6 Tips to Help Your Child Benefit from New Year Resolution

In recent years New Year's resolutions have got a bit of a bad rap. However, well designed resolutions can be a great way for children to build their self-esteem and learn how to set goals. The following tips will assist you in helping your kids benefit from their New Year's resolutions as much as possible.

1. Make it a family activity. One of the easiest ways to keep all family members accountable for their resolutions is to set them together and then check in on a regular basis. Plan a monthly family meeting to sit down and discuss your progress on your resolutions.

2. Cater resolutions for different ages. Help your kids design resolutions that are appropriate for their given ages. For example, cleaning a bedroom independently can be a perfect goal for a younger child while working through conflict in a healthy manner may be a better goal for an older child.

3. Break them down into realistic steps. A yearlong resolution can be overwhelming without a plan of action. Help your child make smaller goals for each month of the year.

4. Encourage revisions as needed. A New Year's resolution should never be set in stone. There is nothing wrong with modifying a goal partway through the year. For example, if practicing the piano 20 minutes per day five days a week is too much for a seven year old, scale it back to 10 minutes per day.

5. Issue periodic non-food rewards. Getting rewards for meeting resolution benchmarks encourages people to keep working toward their goals.

6. Serve as a role model. The most effective way to teach children is to model behavior for them. As part of making New Year's resolutions a family activity, set your own resolutions and discuss your successes and failures with your kids.