The year is coming to a close and a new one will begin soon. Now is the time of year when people start reflecting on their lives and setting new goals for the new year to come.
Why not get your kids involved in making New Year’s Resolutions of
I think the coming of a new year is a great opportunity to teach kids about reflection and goal setting. This is often what successful people do in life. They look at where they’ve been, where they want to go, and set goals accordingly.
So how do you begin with kids? Read on and find out.
Reflecting on the Past Year
Kids will enjoy thinking about the things they have done over the past year. It is a fun way to remember the great things that happened, the
Now take it a step further.
Kids should write down (or dictate) some of the highlights from the year. It is a great visual for them. This way they can SEE the things they did over the year. It also gives them something to look back on in the future.
I created a simple handout that will be helpful for kids to write down their reflections about their year. Click on the link below to download it.
new-years-year-in-reviewCreating New Year’s Resolutions
I know adults often make resolutions only for them to fail halfway through the month of January. Often people fail because of unrealistic goals or not breaking goals up into manageable steps.
So talk to your kids. Ask them what goal they would like to accomplish in the next year. Maybe they joined a sports team, and they want to get better at it. Perhaps they want to work on keeping their room clean so Mom and Dad won’t nag them all the time. Help your kids come up with a realistic goal.
Next, work with your kids on how to break their goal up into steps they can take to meet their goal.
So say your daughter wants to work on keeping her room clean. What can she do? Well, she could make sure her room is picked up each night before going to bed, clothes are put away when they come out of the drier, and once a month go through and get rid of unwanted things. By the way, MY daughter needs to read this.
By breaking resolutions into smaller steps, kids are more likely to know HOW to achieve them. The larger goal of “keep my room clean” is harder to meet if you don’t know how to do it. Also by breaking down the goals, it makes it clearer why your child may or may not be achieving their New Year’s R
Feel free to download the New Year’s Resolution sheet I created to help you.
NY-Resolution-1Don’t forget to periodically check in with your kids on their resolutions to see how they are doing. Because honestly, how quickly do you think your child will forget about them if you don’t? Mine would forget by the end of the week. Find a good time in your week to review it with your kids and make it part of your routine.
New Year’s Jars
What is a New Year’s Jar?
It is a jar in which to store memories. Each week, kids reflect on their week and write down something good that happened or a fun memory. By the end of the year, each child will have 52 memories to look back on from their year. It will help them with their reflections and resolutions as the year comes to a close once again.
I want my kids to have these jars to look through during the year to remind them of the good things in their life and not the bad. It will also remind them of the things they accomplished that they may have forgotten as the months went by.
Why Is This Important?
Resolutions Teach Goal Setting
Resolutions are setting goals for yourself. It is a great way to teach kids how to set goals and follow through with them. This will be an invaluable skill to teach your kids!
As your kids get older, they will begin to have larger goals for life. They may want to go to college, buy a car or house, get a job, or travel the world. To accomplish things in life, you need to know how to make things happen. Kids need to understand how to break goals into smaller more manageable goals in order to achieve them.
New Year’s Resolutions are a great first step in teaching this whole process. They learn how to reflect on their life, set goals, meet them with concrete actions, and reflect on progress. Check out how to use New Year’s Resolutions to teach goal setting with your teens (and tweens) to help them.
Later in life, they may keep a journal instead of a New Year’s Jar but it is a way to help them keep track of their accomplishments in life.
So as New Year’s Eve approaches, take some time to include your kids in remembering the past year and setting some great resolutions to make the next year even better. Record your happy memories in your New Year’s Jar so you don’t forget the 52 weeks of happy times and accomplishments.
Do you want some fun New Year’s worksheets for the kids? You might like this packet with a puzzle, memory game, and more.
Do you do New Year’s Resolutions with your kids? Comment below.
Happy Homeschooling!
I love this printables!
I mean, I love this post in general! Helping your kids set and achieve goals is an important lesson to learn and a perfect opportunity to talk about being steadfast and why putting in a little bit of effort each day adds up to great accomplishments over time. I annoy my kids with the quip “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!”
The sheet you included to help remind kids of the daily steps they need to take to reach their goal is so helpful! It’s a great way to teach healthy executive function skills that help keep kids organized and focused.
Over all, great work!
Thanks so much for your kind words.
So often people blow off resolutions, but it is such a useful life skill to teach kids. I’m pleased you found this helpful and the printables are useful, too.
All the best,
Sharon