One important skill that you can teach your children is the ability to plan ahead to achieve goals or dreams. It is important that children begin to learn the elements of planning ahead for the future and the benefits of self-discipline. Just as you plan for future events, such as vacations, or buying a new home or a car you can also teach your children to do the same thing. Here are five events or goals that you can encourage your children to plan for.
1) Once your child is old enough you can have her plan her own birthday party. This can be a great experience for your child as it can teach organizational and budgeting skills. In order for this to work you need to be available to help your child as much as she may need it, but you should not overstep and do more than she asks you to.
2) You can encourage your child to begin planning and completing large homework assignments on his own. This may include science and history projects, research papers and day-to-day homework. By allowing your child to set up his own schedule you are teaching self-discipline. He will also learn how to estimate the amount of time it will take to complete a project.
3) You can have your children plan short vacations or weekend trips. This can include the destination, stops along the way, restaurants to eat at, and the hotel. You can give your child a budget to follow as well as any time or distance restrictions you would like.
4) If your child wants to make a large purchase you can encourage them to work for and save money for the purpose. You can apply this to things including a clothing budget, if they insist on wanting more expensive items then you want to pay for.
5) You can also encourage your children to set goals for things they want to achieve. This could be getting into a good college, joining a certain sports team or learning a new skill. These experiences will give your child a chance to grow.