Getting kids to dream big

We asked Bill Corbett to explain his idea of having children create their own “Dream Book” as a way for them to discover their passions and encourage their dreams. Here’s what Bill has to say …

With a show of hands, how many of you reading this blog post would like to have a child who lives a happy life as an adult? And how many of you readers would like to have a child who only picks emotionally healthy people to have relationships with, as an adult? Great. And how many of you would like to have children who are becoming aware of their passion and pick a career that is tied to that passion? By the show of hands, I thought most of you would want this. Now that we’ve started with the end in mind, let’s back up and determine what parenting skill is required to set our kids up to follow this path.

One of the primary ways of helping your kids to one day live an enriching life is to teach them that they can dream about ANYTHING.

They can dream about …

who they will become

all they can create

what they can have.

The secret to teaching our kids how to dream as big as they can is to sharpen their ability to dream. That means when our child comes to us and asks for something, we must encourage that dreaming but we don’t have to buy for them what they are asking for.

The best tool in sharpening the ability to dream is to help them create a dream book, a place where the child can go to capture what they are dreaming to be and have. A classic dream book can be any form of book, notebook, composition book that allows the child to write in it as a journal or to draw in it to capture images that come to mind for them. The dream book can be introduced in a family meeting or a craft activity, allowing the child to decorate the outside of their book in any way they want. This allows the child to personalize his or her dream book to mark it as his or her very own.

Every time your child comes to you to tell you about something in a dream, somebody he or she wants to be, or something they would like to buy or own, instead of being pragmatic and telling them why they can’t have or do something, tell your child, “Go put that in your DREAM BOOK, ” and watch the magic happen right before your eyes!

How do YOU get kids to dream big?

Bill Corbett is the author of the award-winning parenting book series, LOVE, LIMITS, & LESSONS: A PARENT’S GUIDE TO RAISING COOPERATIVE KIDS (in English and in Spanish) and the executive producer and host of the public access television show CREATING COOPERATIVE KIDS. He is a member of the American Psychological Association and provides parent coaching and keynote presentations to parent and professional audiences across the country. Images used here with permission from Bill Corbett.