I’ve been brainstorming all the ways I can get organized as we get ourselves back in gear for another school year–and it dawned on me that I haven’t really been the best at helping my kids set goals. I encourage them to do well in school, try their best and be kind to everyone–but the older I get the more I realize kids really need us to come come along side them and GUIDE them in HOW to do all the things we too often gloss over with sweet words of quick encouragement.
One way I want to do that this year and in the years ahead is to be very intentional with the kids with helping them set and achieve their goals. I was blown away as I did research on different goal setting methods to learn that only 3% of American write down their goals YET a Harvard study revealed that you are 50% MORE likely to achieve your goal when you write them down. The study also showed you have greater odds of meeting goals when you share them with a close friend or family member. I was all like–HELLO?! Why in the WORLD have I not been doing this INDIVIDUALLY with my children?!
I scoured the internet for something SIMPLE–because simple is actually a big part of meeting goals in the SMART method (Specific, Measureable, Achieveable, Realistic, Time-based). I needed something simple that my littles and my bigs could both do (keeping it simple for momma too so I actually do this over and over again:). Each child will have their goals on a clip board and to keep them time-based each period is just 3 months long. We can re-evaluate and tweak where goals weren’t met and challenge in new ways where they were at the end of each period. If you set goals too far out you just forget about them–hence my New Year’s resolutions NEVER happening!
If this old mom can figure out how to attach all of these–I’m leaving these here for YOU to print off for FREE!! Just print put your child’s name on it and you are SET!
First I created a cover sheet where I can write each of my children’s names–and I made one for “mom” and “dad” too. I think it will be fun for us to do with them–and it will be good for us to set goals WITH them. I included on the cover page what the SMART goal setting method stands for so parents can walk through that at the beginning of their goal setting time…
We are going to focus on 6 different areas of our lives to set goals in–and to keep it really simple instead of created a page for each area–I put 3 areas of each page. Then I created an idea page to get us started when we need help thinking of “actions” to put in place to help us reach our goals.
I wrote the months at the top to REMIND them these goals are just for the next 3 months! They *CAN* do this!!! Also this reminds them to think of things they can do RIGHT now because they only have 3 months to think about.
I’m really excited about this 2nd page setting family goals together–and even helping my kids process and think about what emotional/behavioral goals are. We need to BRAINSTORM the HOW part of achieving this goal. I have some who get frustrated with siblings–so we can think about ways to respond but HOW we will keep our cool and respond with kindness and love. This could be for tempers for teens and also used for things like getting rid of binky for a toddler;). However–we are NOT ready to say goodbye to baby’s binky YET!
I created this page for each child to keep as they brainstorm steps of action points as they work on this each time…
I found a few other great resources I’ll come back and add too later. I think one of my kids would benefit from a daily check off for his things and another I found a cool “read through the Bible” plan that is perfect for teen in their spiritual goals if they need accountability or motivation in being in the Word daily. I’ll grab those and link them here later also!
Alright–now friends this old momma who has been away from blogging for a bit is going to try my best to attach these for you below to print off and use!!! May you each have a sweet year ahead–and I hope this blesses those of you who join me in goal setting with your sweet families!!
Blessings!
Andrea
FREE FAMILY GOAL SETTING PRINTABLE: GOALSETTING
