24hrmom

<<shantinik wrote:
In my house, where our practice differs from that of SOME unschoolers
is that we do a lot of goal setting. The education is still "child-
directed, family-centered", but I'm also a believer in the theory of
FLOW -- small goals set and small goals met lead to larger ones
later. We are little bound by the tyranny of subject matter, and we
put the kids' pursuit of their own passions first on our collective
family lists, but we do explicitly help them set goals for
themselves, and help them evaluate them along the way -- I want them
to become self-aware of the journey.>>

David, could you, or any one else who does some goal setting along with unschooling, expand on this a bit?

My kids are 6, 9, and 11 and have their areas of interest and I can see daily through their activities and discussions how they are pursuing them.
Plus, with life going on around them they are introduced to other things that they may or may not find interesting or choose to pursue. I've thought about doing some goal setting with them for the same reason you mentioned, though you put it much more eloquently than my thoughts: "to become self-aware of the journey". But I haven't yet been able to reconcile in my mind how these interests/pursuits might be translated into goals. I know they are their goals to make, but I'd be more comfortable bringing the subject up if I had a reasonable idea of how it might work for them.

For example, my eldest's biggest interest is video games, specifically RPGs. I can see through our conversations the level of detail he gets to. He discusses character development with me, calls me to hear the music he likes in the game and describes how they use it to set the mood, critiques stories he reads online based on the game characters and plot, replays games in various ways to get specific outcomes, often trying to "outsmart" the software, and is working (in his head right now) on his own story, not to mention the logic and math etc. that comes up in the games themselves. He spends a lot of time reading about his current games, both in magazines and online.

I'm kinda stumped in coming up with an idea of how these pursuits may be translated into goals so that he becomes more aware of his journey / progress. A couple weeks ago he made an offhand remark that he hasn't learned anything this past year of homeschooling, he's just been playing. To which I laughed along and pointed out just a couple of the things he's learned along the way. On the other hand, I don't want to emphasize what he's learning too much if it's going to lessen the enjoyment of the learning. Any ideas?

Do you - as in you and your family - make short (months) and long-term (years) goals? How specific are they? How often do you revisit them? Do you revisit them mostly for interest to see if you ended up following the paths you thought you would, and then set new ones? Or do you actively review and pursue them daily/weekly?

Pam L.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Robin Clevenger

> From: "24hrmom" <24hrmom@...>
> David, could you, or any one else who does some goal setting along with
unschooling, expand on this a bit?

The kids in our house learn goal-setting by example mostly. Though if my
kids have a project they're trying to achieve, I help suggest ways to do
that. For instance, my son hit on the idea last year of growing and selling
plants at garage sales in the summer. He ended up earning almost $50 by
himself. When he had this idea, we knew that he'd need to be selling plants
by the end of the summer. So, given how much time plants need to grow, he
knew he needed to get a critical mass of plants in pots by a certain date.
He hit on the number of at least 30 plants. So I suggested he try just
potting 5 a day (he was growing them from cuttings and sprouts in our own
garden, not from seed). Within a couple of weeks, he had close to 50 plants
in pots ready to go, and a few weeks later they had matured to the point he
could sell them.

> Do you - as in you and your family - make short (months) and long-term
(years) goals? How specific are they? How often do you revisit them? Do
you revisit them mostly for interest to see if you ended up following the
paths you thought you would, and then set new ones? Or do you actively
review and pursue them daily/weekly?>>>>

Both my husband and I set goals for ourselves, both long term and
short-term. And we have family goals as well. One of our family's goals to
live off of the grid. Our medium range goal is to consume no more gasoline.
So three years ago we bought enough biking gear to get us and the kids
around town as much as posible. That cut down on our fuel consumption
drastically. Then this year we bought an old diesel car with the intention
of running it on biodiesel (made from waste vegetable oil). Right now, DH is
clearing a spot in the back yard to build a shed to manufacture our own
biodiesel. We've also been gradually accumulating the supplies we need -
beakers, 50-gallon drums, funnels, etc. and making contacts with restaurant
owners to get waste fryer oil. Within the month, the shed should be
finished, and within 2 months, we should be running at least one car on
biodiesel.
So that's one of our family's goals. I have two big individual
goals--publishing my first novel, and completing the Ironman triathlon. The
kids see me accomplish smaller goals toward those two big ones. I'm editing
my book right now, so I set aside an hour a day for that. I set aside
another 1 - 2 hours for my triathlon workouts. I just completed a
half-marathon which is one of the smaller goals on the way to Ironman. So
the kids get an idea that goals can be long or short term, and that you need
to make it a priority to work toward them every day. These are things we
talk about in the course of living together, because the kids readily see
that our goals and the steps we take toward them are a big part of our
lives.
My personal goals are very specific. I started toward the Ironman two years
ago. That year I trained for a Sprint distance triathlon. The next year I
trained for an Olympic distance triathlon. This year it's more Olympic
distance races and a half-marathon. Next year it will be a half-ironman. The
year after a marathon and a half-ironman and the year after that the
Ironman. Now I know people who train for the Ironman in a year, but I have
no urge to jettison my family life for a goal (which is what you have to do
practically in order to do it that way). Also, I think my slow-and-steady
approach is less likely to lead to overtraining, burnout, and injury. Within
the framework of these stepping-stone goals, I have increasingly smaller
goals. Distance and time goals, weekly workout goals, daily workout goals,
and goals within each workout (like to run a certain pace, or swim 500 yards
in under 7 minutes, or whatever).
So I guess to answer your questions, I revisit my goals daily because I have
these micro and macro goals within my larger goal framework. I track my
progress in Excel spreadsheets and the like. And when these larger goals are
accomplished, I'm sure I will find new goals to pursue.
My kids have likewise set goals. My son finished his first duathlon last
year, and he trained for that. He did the plant sales I mentioned above. He
started a kid's writer's group and set a mini-goal to get his writing for
the next week's meeting done by a certain day of the week. He's 6 1/2, BTW.
My daughter (3 1/2) has stated that she has the goal of learning to rock
climb. I took her down to the rock gym this week and am signing us up for a
class. She also is taking violin lessons and practices towards her goals in
that (which right now are basically to master Twinkle Twinkle Little Star).
So even at pretty young ages, kids can determine their own goals and start
taking steps towards them. In case it isn't clear, none of my kids' goals
are mandatory or enforced by me. These are things that have come from within
them, and I help them with things like setting up classes, providing
transportation, and giving input on how to accomplish their goals.

