up with them.

What the work was

Both kids
  • Played 30 min with baby sister521
  • Dressed & fed baby sister243
  • Went on 30 min walk with baby sister198
  • Read 10 min to baby sister161
  • Vacuumed a room135
  • Cleaned their room97
  • Folded laundry97
  • Filled the water filter75
  • All other chores1,544
  • Books finished*45

*Roughly 12,000 pages.

Key questions
What happens when the kids stop getting paid… will they continue helping around the house?

If you are running the Patrol Family Playbook in your home then your kids will put the needs of the patrol first. I, Jordan Clive — founder of Patrol Family — lost my job on April 1st, 2026. This was when the question was put to the test. There has been no difference in how much help our kids have offered around the house, with babysitting, and with their personal improvement habits. Years of habit formation have continued unchanged and my wife and I benefit from it every day.

Will kids use their earnings responsibly?

This is primarily a question about family culture. If you are raising your kids to understand how money works, they will know how to make their money work for them. Lincoln and Serene have been investing 60% of their earnings. If that sounds unrealistic for your family, then work at it! Choose missions from the app that will increase financial literacy among your kids.

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Pick a mission.

…Then seize the day!

Every task rolls up to a target, and targets to a mission.

Six mission categories

Adventure
Faith
Family
Intellect
Service
Work & Home

Adventure Mission

First Family Campout

0 / 5 targets0%

Targets

  1. Build your kit and skillsNextFamily
    • Show you can pitch and strike the tent in daylightNext
    • Everyone owns one camp job
    • Pack the campbox from a checklist
  2. Backyard shakedownFamily
    • Sleep a full night outside at home
    • Fix what went wrong with the gear
  3. Pick and book the real spotFamily
    • Choose a first-timer-friendly campground
    • Reserve it and check the season and weather
    • Kids can plan the camp games and the night hike
  4. Camp for realFamily
    • Make camp before dark
    • Cook dinner and breakfast outside
    • Run the campfire night — stories, stars, s'mores
    • Leave no trace
  5. Debrief and go againFamily
    • Everyone names a best moment and one fix
    • Book campout number two before the gear's put away

Twelve example missions

Many missions available like these.

AdventureExpedition

Find Your Way

The family learns to navigate with map and compass alone — no phone — and finishes by running a real orienteering course against the clock.

The arc — Read the land on paper → work the compass → train on real legs → run the real thing → set a course for others.

See the full tree — 5 targets
  1. Read the land on paper
    • Read a topo map — contour lines, symbols, and scale
    • Orient the map to the land around you
    • Measure a distance on the map and pace it out for real
  2. Work the compass
    • Take and follow a bearing
    • Walk a bearing around an obstacle and get back on line
    • Navigate a short course by map and compass, phone in your pocket
  3. Train on real legs
    • Set up a practice course in a park with a few control points
    • Everyone can find the controls in order
    • Time yourselves and try to beat it
  4. Run the real thing
    • Find a real orienteering meet or a permanent course nearby
    • Kids can navigate at least one course start to finish
    • Debrief every leg — where you nailed it, where you drifted
  5. Set a course for others
    • Design a short course and hide the controls
    • Draw the map and write the clues
    • Send someone you love out to find them
AdventureExpedition

Catch and Cook

Learn to fish for real — license, knots, casts, patience — and end with the meal you caught, cooked over your own fire.

The arc — Gear up and learn the water → first catch → clean it yourself → cook it → host the catch dinner.

See the full tree — 5 targets
  1. Gear up and learn your water
    • Get the licenses you need
    • Learn the rules for your lake or river
    • Rig a rod and tie two knots that hold
  2. Learn to read the water
    • Pick a spot and say why
    • Show you can cast where you aimed, five times
    • Show you can name three fish that live in your water
  3. First catch
    • Show you can hook, play, and land a fish
    • Show you can handle it safely — keep or release
    • Log where, when, and what it took
  4. From water to plate
    • Show you can clean your catch
    • Show you can cook it two ways
    • Leave the site cleaner than you found it
  5. Host the catch dinner
    • Serve what you caught
    • Show you can tell the story of the catch
    • Plan the next water you'll try
FaithMaker Project

Scripture Hero Theater

The kids stage a great scripture story — script, costumes, and all — and perform it for the family or a wider gathering.

