How to Teach Children About New Year Resolutions
Another year has gone past and a brand new one is upon us. Mount Litera Zee School(MLZS) wishes everyone a happy and prosperous new year.
Every new year brings with it a new hope and a chance to make a new beginning. People spend the last 2 weeks of every year drawing up New Year Resolutions for the coming year. But it is also true that the implementation of the resolutions leaves a lot to be desired.
How do we stay resolute in the face of severe odds and remain true to our new year resolutions? Time is precious and our children need to understand the value of time. Our children need to be taught the virtues of time management and the advantages of planning their schedule in advance.
According to the experts, kids aged between 7-12 are ideally placed to learn about making new year resolutions and sticking to them with the help of their parents.
What about the resolutions themselves? Any activity that offers us a chance to make us better human beings is a good option to be made into a new year resolution. Conversely, you can stop an activity that is considered unacceptable. You could get your child to read more books, watch less TV, eat more vegetables. Consume less junk food and aerated drinks and the list goes on.
Here are some pointers for you to teach your youngsters all about new year resolutions and their importance in our life.
- Be positive in your approach: Get the children to talk about the positive things they accomplished last year. This will set the tone for identifying the good things they can accomplish in the new year.
- Keep it simple: Planning the impossible and the resultant failure to stick to the resolution may discourage the children and blunt their enthusiasm. The goals have to be simple and realistic enough to spur the youngsters to pursue it with due diligence.
- Divide and conquer: If you think the goals set by your child is unrealistic and ambitious, do not discourage them. Instead explore the ways in which both parents and the child can work as a team to accomplish those goals.
- Monitoring is in nagging is out: Keep an eye on the proceedings from a safe distance. Check on the progress made, but also allow for minor lapses.
However, experts are also unanimous in their opinion that walking the talk is the best way to do it. Parents should set an example to the children by making a resolution and sticking to it at all times. New year resolutions are also a great way to bring families together.
To children, parents are their first teachers and they absolutely look up to us as role models they can emulate. But also remember, there is plenty we grown-ups can learn from our children.