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Give your preschool child a head start for school.

Making goals and seeing them through is a very important part of life. It helps us to plan for our future and make our lives much fuller and happier. Making a goal list will help our children to see what goals they have set for themselves, what they need to do to accomplish these goals and what they achieved once they have reached their goal.

What You’ll Need

To make a life size goal list with your children you will need the following items:

* Poster board
* Sharp pencil
* Ruler
* Different colored markers
* Hole punch
* Heavy string
* Cup hook or nail
* Gold stars, stickers or other items such as these

Instructions

Start by having your children make a list of the goals they would like to achieve over the next year. Go over the lists with your children to ensure they have chosen attainable goals. They also want to have some short-term goals on their list. By having short-term goals they will be able to see that their goals are reachable.

Next have them talk about how they plan to attain these goals. Discuss ideas and ways of achieving them. Have them make notes on their sheet so they can then transfer them to their goal list.

Also talk to them about how they want to display their accomplishments. It may be by just adding a gold star or sticker to their board. Teenagers might not be too keen on these types of things so talk to them about different ways to show everyone, but most especially themselves, that they have reached their goal.

Once they have their goals figured out, how to accomplish them and how to show off their accomplishments then they can make their chart. Use the ruler and pencil to make the areas for each item to be entered. At the top list one column as the goal column, one column for the why, where, when and how and one for the date they accomplished their goal. With a marker list each goal. With a different color marker list how they can accomplish that goal. Leave enough room in the “how” column for them to add things as necessary.

Once they have accomplished their goal have them place the date of accomplishment in their final column. Hang the goal chart on their wall by using the hole punch to make holes on either side of the chart. Tie the string through each hole and hang the chart on the wall with a cup hook or nail.

By helping your children make a goal chart they can keep near them they will be able to see that accomplishing goals is an easy, fun and necessary part of life. They will also see that when those goals are reached they can feel good about their accomplishments but most of all about themselves.