Blue Skies!
-Robin-

shantinik

--- In [email protected], "Robin Clevenger"
<diamondair@e...> wrote:
> > From: "24hrmom" <24hrmom@s...>
> > David, could you, or any one else who does some goal setting
along with
> unschooling, expand on this a bit?
>
> The kids in our house learn goal-setting by example mostly. Though
if my
> kids have a project they're trying to achieve, I help suggest ways
to do
> that. For instance, my son hit on the idea last year of growing and
selling
> plants at garage sales in the summer. He ended up earning almost
$50 by
> himself. When he had this idea, we knew that he'd need to be
selling plants
> by the end of the summer. So, given how much time plants need to
grow, he
> knew he needed to get a critical mass of plants in pots by a
certain date.
> He hit on the number of at least 30 plants. So I suggested he try
just
> potting 5 a day (he was growing them from cuttings and sprouts in
our own
> garden, not from seed). Within a couple of weeks, he had close to
50 plants
> in pots ready to go, and a few weeks later they had matured to the
point he
> could sell them.
>

I could hardly do better than Robin's response, and what little I
know of Robin (hi, there!) that is not in the least bit surprising --
athletes, and ski divers, and musicians (I only qualify -- barely --
among the last) are goal experts!

The bigger point is that goal-setting and evaluation is only one of
many ways to help kids develop their own self-awareness.

One favorite of mine is to set a day with your child once a year --
take a big cake and a yellow pad to the park, and write down (random -
- no organization necessary) all the things she says she now knows
about the world. Seal it up in an envelope, and open it with her on
that same day the following year. For kids who think they haven't
been learning anything, this will surely do the trick!

Then there is the old music teacher's trick -- a child should always
be working on a piece that is easy enough for her to be perfecting, a
piece that moves her forward a little bit and competence, and there
should always be one piece that she likes but is WAY too difficult
for her now, but that she can drag out every once in a while. As time
goes by, she is able to see how much closer to playing it she has
come. You can do this with books, too -- if you're erstwhile "4th
grader" (whatever that is) has been bitten by the horse bug, give her
books reflecting a second grade, fifth grade, high school, and
college understanding of the subject. Sometimes the 2nd grade version
will be all that she wants (she just needed some good pictures);
other times she'll want the college text (to learn about equine fetal
birth defects.) And she'll watch her own understanding expand.

Robin's "planting planning" is a terrific tool. When my daughter was
playing the flute at the Farmers Market to earn enough money to buy
herself a dog (an expensive one -- a Westie), part of the job was to
plot her earnings on a graph, and to figure out the percentage of how
close she was to her goal. (We also use to weigh and measure snakes
when the kids were younger, so that they could see an analogy to
their own physical development.)

Learning contracts are great tools, too -- I don't have time to write
an essay about them just now, but I'm planning one for my column. But
one of the nice things about contracts is that it can turn "quitters"
into "graduates" -- instead of having "quit violin playing", she
has "graduated from violin playing", having taken in the learning she
wants at this time, and can move on to other things, all in a very
self-aware manner in which she has learned something about herself.
(My Sept/Oct Home Ed. Mag. column will be on Meera's graduation from
the flute -- if you e-mail me privately, I'll send you an advance
draft.)

Hope that helps! Robin -- I LOVED your response.

david
www.skylarksings.com

Pamela Sorooshian

HA - I know you meant it as just an example -- but Rosie (12) is a
horse nut - rides several times a week - and reads about horses a lot.

So - what does she read?

LOTS of Saddle Club books - they are brain candy.
Horses of the World coloring book.
How to Draw Horses.
Other children's books such as those by Marguerite Henry.
Manuals about horses - technical stuff put out by horse associations
and 4H.
Historical fact-based horse novels.
Nonfiction books about the history of horses.
Horse magazines.
College textbooks on Equine Science (looks up information - doesn't sit
and read from front to back).


-pam
On Thursday, June 19, 2003, at 10:54 AM, shantinik wrote:

> You can do this with books, too -- if you're erstwhile "4th
> grader" (whatever that is) has been bitten by the horse bug, give her
> books reflecting a second grade, fifth grade, high school, and
> college understanding of the subject. Sometimes the 2nd grade version
> will be all that she wants (she just needed some good pictures);
> other times she'll want the college text (to learn about equine fetal
> birth defects.) And she'll watch her own understanding expand.