A New Year is the perfect opportunity to start getting the kids excited about plans for the coming months and thinking about all of the fun challenges they want to undertake, or goals they’d like to achieve.
We’ve created a list of 7 ways you can help your children and those in your care think about their aspirations – and hopefully stick to them!
- Ask if there’s anything new they’d like to try in the New Year
This is such a simple way to start the conversation about setting New Year’s resolutions. It doesn’t have to be a grand achievement – like climbing Mount Everest without oxygen; it can be as simple as trying a new food or learning how to cook a meal.
Narrow down the list even further – if it’s cooking a meal for the family (with your supervision of course), what meal do they want to cook and why? You could even get creative and ask if they’d like to theme the occasion. Cooking some pasta? Why not decorate the room with Italian flags, or put on an Italian accent while creating a shopping list of items your child will need to make their chosen dish!
- Set daily targets and reward them in order to reach the end goal
Your child might want to set a goal of making their bed every day, or helping with the washing up, or maybe even doing other jobs around the house to save up some pocket money for a toy they’d like.
Set targets with them that you can tick off together, so they can see their progress towards reaching their goal. For example, maybe making the bed is worth two stars and helping with the washing up is worth four. If they get 100 stars in the month, perhaps they can trade them in for cash with you and get the toy they had their eye on!
- Reward even the smallest of accomplishments
Keep on encouraging your children. If they miss a target one day, or don’t work towards their resolution – or maybe even break it, that doesn’t mean it’s the end! Reward them for getting this far and for trying, teaching them that the odd wobble / not being up for it is perfectly ok, and to start the next day afresh and back on track!
Rewarding them each time they do something that matches their resolution will keep them motivated along the way, able to look back in a year’s time with great pride at what they’ve achieved.
A good way to do this is to use a wall chart with stickers. You can stick one (or more) stickers on each day they do something relating to their resolution, so they can see their progress.
- Turn their goals into family goals you can achieve together
Your child is likely to be thrilled to bits if you get involved and show a keen interest in their resolutions. It could be anything from a family walk once a week, through to giving your time to local charities or community projects.
Open the eyes of your children to opportunities to help others outside of your home to show them that the reward doesn’t always have to be material and that there’s great pride to be had in being part of a bigger project.
There’s some great ideas for community activities on the Sign Up Genius site. Some quick picks include:
- Offer to rake leaves, pick up sticks, or mow the lawn of a neighbour
- Walk around the neighbourhood with a rubbish bag and pick up rubbish on pavements or in parks
- Collect and deliver supplies to neighbours who have just had a baby, undergone surgery, or experienced a house fire.
- Volunteering can be as simple as making people smile. Have your child draw pictures or write notes to deliver to your neighbours
- Set some goals to help with the climate crisis
Talk to your children about climate change and prompt them to think about the environment and how they can help to reduce their own carbon footprint and with it that of your family as a whole.
From making a resolution to turn lights off when leaving a room, to helping sort through what items in the house can be recycled, or even prompting them to share their used toys with others (avoiding the need for other parents to buy new toys and all of the CO2 that generates) – there’s lots of options to teach your young ones about being environmentally conscious.
Why not get them started with the Green New Year’s Resolution – by showing them this fun child friendly carbon footprint calculator.
We’ve written a great guide on environmental initiative for kids in Sussex, which is well worth a look to get youngsters enthused and excited to be helping improve our environment.
Twinkl has some fantastic resources for children and young people of all ages to learn about Climate Change and what they can do to help.
So there we have it! If you have any other great ideas for helping kids set and stick to their New Year’s Resolutions, let us know over on our social media @timeoutfostering on both Instagram and Facebook.
Thanks for reading!
