10 New Year’s Resolution Ideas for FamiliesWe at LearningRx want to support families however we can, and we know making New Year’s resolutions as a family can be challenging. When there are so many different personalities under one roof, it might be hard to find resolutions the whole family can agree on. If you are toying with the idea of setting a family New Year’s resolution, pitch the idea to your family and use this list to get their cogs turning. Here are ten New Year’s resolution ideas your family can use in 2022. 1. Get Unplugged We have all heard that we are becoming more and more attached to our devices. We can read news article after article and study after study how more screen time does not equal more peace of mind. Talk with your family about when and how you might try to unplug from devices more often. For example, you could agree to leave devices away from the dinner table or the family tote bag while at the park. Studies show high cell phone usage may directly influence health and behavior and not always positively. The new year may be the right time to create healthy technology habits and boundaries. 2. Volunteer Together Volunteering together is a great way to form deeper bonds and help your community. Plus, many charity organizations need to fill large volunteer gaps filled, and your family of five might be just what they needed. Also, if you have a student who needs volunteer hours for school, this might be an excellent opportunity to help your student spend time with people in need and fulfill those requirements. 3. Read More Reading help is the number one reason most students come to LearningRx centers. Reading is a critical part of the learning process, and when skills are not as strong, it can affect other areas of academics and life. At LearningRx, we use a unique sound to code program formatted like learning a language. Once these skills are strong, students see more success in school and beyond. By committing to reading more as a family, you are helping your student retain and build upon the cognitive skills learned. For example, each person in your family could commit to reading specific books, or you can create an exchange system for however many minutes read equals minutes of TV time or something else motivating. 4. Schedule Nights Off Now that soccer practice is back on, and dance is not on Zoom anymore, you might have noticed how easy it is to fill every night with extracurricular activities. Commit in the next year to have certain nights off. For example, there might be a movie coming out that your whole family wants to see; mark that night as ‘off’ for the entire family and enjoy watching a movie on opening night. Parents also need to schedule nights off to take care of themselves. Even chauffeurs need days off. 5. Have Show ‘n’ Tell It may feel like pulling teeth at the dinner table to get kids to talk about their day, so what if they could show you instead? Schedule a time for each family member to show off something they are proud of from school or work. For example, during family dinner, ask everyone to bring something they want to show. It might be artwork they created, a science fair project, or a grade on a math test. Parents can show off a work they are proud of or pictures from an event they helped put together. Despite having the same last name, we may lead very different lives when away from our immediate family members. When you get together to show off some of the things you and your family members worked on outside of the house, you can better understand their daily lives and what is important to them. 6. Get Local As creatures of habit, we tend to flock to the same stores and restaurants we know and love. Make it a New Years’ resolution to visit local spots you may have missed. Have each family member research a local business to visit or give a few options for everyone to choose from. You could make it a goal to visit one local business a month as a family or go to a local restaurant for dinner instead of your usual spots. 7. Get Outside The health benefits of nature are endless. In a study of 20,000 people, a team led by Mathew White of the European Centre for Environment & Human Health at the University of Exeter discovered that people who spent two hours a week in green spaces — local parks or other natural environments, either all at once or spread over several visits — were substantially more likely to report good health and psychological well-being than those who don’t. Plan family outings to hiking spots or make a bucket list of parks to hit and natural sights to see in your state. Not only will getting outside benefit your overall well-being, but it can help bring your family together. 8. Schedule self-care Life gets hectic sometimes, and we all need time to give ourselves some of the TLC we need. It might be easy to assume watching TV or surfing the web is a form of self-care, but it doesn’t provide much relaxation, as we have discovered in resolution idea number one. Help your family learn what real self-care is by making it one of your new years’ resolutions. Self-care doesn’t need to be hard, but it is different for each person. Ask your family members what self-care practice they want to try and have the whole family join in. Give everyone the option to learn different self-care practices to help them find the right one for their needs. 9. Family Meals We all lead busy lives, and it can be hard to find time to sit down at the dinner table and share a meal. But research shows that family meals not only bring families together and build stronger connections, they also help family members build healthier eating habits. Maybe your family is already eating dinner together routinely, but if your family hasn’t gotten the practice down, it’s not too late to start. 10. Work on a project together. Have your kids always wanted to have a treehouse in the backyard? Or create a fantastic movie room? See if there is a project your family can do together that benefits everyone in the household. Working on a project together can build team spirit and help each family member realize each other’s unique strengths. We hope these ideas spark ideas you and your family can do together for the New Year. Any of these ideas can have the potential to positively impact you and the relationships you have with your family. We would love to see how you take these ideas and run with them. Feel free to mention LearningRx online and tag us in your social media posts.