With St. Patrick’s Day coming up, now is a great month to start a family tradition that makes you think about the importance of dreams all month long.  Share some of your dreams with your children (or maybe you are living it) and give them wings to dream big dreams. This is more than setting them on a course to just dream about “getting rich or being famous.” This is the opportunity to plant seeds that will lead them to the real “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow” – a lifetime of joy.

Discuss how dreams help you accomplish or create what you want in life. Find out what they love to do so much that they lose track of time (and we’re not talking video games here). Do you know what that is for your life? Ask them how you can use your dreams to help others in the future?

If you want to make this into a family fun night, it’s the perfect time to create a “Dream Box.” Buy a small wooden craft box, along with green spray paint and glitter. Paint it and get as  creative as you desire by sprinkling glitter on the wet pain. Add sequins or emerald to decorate the sides.  Create a small sign that states, “The (your family name’s) Dream Box,” and glue it on the inside of the lid.

Ask each family member to write their dreams on small sheets of paper. Children too young to write can be helped by someone older or they can draw pictures that represent what their dream is at this time. At bedtime, talk about their dream, why they want it and what they can do to make it happen. The simple act of writing down their dreams and sharing it with someone they love reassures our children that we care so much about helping them dream big dreams, ones that can impact those around them.

Put your dream box somewhere special and periodically pull out your pieces of paper and re-evaluate. Are there steps being taken to achieve those dreams? Are they dreams that make a difference in the lives of those around you, or merely self serving? (Yes, we’ve had many great conversations about that in our home.)

All men who have achieved great things have been dreamers.

**  For those that celebrate St. Patrick’s Day to its fullest, on St. Patrick’s Day Eve, roll up your pieces of paper, tie them with tiny gold ribbons, and leave all your family’s dreams in the Dream Box for the Leprechauns to take. A trail of green leprechaun dust (glitter) can be left in place of your dreams as a sign of their approval.

* The future belongs to those who believe in their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt

A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done.

* Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men’s blood and will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble and logical plan never dies, but long after we are gone will be a living thing.
Lita Bane

For more ideas and traditions to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, check out my St. Patrick’s Day Tradition Ideas. There are ideas for the Leprechaun Trap, Lucky Penny Hunt, Leprehchaun Hat Trap, as well as the history behind the great man that is St. Patrick and more.