How To Help Kids Make Meaningful Resolutions for the New Year
Do your kids want to make New Year’s Resolutions? Get our printable to guide them to meaningful and doable goals.
Working with your children to make meaningful New Year’s resolutions can result in some quality family bonding. You’ll get a glimpse into their dreams for the future, and you can work together with them to achieve those dreams. Think of it as a chance to be their cheerleader. And a chance to teach them how to pick achievable goals that won’t frustrate them.
It’s important for kids to have goals, and they may need prompts along the way to achieve them.
What are Meaningful Resolutions?
Here’s a quote with great goal setting ideas.
Establishing short-term SMART goals is a way to help children succeed. SMART provides the detail, support, and guidance children and parents need to stay focused on […] goals.
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused, and Time-Bound. Here is a breakdown of each section:
Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital
Specific: Goals should be simple and defined.
Measurable: There should be evidence of a met goal.
Achievable: Goals should feel slightly challenged but still possible.
Results-focused: Goals should measure outcomes and not processes or steps.
Time-bound: Goals should have a timeframe that creates a practical sense of urgency.
Steps to Help Kids Make Goals They Can Achieve
- Set a time slot to sit down with your child. Put away phones and tablets; make it just you and your child. Grab mugs of hot cocoa, our Goal Making printable, then cozy up together before the fire.
- Talk about the past year. Don’t make it an interview, but ask them what they enjoyed and what they wished would have been different.
- Guide the discussion into ideas for a better New Year. Talk about things they want to do (I want to go on more bike rides with Daddy), things they should do (I need to be kinder), a skill they’d like to learn or improve on (I want to learn calligraphy), and a habit they want to change or improve. (I want to stop shouting at my little brother.)
- Make sure they understand they don’t have to be perfect. Baby steps are fine. The can correct mistakes. It’s good to learn how to get up when they fall.
- Assure them you want to be there for them, and make it easy for them to approach you for help or advice.
The time you spend with your child talking about their dreams is just as important as the goals they wish to achieve. Your interest will give them the strength to go after their dreams, and help them feel secure.
And those platitudes your parents dished out when you were young?
They’re important.
You thought sayings like “get up and try again” and “money doesn’t grow on trees” were spoken automatically, just an absentminded parental response. But they actually meant them. And were invested in you enough to repeat what their parents said and they realized was true.
Make resolutions for yourself that fall in line with your children’s. So if they wish to spend more time with you, we have ideas to help you achieve that goal.
Check out these posts for things you can do with your child/children:
Children’s New Year Printables Activities
Kick-Starter List for Bored Pre-Schoolers
Make a Fairy Garden Nightlight
What kind of resolutions did your kids make?
Were your kids on board with making goals for the New Year? We’d love to hear about the resolutions your children made.
