Posts Tagged ‘learning’
Yesterday I shared a scripture verse we are going to start memorizing this week. Today I thought I’d share some of what we do when we’re memorizing to keep it fun and productive.
How to Help Little Ones Memorize
We’ve memorized several things so far this year including the Pledge of Allegiance, the Star-Spangled Banner, Articles of Faith, and Sammi’s parts in last year’s Primary Program. Sammi, 5, has a knack for memorizing quickly and I’ve been impressed with how long she’ll remember things we’ve memorized. Elli, 3, has less interest in memorizing but tends to pick things up incidentally, over time. Here are some of the things we do to increase exposure and make memorizing fun.
Get Visual
In addition to the written words of what we’re memorizing, we find pictures that help us understand the meaning of what we’re memorizing. This is especially great for pre-readers since they aren’t really helped by written-word cues, but pictures can help them remember specific words.
Get Moving
Elli, especially, is a movement kind of kid. She loves moving, dancing, leaping and wiggling. While movement is often distracting for adults, this is not true for kids. They are great listeners even when they are moving. It takes a lot of concentration to keep a little body still and usually there just isn’t any left over for concentrating on memorizing. So we add movement to what we’re memorizing.
You could make up actions that match specific words in your passage. This is a great vocabulary builder as well because it helps them grasp the meaning of new words and the overall message of what they’re memorizing. Sometimes I’ll say “Touch your toes then head.” Then for every word we’ll go down and touch our toes then on the next word stand up and touch our heads. We vary the actions each time we repeat what we’re memorizing. Elli really loves doing this. We can repeat a passage ten times before she loses interest.
Get Singing
Setting new words to music speeds the memorizing process. Music is memorable. Using that to help little ones memorize creates lifelong memories. I still remember all 50 States in alphabetical order because we learned that song in second grade. Somethings we memorize already have music, like songs and the Articles of Faith. But other things don’t. I just say it in a sing-songy voice till a familiar tune emerges. Nursery rhyme melodies and traditional kids’ songs are great, simple, already familiar tunes that help little ones memorize something new.
Get Interactive
I print a copy of what we want to memorize. Then I have rectangles of construction paper. For each time we go through the passage one person gets to choose a rectangle (there are different colors) and then choose which words to cover up with their rectangle. We take turns, we make choices, we respect each others’ choices and we work as a team. Going through the passage this way keeps my little ones’ interest longer because they love the anticipation of it being their turn again along with the surprise of what someone else will choose.
Application
We often do a combination of several of these at one time. This list addresses four different learning styles from Multiple Intelligences theory. Namely, linguistic, bodily-kinesthetic, musical and interpersonal. Approaching the task of memorizing with an arsenal of activities creates enjoyment and memories that will last as long as, if not longer than, the passage you memorize together.
Other resources for memorization that inspire us:
Scripture Memorization by Kris on The Homeschool Classroom
Incorporating the 2012 Primary Theme in Family Memory Work by Tristan of Our Busy Homeschool
What have your little ones memorized that has surprised you?
I babysat a three-amost-four year old who had an entire, long Clifford book memorized. I was astounded. This was my first experience with how extensive little kids’ memories are.
The theme scripture for Primary this year is found in Joshua 24:15. We plan on memorizing the scripture. In preparation, I thought I’d print up the words, but I got a little carried away and made these cute posters, instead.
If you click on the picture you’ll get the big version to download. Enjoy!
You know the thing about patience is the more you ask for it, the more your patience is tested. Whenever we are going through a challenging stage, growth spurt, or bad day I often find myself praying for patience. But the thing is, it always seems to get harder rather than easier. Is it just me? That’s the thing about patience that I don’t like. Trying to get more inevitably drains what little I have.
Taking family pictures: ultimate exercise of patience!
In fact, for an entire year I completely eradicated the word patience from my vocabulary. I refused to use it. I was so frustrated with how much harder it felt when I tried to improve my patience that I just gave up on the quality all together. I worked on other aspects of parenting, such as understanding my child’s needs, instead of asking for patience. I really enjoyed that year. I felt like I made noticeable improvements in my parenting. But after a while I came to terms with patience.
