Year-End Reflection and Celebration

"There's glitter on the floor after the party!" - Taylor Swift

Our favorite year-end ritual is to reflect on the previous year, celebrate growth, and imagine the year ahead. We've done this since the kids were little - going to breakfast in the new year as a family to look back and look forward. Over the years, I purchased worksheets from Big Life Journal and Mary Hanna Wilson's Year in Review. This year I decided to make my own! 

As a New Year's gift to you, I'm sharing the Year End Reflection download with you too!

Download by clicking here or click the image below!

Why to do it:

• Our society isn't great at acknowledging growth and achievement outside of sports, grades, and income. But there are so many other amazing things to celebrate about life! 
• Neurodiverse individuals - whether because of memory challenges, low confidence, always feeling "behind" - often have a hard time giving themselves credit and celebrating growth.
• Reflection and self-awareness is an executive function, so it's something we can intentionally grow!

How to use it:

1. Print out a copy for each member of the family and gather fun colored pens and pencils. 
2. Set the scene: at home - make a snack,  tea, light some candles, make it cozy! Or go to a favorite coffee shop. 
3. Give everyone a copy! 
4. Remembering might be hard! Some ideas that might help:
   1. Look at photos from the past year.
   2. Start with thorns and roses for the year as a family to spark memories of the big moments.
   3. Look at your planner or calendar for trips, recitals, performances, new things they tried, adventures you had, etc. 
5. Start where you want to! It's okay to take breaks, leave the worksheets out to work on in small bursts, and skip pages that aren't interesting to you. There's not a perfect way to do this!

Everyone has the choice to share if they want to. In our family, we practice taking turns and listening without interrupting when it's time to share. We want everyone to feel seen, heard, and celebrated!

To avoid all or nothing thinking, celebrate progress! Growth takes time! To keep momentum and build confidence and resilience, we must acknowledge things that were hard and we did it anyway! Small steps that brought us closer to our goals. Things that were once scary and hard but are now easier to do. New things they tried that they weren't sure about. Acknowledge the things you did like this too! 

And when you get to the section to imagine the coming year, remember to include goals like:

• Creative muscles you want to practice and grow
• Adventures or physical challenges you want to train for
• Self-care habits you'd like to improve (sleep, movement, downtime)
• Things that bring you joy! What's a fun challenge that would bring joy and connection? A quest for the best local cinnamon roll? Baking a new recipe each month? Books you want to read? Games you want to play?

There's more to life than productivity! One of my homeschool mentors, Julie Bogart, introduced me to the concept of Awesome Adulting. How can you make being an adult look awesome and not like drudgery? Create goals for THAT!

I hope you try the worksheets and that they help you celebrate the amazing you that you already are, the amazingness of your kids, and flex the muscle of dreaming up what would bring more joy and fulfillment to your life. 

I'd love to hear how it goes!