How to set 2018 goals with children

At this time of year, many adults will be making resolutions for the year ahead. A New Year is often seen as the ideal time for a fresh start and an opportunity to better one's self. January 1st comes with great optimism and a chance to see room for improvement.

These are valuable ideas for self-development, and ones which are beneficial for our children to learn. So this New Year, why not encourage your children to come up with realistic, achievable resolutions of their own?

To do this, it will be necessary for your children to understand the concept of goal setting, a skill which we can help our children develop. Here are a few tips for helping your children set meaningful goals for 2018.

Share your goals and be a role model
A great way to teach your children about goal writing is to model the practice yourself. Take the time to explain your own goals with your children; discuss how you identified these goals, the actions you will take and the evidence that will indicate you have reached them. It goes without saying that your child will observe your actions throughout the year so ensure they witness you striving to achieve your goals too!

Help them to write their own goals
Having shared your own goals, encourage your child to write a few of their own. Remind them that meaningful goals should be simple and specific, as well as measurable, to give them an opportunity to feel a sense of achievement when they reach them.

A goal should also be something your child has considerable control over, and not about what they want other people to achieve. Goals should also be time-bound so ensure your child considers when they want to achieve it by. This will often not be a case of the sooner the better, but rather a reasonable time-frame that will motivate them to achieve their goal within their own set period of time.

Listen and encourage
Goal setting with your children is a great opportunity to hear about their dreams and what is important to them. Ensure you make the most of this opportunity to listen to what they are saying and encourage them to mould these into achievable goals. Some dreams may not be achievable in full but you may be able to break down their intentions into smaller steps together rather than writing them off.

Write them down together
It is often said that you are much more likely to achieve a target if you write it down and share it with others. Once you and your child have discussed your goals and action plans, write them down and display them somewhere that you will both view often. You can then encourage each other to keep to your action plans and not allow busy lives to get in the way of bringing targets to completion.

So, make the most of this opportunity to listen to your child's hopes and desires and make a plan that can bring those desires to life. At Kumon we believe there is always room for growth and improvement and the New Year is the ideal time to make a fresh start and realise the potential of both your child and yourself.