Over the Christmas holiday, we tend to want to relax, eat lovely food, watch loads of television and enjoy ourselves. It’s traditionally a time for family and togetherness. The Christmas holiday can also be a time for a little bit of personal development. With the cold winds of winter blowing outdoors, and many places closed, we naturally spend more time indoors. It’s the perfect time for parents to help with personal development and doing a bit of goal setting with children.
HELPING CHILDREN WITH GOAL SETTING
What does your child need help with and what could you work on during the holiday season? Here are some ideas for parents:
Ideas for Personal Development Goals
- Fine-tune their communication skills.
- Get kids to take a bit more responsibility for themselves (like making their own bed or letting them choose their own clothes to wear).
- Perhaps they could reach out more to friends to improve their social life.
- Be more vocal around relatives during the holiday.
- Improve their organisational skills to make school life easier.
- What do your children struggle with in life?
- What do you as a parent struggle with regarding their behaviour? Are they always running late or forgetting things? Perhaps your child doesn’t’ help much at home?
- How old are your children? Could they do more for themselves and help the rest of the family? It might be time to teach them new life skills.
- What does your child want to improve for themselves?
Whilst we have the time during the Christmas holidays, look at what your children really need help with the most. And if they could do with taking more responsibility, think about what jobs and tasks they could do for themselves. Have those conversations with your children and choose a couple of simple goals that they can start to implement and carry forward into school and home life. It should be something that will also allow them to grow a little bit more – become a tad more independent, responsible or improve their interpersonal skills. Goal setting for children can be fun and get their creative minds working.
The two or three weeks they have at home over the holidays is a great time for growing a bit more and learning whilst you have the time to teach and help them. What are your plans for personal development as 2021 closes and 2022 begins?
