By now you’ve heard of Vision Boards, basically a visual expression of your goals and priorities for the year. I have been doing vision boards off and on for the last few years, within A group setting or solo. But last September I had the idea of doing this with my 5 year old son. Could this be something that was a valuable tool for him? He had seen my vision board and was excited to give it a try.
GATHER SUPPLIES
First, you need to gather some glue sticks, a poster board, scissors, and most importantly, the magazines. We had some kid magazines lying around the house, so used those, along with some magazines I took home from an adult vision board party I had done several months prior. Yes, do the math, I held onto those kid magazines from January-September (clutter much?). However, I’m glad I did! My usual, hard to focus child,
was enthralled by the activity. Heading to Office Depot and picking out a poster board, might have been the highlight for him.
START FLIPPING THROUGH THE MAGAZINES
Next, I let him start looking through the magazine. What pictures did he like? What things did he want? Places he hoped to go to? What represented what was important to him and yes, what did he want to improve with himself or grow in? Your children are amazingly insightful if you give them the space to figure it out.
CUT OUT/RIP OUT THE PICS THAT RESONATE WITH THEM
He helped with some of the cutting and ripping, getting big pictures, little pictures, whatever he liked.
SORT THROUGH THEM
After that, when he felt he was “done” (bored), and had enough variety, we looked through them together and asked “why?” for a lot of them. Turns out, there was the obvious – I want to go to Disneyland, I like that food. However, he surprised me with all the craft projects he picked that he wanted to do with me, the cat was chosen because he wanted to try and be kinder to our cats, and carrots and fruit as better snack choices.
ARRANGE PHOTOS
Starting with the biggest pictures, start arranging the pictures on the poster board, without gluing them on!. Then move to the medium and down to the small pictures. Get an idea of if you need to find more pictures, or if you need to get more selective and toss some.
Once your poster board looks the way they want it to, take them off in one section, and start gluing them on. If your kid can read, some words that represent their goals is A great idea.
FINISHED PROJECT
Look it over together – get the obligatory picture, and then see what your child is hopeful for in the next year. For us, it looks like we will be doing lots of craft projects, eating healthy food, playing MarioKart as A family, seeking out snow and manta rays (separately) and quite possibly financing a trip to Disneyland. Not bad for his first try at a vision board! Lastly, get some of that tacky poster stuff and attach it to A wall in their room or the bathroom so they can refer back to it over the year.
PRO TIP: Most people do this as A New Years resolution in December or January. We did it in September, and I think its a great way for kids to make goals and create their mindset for the school year. Really, do it anytime of the year that works best for YOU.
Please, take a pic of the vision board you’ve made for yourself or your kid and attach it below. If you’ve got ideas that could be added to the vision board idea, I’d love to hear your thoughts!!
Carla Reese
