Can Kindergartners Really Do This?

One of the most important concepts of Someday School is that it puts learning into the hands of the children. We will teach them to set their own learning goals and monitor their own progress.

A child who comes into Someday School on a Monday morning will be expected to have an idea of what they want to do that week. Do they want to learn to read? Do they want to build a fort? Do they want to find out the names of every single dinosaur that ever walked the planet? The child will not only know what they want to do, but have an idea of the steps they need to take to get there, the tools they need, and the people who can help them. They may come up with mini-goals throughout the week, and they may do lots of spontaneous activities or participate in organized activities that have nothing to do with their goal, but they will also be practicing self-directed learning.

Some people may be dubious when they read this. They may think, "Realistically, can a kindergartner do this?"

My answer is, yes... with guidance.

Think of it as Little League. My six-year-old nephew has been playing Little League baseball since he was four.  At age four, Freddy was playing the exact same game as a professional baseball player in the Major League. Of course, the rules were modified for these tiny people who hadn't even been alive for half a decade. That first year, they used a T to bat. Now, the coach pitches to the batters.  During the first few years of Little League, instruction is taking place during the games. Coaches are at all of the bases to provide encouragement and guidance to the players. I'm not sure that they even keep score, because winning or losing are not important at this stage... they are all learning.

As the children get older and advance to higher levels of Little League, they take over more and more aspects of the game. Children begin to pitch to each other. Coaches don't stand at every base anymore. They pay more attention to the score. They discover their favorite positions to play.

Eventually some of them may join travel teams, school teams, college teams, and maybe even minor and major league teams. Yet, even in the Major Leagues, they will continue to have coaches who help them improve their game!

So. Will a five-year-old come to Someday School in September knowing how to set their own goals and direct their own learning? No, no more than a five-year-old who has never played baseball can hit a ball without a T on their first day of  Little League. But with guidance, they can learn, and eventually it will become habitual to them.

Every Friday, children will take home a page that looks like this:

Their parents will be asked to help them fill out the sheet. We'll suggest that they start with one goal per week. The reading, math and social categories are to prompt them to think about academic and social goals, but really, the sky is the limit! On Monday, when they come to school, staff members will help them transfer their goal to a Kanban board. Staff members will also check in with children each day to see if they've accomplished steps of their goal and if they need additional help. On Friday afternoons, the school will come together as a group, and each child will have the chance to share what they learned or accomplished that week.

Some children may think of goals that will take longer than a week to finish. Others may be able to whip out their goals within a day. Each of them, however, will get to feel the pride that comes with working on their own projects... not something an adult instructed them to do, but something that is important to them.

Will learning be taking place? Absolutely! Children at Someday School will learn far more than just the basics. They will learn the joy of learning itself, for its own sake, not because "it is time to do math," but because the world is filled with amazing things to see, do and find out.