Meaningful Goals
Kids need to know that their efforts lead to a personally meaningful goal. –The Brave Learner
Not your goals. Not the meaning you ascribe to the topic. Not some distant destination (unless they want that destination).
Your children will invest themselves when they care.
Here are examples of personally meaningful goals in learning. Kids:
- like the subject—it’s intrinsically interesting to them. They may like a subject but hate how it’s taught. Tease that out.
- decide how many problems/sentences/pages to complete and challenge themselves to hit the mark.
- see learning the skill as adjacent to some other meaningful activity—“I want to spell correctly so I can be understood in the gamer chat group.”
- care about college admissions or qualifying for the next level of whatever it is.
- want to fulfill requirements set for them.
- are more interested when they’re in a class with other students.
- just want to know or do or understand the “thing.” They do just enough to satisfy that itch and no more.
- become obsessed with a topic or skill and it becomes a portal for all other learning.
- have a friend/YouTube creator/favorite celebrity who knows how so they want to know how too.
Jot down specific goals that are personally meaningful to your childen. Now support their journey! Provide resources and encouragement. You also might celebrate hitting a goal with a treat, a high five, or an entry into a record book they value.
