Grab Your Kids and Go Dream Boarding this Summer!

It’s summertime!

Skateboards are rolling down neighborhood streets, surfboards are riding the waves, and dream boards are motivating young minds!

As empowering parents, one of our roles is to teach the art and skill of goal setting.  We want our children to know they live in a world bursting with possibilities. We want them to be visionaries with passionate dreams and an unwavering “can do” attitude. 

One of the best tools to wrap your children into the process of goal setting is creating a Dream Board together.  A Dream Board is a collage of inspiring images and words representing our dreams of what we’d like to be, do, and have in our lives.  It’s a way to visualize our goals and share them openly with our families.

“Dream Boarding” with our children helps them to think positively, and to be focused.  It begins the process of connecting the dots between goals, actions, and achievement, and sets forth the character of expectation, accountability, and gratitude.

Imagine your children growing up happy, purposeful, and fulfilled; knowing who they are… and loving who they are becoming. Visualize your children following their dreams, fearless, free of doubt, inspired from within by excitement and self confidence.  That’s the power of a Dream Board and being an “empowered child”!

Designing a Dream Board with Your Kids!

Choose your display medium.   A Dream Board can be created on a large poster board, designated bulletin board, artist’s canvas, cork board, or even in a journal.  Together, decide if your child will make an individual board for personal goals, or contribute to a family Dream Board.

Help your child select the focus of his or her Dream Board.  Depending on their age, a Dream Board can represent goals for every facet of life, or it can concentrate on a specific area such as school achievement goals, travel, or advancing in a sport or talent.

Open your child’s mind for possibilities by asking a few questions that would support the type of Dream Board they’re creating;

• Whom do you love, admire, and want to have around you?

• What would you like to be really good at? 

• How would you like to feel?

• What would be your best day ever?

• Where would you like to visit?

• What would you really like to have or do?

Begin collecting lots of images; Google image searches, travel brochures, magazines, catalogs and advertising brochures often have great images or motivational phrases that may fit your child’s dreams. It’s always fun to search for these images together with your child. Their enthusiasm is priceless!  If your child is very young, you may want to search for images to avoid overwhelming him or her.  Then, present a few that you found and let him or her make the final selections. They’ll be eager to get onto the gluing stage!

Trust the process. Your child may find and add images that “speak to them” but you aren’t sure why because they don’t “speak to you”. Children tend to be very creative in this way. Goal setting is a process, and a journey in learning who we are and what we want to become.

Let the gluing begin!  It’s time to add the images “collage style” to a poster board, bulletin board, journal, or whatever “canvas” your child has selected to “frame” their dreams. 

Display the new Dream Board in a prominent area where your child will see it daily. Encourage him or her to reflect upon their dream board often and modify it whenever inspired to do so, as dreams are always a work in progress.

Create conversations with your child about the dreams and goals expressed on their board.  Begin modeling how to plan action steps to achieve specific goals on the board.  Talk about how they will feel while working toward the goal, and then achieving it.  Celebrate the journey!

Be EmPowerful!

Deb