That’s when I found the thing about patience that makes sense to me. The thing I actually like about patience. Now it’s not a taboo word in my vocabulary. It’s an attribute I actually want to possess. Want to know what the thing I like is? I thought so.
Here’s the thing about patience I actually like: Patience is a muscle. Pretty simple. The more you exercise your muscles, the stronger they get. It’s hurts a bit to make your muscles stronger, but even in the soreness that follows, you are able to lift more the next day. The more consistently you exercise your muscles the stronger they get and they stay strong. But when you stop exercising, you lose that strength and have to start again, at a weaker state than you remember being, and work up to your ideal again.
When Brent started medical school, I was shocked at how hard it was for me to manage our house and kids while he studied SO MUCH. I thought it had been hard when he worked and went to school, but this was a whole new animal. It look me about 18 months, but I was finally feeling like I had a handle on the daily grind. We were in a good groove for a while. Then the semester ended and we had Brent with us full time during his break. We traveled together as a family and spent a lot of quality time together. Then we returned home and I had my first day home with the kids without Brent. It was awful! I was so impatient with everything. It was shocking how hard the day was. The last time I had been in our home taking care of everything while Brent was at school had been a really good day. And now, a couple months later, the same scenario was nothing short of disastrous.
I’ve had to start again building my patience muscle. We’ve had good days and rough days but we’re steadily climbing uphill. Even with beginning our homeschool journey with Sammi, managing naps and meal schedules and leaving Brent alone long enough to study I’m more patient than I was that first day back from vacation. And soon enough I’ll be back to where I was the day we had our summertime family picture (below) taken. And then some!
Our Family May 2011
How strong is your patience muscle?
I’ve struggled over the last couple years with what to write about on this blog. Especially last year as Sammi was in preschool because we didn’t have as much time for crafts. I kept thinking that if I got Elli one on one we could create some of those lovely crafting memories I have from when Sammi was her age. But truth be told, Elli’s a whole different child.
Duh! I knew she was different, from the beginning she has shown different interests. I’ve had to explore and try tons of different parenting strategies to reach her and help her understand how to grow up. Practically from birth Sammi has been ready for the net stage, eagerly jumping into the next phase of life and impatiently waiting to be able to do so. I merely had to mention out loud that it was just about time for such and such and Sammi did the rest on her own. Elli, on the other hand, has thoroughly enjoyed being a baby and reluctantly became a toddler and now is reluctantly becoming a preschooler.
I was trying to coax her into putting her shoes on by herself. She is able to do it and does it often. But on this particular day she was not interested in putting forth the effort herself and wanted me to do it for her. I said something to this effect: “You’re a big three year old. You can do it.” And she replied, “No. I just a little three year old.”
Where Sammi loves to listen to story after story and loves to do a project, draw or color, Elli would rather put together a puzzle or reenact any princess story she knows. She also prefers to be Diego to Dora because there’s more action in his character. It’s been a struggle for me to accept these differences as her personality. Not because they’re negative in any way but because I kept thinking that she would grow into loving the activities Sammi loves.
Now that we are moving into this preschool phase of her life I am trying harder to understand her in terms of how to help her learn. I often feel at a loss because I don’t know how to spend time with her that’s not crafting or reading and she’s not as into those activities as Sammi was. She’s much more active and loves to role play. She’s forever asking Brent to be her prince as she plays one of a dozen different princesses she loves.
So Elli, this is you’re year. Mommy is going to develop some new play skills so we can be the best of friends!
Elli has finally discovered the joy of dressing herself. This comes as a relief because now I can hand her her pajamas and she can put them on herself while I change the baby. I remember this being a huge burden lifted off my shoulders when Sammi transitioned into dressing herself for bed, and then for the day.
I say burden because by the time we’re getting ready for bed, I’m exhausted! It takes so much focus (which I seem to lack at the end of the day) to get all the kids in their pajamas with their teeth brushed and their bladders empty and finally settled in bed. To have Elli dress herself is a huge step toward simplifying this process.
The downside to this new discovery is that it is just that, NEW. And every time I turn around, she’s changed her clothes, again. While I’m lamenting the extra laundry, I have to smile at the outfits she puts together.
