I love the first day of school!  Actually I love getting ready for the first day of school.  It feels a lot like New Years Eve to me.  For many of you parents—I know it feels like that for you too.  Your child may be starting a new grade or a new school or even starting school for the first time.  So it is easy to have big expectations for the new school year:

-You may want your preschooler to have all the skills necessary for kindergarten.

-You may want your elementary school student to get better grades this year than they did last year.

-You may want your middle school student to put more effort into his or her school success.

-You may want your child with articulation (speech) difficulties to produce speech that everyone can understand.

Expectations are great—we all should have them.  But if you don’t attach a goal to your expectation—you are likely to feel frustrated before the first marking period ends.    So in order to avoid this—I highly suggest that this year instead of expectations—you make:

 GOALS

But in order for goals to be effective—they must be three things:

-Realistic and Attainable

-Measurable

-Time Based

So instead of your goal being:

 Jeff will be ready for Kindergarten by the end of the year.

 Make it:

By December, Jeff will know all of his letters and colors and he will score in the average range in 4/5 areas of his school readiness assessment.  

Instead of your goal being:

Madison will do better in school this year.

 Make it:

 This grading period Madison will make A’s, B’s and C’s on her report card by turning in all of her assignments when they are due, completing homework for 30 minutes and reading for 10 minutes every night before watching tv or playing with her tablet.

By creating goals like these you actually create a ‘roadmap’ for your children to succeed at the goals. After you and your child come up with your goals for the specified amount of time (I like to use months or the grading period).  Don’t forget to put them somewhere they can be seen frequently.  Place like the refrigerator, their closet door, inside their planner, the bathroom mirror are all great locations for their goals.  The last thing to remember about goals is when the time period for the goal to be achieved is over—check in with your child to see if the goal has been met.  If the goal was not met-try to figure out why.  Did they just not do the work?  Was the goal too ambitious?  Are they showing signs of a receptive or expressive language delay? Were there outside factors (such as illness or life change) that made the goal impossible to meet?  If the original goal was not met—then adjust the goal for success.  If it was met—then make a new goal for the next marking period or month.  This school year can be great year just by setting goals!  Have a wonderful school year!