How to make a vision board along with your child to aid creativity?

Vision boards, often termed as Dream Boards, are collages of pictures and quotes of your dreams that serve as a source of motivation to keep working towards them. They are a physical representation of your goals making it easier for you to realize them. These boards are very easy and a fun activity to engage your child with.

Why make these boards?

• They help prioritize your goals and aspirations.
• They can bring out the creative side of your child.
• Your goals and intentions will feel more solid and achievable when you pin them down on these boards.
• You will get a chance to indulge in a fun at-home activity with kids.

Here are some simple steps that we put together for you to follow to help create these boards with your child:

1. Gather material and art supplies
Before sitting down to work on the boards, gather the following things:

• A poster board, if it’s not available then a thin thermocol sheet or a cardboard sheet can also be used
• Printouts of images and quotes could be taken from old textbooks, scrapbooks, newspapers, etc.
• Old Magazines
• Pens and sketches pens
• Scissors
• Glue
• Some rough paper

2. Set goals and prioritize the

Brainstorm ideas with your child and jot them down on a piece of paper. This is the stage where your child can come up with a wide variety of goals and you can help them sort and prioritize.

Some points to keep in mind while listing out ideas:

• Encourage your child to work on realistic goals.
• Prioritize ideas that help with the overall development of your child.
• Make sure that the goals are age appropriate and do not weigh him down 

3. Create a basic structure for your board
Arrange the goals your child generated in an artistic manner on the board. Try out different combinations of images and quotes that go along with the ideas in your mind. Roughly space them out on the poster board to get a better picture. You can even write them down on the board with a pencil for your reference later.

4. Find images and words for the board

Go through old magazines and newspapers along with your child and pick out images and quotes relevant to your vision board. You can even cut out words with fancy fonts to artistically enhance your intentions on the board. Bring out old colouring books and textbooks of your child for colourful illustrations.

After you have finalized the number of pictures and quotes to give them, paste them on the board with glue. 

 6. Personalize the board

To make the board feel like your child’s, it's imperative that you add small personal items in the form of stickers or sketches that your child adores. Items like seashells collected when on a beach or fun stickers of the stars and planets are some examples to help beautify and personalize your board.

 7. Display and review your board

Place the board strategically around the house where your child spends most of their free time. The board could be fitted to the wall beside their study table or even in the dining room where they could look at them every time they come to eat.

Ensure that your child is on track and motivated by discussing the goals from the vision board whenever possible. It’s so important to be flexible with the long term dream boards as your child is still growing and experiencing new things and may change some aspects of their goals.

Some ideas for Vision Boards:

Not all vision boards need to be strictly goal oriented. You could make some for fun like,

• A portable vision board in the form of a scrap book or album
• An art collage
• A bulletin board
• A travel journal as a board
  
  
  
  Just making vision boards will not help your child reach their goals. They only quite literally help you keep your aspirations in sight. What action you plan to take on them will determine your success. So keep hustling!