The arc — Pick the story and the parts → build the script and the costumes → rehearse it → perform it for a real audience.

See the full tree — 4 targets
  1. Pick the story and the parts
    • Help choose a story worth acting out
    • Cast the parts so everyone has a job
  2. Build the show
    • Help turn the story into lines and scenes
    • Make or gather a costume and a prop
    • Set the space where you'll perform
  3. Rehearse it
    • Learn your part well enough to play it
    • Run the whole thing start to finish
  4. Perform it
    • Perform the story for family or a wider gathering
    • Everyone can say what the story means to them now
FaithService Campaign

Carol Brigade

Rehearse a set of carols and bring them where they're needed most — a nursing home, arranged ahead, sung with the residents, not at them.

The arc — Build the set → arrange the visit with care → sing it where it's welcome → stay a while and come back.

See the full tree — 4 targets
  1. Build the set
    • Choose carols most people will know and want to join
    • Rehearse until you can carry them without the words
  2. Arrange the visit with care
    • Call the activities director and set a date and time that works for them
    • Ask what the residents enjoy and how long is right
    • Plan to sing with people, not perform at them
  3. Sing where it's welcome
    • Sing your set and invite anyone who wants to join in
    • Keep it warm and short, reading the room
  4. Stay a while
    • Talk with a resident and hear one of their stories
    • Thank the staff and ask if you can come back
FamilySeasonal Pact

Sunday Supper Revival

Bring back the weekly sit-down supper — one night, everyone at the table, a meal worth showing up for.

The arc — Set the standing night → build the ritual → rotate the kitchen → hold it a season, then keep it for good.

See the full tree — 4 targets
  1. Set the standing night
    • Pick the one night nothing bumps
    • Agree who's always at the table
    • Decide what "at the table" means — phones, timing, guests
  2. Build the ritual
    • Choose one thing we do every week — a toast, a high-and-low, a blessing
    • Set the table like it matters
    • Kids can own a job each week
  3. Rotate the kitchen
    • Plan and cook a supper when it's your turn
    • Keep a running list of the meals that landed
    • Invite a guest at least once
  4. Hold the season
    • Hold Sunday supper eight weeks running
    • Protect it from the calendar
    • Decide together to keep it for good
FamilyMaker Project

Grandparent Biography

A kid writes and prints a real book about one grandparent's life — their story, in the kid's own words, saved before it's gone.

The arc — Choose the subject and get their blessing → gather the whole life → shape it into chapters → make a real book → the unveiling.

See the full tree — 5 targets
  1. Choose your subject and get the blessing
    • Pick the grandparent or elder whose life becomes the book
    • Ask if they're willing to be the subject
    • Agree how many sittings it will take
  2. Gather the whole life
    • Interview them across several sittings
    • Collect the photos, documents, and objects that tell the story
    • Write down the family stories other relatives remember
  3. Shape it into chapters
    • Organize the life into a beginning, a middle, and now
    • Write it in your own words, not a list of dates
    • Choose the photos and write the captions
  4. Make a real book
    • Lay it out — printed or digital
    • Proofread it with the grandparent so the facts are right
    • Print copies for the family
  5. The unveiling
    • Give the grandparent the very first copy
    • Read a chapter aloud together
IntellectMaker Project

Build a Robot That Works

A kid picks a job worth doing, then designs, builds, and programs a machine to do it — sensors, moving parts, and code, all tracked in an engineering notebook and demonstrated for real.

The arc — Learn the field → pick a task → design, build, and program it → test and demonstrate.

See the full tree — 4 targets
  1. Learn the field
    • Show you can name the hazards of building robots and the safety gear that prevents them
    • Show you can explain what robots do well today and how remote-control, telerobots, and autonomous robots differ
    • Show you can describe three of the major fields of robotics and why each matters
  2. Pick a task
    • Choose a real task for your robot that uses sensors and programming
    • Write the task and your plan into an engineering notebook
    • Show you can explain three ways a robot could move to do the job
  3. Design, build, and program it
    • Design a robot with sensors and at least two degrees of freedom
    • Build the robot or subsystem from your own design
    • Program it, or flowchart the program, to do the task
  4. Test and demonstrate
    • Test the robot and record the results honestly
    • Name what you'd improve in the next design
    • Show you can demonstrate the robot and walk through the notebook at council
IntellectExpedition

Backyard Ecologists

A family runs real environmental science on its own patch of ground — a food web mapped, a fair experiment run, a footprint measured and actually cut.

