How To Make Learning Math + Science + Reading = FUN

Before getting to my post I just want to give a SHOUT OUT to my fellow She Writers on this festive Blog-Hop weened!  And, while I have no blogging tips to add - I hope you like my other tips!

A few months age, The Wall Street Journal's  Friday Journal (November 5, 2010) splashed the headline: "The Turf War for Tots:  In TV's battle for the hearts and minds of preschoolers, it's Mandarin and math vs. stories and sparkle"  Executives at Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. and Walt Disney were jockeying for market position following "starkly different" points of view:

Nick scheduled programs emphasizing "learning" such as "Dora" and spin-off "Go Diego, Go" (teaching kids Spanish) and "Ni Hao, Kai-Lan" (with 6-year-old cartoon Kai-lan Chow teaching kids Mandarin Chinese").  Disney argued that "learning programing" emphasizes too much work and not enough play, focusing on story-telling  instead.

This is all fine and good, and as parents it is nice to have a wider options for our kids.  My question is: Why isn't LEARNING = FUN (period)?

• Why does programing have to be either "learning" oriented or "story-telling"? Isn't story-telling a form of learning?  Isn't learning a form of story-telling (especially when learning about cultures)?
• Why is everything in education presented as extremes (for example:whole language or phonics)?

In my December 6, 2010 blog ("Our Education Dilemma") I mentioned an article by Paul Lockhart, a mathematics teacher at Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn, NY who laments about our current math curriculum which teaches students to memorize and apply formulas but which, in his opinion, should engage students by having them explore natural 'built-in' mathematical problems all around them instead.  Jon Scieszk's Math Curse does just this.  It was such a popular book he went on to write Science Verse detailing the poetry of science.

If Scieszka and Lockhart can integrate math + science + humor = fun ... why can't educators?  Why is everything either or? Our schools are losing so many students.  How many times have we, as parents, heard from our kids that school or learning is 'boring'?  I certainly have. 

So, here are some suggestions to make learning fun:

• Learning must be meaningful.  Teachers and parents must constantly introduce topics in a way that makes whatever the topic is, meaningful right then and there. Here are just a few suggestions:
• In math we have "manipulatives" - ususally blocks, discs, or shapes to "play" geometry or addition, subtraction, multiplication. division - but we also have to show them WHY these tools and operations are so important:  What's in it for them?  

• Design and make different types of kites.  Fly them - which works best -why (this combines math and science).
• Have your kids virtually 're-tile' a bathroom given a specific shape or sets of shaped tiles.  Re-tiling must involve geometry and math's various operations to be successful.  
• Maybe, you have a football fan - why not teach base ten, base two, base whatever as "first downs"?  
• Maybe you want to travel?  Have your kids select destinations and  convert local temperatures from Celsius to Fahrenheit  (working with fractions and conversion).
• Convert time zones and compute travel time (using various modes of transportation).  You can be really creative and invent your own forms of travel and travel time.
• They can do the same with various foreign currencies. Let them plan their trips, let the design their bathrooms - make it meaningful
• In Science - it's the same idea - make it meaningful to them.  You may want to relate whatever you are studying to their lives, their bodies, their immediate universe.
• Reading -again...fun!  Independent reading should be easy reading and it should be about meaningful topics and things they love.  

• Let them select their own independent reading material and you can expand their horizons by selecting very different books (slightly more challenging) to read aloud.  
• For reluctant readers - start with comic books or graphic novels.  They are coming into their own now and offer incredible art, relevant topics, serious vocabulary - and they really challenge cognitive skills such as inference (more on this in later blogs).
•  Go on field trips:

• Go on hikes (local and distant) - look for birds (with a book and binoculars), look at flora and fauna (again with book - or a camera/cell phone) - hunt for unusual things you can research later. Or, go on hikes talk together, have fun.
• Go to local (and distant) museums.  There are so many different types of museums now.  There are local historical sites, art, media, cultural, music, spiritual museums - explore - make their learning more personal.

This world is such an wonderful, colorful, vibrant, fascinating place - let's take advantage of it!

Have fun!  Let me know what and how you are helping your child explore his or her world!

The Staples Commercial or... It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like School

Like it or not, summer is over and school is here.  I always think of an old Staples commercial where you hear the song, "It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas" playing while Dad clicks his heels up as he merrily shops with his kids for school supplies.

Whether this is a happy, sad or anxious time of year for you and your child, here are some suggestions to help effectively deal with the summer/school transition:  

1) Keep your child smiling.  This may mean funky erasers, decorated notebooks, dividers, school bags or pencil holders.  It may involve stickers or painting a smiley face in your child's homework pad or  lunch bag. 

2) Keep your child organized.  When organized, your child can more efficiently tackle school's cognitive and social issues.  Organization is a skill.  For some of us it comes naturally, for others it must be painstakingly learned. 

For your young child: model executive skills and set up their workspace and book bags, giving them some decision making power (color of notebook, pens, pen/pencil holders, folders, etc.) you can both live with. 

For your older child:  Brainstorm on materials needed given the subject requirements, the space available (in the desk, locker, book bag, at home), and the budget available.  Consider weight and durability of materials along with prioritizing needs and likes.  Tweak and compromise suggestions.  By working together, you are teaching your child to recognize and weigh multiple aspects of a problem, you are teaching problem solving skills, budgeting and math skills and by involving them you are providing greater 'executive' experience.

3) Set up Routines keeping in mind what you can and cannot control. 

Set up calendars so you and your child can keep track of what is happening that day / week.  Set up homework and play schedules.  This will help them develop a more effective and efficient sense of time.

Note that play/down time are as important as homework time.  Some kids can sit for hours doing productive work (and have 'play' time before and/or after their homework time).  Others have shorter spans of attention and 'productive' homework time.  For these kids schedule many mini homework breaks (which can include snack time, dinner, a short game, sms'ing and/or television time).


4) Establish bedtimes and sleep routines making sure your child gets a good night's sleep.  Set up 'going to sleep routines'- especially for the kids who resist going to sleep and/or who have trouble slowing down.  Routines can include quiet music, quiet reading, washing up, reading aloud, bed tuck ins and saying prayers and/or thinking about wishes for what tomorrow may bring.

5) Set up play dates (especially for children beginning new schools).  Ask the school for a list of kids near you or a list of other new kids entering your child's class.  Set up play and/or homework dates with them.  Help ease the 'feeling alone' jitters. 

6) Review what your child did in school that day.  This will help with memory and keep up the classroom excitement.  Watch related movies together about those topics or go visit local historical and cultural sites that relate to the topic. 

7) Preview what the next day will bring [before (not at) bedtime - no need to get them anxious before going to sleep].  Maybe during dinner talk about what your child may be doing the next day. You may want to do this again at breakfast.  Get her mind and imagination going, get  him thinking about what he will or might be learning.  This will also gives your child more time to think about how he or she might contribute to class discussion or writing assignments and provides additional memory paths.

In short, keep school and learning alive and exciting.  Empower your child to take command and assume growing responsibility for his and her space and domains. 

I would love to hear what you are doing to help with your child's school transitions.  We can all learn from each other. 

In the meantime, may this be a happy, productive 2010-2011 academic year!