Setting School Year Goals

As the school year draws near, our children’s anxieties begin to grow.  They worry about  peer pressure, upcoming standardized tests, and those academic areas that they struggle with. Wouldn’t it be great to help ease some of their tension and relieve a little anxiety ?  This is possible with a little planning and a lot of positivity.

Our recommendation is to sit down with your child and discuss a goal or goals they have for the upcoming school year.  If your child has a hard time focusing on long-term goals, just shorten the length of time to achieve it. For example, instead of the goal of being an A/B student for the entire school year.  Start by working to achieve that goal each semester. Instead of waiting for that sense of accomplishment all year, it can achieved in six weeks.    If your child gets a list of 20 spellings words each week.  Instead of setting the goal to get them all correct, try letting them decide how many words they believe they can get correct.   Perhaps instead of getting them ALL right, they could focus on getting 15 out of the 20.  Help your children work toward small victories and then allow them to focus on bigger ones with more confidence.

If your child is interested in playing a sport or doing an after school activity, discuss with them the pros and cons.  How will it affect their academics?  Are they able to create a routine or strategy where they will be successful at both?  Talk to them about the physical, mental, and emotional goals they are setting up for themselves.  We don’t want them to put too much stress on themselves and burn out.  We need to make sure that their goals are possible and are being achieved in a reasonable time frame.

Our recommendation for younger students would be to focus on one goal at a time.  Keep track of their progress on a chart or spreadsheet, so that they can see their accomplishments.  If you have an older child you may choose to come up with more than one goal, but we caution you to not set more than three at a time.  Our goal is not to put added stress on our children. It is to show them with tenacity and perseverance anything is possible.