Silo | Interlinking | Structure of Site - OnPage SEO Expert needed

Hi guys, I started learning more about onpage seo, structure of website and so on. I need some help from experienced guys, so if anyone could help me and answer my questions and say if what I show below is right or not, it would be great.

I want to rank 3 pages: Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3

On my homepage my menu looks like this:

Home | Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3


Each page is supported by posts:

Category 1: Posts within this Category link only to Page #1 and sometimes to authority sites
Category 2: Posts within this Category link only to Page #2 and sometimes to authority sites
Category 3: Posts within this Category link only to Page #3 and sometimes to authority sites

Category name: ex. Page 1 = domain.com/dog-training -> Category 1 = domain.com/category/dog=training

Here are some questions:

1. Should I link from Page 1 to Category 1 ?
2. Should I put category widget on homepage ?
3. Should I have menu like this : Home | Page 1,2,3 | Category 1,2,3 or without Category on menu?
4. Should I change the way I name categories like in example above ?
5. Is it ok to use only exact keyword when linking from posts to page or should I diversify like when doing anchors ? I mean, it's a must to diversify anchors when doing offpage seo, but onpage also?
6. I'm about to create static page for homepage with general information about website, should I link from this static page to Page 1,2,3/Category 1,2,3 in text/from widgets? Or is it enough to link to them from menu ?
7. I removed all widgets - no categories,menu widgets etc, simply because I didn't wanted to link from Page 2 to Category 1 for example, but I'm not sure if it's right.
8. Is it ok to use posts to strengthen Pages or should I use other pages to rank 3 Pages I mentioned above ? So that 3 pages are parents and instead of posts I get children pages.