Getting Ready: 3 Practical ways to prepare your children for the New Year
As a busy wife and mom, preparing for the new year is serious business for me. I intentionally make time to reflect, pray, and plan. Then one day it hit me. I was doing all this planning for me but I wasn’t including those who matter most to me. I was leaving out my fellas. That’s was when I knew I needed to do something different. So a few years ago, we made the shift to start preparing our fellas for the New Year too.
Here are three practical ways we help our fellas prepare for a new year.
Write thank you notes
One meaningful way we help our fellas prepare for the new year is to properly thank those who have given to them during the holidays and throughout the year. This is a non-negotiable in our home. By taking the time to complete handwritten notes, we are teaching our children to take time to reflect on the thought and kindness of others. We want to close the year expressing our gratitude toward others.
There are several ways you can encourage your child to take part in writing thank you notes.
- Stationary matters: Allow your child to pick out thank you stationary that fits his/her personality
- Be creative: For children too young to write, allow them to draw a picture expressing their gratitude.
- Lead by example: your children are more likely to write their thank you notes when they see it is something you do.
Reflect on the year
Now that a new year is upon us, what better time to reflect on all that God has done for your family. We take this time to honor the past year by celebrating our blessings, embracing our challenges, and being in awe of God’s goodness. Whether over hot chocolate and desserts or gathered together in your PJs on New Year’s Eve, there’s not a right or wrong way reflect on the year. The important part is doing it together as a family acknowledging the lessons learned and memories made. Teaching children how to actively reflect equips them with the tools necessary to collect, record, and analyze what happened and why. They learn how to think about what works, what didn’t and why.
Reflecting as a family can be quite simple.
- Start. Stop. Continue: Based upon this year, what is one thing you would like to start, what you would like to stop and what you would like to continue. If this is too deep for your kids, you can ask what you would want to start, stop and continue as a family.
- Plan a viewing party: As a family, gather together to go back through pictures taken throughout the year. This is particularly fun to see what pictures everyone has taken and what events were captured.
- Journal: Ask a few reflective questions like “What was your favorite memory from this year?”, “What was your greatest challenge from this year?”, “What is one lesson you learned from this year.”
Set goals for the new year
Now that our children have expressed gratitude through their thank you notes and actively reflected on the year; it’s time to set goals for the New Year. At the beginning of every year, millions of people will set goals they will never achieve mainly due to poor goal setting. Sure most of these people have good intentions, but good intentions don’t make up for poor goal setting. Children need help in making a goal and creating a plan to make that goal a reality. Teaching our children to set goals early holds them responsible for their behaviors and actions, encourages them to develop perseverance and grit, while teaching them a lifelong skill.
A few steps to consider when helping your child create goals:
• Let your child choose his/her goal: As a mom, I know the goals I would like my fellas to work on, but that doesn’t help them. Instead, I ask questions to guide them to work on the goals that matter to them. Questions like: What would you like to accomplish this year?; What is an area you would like to improve?; What is one thing you would like to be able to do by the end of the year?
• Talk about why this goal matters: Why does this goal matter to your kid? Will it help others?
• Discuss how the goals will be achieved: Break down the smaller steps needed to accomplish this goal. Guide your child with HOW to accomplish the goals using short-term and long term goals. Discuss steps and possible stumbling blocks to success.
• Set a reward: How will you celebrate when you achieve the goal? Teaching children how to celebrate their success is important. Pick celebrations along the way to encourage your child to stay the course, especially when your child has overcome a big hurdle.
Once you have worked on your goals as a family, put the goals where they can be seen. Using vision boards are an excellent way to keep the goals in front of everyone. Spend time each month reviewing the goals. Discuss any progress, challenges, and accomplishment toward the goal.
Our family looks forward to a new year, and we love creating new traditions. How do you and your family prepare for a new year? Drop a comment below and let me hear about it.
Happy New Year,
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Sara Lewis
Thank you for sharing this! So practical and easy to implement with my own kids. I know what we’ll be working on during Christmas break!
Mamie L. Pack
Sara LewisYay!!! I would love to know how it goes. Is there anything you would add to the list?
thebusyboymama
I love the idea of thank you notes! My son’s bday is Jan 3rd so I definitely need to step up my game.
Mamie L. Pack
thebusyboymamaTeaching children the importance of expressing gratitude is a life skill that will help them in so many ways. For younger kids, you can take a picture of your son with the gift and have him draw something. This still reinforces the idea.
Kristie | Girl Mom Chaos
I love the mention of writing thank you notes. Only my oldest is the only one able to actually write but ever since they were old enough to draw (or scribble) I have had my kids make thank you cards for friends and relatives.
The art of a handwritten note is becoming lost so I love to keep it alive with my kids — not to mention teaching them manners and gratefulness.
Mamie L. Pack
Kristie | Girl Mom ChaosYay! I love reading this Kristie. It is important to teach this skill especially in our digital age.
monicalorelle
I have young kids but getting them started with setting their goals is an amazing idea! Thanks for sharing.
Mamie L. Pack
monicalorelleMonica you don’t have to start big with your kids. Little things like putting up their toys or bringing you their shoes are big helpers.
Sherry
These are great ideas! I love that you ask guiding questions while ensuring the answers are coming from your children. I plan to implement these ideas with y own kids. Thank you!
Mamie L. Pack
SherryAs parents it can be easy to want to set their goals without really seeing what is important to them.
Kristen
These are great tips for preparing your kids for the new year! This will be my sons first so we can’t apply most of these yet but I will keep them in mind for the future! Thank you for sharing these New Years tips!
Bailey | midnightmamabay
I love writing thank-you notes. I am so happy you included that. They are SO important.
Great post!
Mamie L. Pack
Bailey | midnightmamabayYes!!! My grandmother and mother really encouraged the importance of a written response.
101foodtravel
These are such a great idea. I have to do this with my daughter. My 5 years old will enjoy doing this. Thank you for sharing.
Mamie L. Pack
101foodtravelI would love to know one goal she sets for next year.
Lynn Armstrong
I especially love the idea of kids setting their own goals. So important for all of us!
Mamie L. Pack
Lynn ArmstrongThanks!!! How do you help them set goals?
Live Learn Better
I like this especially the thank you notes and talking about plans and goals for the year.
Mamie L. Pack
Live Learn BetterThe earlier we can start the dialogue with kids about plans and goals the easier it can become a life style.
Cynthia
My kids are 3 and 1 so they might be too young for these lol but I can definitely have them draw pictures as thank you notes for family and friends. I love these ideas!
Mamie L. Pack
CynthiaThanks Cynthia!!!
alunderfullife
I love the idea of having our kids prepare for the New Years! Teaching them to write thank you notes and make goals for themselves are so important.
Mamie L. Pack
alunderfullifeWriting thank you notes is a skill many kids don’t have now but so important.
Sue Denym
So neat. My kids are a little young for goal setting, but these are great tips for a few years down the line!
Mamie L. Pack
Sue DenymThanks. Definitely keep it for later.
Sabha Fatima
writing thank you letters is such a great idea! gratitude is so important, starting at early age is the key.
Mamie L. Pack
Sabha FatimaOh, yes! Teaching our children to focus on gratitude early will help them their entire lives.
amberleshae
Love your ideas especially the writing thank you notes point!
Mamie L. Pack
amberleshaeYes! It is such an important practice.
Abby
So nice to involve the kids in new year prep
Janeane M. Davis, J. D.
It is a good idea to help children prepare for the new year. It is a way for them to develop good habits for the future.
S
This is great. My mum might want to do some of these with my brother and sister who are teens
Mamie L. Pack
SThanks for reading!