Goal Setting with Kids - Thinking from the End

Ever taught your kids what it means to "Think from the end"? If you are serious about bringing your children up to be habitual goal setters, what a great lesson to teach them - and a very easy one too!

I was playing with my little niece Talia the other week. At eight years old she is a bright, well-spoken kid and fantastic company. She had a coloring and activity book so we colored together for quite some time (I am not looking forward to the time when she gets too old to enjoy doing that, as I love coloring with her when we visit the family!)

Anyway, we then came across a maze, which Talia took a felt tip pen to and without further ado proceeded to solve in about 30 seconds. I was interested to see that she did in fact, START FROM THE END, in other words instead of starting at the 'start here' entry to the maze, she put her pen on the cheese (or whatever it was, I forget) at the centre of the maze and quickly found her way out. Which is, of course, the quickest way to solve a maze!

It was a great opportunity for me to point out to her how "Thinking from the End", similar to how she had solved her maze so quickly, can help kids and adults alike with goal setting. She was quick to understand that if we define our goals and start with thinking with what we want to achieve, then the pathways to achieving our goals will be that much smoother!

Do You Know Where Your Chocolate Comes From???

They say ignorance is bliss but after watching a news program last night on child abuse in the chocolate industry, I felt it was my duty to blog about it. If I had no clue I am sure a lot of people also are unaware of the unacceptable practice that is still going on in this industry. So since it is Halloween, a time when chocolate consumption is high maybe it is time that we give a bit of thought to where that sweet treat may have come from.

According to the report, in 2001, the U.S. State Department and the International Labour Organization reported child slavery on many of the cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast, which produces about 43 % of the world's supply. It was reported after subsequent research that 284,000 children between the ages of 9 and 12 were working in hazardous conditions such as around toxic pesticide and using dangerous machetes to harvest the cocoa beans. And if that was not bad enough it was discovered that 12,000 children that had participated in the study were working in these abhorrent conditions as a result of child trafficking. Suddenly that chocolate doesn't sound so sweet.

When this finally caught the attention of the media and the government in 2001 and the American public began to take notice, the U.S. chocolate agreed to take steps to end the child slavery trade by July 2005.That is all well and good but sadly the deadline has come and the chocolate industry has failed to change any of its despicable practices.


Global Exchange is now launching a campaign for communities to voice their opinions about the chocolate industry's abuse of children.
What can you do? Buy fair trade chocolate products . Fair Trade guarantees that all producers the income that they need to educate their children and pay workers with fair wages. Consumers can be asssured that no abusive labour practices were used in the process of making the chocolate. If we contact the large chocolate companies and demand that we will accept nothing less than fair trade it will put pressure on them to change. After I write this I am going to email the likes of Nestle, M&M Mars, Lindt and any others in the chocolate industry. If we all took the time to do this they would have to listen.



Happy Parenting 

Monicka

Talking to your kids