Chart Your Progress

Kids 7 to 11 - Indoor activity

Required: paper or posterboard, art supplies

Here's an activity that will let your family members write down their short-term goals and chart the steps they take toward achieving them.

Encourage your kids to create a chart (using poster board and art supplies) to illustrate the path they take toward a goal. For example, your chart-makers might be saving their money for a bike or a toy, or trying to develop a skill such as playing the piano or learning geometry, or practice a new habit such as helping younger siblings with their homework or spending time with elderly neighbors, and so on.

Each child can write his or her goal at the top of the page. Then your kids can design charts that will illustrate the progress they make toward reaching their goals. The charts might take the form of a thermometer (for example, if your kids are saving money, they can show how their funds grow). Alternatively, the charts might be calendars, with a code (such as a checkmark or a sticker) for each day of the week when your kids complete their designated tasks or steps. Or your kids can create unique charts that illustrate their climb toward the goals they've set.

Or, instead of creating individual charts, your entire family might want to create a poster to track your progress toward a communal goal -- for example, perhaps planning for a family vacation. In that case, you might have a column to chart the accomplishments of each participant. So now you can actually see how your kids are progressing with their attempts to find places to visit during your next family trip -- and how well you're doing in your quest to raise the cash for the expedition!

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