In my home, we set goals for the new school year, I’ve seen how this has helped my kids and me.

CDC.gov suggests that goal-setting skills are essential to help students identify, adopt, and maintain healthy behaviors. This standard includes the critical steps that are needed to achieve both short-term and long-term health goals. These skills make it possible for individuals to have aspirations and plans for the future.

1. Goal setting for school and setting priorities requires breaking it down to our children.

2. Keep it simple, ask your children what goals are important for them in the next school year daily and weekly.

As a parent, you might be tempted to tell your children, even the ones in elementary school what goals is important, but it should really come from your child because that’s how you empower children to advocate for themselves.

3. Explain to your child that priorities are what is important to them over other things and goals are how they get it done. 

4. Once that’s done have your child work backwards to figure out how to get it done. 

5. Another great tip is to always be teaching: you do this by sharing your own personal tips for prioritization of goals with your child, share with them how you prioritize your work activities at home, work and with friends and family. Now ask them to relate how they can use some of mom or dads skill when in school.

Don’t forget that just like us, our children are swamped with a lot of things to do at home and school and that it’s our job to help them get things done. Happy goal-setting!

How to set goals using the paper method

Use a sheet of paper, and write down what needs to get done on a weekend before school on Monday.

A sample list:

-Complete homework

-Put out clothes to wear for the next day,

-Pack lunch,

-Read a book,

-Brush my teeth,

-Tidy room,

-Complete homework on the computer.

Your list may differ from the examples above, but it must be familiar for your child-so customize it to your child’s unique qualities.  You can even turn it into a game and have your child write down what they want to get done before school starts, then you the parent list them in the order of importance of what has to be done.

Occasionally, children may be faced with having to do more than one thing at what seems to be the same time. This may lead to frustration, as the parent must help them understand what is more important and what is urgent between the two, so they can prioritize. A good question to ask is, “what do they need to do now to help them in this present moment”.

Now that we’ve written down the goals, which ones require a daily, weekly or monthly check-in.

I have included a sheet you can use here, that way you don’t need to make anything from scratch.

Benefits of your child prepping for the next day

Being prepared helps us be ready for unfortunate circumstances the next day. 

One way to do this is to have your child’s clothes, food etc ready for the next day by prepping the night before, or to get out a full week worth of meals and clothes the weekend before for the rest of the week. 

Another great way to be prepared is to prep backpacks for the next day by clearing it out the night before.

I love prepping backpacks.

A controversial one may be to consider not having visitors come over to the house on school nights, especially if you have kids in elementary school.

Don’t forget that as the parent you will be the one setting the pace and example. As you help your child figure it all out they will realize that they can actually do so much more by themselves.

Yes, our job is to help them get ready and be well prepared to go to school everyday. As we do this we end up setting them up with a beautiful habit that will help them in adulthood.

Our job as a parent is only for such a short time. The time we have to mold our children is from 0-15 – my personal opinion. Let’s do everything we can to help our children develop resilience, perseverance and personal responsibility. Let’s teach our children about goal setting and prioritizing their time. All of these little things we do are not only to help our children succeed, but they are also something to help build up our children for a better adulthood. 

Share, like or comment let me know what you think.

Change Watch: What one thing can you do before school starts?

Gloria