Teachers usually take the opportunity to help students at the beginning of the school year to set goals. At Mitchell we call those goals our hopes and dreams. Your child and classmates have written their hopes and dreams in their classroom. Talk with them about their hopes and dreams for the school year. Goals are important not only at school but also at home.
As a family you can make goals together. For example you may set a goal to spend at least one day a week to have a game night. Maybe dinner time is not always together at the dinner table, your family may decide that the family goal will be to eat dinner together, at the dinner table, three times a week. Family goals are unique to your family. Many times parents are working on their own academic goals, share these with your children and let them know you have hopes and dreams for your own education.
The most important thing with setting goals is to be specific. A goal like I will do good in reading is not specific. A better goal is I will read three books a week to improve my reading. Goals are important and accomplishing these goals can be very rewarding. But even when we don't always accomplish what we plan to, we can look at what we have accomplished and go on from there.
Here are some websites that may be helpful when setting goals with your children.
