The purpose of this dissertation research was to investigate the learning activities of mothers whose oldest child was not yet in school. While all learning activities of this group were surveyed, the emphasis of the study was on their self-planned learning projects. A second purpose was to describe the educational information sources utilized by this group and to delineate the policy-coordinating issues for adult education. The study sought answers to questions concerning: (1) amount of learning undertaken by the mothers in the past 12 months, (2) the amount of learning that was self-planned, (3) primary goal of each learning project: vocational, personal or family, social and civic, or self-fulfillment, (4) persons or agencies that learners involved in their efforts to learn, (5) perceptions and knowledge of adult education opportunities and agency offerings, and (6) obstacles that confronted learners in their efforts to learn. Subjects were 48 mothers residing in a New York suburban community. Data was collected by intensive interviews and a more general questionnaire. Results show that subjects had limited knowledge of the learning resources available from adult education institutions; that they seldom used institutions with the exception of television, business and industry, and religious institutions. (Author/CS)