Vision boards are a fun and creative way for children (and adults) to set personal goals every year.
They offer a great way for kids to get motivated and take action to reach their goals, especially in the tween years when most kids seem to start losing their motivation to engage in activities, or see the benefit in doing various tasks.
These simple visualization boards can help them hone in on their interests while developing much needed planning skills for the future.
Here are a few simple steps to creating vision board:
Keep it simple
All you need is a medium size poster board and glue, or a cork board and pins. Any type of material can be added onto the board: cutout pictures from magazines, newspapers, or simply written goals on a piece of paper, anything goes.
Big dreams & small dreams
It’s absolutely wonderful to dream big and include amazing goals on the vision board, but make sure to also include realistic and achievable goals.
Set specific goals
It helps to set specific goals and to think out of the box. The vision board can contain more than just ‘material’ things. It can include activities they would like to do, amount of money they need to save to purchase something they want, skills they would like to acquire or improve, places they would like to visit, ways they can give back to their community.
It’s also important to come up with a plan to actively work towards achieving the set goals.
Include short term goals
Short term goals are easier to achieve and in turn can motivate children to fulfill the rest of their vision board goals.
For instance, if your child wants to receive a higher grade on their next week’s math test, then ask them to come up with a plan in order to achieve this goal (e.g. do an extra 5 minutes of math every day).
Include long term goals
Long term goals require more thought in terms of action planning, but can be broken down into smaller tasks along the way.
For example, learning to type using all ten fingers can seem overwhelming at first, but this skill can be achieved gradually over time. So, practicing keyboarding 5 minutes every day, while tracking and rewarding progress weekly, can make this goal attainable by the end of the year or sooner.
Personalize it
Get creative. They can personalize their board by adding things they love and things they are grateful for (e.g. the family pet).
As a parent, you might also learn something new from your ever-changing child. My son added on his board: ‘Learn to do Bardownskis’. So, I asked him if Bardownski played for the Montreal Canadians. He laughed at me. Turns out Bardownski is not an NHL player, it’s a type of hockey goal, where the puck hits the hockey net cross ‘bar’, then drops ‘down’ landing in the net …the ‘ski’ part apparently just makes it sound cooler!
The bigger picture
Keep the vision board in their bedroom, in plain sight, as a reminder. When a goal gets accomplished… CELEBRATE!
If some of the goals don’t get reached by the end of the year… no worries. Learning to deal with setbacks, thinking positive, and noticing the good intention behind any goal setting is just as important as reaching the goal!
Vision boards can be a useful tool at any age. So try making one for yourself too. The outcome might surprise you.
