Today I’m sharing 10 simple ways on how to help kids achieve goals. Despite the fact that I’m no perfect mother, my kids are pretty awesome at achieving their goals. This has more to do with them than me, and the same can be true for almost all children with these simple tricks!
Why We All Should Learn How To Help Kids Help Kids Achieve Their Goals
Working toward and achieving goals help kids take control of their lives, get best results, focus on what’s most important to them, makes them accountable, and motivates them to be the best they can. Achieving goals allows us all to live the best life we can, and be happy people!
#1- Praise Effort!
This Doesn’t mean that you tell them they’re doing a good job if they aren’t. I simply means that you see the the positive that they are doing, and tell them! Here are a few examples:
If your sons goal is to build a go cart, and it looks like a pile of junk that’s going to fall apart, you simply tell him that he is working so hard, and learning so much! Or how resourceful they are for finding all the parts! And if the engine starts at all, how awesome it is they he figured the mechanics out to get it going.
If your child’s goal is to learn how to cook something, and it tastes gross, you tell them how awesome it is that they did it all by themselves! You eat some of it, even if you don’t want to, and tell them thank you!
One of the hardest things for kids to get over is perfectionism… In this world of instant everything, they see everything in it’s perfect outcome, and not the work it took to get there. So praise them for learning and working hard, because that is what it takes to be successful at anything! If your kids can master learning and hard work, they’ll be able to do anything they set their mind to.
#2 – Provide Essentials
My daughter really wanted to learn the piano, but our family is not musical at all so I put her off. For months she asked me to get a piano so she could learn to play. Finally, months after her (and to her credit) persistence, I looked for a piano of facebook marketplace and found a great deal for $100!
It was a beautiful upright antique from a sweet woman who had taught piano her entire life. I jumped on the opportunity, and she was super excited to start! A few months later, that same daughter was filling our home and minds with beautiful music! I wish I hadn’t put her off, because it is a blessing to our entire family!
My daughter couldn’t of learned to play the piano without some financial investment on my part.
Another daughter of mine loves to cook, and make meals for the family. She enjoys learning new recipes, and making everyone else happy. But she is 10 years old, and can’t achieve these goals without me buying the ingredients she needs to cook with.
Without the essentials, or a way to get them, kids can’t achieve their goals, so help them get the basics!
#3 – Accountability
One thing that helps our kids stay on track is a weekly family meeting where we ask how they’re doing on their goals. We hold this family meeting every Sunday evening, and keep a family journal for recording goals! This is the perfect journal for family meetings and goals:
Our Sunday night meeting gives our entire family the opportunity to share what has been happening with our goals, and our feelings. This is also a good time to guage kids mindset and needs from you.
We also set new goals at this meeting for the coming week, and write them down!
#4 – Do It With Them When They’re Frustrated
The first time my son decided to build a gokart, he spent weeks finding the metal, welding it together, and figuring out how to do it. One evening, my husband walked into the garage to find him holding the gokart over his head ready to throw it to the concrete in complete frustration.
At that point, my sweet husband realized he needed help to keep going, and achieve his goals. Darin stopped what he was doing, and patiently helped him walk through the problems and discover solutions.
As parents we want to teach our kids to be independent and do things themselves, but we must realize their limits, and intervene when needed. If Darin hadn’t realized my son’s complete frustration and stepped in in that moment, our son wouldn’t be the same person he is today. Since that pivotal night, he has gone on to build and repair dozens of gokarts, and save money for his future!
#5 – How To Help Kids Achieve Goals – Simple Daily Reminders
Some kids are more driven than others, and some goals are more exciting than others… The fact is, we all get distracted, and we all need reminders throughout the week to help us keep working towards our goals!
For example, one of our kids goals is to read 30 minutes a day. But the distractions are endless, and a kindly reminder or question helps us keep the effort! When it’s getting late in the day, and the TV is on, I simply ask “did you get your reading done?”
No nagging, just a question and a bit of encouragement!
#6 – Make It A Family Affair
It comes pretty naturally to make kids goals a family affair! If your kids are setting goals they really enjoy, and are interested in, it’s easy to make it a family affair.
Easton, my son, loves to watch his siblings enjoy riding his gokarts. He is proud of his work, and when everyone enjoys the fruit of his labor he feels good about it, and has a sense on accomplishment.
The same principle is true for my daughters cooking and piano music. When the rest of the family enjoys what they have worked so hard for, it engenders sense of pride and accomplishment… And they should!
#7 – Keep Their Focus On The End Goal
It’s hard for kids to remember why they want to get A’s in the middle of the school year! I really like remind my kids often about how much college costs, how much things cost, and how college is the funnest time in life that they’ll really want to be able to enjoy! And how scholarships help!
Vision Boards are also a great way to keep their focus on their end goal.. See below!
#8 – Show Them How Far They’ve Come
If you can keep a record with either pictures or documentation it will help kids see how far they’ve come as they’re working toward their goals! Helping kids see their progress builds confidence and motivates them to keep going, because it shows them that they can do it!
One fun way to help kids see how far they’ve come is with youtube! My son created a youtube channel for his go karts called karts for cash… He LOVES seeing how many people watch his videos and it motivates him to keep going!
#9 – Create Vision Boards!
Get magazines and print off pictures from the internet to make vision boards for goals. Making vision boards is a super fun activity for everyone… On top of that, Vision boards are an effective way to make visual reminders for goals!
Vision boards can be as big as poster boards, or as small as you want. Place vision boards where each child will see theirs everyday to keep them focused and motivated!
#10 – How To Help Kids Achieve Goals With Rewards!
Everyone like working for something special, especially when they see light at the end of the tunnel, or an end date! One way that really motivates our kids is to plan a reward when we achieve a family goal! Some things we’ve done are shopping trips, going out to eat, and vacations.
This year we built 2 duplexes. However to save money and earn equity, we had a contractor just take them to drywall, and we finished them from there. It was a ton of work on my husbands part, but the kids all worked long hours after school to get things done. The taped and caulked, hung doors, installed door knobs, laid thousands of sq ft of vinyl plank flooring flooring, put down weed barrier, spread rocks, and did a lot of cleaning. It was a LOT of work!
However, they all had a vacation in mind when we got done. It’s nothing very fancy, but something we all enjoy! We are renting an RV, for a week or two, and taking a trip through Northern Idaho hiking all the trails we like along the way.
A goal I really want to talk my kids into is, living off only our garden and food storage for a month. (We would grow a huge garden, and already have lots of food storage.) The reward after would be going to an all you can eat buffet when we finish, or something like that, that they come up with.
How To Help Kids Achieve Goals In The Kitchen – Easy & Good Family RECIPES:
Raspberry Lime Freezer Jam – Fast Easy and Perfect For Beginners of any age!
Kids will LOVE this Best Banana Bread made with sour cream! – Super easy one bowl recipe, stays moist for a week!
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These are really beautiful, practical ideas! Kiddos need so much of this good stuff! Thanks for sharing!!