Setting Goals for the school year might sound like the most daunting thing for a primary school child. As parents, it’s our job to ease them into goal setting and be realistic about what they can and cannot achieve in the school year. Setting goals with them gives them something to work towards and gives them things to look forward to. Remember, goal setting comes with rewards, so find something you can provide your child with. Weather their reward is a scratch and sniff sticker, special snacks they like, an exciting outing they’ve been begging for or anything else that works for you and your child let them know that each milestone will be rewarded. This can also build up their confidence and ensure they develop into goal orientated kids.

We’ve broken down the top things we think are important to developing yearly school goals in hopes that this helps you and your child work together to get there.

1. Teach them how to goal set

Giving them the tools to goal set is so important. Talk to them about how they think they can set goals and what they think goal setting entails. This is a good start to see where your child is at confidence wise.

2. Develop a plan

Help them write down what they want to achieve for the year. Start by have 1 main major goal like playing in a sport team or learning how to play netball, football or little athletics. From there you can suggest smaller goals in order to get to that main goal. Split it out by weekly or monthly so that by the end of the year, your child can see their amazing progress.

3. Brainstorm potential roadblocks

Reaching your goals is rarely ever smooth sailing, even as adults so explaining to your child that sometimes obstacles arise, there are ways around it. Let your child know that this is normal and teaching or showing the ways to overcome obstacles and roadblocks will majorly benefit them.

4. Check in with them

Check in how ever much is needed. By doing this, they’ll feel like they’re on the right path and be encouraged to keep on going. Remember, they’re looking forward to that reward at the end or the rewards along the way so checking in gives them an idea on how close or far away they are from that reward.

5. Celebrate!

Celebrate all wins and all milestones. This seems obvious but this’ll encourage them to keep going no matter what. All wins, weather big or small are worth the recognition. Even as adults it feels amazing to be praised for any wins we have, and this feeling is the same for children. We want our kids to always be set up for success so enabling them with confidence and self-awareness is a great thing to embed in them early.

We hope this guide has assisted you in how to set goals with your little one. Remember, it’s a journey not a race! You and your child have got this!