The arc — Learn how the system works → run a real experiment → study our patch of ground → measure our footprint.

See the full tree — 4 targets
  1. Learn how the system works
    • Show you can trace a food web from your own yard
    • Show you can name the cycles that move water, air, and energy
    • Show you can define an ecosystem and find one near you
  2. Run a real experiment
    • Ask a testable question about your environment
    • Design a fair test with a control
    • Record the data and say what it means
  3. Study our patch of ground
    • Survey the life in one plot over time
    • Show you can identify what lives there
    • Find one way people have changed it
  4. Measure our footprint
    • Find where your home wastes energy or water
    • Cut one source for real
    • Show the before and after at council
ServiceMaker Project

The Buddy Bench

Pitch a school on a buddy bench — the seat where a kid who needs a friend finds one — then build or fund it, install it, and teach the school how it works.

The arc — Pitch the school → choose the bench and raise the budget → make it real → install it and teach the rule.

See the full tree — 4 targets
  1. Pitch the school
    • Make the case to the principal in person
    • Bring a real plan — the spot, the bench, the cost
    • Get the school's written yes on placement and upkeep
  2. Choose the path and fund it
    • Choose your path — build it yourselves or fund a playground-grade bench
    • Price it honestly, built or bought
    • Raise or earn the money it needs
  3. Make the bench real
    • Build it to plan — or run the order, delivery, and inspection
    • Finish it bright, safe, and marked so every kid knows what it is
    • Install it where the school agreed, anchored to stay
  4. Teach the rule and hand it off
    • Explain the bench to the school — sit here, and someone comes
    • Hand the school a one-page keeper's guide
    • Check back in a month — is it working?
ServiceService Campaign

Everyone Belongs

A kid learns to be the person who makes the room bigger — respect, empathy, and the nerve to stand up when someone's being left out.

The arc — Learn the words → see who gets left out → be an upstander → lead a little.

See the full tree — 4 targets
  1. Learn the words
    • Show you can explain respect, empathy, inclusion, and fairness in your own words
    • Give a real example of each from your own life
  2. See who gets left out
    • Name a group in your community that gets overlooked
    • Find out what would help them feel they belong
    • Check your assumptions with someone who'd actually know
  3. Be an upstander
    • Tell a time you could have stood up for someone
    • Practice what to say when someone's treated unfairly
    • Do one thing that makes your circle more welcoming
  4. Lead a little
    • Run one act that makes someone new feel they belong
    • Talk at council about what changed
Work & HomeSeasonal Pact

Garden to Table

Grow part of one real meal across a season — plant it, tend it, harvest it — and cook it together at a table with no screens.

The arc — Plan and plant → keep it alive → bring in the harvest → cook the meal → eat it together.

See the full tree — 5 targets
  1. Plan and plant our crops
    • Choose crops for one shared meal
    • Pick the spot and prep the soil
    • Plant the seeds or starts
    • Kids can make a simple care chart
  2. Keep the garden alive
    • Water on your set days
    • Pull weeds each week
    • Watch for pests and act early
    • Bring the garden back after a bad week
  3. Bring in the first harvest
    • Learn when each crop is ready
    • Harvest the first ripe pickings
    • Wash and store what you pick
    • Save a little to plant or share
  4. Cook the harvest meal
    • Build the meal around what you grew
    • Kids can prep the vegetables
    • Cook the meal as a family
  5. Eat it together
    • Sit down with no screens
    • Kids can name what they grew on the plate
    • Plan one thing to grow next season
Work & HomeMastermind

Family Budget Summit

The whole family sits down with the real numbers, maps where the money actually goes, sets a shared savings goal, and agrees what to trim to hit it. Money out of the shadows and onto the table.

The arc — Gather the real numbers → map where the money goes → set the goal and trim → run it on a rhythm → review at council.

