Skip to content
Sammy Rabbit
←All Posts

Money Lesson 2 Parents Should Teach Kids: Dream Big

by Team Sammy

Dream Big and Take Aim. They are Great Habits

When children have a clear aim, they can achieve incredible things—things they truly want to accomplish, things that matter to them!

The right dreams matter. They inspire, motivate, and shape actions. They drive behavior. How can you tell when a dream is the "right" one? It’s simple: kids (or anyone, really) are willing to organize their time and make intentional choices—including smart money choices—to achieve it.

On the other hand, without meaningful dreams or a clear aim, children are more likely to feel aimless, directionless, and perhaps even lost.

3 Big Benefits Smart Dreams Give Kids

Dreaming big and aiming high are great habits, especially if they are supplemented with clear goals, written plans, and action on those plans. Toss in some measurements to evaluate progress and you have what Sammy Rabbit refers to as "smart dreaming!"

One, "smart dreams," the right dreams, drive our desire. They provide us with purpose. They inspire us to action. They get us to work. They get us to invest effort and energy. They get us to sacrifice.

Two, smart dreams not only earn our interest, they give us the opportunity to build and grow our skills and competency. They call on us to do our best. They help us to discover who we can become and what we are capable of accomplishing. They develop our grit, resiliency, and confidence to build on success as well as how to learn and rebound from failure.

Three, smart dreams help us find "extra" within ourselves to conquer difficult challenges. Extra focus. Extra discipline. Extra determination. They provide us the strength to make difficult choices, like saving money, delaying gratification, and prioritizing our spending on what we truly value. They help us make better choices with not only our money, but our time as well.

Capitalize on Smart Dreams

Parents these are "telltale" signs kids and all of us have discovered a dream that is right for us. We are willing to do "the do" to make our dream(s) come true.

When you see your kids taking consistent and sustained actions in a topic and toward achieving a dream you are really on to something. Capitalize on it. Make note of it. Celebrate it. Encourage it. Incent it. Help your kids grow into the behaviors and habits that will blossom them and manifest it.

If you do, you will be giving your child more meaning in their life. And, you very well may be helping them discover their life's purpose.

Everyone seems to excel and do better in all respects when they pursue areas they have have a genuine interest in.

5 Easy and Fun Steps to Teach Your Kids to Dream Big

Have kids:

  1. Listen to the song Big Ol' Dream. Then, have them complete the activities associated with the song.

  2. If they have not already, have kids read the story Sammy's Big Dream. Or, have children re-read it.

  3. Have your child start their own Sammy Rabbit Dream Big Journal.

  4. Follow up the song, story and activities with a discussion

  5. Make a deposit with your child or children into a piggy bank, savings jar or into a savings account at the financial institution of your choice.

Sammy Rabbit says: "You can do it. Now, get to it!"

Let's Get Kids Financially Literate

Let's get kids financially literate and dreaming big, their families and communities too.

Here is what you can do:

Here is how you can make a difference:

  • Collaborate and partner with Team Sammy on '1' or more financial education strategies. See our Menu of Project Ideas or suggestion one of your own!

Contact Sammy

CONTACT US today!

We welcome your questions, suggestions, thoughts about Sammy Rabbit and his mission to get kids, families & communities financially literate.

Your friends in early age, youth and family financial literacy education for the last 20+ years and counting.

Related Reading and Resources

5 Sammyriffic Quotes on Dreaming Big

Here are five outstanding quotes that reflect the power of dreaming big.

(1) "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."

–Les Brown

(2) “The path from dreams to success does exist. May you have the vision to find it, the courage to get on to it, and the perseverance to follow it.”

–Kalpana Chawla

(3) "The great danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark."

–Michelangelo

(4) "Dream the biggest dream for yourself. Hold the highest vision of life for yourself. The great courageous act that we must all do, is to have the courage to step out of our history and past so that we can live our dreams."

–Oprah

(5) "Dream big. Do big, one step at a time. It's a great habit!"

–Sammy Rabbit