How to help your child with New Year’s resolutions
11th December 2017
Each year we all come up with inspiring New Year’s resolutions to improve and better ourselves but when it comes to our children, how do we help them to decide what’s best for them personally? This month Tiny World Day Nursery are here to help you with just that very question. If you too have been wondering how to positively approach the topic of New Year’s resolutions, read on.
What to choose as a resolution – ask yourselves:
- ‘What do I wish to improve?’
- ‘What will I need to do to accomplish this?’
- ‘Am I progressing with this goal?’ – if not, ‘what can I do to change this?’
- ‘Am I happy and enjoying the journey to my goal?’
*It’s vital to make sure that your child is pleased with the New Year’s resolutions. It’s also important that they feel comfortable and are happy whilst reaching their goals and that they’re not striving for something unobtainable.*
How to create an obtainable goal
To ensure that you and your child come up with a goal that’s reasonable, take some guidance from the SMART recommendation.
Specific
If your child has a hobby and wishes to further their skills – like playing the guitar or dancing – it might be a nice idea to have them take part in a band at school, or perform in a show or concert come the summer time. This is a specific goal, which they should find fun, and a little practice every day will help them to develop and hone in their skills.
Measurable
Place a chart on the wall, so that you and your child can watch as their progression develops. Get some fun stickers that your child will like and enjoy placing on their chart to represent their day’s practice. If they miss a day, they will see that there’s a sticker missing and this will encourage them to keep up with their hobby, so that they can use all of their fun stickers.
Attainable
It’s important that your child understands that to develop in anything, they must be somewhat ambitious but not unrealistic. It’s realistic that a child on Grade 2 guitar this December, could achieve Grade 3 in the summer of next year and potentially Grade 4 by the time it hits December/January 2019. You want to show them that good to set goals but you shouldn’t overwhelm them with something that isn’t attainable.
Results-oriented
If your child has chosen to study harder and work on languages or maths at school, the result of this would be to obtain consistent, higher grades.
Time-bound
The main resolution can take as much time as it needs, as long as your child puts the effort in each day to further their goals. However, along the way it might be a good idea to have ‘mini goals’ – a great way to keep them motivated whilst working towards a lengthier goal.
How to keep to your goals
Now and then it’s easy to get side tracked and that’s OK but to help keep you and your child to your good intentions there are a few things to help you both keep in line.
- Do a joint resolution – sometimes, it can be hard going it alone. So why not make it a joint resolution? If you both want to take up a new sport, go together. This will motivate you both and give you something to bond over.
- Don’t push them – we all have days where we don’t feel like doing what we have planned to do. If this is the case with your child, don’t push them, just make sure that they do it the next day.
- Share your thoughts – talk to your child about your previous New Year’s resolutions. Share how you felt whilst on your way to achieving your goals; this helps them to see that you’ve also been through it, even if it was tough.
- Make it fun – make the progress fun, a small treat or special day out at the end of each month can keep you both on the right track.
Tiny World Day Nurseries are located within Nottingham and Mansfield. We offer free child places for 2, 3 and 4 year olds and have been caring for children for over the past 30 years. Our Nursery Nurses have childcare qualifications to at least a NVQ 3 standard and we are Ofsted Registered. We take pride in our exciting, educational activities which is why we provide a whole range of fun things for children to take part in. Our activities include: painting, crafting, exercising, socialising, drawing, story telling, playing and learning. So if you would like to know more or like to take a tour of our premises, please get in touch today.