How to Teach Children to Write Proposals
Daughter 1: Can I go out on Saturday?
Me (Mom): Where’s your proposal? 💗
My kids have to submit a full proposal before I agree to anything. She’s now typing messages like this to her friends (and me). Who is going? How does she gets there? Budget considerations? Timing? Location?
It’s now a standard ask from all her friends’ parents! 🤣 They all want to see the proposal. Her friends are learning to do this now. Positive peer pressure while teaching communications and planning. She started this at 14 and it’s become habit.
Sharing examples. It didn’t start this way… she evolved as she learned. And will continue to evolve. 💗💗💗
Yes, the proposal is…
- It’s really a proposal to ask the parents (me) to going out
- Where are you going? Multiple locations? Start and finish?
- What date and time?
- Who else is going?
- What is the total cost? Including transport, entry, food, etc..?
- Expected time to be home
- What resources do you need? Materials? Packing? Food?
- What is the activity?
- How will you get there? Transportation considerations? Driving needs? Need drop off or pick up?
- Do we need to be in touch with other parents?
How to get started
How to get started in teaching your kids to write proposals (for going out):
- Start simple – give them the prompts (who, what, when, where, why, how) – use the prompts I’ve given
- Praise effort first. The fact that they produced anything is already marvelous!
- Don’t criticize, suggest improvements.
- Function over form – who cares what it looks like – does it function and serve the purpose of information flow and discussion?
What’s in it for the parents?
- You get a lot of details upfront (although this will happen over a series of iterations and negotiations)
- Opportunity to help them refine their writing (grammar, efficiency, presentation)
- Allows for negotiation space
- You have something on hard copy and copy and paste as you need it (we usually share via the family chat so everyone knows) – even sharing with other parents
- Creates a platform to communicate (as a conversation) – the proposal is merely a tool to have a conversation
What’s in it for the children?
- Develop writing capabilities
- Learn how to write proposals (from scratch) – give them the key elements and let them draft their own. Don’t do it for them… I find this is the best way for them to grow and show up as themselves (rather than us impressing what we think) – let them be creative!
- Critically consider all the elements needed if they want to go out (and what’s needed)
- Creates accountability – do what you say, say what you do
- Is a tool that allows for communication
- They can send this to all their friends (and their parents)
- Set great examples for their friends
- Practice and develop planning skills
- Allows for negotiation space
- They can reuse their own templates
Examples of my daughter’s proposals
