From No Kidding with Our Kids Foundation
A goal is something that you hope to achieve, attain, meet, pursue, reach, realize, and set. As teachers and parents, we are always encouraging children to make and reach goals; whether it’s a child taking his tentative first steps or a pre-schooler’s success at tying his shoes.
Teaching children to reflect and set goals is an important lesson that needs to be taught starting at a young age. Preschool and early childhood education teaches young children the core social skills that prepare them for kindergarten and beyond.
These skills boost children’s confidence, increase their ability to build healthy relationships with others, and help them as they adapt to new environments and rising expectations. Both parents and teachers want our children to succeed in life. We want them to be effective problem solvers. We want them to set goals and achieve them.
Having something to focus on and work towards helps us to be productive human beings. It is our responsibility to teach these skills to children. Setting goals and working towards them will teach children perseverance. Early-learning centres understand that perseverance is a very important skill in a child’s life and one they will use throughout their lives.
Goal setting for children is important because it gives them a sense of purpose that can improve their confidence and build their self-esteem. It also helps them to focus and make better decisions. Along with this, goal setting can be used to motivate children by ensuring that they achieve smaller goals on a regular basis. Kids who have goals will do better in life than kids with no plan at all. Teach your children the necessity of goal setting and how to go about it.
How to set goals
Goal setting may be something new to kids, but just like brushing their teeth or studying every day, we want goal setting to become a habit for them. So, since they’re just starting out, it’s important to keep in mind that the emphasis should be on the process itself, not just on the end result, which is the achievement of goals. The idea with goal setting for kids is to get them started in the life-long frame of mind of thinking, planning, and taking action in order to achieve results.
Achievable and effective goals for your children are ones that:
…are realistic.
…force them to grow as they strive to achieve desired results.
…they want to achieve.
…they believe they can achieve.
…are within their skills and abilities to achieve.
Goal setting should be a daily habit for your children because achieving a specific goal is a part of your children's daily activity.
When your children learn how to set goals for themselves, they are sure to gain some positive things like:
…develop thinking ability and streamline critical thinking.
…plan things for the future and be safe in whatever they do or perform.
…learn how to take action so that they can take suitable action.
