Ingredients:
- A foam board, pinboard, or poster paper
- Scissors
- Glue
- Magazines (to cut out relevant images from)
- Printed images (search online using affirmations and power words)
- Markers
- Stickers
- Colorful papers or sticky notes (to make your own drawing or write quotes/affirmations)
Recipe for Fun
Putting goals on paper helps to build self-confidence. Setting goals teaches children to take responsibility for themselves and kids will learn that their actions can determine whether they fail or succeed. When children reach their goals, they learn to believe in their abilities and are more likely to set new goals for themselves in the future.
STEP 1: Introduce the concept of vision boards to your child and give them a few examples, such as images of animals if your child has a goal to be a veterinarian or images of a soccer field if they want to score a goal in their next game.
STEP 2: Before picking photos to make the actual vision board, it’s important to make a list of goals that your kids would want to represent on it. Guide your child with vision board prompts to help them think of focused goals and what they want to aim toward. It’s okay to have multiple goals spanning different areas like learning, travel, activities, and more. Start out with easy prompts/questions and then move into goal-focused ones, such as:
- What are your favorite things to do?
- What do you want to learn in school?
- What is a goal that you want to accomplish this year?
- What is your dream job when you grow up?
- In your perfect vacation, which places would you like to travel to?
STEP 3: In addition to photos, ask your child to think of affirmation statements or power words and write them on a piece of paper to add to the board. Let your child choose as little or as many as they want.
Affirmation suggestions:
- I can be anything I want to be.
- I am brave.
- I am smart.
- I am proud of myself.
- I am important.
Power word suggestions:
- Creative
- Happy
- Family
- Friendship
- Strong
STEP 4: Now that you have your goals, photos, and supplies, it’s time to put it all together! Lay down all the photos, words, affirmations, stickers, drawings, etc., and try out different placements. Add or remove items depending on how it looks. Once your child is happy with it, start gluing or pinning all the items on the board together.
STEP 5: Finally, hang the board up in your child’s bedroom so that they can see it every day. You can encourage a habit of looking at the board every day in the morning with focus before they go to school and keep reminding them of their immense capability.