Goal Setting With Your Kids

A fresh year and some fresh goal setting with your kids! What a great opportunity to set some exciting goals for yourself, and show your children how to do the same. Children learn by example and what better example can you set than by showing them how to set goals?

Some things to bear in mind when helping your children set goals include:

1) Be careful when suggesting deadlines or time limits. When we get to the age where the months seem to fly by, it's easy to forget what time feels like to a child. Remember when two weeks seemed like an impossibly long time? Be sensitive to the age of your child when talking with him about time frames.

2) Have your children write their goals down – or help them with that if they are too young. Write down not only the goal itself, but also WHY it's important and what it will LOOK LIKE when it's achieved.

3) As much as possible, let your children be the ones to come up with the ideas for their own goals. If you need to make suggestions, be as sensitive as you can to their age and interests. Be especially sensitive about the "size of the goal". Children need to have big goals broken down into mini-goals so that they can see progress quickly, preferably on a daily basis. A goal to learn to spell five new words a week is better to focus on than winning the national Spelling Bee!

4) Work on the goal with your child – but don't take over! Make sure that your child can sense your interest and support, but be careful she doesn't think that you want to do it for her.

5) Set a good example by having written goals of your own and let your children see you working towards them regularly.