I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. I make goals… lots of them. And now my kids do, too.

I am a big believer in setting (and reaching) goals, and I want to instill this in my kids as well. I know goals are not the be-all and end-all. I know they need to be flexible. But I also know that they can be amazingly effective.

So, as we head into a New Year full of fresh starts and possibilities, I thought I would tell you a bit about how I help my children set goals. (And cue the story…)

5 Tips for Setting Goals with Children

In my most recent year of teaching, before I stayed home with my kids, I taught in an Intensive Support Classroom. I taught 14 incredible children with learning disabilities. It was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life (before staying home full-time, that is…).

I am not going to lie; my first few days teaching that class were very intense. Incredibly intense. I realized that I needed to set some goals for myself to get on track. Within a few weeks, I realized that wasn’t enough. I needed the children to set goals for themselves as well.

Learning to set goals is a tricky process. But we got there. By the end of the year, my students were setting goals independently and achieving some pretty awesome ones, too!

The success I saw with goal setting in the classroom was amazing, and I took what I learned and applied it at home with my own children too.

Here’s how I help children with goal setting:

1. Break Big Goals into Little Goals

Perhaps your child wants to learn how to read. That is a really big (and really wonderful!) goal, but on its own is quite daunting. So, break that Big Goal into smaller, bite-sized goals. If you use my How Wee Read curriculum, for example, your child’s goal could be to complete one lesson a week. This would allow them to make steady progress toward their Big Goal—learning to read—while celebrating successes along the way. (And they would start reading and blending three-letter words at Week 9!)

2. Ensure Goals are Realistic

It’s also important to help children keep goals specific to things they have control over. For example, a goal of getting 100% on every test is not realistic. That depends on the test, how the teacher is marking, the child’s understanding of the content, and a million other things. BUT… they do have control over how much they study. A better, more attainable goal would be to review notes every night for 20 minutes, or to study for a certain amount of time before each test.

3. Keep Goals Short-Term

This one is especially true for little ones. For my youngest, we will focus on a small, attainable goal that she can accomplish in about a week. For example, to do up the zipper on her own coat. (Though for mine, it probably won’t be something quite so practical… it will probably involve the chickens… somehow.)

4. Build on Goals (Or Switch it Up!)

If your child’s goal is accomplished in one week, then… what’s next? Build on that goal! So, if your little one’s goal was to zip up their own coat, perhaps their next goal could be to learn how to zip and button a pair of jeans. Or maybe their next goal will be to learn to skip rope! My kids’ interests change like the wind, so it only makes sense that their goals will too.

5. Celebrate Success!

When your child achieves a goal—whether their Big Goal or a smaller step along the way—celebrate! Tell your child how proud you are of them, and let them tell you how proud they are of themselves. Share their achievements with friends and family, have a celebratory dinner, or start a special family tradition to celebrate their efforts.

Bonus: Talk About YOUR Goals

It’s no surprise that little ones model what they see. If my children hear me talking about my goals and celebrating my successes, they will want to as well.

I haven’t had a New Year’s Resolution in a long time, but I have so many goals each and every year! Some of those goals I achieve, and some I don’t. But keeping the points above in mind helps me to keep my focus and drive. And that keeps me headed where I want to go.

I hope that sharing my goals with my children and helping them set their own will inspire them to try new things and persevere with challenges. I also hope it provides them with many chances throughout the year to celebrate small successes. Chicken-related or otherwise… though most certainly many will be chicken-related.

To welcome you into the New Year and get you started on the right foot, I would like to offer you my yearly planner. It is full of inspirational quotes, resources, daily calendar pages, homeschool planning pages, and monthly calendar pages as well. I hope you love it!

This is a school year planner that ends in July, but if you’re on my email list, you will receive the next updated version in the summer to keep that planning going all year long!

Thank you so much for reading, my friend! I hope this year is filled with success and celebration as you work toward achieving your goals.

xo
Sarah