New Year Goals for Kids: Wishing Wand Craft is the perfect craft to get your kids excited about accomplishing goals this coming year.
During their annual Star Festival (Tanabata Festival), the Japanese write wishes on strips of paper, tie them on bamboo branches, and wave them up at the stars in the hope that their wish will come true.
I like to set goals for myself. When I got married we started setting some goals as a couple. Now that we have kids we try to set goals as a family.
A couple of years ago, I shared this idea of a Family Meeting New Years Resolution time but now that we have our 4 year old who wants to participate I decided to add a craft to it so maybe he can grasp a bit more what we are doing.
We got started on our wishing wand craft a little late this year since we were traveling at the beginning of January. I thought I brought everything to make our little craft and to have our family New Years Resolution meeting but after searching all of our luggage I didn’t.
So don’t worry if you’re behind on setting goals as a family! What’s important is that you make time to do it so your kids can become familiar with the idea of working towards something–goal setting.
For my little guy it was easier to introduce to him “wishes” instead of saying goals. But I did explain to him what we wish to accomplish this year has more of a firm foundation than just mere “hopeful wishing”. With our faith and hard work, towards realistic goals we can accomplish many things this coming year and in life.
I really liked the symbolism of the star tradition that the Japanese culture uses in their festival, it’s such a great visual especially for kids. So I’m adapting it to our new year goal setting activities this year!
New Year Goals for Kids: Wishing Wand Craft
supplies:
- wooden rod or straw
- glue
- paper, felt or foam
- Post it notes
- optional: ribbon
1. Take your paper or felt or a mix of both and make star shapes from them. Embellish them as you wish. We used glitter foam with an adhesive back.
2. Glue the stars to the wooden rod. Since the back of our glitter foam was sticky we just peeled it and then placed the straw over it.
3. Take your Post it notes and write three things you wish to accomplish this year and tape the note on the back of the star. You can go here to see how we come up with our three things. If you need help you can go HERE to see how we picked a guiding word for the year.
4. Have them place it in their room and every time they accomplish one of their goals they can check it off.
Here are other ideas for your star wishing wand.
This cute star is from Heartmade Blog!
Want more?
Stop by and check out our other New Years Activities: Countdown with Fizz Fun in champagne glasses, New Years Family Reusable Time Capsule Activity with 2 great printable options, New Year’s Balloon Countdown (printable and activities)
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