New Year's Goals for Kids: Preschool

Happy New Year!  

Do you set goals for the new year?  I do and I have always helped my kids set them as well. Nothing too lofty and not too many goals but a nice list of a goal or two to strive for. 

My goal, over the next three posts, is to help give you ideas on getting your kids in the goal setting habit but in a way that they meet with success NOT that makes them feel like failures.

First up...goals for preschoolers. YES! You can start that early and you SHOULD. I'm finding an awful lot of kids these days who have zero responsibilities. Not only is this good for encouraging a work ethic and responsibility but it's also great for strengthening executive function skills!


The best thing for the preschool aged set is to look at self help skills: picking up toys, brushing hair, brushing teeth, clearing meal dishes etc...You can set it up as a visual schedule and use some handy dandy templates from one of my favorite websites for FREE materials http://www.do2learn.com/.  

Take a look at this nice template for a weekly schedule that the child can place a sticker on or check mark when their task is completed. Instant gratification which means that the behavior is likely to repeat. Yay! That is what we all want, right? 

Here is an example that shows the pictures you can place within the above template OR just use as is.  Whether you place these pictures in the above template or use the pictures "as is" I would recommend laminating and hanging it in a place that is easily seen and accessible to your child. 

There you have it! It's that easy. Make sure, when you sit down with your preschooler, that you give them some input. YOU go first and give an example "Mommy is going to make sure that she picks up her ________ every day." Then, perhaps, give them a choice to get them started. Show them some of the pictures and see what "job" they would like for their goal.


As always, thanks for reading. 


Until next time...keep helping your kiddos BLOOM!


Jen