Tips On Setting Goals With Your Child
With January in full swing and many people already either starting or ticking off their New Year resolutions, we thought it would be timely to talk about the importance of setting goals for kids as well.
In a world with too many options, instant gratification and impatience, teaching your child to create a list of goals and then plan to achieve them is hugely valuable. Plus, the satisfaction of ticking a goal off a list is priceless to see!
Why set goals with your child?
It teaches kids to identify what’s important to them and the value of working hard towards getting it. It also teaches patience, discipline, responsibility and time management as they work towards the desired result. When they eventually tick a goal off their list, the life lesson of “work hard and get what you want” and boosted self-confidence is also delivered. There is something to say about the greater self-confidence kids take into adulthood and take things on with greater positivity and less fear.
Goals can vary from very small to big. They don’t need to be around one topic and can be anywhere from achieving a certain academic level in a school subject to learning how to ride a bike to finally saving enough to buy an item they’ve wanted for a while.
Tips on setting goals with your child
Create goals that require effort.
Goals should be realistic and achievable; however, they need to require some effort to deliver the satisfaction of completing them in the end. So you’d like your child to push themselves while achieving their goals.
Don’t be worried about them not achieving a goal.
This can happen, and it’s absolutely fine. Of course, it would be great for your child to tick every single goal off their list within the timeframe they would like. However, some goals may need more time or something they won’t achieve this time. Nevertheless, it’s a valuable lesson in the process of pursuing something and the patience that you require along the way.
Break down each goal.
Each goal needs to be thought about carefully - what your child would like to do, how they will do it, who they need help from and a due date for that goal. Ensure your child understands everything around the goal and what it will take to achieve it.
Make it visual
Create a board with images and words. Anything visual will help your child in their goal-achieving journey!
Support, but let them own it.
Guide and support your child while they are ticking goals off; however, try not to interfere too much and let them own this. Your support will encourage your child; however, they need to put effort into achieving their goals themselves. It’ll be much sweeter once they achieve their goals because they did it themselves.
Reward little accomplishments and big ones.
Encouraging your child with rewards along the way can boost their perseverance and patience as they go towards the result.
Analyse and reflect.
Once a goal is completed, sit down with your child to discuss how they felt about it, what they thought was great and what could be done better next time. Reflecting is a great tool to understand if there are ways to improve it and essentially learn how to improve.