Make Your Kids' Dreams Come True Day

Today, January 13th, is national Make Your Dreams Come True Day, and I can't think of a better created-for-the-sake-of-holidays holiday. I'm reminded that children are naturally the biggest dreamers of us all. What a good excuse for helping them mine their own dreams and filling them with the belief that anything under the sun is possible.

We all have dreams, big and small, but it's the taking of tiny steps that helps bring them to fruition. Here are my humble suggestions for celebrating Dream Day with the kids:

-- Once they get home from school today, have them write down (or tell you) three of their dreams. Resist the urge to correct or alter their dream. No matter how wild or crazy, just let it be. My oldest son wants to ride a lion. How's that for a big dream?

-- Pick one of those dreams to focus on.

-- Grab an old shoe box or a small cardboard box.

-- Along with your child, cut out images and words that remind him of his dream. Paste them all over the dream box. If you don't have old magazines or newspapers around, print something out from online, or simply color and write inspiring words on the box yourselves.

-- Jump start the research. Together, look up your child's dream. Try an online encyclopedia, Google and wherever else you can think of. In my case, I'll be looking for "lion riders." LOL!

-- Help him decide what characteristics he'll need to fulfill his dream. Courage? Tenacity? Smarts? Have him write those traits down and place them in his box. Find things around the house that represent those things and put them in the box too.

-- How old will he be when his dream comes true? Have him take a guess and let him put that number in his dream box.

-- Keep going! After today, whenever he's inspired to dream, encourage your child to put positive energy, research and focus into it. Basically, the idea is to create a physical space (and emotional place) that says to your children, "Yes, in our house, dreams are absolutely allowed!"

Have fun today dreamers! What's your child's dream?

Find more cures for "what should we do today?" at the Big Kid Buzz on CafeMom.com.