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Making New Year’s resolutions as a family helps set goals and intentions for the upcoming year. It’s a great opportunity to demonstrate goal setting and perseverance.
As you take stock of the past year, think about the moments you most cherish, the challenges you overcame and the growth you experienced. These are places to start from when brainstorming resolutions.
Resolutions are an opportunity to create habits, change your mindset and manifest your desires. Don’t be intimidated because this is all achieved in manageable changes to daily family life.
The best part of family resolutions is the strength in numbers. Holding each other accountable will make you all more likely to succeed and bring you closer together as a family.
We are excited to share with you some of our favorite New Year’s resolution ideas for families:
Collect Memories Not Things
It is easy to get swept up providing the very best for your kids that you loose sight of what is really important, quality time. We’ve all done it. We get so busy with the day to day routines and worrying about their futures that we blink and another year has gone by.
I don’t know about you, but I still haven’t finished my kids baby books. The content is there, but the follow through is lacking. I am excited to use StoryCombs this year to document life on an easy to use platform.
StoryCombs is a unique mobile app that allows you to add your own personalized video narrations to photos of family and friends to build a collective history. You can bring photos, documents, and even recipes to life with narration. You can collect stories in a private family βhive,β and protect them for generations to come.
I love how easy it is to create or join a hive, create albums and narrate each video or picture you add. When my daughter lost her front teeth she narrated the pictures. Having her voice tell the story will make it even more meaningful to re-watch in years to come.
I am excited to start adding to my hive with memories from this year and invite my extended family to do so as well.
Spend More Time Outside
We love spending family time outside. There is an overwhelming amount of research that shows the many benefits to outdoor time, especially during childhood. We are really excited to take the 1,000 Hours Outside challenge this year.
Ginny and Josh started the 1,000 Hours Outside challenge with their own family as a way to track how much time kids spend outdoors knowing that the average american kid spends over 1,000 hours per year on screens.
In order to reap the many benefits of nature we are accepting the challenge to spend 1,000 hours outside. It may seem crazy, but if you break it down it’s about 20 hours per week or less than 3 hours per day.
We took a look at our daily routine and are plugging in more outside time wherever we can. We know that making this a part of our normal for 2020 will make it easier for us to succeed.
You can follow along with us on social media and track your own hours. Click the tracker above to download your own. To download other tracker designs or learn more about 1,000 Hours Outside visit the website here.
Live with Less Plastic
Our oceans are in a crisis. This is not a new problem. Scientists have been documenting plastic in the ocean since the 1970s, but a lack of changes has allowed the problem to grow to a global crisis.
Of the 350 million tons of plastic produced each year it is estimated that 40% of that is used once and discarded. As consumers we can change the percentage of single-use plastic waste.
Going plastic free when you have small kids is tricky because so many kids products include plastic, even if it is just the packaging. You don’t have to eliminate plastic from your life to make big changes in the world.
Resolve to BUY no single use plastic products in 2020. You may not be able to remove all the plastic from your home with one fell swoop, but choosing plastic-free for new items is a great place to start.
Groceries & Snacks
Make some easy changes to the way you buy, store and eat food. Grab some Reusable Shopping Bags
You can drastically decrease your single-use plastic waste by buying in bulk instead of individual snack sizes. Reusable snack containers will make your plastic use even less!
Phones & Devices
If you’re anything like us you use your phone for all things parenting & adulting. I know mine serves as my alarm, calendar, camera and even my work computer at times. I want to protect my phone AND the environment.
Pela makes 100% compostable phone cases that are durable and last for the duration of your phoneβs life, but will completely break down when put in a composting environment. Pela cases also reduce radiation exposure for yourself and your kids with Ethos. Find out more about the Pela products we love here and find more eco-friendly companies here.
Photos by Pela 
Clothes
Reduce the plastic you wear. We’ve all heard how Fast Fashion is for our bank accounts and the environment, but sustainable clothing claims can be difficult to understand.
If you don’t have time to research a new brand, you can always stick with those that have good reputations for sustainability and quality like Oprah’s favorite – LA Relaxed
For your kids there is Orbasics, Lark Adventurewear
Swimwear
SeaSalt Kids Swimwear is a new brand offering adorable swimsuits for kids using fabrics that are made from post-consumer plastic bottles and fishing nets salvaged from the ocean.
I had the chance to chat with owner and mama-mastermind, Sae Park, behind the brand about their suits, towels and sunscreens.
Find out more about these suits here and enter our GIVEAWAY on Instagram for your chance to WIN a swimsuit of your choice and Raw Elements sunscreen.
Beauty
Take the plastic-free lifestyle to the next level by removing it from your beauty products. Find some inspiration for a plastic-free skin care routine here.
Have a Growth Mindset
A growth mindset helps kids to take risks, have a positive attitude and become resilient. When you have a growth mindset you believe that with the right strategies and effort you can always improve. Reframing challenges into opportunties to grow, stretch, learn and develop is a key to success.
The Big Life Journal uses a combination of special time with your journal buddy (parent, grandparent or another adult), exploring thoughts and feelings, learning to believe in yourself and learning to be kind to develop a growth mindset.
Shop all things growth mindset atΒ biglifejournal.com. Between the cards, kits and journals youβre sure to find something to support the growth mindset in your family. Check out the 2020 New Year Kit to start the new year with a growth mindset.
Every family is different and every year is different. Be realistic about what you will have time for this year. If you know you have an exceptionally hectic year ahead with big changes to your family like a new baby, job change or a move then make your resolution fit those constraints. You can even pick a word or mantra for the year that will act like a guiding force for your family’s adventures.
sharinglifesmoments says
These are some truly neat resolution ideas that are unique! My kids and I spend a good chunk of time outside when the weather is nice, which luckily in SC is often. I’m confident that we would surpass the 1,000 hours challenge in no time, but it’s neat to learn that it exists. There are so many kids that are missing out on the adventures of being outdoors all around.
You sold me on the Big Life Journals! I hope that I can get the chance to check them out in more detail soon. My kids need more things that help lift them up and help them to believe in themselves. In the society we live in, they often feel inadequate because they see so many of their peers growing online popularity. It blows my mind how much it impacts them.
I like those bathing suits too. I like how they are made from things that can be recycled.
You’ve certainly caught my attention in a positive way. I look forward to getting to know you more.