Read how I used a fun and easy balloon activity to teach my kids about the value of setting goals. Plus see how my sponsors and ScholarShare make your dreams of paying for your child’s education an achievable goal.
I love January! It always seems like such a great time to start fresh. I love the renewed energy that I get from starting a new year. It seems like the perfect time to set new goals and work on a little self-improvement. I feel that by writing a goal turns a lofty dream into something that I can actually work towards and accomplish.
Because I see the value of setting and keeping goals, I wanted to teach my children how to write and work towards a goal also. A few nights ago we decided to have a fun family night activity to teach them about the value of working towards a goal.
I started by talking to them about why it is important to set goals. I took an unblown balloon and asked them how much fun it was to play with. They all agreed that it wasn’t really much fun or useful that way. I told them that it’s true, that as is, an unblown balloon is not too much fun, but it is a good place to start! It has the potential to be something really fun. This is like our goals, a goal written on a piece of paper isn’t very useful but it’s a good place to start! It has the potential to be something really special!
I then started to blow the balloon up, one slow breath at a time. After a few breaths I asked the kids if the balloon was becoming more fun. They agreed that it was starting to look like something fun, but it still had a long way to go. I told them, like this balloon, accomplishing goals isn’t something that happens all of a sudden. We have to work at them one “breath” at a time.
I then finished blowing the balloon and told them when we work really hard at our goals, the end result is something really special. When we set goals and work at accomplishing them one day we will reach them and then something that was once just a dream becomes a real thing. After that, I passed out some paper and pens and we all set some goals to work on on our own and as a family.
We finished the night with a rousing game of “keep your dreams afloat” balloon volleyball and “dreams-afloat” root-beer floats.
If education is one of your child’s goals, but paying for it seems more like a dream, work on that goal one “breath” at a time with ScholarShare. ScholarShare’s California 529 Savings Plan, allows you to reach your goal of paying for your child’s education one “breath-sized” contribution at a time. You can do this by starting a college savings fund for as little as $25 start up and $25 subsequent contributions per investment portfolio. By making these contributions, your dream of saving for a college will become a reality one breath at a time. With the added tax deduction benefits, a ScholarShare account is a smart way to keep your and your child’s dreams afloat through small achievable goals.
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