Helping your little one learn to dress
- Be patient with the extra laundry!
- Provide clothes with give: elastic waistbands and shirts with loose sleeves and necks.
- Let them struggle a little with the clothing, but intervene before full-blown frustration.
- Sit back and let them be in charge. Sometimes I have to occupy myself with another task so she has the room to struggle with her clothes without me hovering over her.
- An older sibling’s clothes can be just right for learning to put on and take off clothes.
- Dress-ups are another great way to practice.
- Enjoy the crazy outfits that come your way!
How have you helped your little one learn to dress?
We had such a blast with our Spring sensory tub that I wanted to try a rice-based tub with Spring-colored rice. I used vinegar and food coloring following directions found here.
I love the colors. They are so vibrant and looked great next to each other. I was too impatient to wait for the orange to dry so I gave the tub to Elli with just the green, purple and pink.
She immediately mixed them. She then proceeded to play with just the rice for about 10 minutes. Such fun!
Elli helped me make the rice by pouring the vinegar into the jar, helping me squeeze the food coloring in, and shaking the jar one the lid was on tight. She loved being a part of the process. I was worried she would be more destructive than helpful, but she’s really figuring out the fun of following directions.
What have your little ones been playing with this Spring?
As parents, Brent and I have been discussing for a while the topics of chores and allowances. Neither one of us grew up with an allowance tied to chores. We had household chores we were responsible for, but if we wanted money from our parents, then we needed to do extra work to earn it.
I never had an allowance, either. My mom always said she’d provide all my necessities and anything else I needed/wanted within reason. This was absolutely true throughout the time I lived at home. Even when I had my own job in high school, my mom still provided a lot of my necessities. But, as my income grew, so did my freedom to shop when I wanted. That led to me buying a lot more of those necessities on my own. For me it was an easy transition into college life and living on my own. Though I have to admit, I missed my mom keeping the kitchen stocked with food and the bathroom full of toiletries.
So, back to our new outlook as parents.Sammi has been learning about money at preschool and is really aware of buying things with money when we go shopping. She always asks if she can hold the money and pay for it. Elli is now a pro at swiping the credit card at the grocery store. Brent and I have wanted a way for the girls to have more opportunities to handle money in a more responsible way (up till now they’ve had a hay day emptying their piggy banks and filling them again, but not careful to make sure no coins were lost in the process).
Since we didn’t just want to give them money unattached to any responsibilities (because when does that really happen in life?!) and because they are getting old enough to learn how to do more chores around the house, we decided to create a chore chart and give them an allowance each week. This way they learn that they work to earn money and they are helping me keep the house organized.
I did a lot of research trying to find ideas for chores for 2 and 4 year olds. Most of what I found were things that the girls already know how to do and do willingly. I didn’t want them to all of a sudden start earning money for brushing their teeth or getting dressed. It seemed like a regression. So I am using the chore chart as a way to teach new household tasks to them. When they’ve mastered what’s on their chore list, then we’ll replace those chores with new tasks, assuming they will continue to do the things they’ve learned how to do. My favorite find was a this post on chores with a free download for a chore chart from simplemom.net.
With Brent in medical school and our income quite limited, we thought a lot about how much they should each receive for their allowances. Since their money will be to buy whatever they want (meaning we will still buy everything they need and most of their wants) I also didn’t want it to be so much that they were constantly in consumer mode. We settled on 10 cents for each year of their age. Sammi gets 40 cents a week and Elli gets 20 cents a week.
We introduced the new system to them last night along with their first allowance so they could see how everything worked together. Sammi was pumped. When I went over her chore chart with her new responsibilities she kept saying things like, “I know I can do that!” As part of their learning to manage their money, we also set up a system for them to put their money into three groups: charitable giving, savings, and spending. For us, charitable giving will start with tithing, or giving 10% back the the Lord. Then from what’s left they save 50% and put the other 50% into their wallet for spending.
