Do your kids know what they really want in life? If not, how can we help them find out? The Vision Board Questions for Kids was created specifically to help them discover that.
It’s not always easy to figure out what we want in life. Even if we do know what we want in life, we sometimes lack motivation to go and get it. All of us require motivation and encouragement at different times. Kids are no different.
When your kids inevitably get distracted, feel lost or lose motivation, having a Vision Board (or Book) can be extremely motivating and can be effective in helping a child get back on track.
Once the Vision Board is completed, it can serve as a helpful future resource that your child can use over and over again to stay on track and motivated.
How to Use the Vision Board Questions for Kids
The Vision Board Questions for Kids is a soul-searching and deep-thinking process. Use this list of questions to help your child figure out what is important to them and what they might want to achieve in their life. It’s meant to be used when you are helping your child to create their own Vision Board.
Using a Vision Board template can also be helpful.
What is a Vision Board?
A Vision Board is a fun way to create and record future big dreams and goals. It can be used as an overview of what your child wants in their life. Unlike an Action Plan, a Vision Board is generally not specific and doesn’t normally focus on the ‘how’. Instead, it focuses on the ‘what’.
Don’t be afraid of allowing your child to dream and put goals that may seem impossible on this board. A Vision Board often doesn’t have a clear deadline for fulfillment so what may seem impossible in the next 5 years, might be possible in 10 years.
The Vision Board Questions for Kids are a list of questions to guide you and your child through the Vision Board creation process. These questions are designed to help your child ‘look within’ to understand themselves and what they want. Participating in this process with your child will also help you understand your child more.
How To Get The Most Out of The Process of Creating A Vision Board
To get the most out of this process, you should help your child choose a time to do it when they are relaxed and at their best. They will get more out of this if it can be done at a comfortable pace. Nevertheless, doing a simple Vision Board in the limited time that you have is better than not doing it at all.
Some kids just hate sitting down and keeping still. If so, you may need to adjust the process to make it more fun, ‘destruction-friendly’ and sensory-engaged.
The more senses that are engaged (see, hear, touch, taste, smell), the better. Normally, vision boards are created using pictures that you glue onto a board. However, you could also use paints, color pencils and physical objects that can be attached to the Vision Board.
You can work through the list of questions below together with your child or let your child do it by themselves. We would suggest that you fully guide younger children but let older children take more control and have some moments of privacy to work. It’s often a balance of knowing how much guidance to provide and how much to step in without taking over.
You should also try to gather as many of the resources and materials you will need to complete this board before you start the process. It can be annoying if you suddenly realize that you have run out of glue and have to stop the process halfway.
On the other hand, don’t be afraid of pausing halfway if your child needs a break or loses interest. We know that children have shorter attention spans and can easily get distracted.
Keep It Simple
If your child seems to dislike the process, perhaps simplify or cut down the process to make it shorter. Things that are too complicated cause resistance and confusion. You may also wish to adjust the questions to make it more simple to understand, applicable or engaging for your child. For very young children, you will probably have to limit yourself to one or two simple questions only.
There are no right or wrong answers. Just honest ones. If a question is not applicable, just skip it or adjust it to suit your child’s particular situation.
Most importantly, although this process should be taken seriously and can result in huge benefits, it should be conducted in a fun and light-hearted manner. If you are able to, mix seriousness with play or treat this as a ‘fun art project’.
Vision Board Questions for Kids
1. What are some of your favorite things?
It’s a good idea to start with a simple question. Most kids can identify what they enjoy or dislike.
2. What are your favorite activities or hobbies?
This question is also structured to ease your child into the process and break the ice for deeper discussion.
3. What parts of your life do you enjoy the most now?
This question starts the brain cells whirring as it helps kids to think about and analyze what they like about their current life. For example, they may love that they get to go on vacation at least once a year or go swimming every weekend.
4. If you had control, what kind of home life would you like to have?
This question is intended to help your child identify what kind of home life they want and how they can get it.
Maybe they would like to have a say in what they have for dinner more. Perhaps they desire more attention from you and in order to have that, you could suggest that they help you with chores. Or maybe they don’t want you to get mad at them so often and you could help them understand why that happens and what they can do to reduce it. Not all things are easily achievable but identifying the desire is the first step!
