Recognizing Every Day Milestones with Kids

Mom recognizing milestone with kid

When giving awards of recognition, most people tend to automatically think of a business setting. However, recognizing milestones of accomplishment doesn’t just have to be limited to the work environment.

Parents and teachers can use medallion awards to recognize their child’s or student’s milestones, no matter how unconventional. For example, teachers can use this type of award to recognize and reward those students who go the extra mile. These awards don’t necessarily have to recognize students with the highest grades, but those who put in the extra work or effort to make a difference in the classroom and life.

Similar to employees of a big company or small business, children want their accomplishments to be valued, appreciated and recognized by all. By recognizing your child’s accomplishments, they’ll be motivated to not only give their best effort the next time they perform the task or activity, but will want to repeat this behavior to receive the same recognition. But what should parents and teachers be looking to recognize in their child or student? Here are some small (or unconventional) milestones parents and teachers can recognize to laud their child’s or student’s greatness.

Being Responsible Around the House
Although it may not seem like it to them, getting your child to complete chores around the house is a big deal. Not only are they learning to be responsible, but they’re learning organizational skills as well. For smaller children, parents can simply reward them by taking them out to the park to play or taking them out to eat or get a treat such as ice cream. Your kids will appreciate anything you do to recognize their hard work around the house.

Growing Beyond the Classroom
Not all children are star students in the classroom. Instead, they may excel in other parts of life, such as sports, leadership or simply being a good friend. Athletics is as much about following the rules of the game and learning good sportsmanship as it is about athleticism; leadership can entail resisting peer pressure to model good behavior; and being a good friend teaches loyalty. In short, when it comes to these areas of life, there are plenty of ways to recognize kids and students.
If buying tangible awards becomes too costly, some great low-cost ways to recognize your students might be to use a sticker chart or point system.

Showing Significant Improvement
Again, it’s not always about who’s the smartest, strongest or brightest in the classroom or at home. All children learn at their own pace, and that’s OK. Recognize your hard-working students by rewarding them with a most-improved award for excelling in a specific subject or in the classroom overall.


Although these are just a few, the list of every day (or unconventional) milestones for kids is limitless. Whether it’s a simple thumbs up or physical reward, it’s important to keep in mind that all recognition should be given sincerely and honestly. You want to make sure you use words of encouragement and that your child feels that their hard work has not gone unnoticed.


At Awards4U, we have a great selection of medallion awards online for any milestone you see fit for your child or student. Visit one of our local showrooms or give us a call for assistance today at (850) 878-7187.