3 tips for creating new healthy habits for your child

Boy does January bring up memories for me:

• There was the winter I tried to learn German
• And the time I wanted to take up xylophone
• Oh - can’t forget my short-lived attempt at gluten-free baking

What do all of these have in common?

They were all New Year’s Resolutions. And they all failed miserably.

This year, I say we forget about New Year’s Resolutions, and instead focus on building healthy habits. Habits are more sustainable and fun than the pressure and guilt of resolutions.

But how do you make it happen?

Here are 3 quick tips for starting new healthy habits for you and the young learners in your life:

• Pick a specific time and place for the habit (e.g. “20 minutes of reading every night after dinner on the red chair in the living room”)
• Connect the new habit to an existing one (e.g. “when I get home from soccer practice, I’ll clean the fish tank”)
• Give everyone a reasonable reward for doing the habit (e.g. “after we take our evening walk, we have a cup of tea and watch The Office”)
  

The good part is this: once you build a habit, you feel the benefits. And then you start to like doing it for its own sake.

For example:
Thousands of Outschool families have made interest-led learning a part of their routine because it helps kids build new skills, develop new passions, and forge new friendships.

Right now, you can take the first step towards making interest-led learning a habit for your young learner, too.

Outschool makes this easy with ongoing classes. These classes meet on a continual basis, and on a set schedule. There are hundreds of these classes for you to browse through with your young learner. Don’t forget that you can sort by date/time, age, and topic.