Austin Scholar #129: How to help your kid set academic goals
& my goals for my first quarter at Stanford
Hey, y'all!
This week from Austin Scholar...
Austin’s Anecdote: My goals for my first quarter at Stanford
How to help your kid set academic goals
Scholar’s Sources: What I’ve been thinking about…
This has been a truly heartbreaking week for me: two of my best friends have left for college. And while I’m beyond excited for them and the paths they will take at Vanderbilt and Parsons, I already miss them with my whole heart. I keep making the jokes they would be making in my head and missing their commentary on ridiculous movies. But that’s part of growing up, isn’t it? Going our separate ways. We are still working valiantly to talk every day, but it can be tough with all of the orientation stuff. Regardless of my emotional state, I truly am so proud of my friends and can’t wait to see what they accomplish.
Austin’s Anecdote: My goals for my first quarter at Stanford
This is an incomplete list of my goals for my first quarter at Stanford:
Make at least one friend (this is a big concern of mine – I’ve had the same friends since middle school so I’m a little worried about making new ones)
Create a strong study system (my classes for this quarter don’t seem too challenging, but I want to make sure I have a system that works for me so I’m ready for the harder classes)
Talk to my family at least once per day (don’t believe I’ll have trouble with this one)
Establish a daily routine (routines keep me sane and productive each day)
Have fun (Probably won’t be as hard as I think it will be)
My overall feelings towards college right now are anxious but hopeful. One month to go!!
This is my first year setting goals for college (obviously), but I've had lots of practice setting academic goals at the start of every school year.
Which is what I want to talk about today – how to help your kid set academic goals (so they can reach the 99th percentile in their grade level).
How to help your kid set academic goals
I have some good news: if you’re a parent to a student at Alpha or use the 2 Hr Learning homeschool or after school programs, you don’t have to do anything!!
Built into 2 Hr Learning is an app called Dash that allows you and your kid to set academic goals (catch up to grade level, complete two grade levels in one year, finish high school work by 8th grade, etc.). The app then uses those goals to generate daily lessons. It’s that simple.
Dash uses specific diagnostic tests to ensure that it knows exactly what your kid knows and doesn’t know – so it can avoid making them spend time on content they’ve already mastered.
If you aren’t using 2 Hr Learning, you want to take an approach that’s similar to Dash – setting academic goals, creating a daily plan to achieve those goals by the end of the year, and ideally determining what your kid already does and doesn’t know, so they don’t miss any gaps but also don’t waste times on things they already understand.
If you want to get your kid to master their academic content and stop wasting hours a day struggling on homework, you should have your kid start using online apps.
Online, adaptive, AI-powered apps allow your kid to learn at their own pace and quickly move through content they already know, so they can spend more time focused on things they haven’t yet mastered.
In setting goals for your kid, you first need to pick – together – what they should accomplish over the year.
Catch up to their grade level? Master their grade level content? Two?
It’s important to discuss this with your kid – make them feel as though they’re making the decision themselves.
For example, if you want your kid to be one grade level ahead in math, start the conversation by saying something like, “wouldn’t it be cool if you were able to get all 100s on your tests next year?” or “do you want to know the answer to any question your friends ask during math class?” – just something to get them excited at the prospect of being good at math.
Once you’ve set a goal, the next task is to choose your app.
For math, I would recommend Math Academy, which uses an onboarding test to determine what your kid knows and doesn’t know and will immediately put them in the correct material.
What’s even better, the app paces your learning plan itself!! It does the work for you of putting your goals onto a schedule. Here’s an example of mine:
One XP should come out to about one minute, so I know what I’m getting myself into.
Math, check! Super easy.
For language and reading comprehension, it gets a little more complicated.
My recommendation would be to use the IXL skill plans:
They have everything from Kindergarten Language Arts textbooks to SAT prep. Some skill plans are paced (complete this lesson on Day 1, this one on Day 2, etc.) and some are organized by topic.
For the SAT prep, you can even plug in your sub-scores from a practice test to get a personalized skill plan.
Once you’ve decided on a skill plan, your next step is to put it into a schedule. Take the number of lessons in the skill plan, then divide by the number of days your kid will work in the app. For example, if your kid is going to do two grade levels (360 lessons total) and they do app work every school day (180 average), then their goal is two lessons per day.
This is another moment where you should get your kid involved – and get rewards involved. For most kids, this is a lot of extra work. Have discussions like, “if I buy you a Build-A-Bear at the end of the month, how many IXL lessons would you be willing to do per day?”
This implies that they should do at least one so they will probably say two or three. If they go too low, up the stakes: “how about four lessons per day and I’ll get you an extra outfit with your Build-A-Bear.”
This way, it’s a goal that they set and they want to work towards.
And there you go. Academic goals are set for the year.
Scholar’s Sources: What I’ve been thinking about…
Steph Curry’s shot
I think I should start by saying I’ve never watched a basketball game start-to-finish in my entire life. I know names like LeBron James, Michael Jordan, and Steph Curry and played knockout on the playground all throughout middle school, but I don’t know much else. But ever since the US Men’s Basketball team played Serbia in the Olympics, my entire For You Page on TikTok has been filled with breakdowns of the games and how incredible our team is. But there’s one clip that I’ve seen over and over again – Steph Curry shooting (and making) a 3-pointer while being double-teamed and LeBron James and Kevin Durant are wide open. Even to a non-basketball watcher, that still sounds pretty cool. What’s more interesting, though, is the commentary around it.
“Curry is the only player allowed to take that shot.”
“If anyone else took that shot at the end of an Olympic game, we would revoke their citizenship.”
Why is that?
Because Steph Curry is good enough to break the rules.
(And because I’m a baseball fan at heart, here’s an example of how Shohei Ohtani is good enough to break the rules.)
When you’re trying to master a skill or become an expert in something, your goal should be to be good enough to break the rules. To understand so completely that you’re able to go against the grain and do something no one else knows how to do.
So many kids want to break the rules right when they start, but they have to realize that they’re not Steph Curry – yet. When they reach that superstar status, then they can break the rules.
And that’s the power of expertise.
This is a fantastic explanation of how to become an expert in something.
Explore and develop a passion for it -> learning everything you can -> add your own style
A lot of people only think of the second stage, building your foundation. But in reality, if you want your kid to truly develop talent in a particular area, you need to start by letting them have fun with it and become excited on their own. That drive will get them through the harder middle years, when it becomes more and more challenging. Finally, students have to go beyond what already exists – experiment with their own style and practice.
This is Tom Brady’s takeaway from the Olympics:
“I’ve said it a few times lately, but we should all aspire to do HARD things. Whether it’s in sports or in life, push yourself beyond your comfort zone to see what you can really accomplish.”
So many people watch the Olympics and think wow, I could never do something like that.
Whether it’s Simone Biles’ triple-double that reaches twelve feet in the air, Katie Ledecky being the only swimmer on the screen, or Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone’s world-record-breaking speed, it can seem like these athletes are miles ahead of you.
But you need to realize that you have the same power – to become the world’s best at something. By utilizing skill stacking and the abundance of resources on the internet, you can become a complete expert in your own domain. Stephen Nedoroscik chose the pommel horse, you can choose your own topic.
Thanks for reading. Go crush the week! See y'all on Sunday.