5. What makes you happy?
This is an open-ended question so that it allows your child to answer in any way they wish. If it’s not tangible, they can represent this happiness on the Vision Board in a way that makes sense to them.
6. What are your biggest goals or dreams?
At this stage, your child should be warmed up enough to take on bigger questions. This question asks your child to consider what goals and dreams they may have for themselves.
7. If you could choose a topic or subject to study, what would you study?
This is a good question to help you find out what kind of subjects or topics that your child might be passionate about.
8. If you had control, what kind of school experience would you like to have?
Although your child won’t have complete control over what happens at school, they do have a lot more control over the way they react and experience it. You can also offer helpful suggestions to your child on how they can achieve their desired experience.
9. If you could choose, what kind of school, college or University would you like to go to?
We realize that many children do not get to choose the school that they go to but it is still worth finding out. Also, we cannot assume that every child wants to go to college but if you want your child to go to college, this question could ignite some interest. Your child may not need to specify a specific college but a range of colleges might be useful as a goal to aim towards. At the very least, if they have no interest in college, you will know now and can start looking for alternatives.
10. What is your dream job? What would you like to be when you grow up? What kind of work would you like to do?
Whether you want your child to be an entrepreneur or not, it is useful for them to figure out what kind of work they want to do. An added bonus is that you can use this information to keep an ear peeled for volunteer opportunities or internships at local companies in that industry. It’s always good to provide kids with a chance to experience what the work really entails.
11. If you could design your own business, what kind of business would you like to have?
This question allows you to start them on their entrepreneurial journey by figuring out what kind of business they might want to have. ‘Business’ here is meant to encompass all kinds of commercial activity, whether it’s a startup, small business, online-based enterprise, Fortune 500 company, non-profit organization, international organization etc. Don’t worry about whether the idea is feasible or not. Most entrepreneurs pivot from their original idea into something better.
12. If you could design your dream life/house/car/spaceship, what would it look like?
This question not only helps your child think about where they want to live and what they want to own but this also lets them imagine and move beyond what their current life is. This is particularly useful for kids who may be in a limiting or uninspiring environment.
13. How much money would you like to earn?
This is not an easy question for some of us to talk about, nor for children to figure out. But it is still a useful conversation to have as you can also use this question to talk about skill shortages, demand and supply, average earnings, spending, savings, investments, donations etc.
14. If you could have a dream vacation, where would you like to travel to?
Travel seems to be a big dream for many adults and because of that, we include this in here for kids too.
15. If you could choose, what kind of friends do you want to have? What do you like in your best friend(s)?
This question may seem silly to adults but it is extremely vital to a kid. Friends play a huge role in a child’s life. Thinking about the kind of friends they would like to have will also help in reducing the choice of bad friendships that make your child unhappy or distract them from their goals.
16. What kind of skills would you like to have or new activities would you like to try out?
This is a useful question for helping your child identify what skills they would like to acquire in the future and work towards acquiring them.
17. What kind of sports would you like to be able to do? How much energy would you like to have?
Even if your child is not into sports, this is an important question. Great health is a huge part of a quality life and we include this in so that you can use this to discuss the importance of eating well, sleeping well, exercising and being active. You can also talk about illegal substances or temptations that they will inevitably encounter and how getting involved in them could affect their health and ultimately, quality of life.
18. If you could have a special skill to help people, what skill would it be?
This question allows your child to identify what skills might be valuable to others and also, to determine what they actually enjoy doing that is valuable to others.
19. Who do you admire that you want to meet in person?
This question helps your child to identify who they admire and want to be like. For example, if they are a fan of basketball, they may want to meet Michael Jordan. If they love business, perhaps they want to meet Elon Musk.
You could talk about how they could work towards achieving results that would enable them to meet their hero. Just by thinking about who they want to emulate, they may start modeling that person naturally.
20. What would you like to do that you haven’t done yet?
This is a general question to help your child face their fears and limitations and identify experiences that they would like to have in the future.
21. What kind of difference do you want to make in this world?
This question presumes that your child will make a difference. And why not? Children often rise to the expectations that we place on them.
If your child stays true to their Vision Board, they undoubtedly are going to make a difference in the world. For more information about Vision Boards, you can see the e-book that we created about Vision Boards.
To find out more about activities that your child could do to help them become an entrepreneur, see our article on the 5 Best Activities To Do with Kids for Future Entrepreneurship.