Growing up I had a little box that was divided into three sections. I liked that idea, but I wanted something that separated the three a little more. We already had piggy banks for the girls so we just turned little canning jars into tithing banks and then bought little change purses for their spending money. I liked the idea of the spending money being stored in a change purse because it would be easy to grab and take to the store. I let the girls pick out their own purses and they loved carrying them around last night after we put their first allowance in them. But them we promptly put them way up on top of the desk along with their other two storage jars for safe keeping. My current plan is to take them shopping once a month with their spending money and see if there’s anything they want.
Do you do chores or an allowance with your little one?
What is your strategy?
If you haven’t yet, please check out the Baby Leg Warmers giveaway going on until March 1o.
…time and space for free play.
I’m continuing my series on ways I would love to make a difference in the world. In previous posts I suggested an indoor play area not part of a fast food restaurant in every community and a bookshelf full of age appropriate books for every home. I’ve been thinking a lot about play as a necessary part of child development. I recently began reading Playful Parenting by Lawrence J. Cohen. He names three reason child desperately need play in their lives:
- To Connect, or Reconnect after connection has been severed
- To Build Confidence by role playing and practicing new skills in a safe environment
- To Heal from Emotional Distress by recreating the situation with different roles and outcomes
These are compelling reasons why children need generous amounts of free time to play, create, connect, imagine and discover the world around them and their position in that world. I see such potential in my little ones and I want more than anything to provide every opportunity to foster that potential. But my biggest fear is over-scheduling them in sports, lessons, service opportunities and any other good thing that may arise. Cohen goes on to explain that this need for play is not an early childhood phenomenon. That childhood is made up of this need to play and it stretches long past toddlerhood.
It’s not just important that children play, but that they have playmates. This could be siblings, friends and even, maybe most importantly, parents. When we use play as an opportunity to connect with our children we can learn something about them and their experiences that we would never be able to draw out of them through conversation alone. When we use play to build confidence in our children they are learning in a most powerful way the strength of their character and determination to master a skill. When we use play to help them heal from emotional distress we skip over the discipline, yelling, correcting that we somehow come to rely on and jump instead straight to the heart of the matter and bring our little ones back to the joy of life they so often display.
For these reasons, and many more, I want every child to have the time and space to play.
What do you want for every child?
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Brent came home early from school the other day with the brilliant idea to take the girls on a nature hunt. We drove to the start of a trail that would take us through two covered bridges and a tunnel. When we parked the car, we asked the girls to look around outside and help us make a list of the things we might see on our nature walk. With our list in hand, and a camera in each girl’s hand, we set out to find everything on our list.
Our list: We added to it as we saw new things like the water and little rocks
After looking at all the pictures, which item on our list did we NOT find? There was only one.
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On Thursday we talked about how music helps develop emergent literacy skills through emphasizing the rhythm of language and the parts of words. Rhyming songs are addictive to little ones because they have a predictable pattern and a catchy melody. We can use these same principles to enhance learning. By setting information to music, especially if it has a predictable pattern or a catchy melody, it becomes easier to memorize.
The idea for this post was kicking around in my head last week when I came across a post that exemplified this fact for me. I was reading Mom-101‘s post about her picks for the top 50 mommy bloggers. In describing each blogger she gave a little quirky piece of background info on each one. In telling about Maternal Dementia she off-handedly mentioned her ability to sing all 50 states in alphabetical order. Can you do that? I can. I remember learning the song in elementary school and it’s still with me. All these years later. That’s the power of learning through music.
This is where our creativity can really take off. We can take any melody, or make up one of our own, and set to music the things we want our little ones to remember. We sing it with them, and voila! They remember. I’ve come across a lot of little rhymes for teaching hand washing skills to little ones. My favorite was this hand washing song sung to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star“
I can wash my hands you see,
Wash them clean as clean can be.
Inside, outside, my fingers, too
Around my thumbs and then I’m through,
Now rinse away the dirt and stains,
Send those germs down the drain!
Another example of putting info to music in order to learn something new comes from Roger Day‘s newest album “Why Does Gray Matter.” This whole album has information about the brain. My favorite song is “The Brain Train” where he describes the process of a thought moving through the brain to become an action. The song contains words like corpus callosum, deep basal ganglia and cerebellum. Just imagine the looks if your little one memorized this song!
What have you or your little ones learned by memorizing a song?
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