Celebrating Growth: 6 Ways to Honor Your Child's School Year Achievements

As the school year comes to a close, this moment offers a powerful opportunity to pause and look back at how much hard work and growth have taken place. Parents play a critical role in supporting each child's unique journey, and celebrating their wins along the way is crucial. This type of celebration positively reinforces their efforts, strengthens your bond, and nurtures core executive functioning skills like metacognition and goal monitoring.

Taking the time to truly celebrate tells your child that their progress was not just noticed, but significant enough to deserve your focused time and attention. Verbal praise is a tricky phenomenon with mixed results on children’s motivation and performance. Cognitive psychology suggests that praise should be centered around progress and process, not results, so this moment of recognition will ideally go far beyond grades and focus on the incredible progress they've made in their learning and development.

Check out these six fun and meaningful ways you can honor your child's accomplishments:

1. GROWTH CHART CELEBRATION

Remember those height charts? Create a "Growth Chart" for the school year! First, work together to brainstorm all the areas your child has grown in. Maybe it's the organization of their now-clean backpack, proactive planning for long-term projects, increased confidence in asking questions and self-advocating, or even mastering a tricky math concept they were struggling with. Write all of their achievements on bright, colorful sticky notes and place them along a vertical line. The visual representation of their progress will be a powerful reminder of just how far they’ve come.

2. “EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS” SCAVENGER HUNT

Turn celebrating into a game! Ask your child to create a scavenger hunt where each clue relates to an area of progress or reflects a skill they've developed. For example, a clue might be: "I used to be disorganized and confusing. Now, I’m all clean and following a clear system!" (Answer: Their folder and/or notebook(s), highlighting their organizational skills). Other examples may be happy memories in their yearbook, grade reports, specific assignments, etc.

3. “2024-2025 HIGHLIGHTS” CREATIVE PROJECT

Creativity plays a key role in boosting learning and children’s well-being, so a self-led project can encourage your child to express their wins in their own unique way. Ask your child to create something that represents what they feel most proud of from the past year, such as a scrapbook, a short video, a drawing, or even a song.

4. “PROUD MOMENTS” FAMILY DINNER

Plan a special family dinner where everyone shares one or two moments from the school year they are particularly proud of – either for themselves or for another family member. This fosters a supportive environment and highlights the collective effort.

5. THEN-AND-NOW VISION BOARD

This moment doesn’t have to be frozen in time; celebrate the past by recognizing its place on the way towards the future! Create a then-and-now vision board together, capturing the beautiful highlights of the past year alongside their goals for the summer or even the next school year. This subtly reinforces goal-setting, encourages self-monitoring of those goals, and keeps that growth mindset alive.

6. REFLECTIVE JOURNALING

As a family, spend some quiet time together reflecting on the year. Use prompts like: "What are you most proud of learning this year?" "What was a challenge you overcame?" "What skills do you feel you've gotten better at?" This encourages self-reflection and deeper understanding of their progress. (See this Peak blog for more on journaling.)

Ultimately, celebrating wins should go beyond a quick “good job” and a pat on the back. This moment can be a shared adventure in acknowledging effort, recognizing growth, and strengthening your connection as a family. Positive reinforcement has the greatest impact on encouraging desirable behaviors, and when celebrating students’ progress, it helps build resilient, self-aware individuals. Plus, taking ownership of their achievements does so much more for building confidence than verbal praise or validation. So, make these end-of-year celebrations fun, creative, and truly meaningful!

Written by Brandi R.

Semester 1 is Over...Now What?

As we enter 2025, families are trading their winter bells for school bells as many campuses will soon resume learning. Amidst the excitement of seeing missed friends and feeling refreshed from break, students are challenged with re-establishing routines, procedures, and recalling pre-break academics. However, just like the second half of an athletic game, the second half of school plays a crucial role in successful outcomes. In this case, the second semester impacts students’ educational success as foundational skills expand into new concepts and connections. This extended learning may feel daunting for students who are struggling in content areas, or mastering specific skills. Students’ feelings about school may shift throughout the second semester based on their strengths. However, there are a variety of strategies you can use to help your child persevere through the end of the school year. 

 Beginning of Semester Two

• Routines: Most likely children had flexible routines during their winter break. Many children will need help adjusting back to their normal school schedule and after-school routine. It may be helpful to practice these routines a day before children go back to school to ease feelings of uncertainty.

• Teacher Communication: The beginning of semester two, or end of semester one, is a great time to discuss students’ progress with their classroom teachers. Be sure to ask questions if you do not understand something, need additional resources, and to clarify the end of the year expectations.

• Goal Setting: If you have already set goals for this school year, this is a perfect time to review them to set positive intentions for the upcoming semester. It could also be a great time to explore new year’s resolutions related to school, executive functions, or social-emotional skills.

Middle of Semester 2

• Testing Season: Second semester is typically considered the “testing season” as many students take state-required, school-based, diagnostic and/or classroom-based assessments — all of which can contribute to feelings of anxiety, discomfort, and internal pressure. Be sure to reach out to your child’s teacher for more information regarding any upcoming tests. Test language can be tricky and confusing, so practicing test taking skills at home may alleviate test anxiety and improve memory and retention. 

• Goal Setting: Be sure to review any goals, or resolutions, created. If you child has met their goal, challenge them to create a new goal, or extend their existing goal. For example, if they have already met their goal to read 75 words per minute, you can increase their goal to 100 words per minute. 

• Motivation: Many students have a decrease in motivation as the summer months approach. You can help students avoid these feelings by using organizers to keep track of important deadlines, incorporate brain breaks or mindfulness activities, and take time to rest and relax. Consider practicing foundational skills with games, puzzles, or online educational programs. 

End of the Year

• Burnout: Avoiding the end-of-year burnout is critical for student’s success. Many of the end-of-year skills taught in classrooms are essential for a successful start to the next school year. Additionally, teachers may give assessments to determine students’ growth over the course of the year or semester. Incentives, homework choice boards, daily check-ins, and other motivation strategies can be used to help students persevere.

• Summer Activities: Second semester report cards can give a lot of information regarding skills students should continue to practice throughout the summer. You can use this information to talk with your child about their progress and expectations for summer learning. By using report cards as an accountability tool, students will take ownership in their learning and put forth their best effort.

While many students may feel refreshed after their winter breaks, the demands of the second semester may quickly have an influence on their perception and attitudes regarding the end of the school year. However, students that implement strong routines and approach semester two with confidence may avoid the end-of-the-year burnout. Be mindful that some students may feel a variety of positive and negative emotions as school begins. As you child explores their emotions, you can help them regulate by establishing healthy outlets, an open line of communication, and reminding them that all feelings are valid. 

Written by Ami Z.