See the full tree — 5 targets
  1. Gather the real numbers
    • Pull together a month of what came in and what went out
    • Sort it into a handful of honest buckets
    • Kids can help add it all up
  2. Map where the money goes
    • See which buckets are biggest
    • Find the surprises — the leaks nobody noticed
    • Talk about it without blame
  3. Set the goal and trim
    • Name one shared goal worth saving for
    • Agree what to trim to fund it
    • Decide what you're not willing to cut
  4. Run it on a rhythm
    • Check the plan at a short monthly money meeting
    • Adjust on purpose, never by drift
    • Track the goal where everyone sees it
  5. Review at council
    • Measure how close you got
    • Everyone can name one thing they learned about money
    • Set the next goal
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Custom-created by our own family

…Or create your own missions!

Work together

Adventure Mission: Curate the most impressive clay-baby collection ever assembled at great grandmother's beach house.

Searching millions of rocks on the beach every day for a week straight!
Searching millions of rocks on the beach every day for a week straight!
What is this — a girl with pigtails and a bun on top? Big Hero 6 robot? Bouncer?
What is this — a girl with pigtails and a bun on top? Big Hero 6 robot? Bouncer?
Nursing mothers
Nursing mothers
Sperm whale
Sperm whale
Thresher shark
Thresher shark
Seals balancing balls on their noses
Seals balancing balls on their noses
Platypus
Platypus
Sea lion
Sea lion
Kiwis
Kiwis
Manatee family
Manatee family
Hand grenade
Hand grenade
Penguin family
Penguin family
Lemons
Lemons
Spirits
Spirits
Rock spirit (and no, we did not paint this — those are barnacle remnants, as we found them)
Rock spirit (and no, we did not paint this — those are barnacle remnants, as we found them)
Birds
Birds
Alien creatures
Alien creatures
Creepy alien creatures
Creepy alien creatures
Peanuts
Peanuts
Swaddled babies in a nursery
Swaddled babies in a nursery
Coral
Coral
The whole collection (that we scattered back on the beach)
The whole collection (that we scattered back on the beach)

Remember together

Faith Missions: Honor where we come from — Sheppards dinners on Christmas Eve, and deliberate trip to reconnect with our China roots through the family we see less often.

Our Sheppards dinner on Christmas Eve.
Our Sheppards dinner on Christmas Eve.
Speaking to ancestors by name and performing a traditional Chinese ceremony.
Speaking to ancestors by name and performing a traditional Chinese ceremony.
Interviewing the last remaining grandparent over lunch for the biography we wrote for her.
Interviewing the last remaining grandparent over lunch for the biography we wrote for her.
Visiting ancestor graves, something we do many times on each China family visit.
Visiting ancestor graves, something we do many times on each China family visit.

Celebrate together

Family Missions: Epic homemade Halloween costumes, every single year.

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Learn together

Intellect Missions: Support our aspiring artist through museum days — plus a lemonade stand, a Thaden school acceptance, and an award-winning lego robotics team.

Awarded the most innovative lego robotics team (ceremony held at the Sam's Club HQ).
Awarded the most innovative lego robotics team (ceremony held at the Sam's Club HQ).
Celebratory dinner for Lincoln's acceptance into Thaden private school.
Celebratory dinner for Lincoln's acceptance into Thaden private school.
Beaming with pride from their lemonade stand earnings.
Beaming with pride from their lemonade stand earnings.
Serene above a month of her illustrations.
Serene above a month of her illustrations.
Intellect — photo 5
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Serve together

Service Missions: Sell dumplings to raise money for an elephant sanctuary. (We later discovered a different non-profit making a greater impact saving Cambodian lives from lingering landmines — and donated the money to them instead.)

Service — photo 1
Depositing the $200 raised from dumpling sales in Apopo's donation box.
Depositing the $200 raised from dumpling sales in Apopo's donation box.
These African rats are the world's largest rats and can be trained to detect underground landmines.
These African rats are the world's largest rats and can be trained to detect underground landmines.
Service — photo 4
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Transform your family

Get started today

Get chores out of the way…

  1. 1Price the jobs and let kids log their own work.
  2. 2Build habits that run the home smoothly.
  3. 3Reduce parental burden.

…Then seize the day!

  1. 1Align on family missions.
  2. 2Run the daily tally.
  3. 3Regroup for a weekly family council.
  4. 4Repeat (forever).
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