New Year, New Educational Goals

It’s time for new goals!

When a new year rolls around, it is time for a perspective. It gives us time to reflect upon what we accomplished in the last year and it gives us the time that we need to set goals for the new year. Sometimes those goals are work related, health related or even goals with the use of your time. However, have you ever considered setting new educational goals with your child during this time of year? It is usually the break between semesters on the school calendar and a great time to reflect upon their past successes or failures and determine how they can refocus to achieve their goals for the remaining part of the school year. Consider these topics when having a discussion with your child about their educational goals for the rest of the school year…

What is your child most proud of since the beginning of the school year?

Have your child reflect upon the projects, assignments and activities that they have completed since the start of the school year. Have them identify the specific items that they are most proud of. Whether it is a specific project that they were really invested in and received a good grade or if there is a test that they did well on that shows that they have really made some improvement, it is important for your child to identify their successes. Once they identify those items that they are proud of, it will help them feel good about how far they have come during this school year.

What does your child need to work on?

Just as it is important for your child to identify what they have done well during this school year, it is just as important for your child to identify their areas of improvement. Your child should think about those subjects that they are struggling with, those specific assignments that they didn’t do so well on or even those social relationships that they would like to improve. It is important to note that your child should also identify the social relationships that they are proud of or the social activities that they participated in as the first part of this process. However, once they identify the areas that they need to make some improvements, be sure to encourage your child letting them know that they can make these improvements and that you will help them develop a plan to do so.

Develop a plan

Once you have identified these areas, it is now important to write down everything that you all have discussed. Have your child write down their proud moments and areas of improvement on a piece of paper. Then on that same sheet of paper, have them write their goals for the remainder of the school year as well as their plan to achieve them. Once all of this is written down, please make sure that your child keeps a copy that they can see and reference every day. This can be in their daily folder or their notebook or at home in their room, maybe even on their wall or mirror. It is also key that you have a copy somewhere you can reference consistently. This way you both remember what you need to work on, this will be especially important as the school year gets busy.

This kind of mid school year planning is key in helping your child to understand what real goal setting looks like and how to achieve those goals. It also shows them that even when they are not doing well in an area, that there is hope for improvement as long as they develop a plan. Of course this can be done more than once a year however the holiday break that leads into the new year is the perfect break for reflection and planning.