by Sandy Hancock
Reminder that there is a monthly drawing for a $25 gift card. All you have to do to get your name in the drawing is post a response to any March blog by April 1st,making sure to leave your name or email address so we can contact you if you win. You don't have to be a member of NCCS to respond. Gift cards are from your choice of: Publix, WalMart, Olive Garden-Red Lobster, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon.
College looms large in our view these days. Having just walked through the process for the 4th time - once for myself and 3 times for my kids - the end of the road is clearly in sight, and I can look back on the process yet once again to see what I have learned about life and, in this case, about how to educate a child to be ready for college.
Before we begin, however, I must warn you. If you are one who believes that a child is supposed to make his or her own decisions about life, you will not be happy with what follows.
I believe that a child is a child, born from Father Adam with a fallen, sinful nature. Even after accepting Christ, Paul in the book of Romans, makes it clear that - while we have received the elements of a new nature, our life will be a lifelong series of choices between the sin nature and the Christ-nature. He says that the good he wishes to do, he does not do, & the bad he doesn't want to do, he does. It's a battle in our lives, and we have to choose between the two sides daily, usually hourly. To expect a child to be otherwise is to demean the child by holding him or her to unrealistic standards. That means that children (and adults) will seek the easy, quick, me-first-oriented pathway until, having observed their parents and their parents' associates and the work of Holy Spirit in their own lives, they become an adult {our society says at age 18} and make the decision to either abandon that pattern - whichever one they have seen - or pursue it big time.
I expect children to make wrong decisions frequently. I have had people come to me and say, "How can you work with so-and-so's kid? He's so awful and does bad things!" While I require them to obey my rules, I expect all kids to do some bad things until someone witnesses to them a better way. Some kids see that witness at home in their parents. Some kids will see it from another person or persons God places in their lives. God loves them individually, and He does provide someone to fill that job. Whether that person is flesh and blood or Holy Spirit or the people of the Bible, God will provide someone.
So, in what follows, you will see that I have found that wisdom comes from experience. Children haven't had enough time to have experience, so they must get it from their parents or from that someone God placed in their lives. That's you and me, folks. If you teach your children to value wisdom, they will also learn to respect those who possess wisdom. Proverbs 4:7 says, "Wisdom is the principle thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all your getting get understanding."
This means you release your children into independent decision-making as they display wisdom, not knowledge. I can know all the rules of the road and how to drive a car - all of which are forms of knowledge - but if I display by my life that I disrespect authority that I can physically see, such as parents, teachers, pastors, and adults in general, then only a fool would hand me the keys of a car and tell me to go drive somewhere. If children cannot obey and respect the visible people placed in their lives as authorities, why would they ever obey the invisible authorities of The Law and …..God Himself? Do you only drive the speed limit when a police car is in view? Do you use your turn signals as required? They - children around you - are watching how you respect invisible authority.
As they show wisdom and one of its first products - respect, children can be gradually released into making their own decisions. Until that time, it's you - like it or not. Don't be a friend to your child while they are a child. Children change friends as they find new interests, especially when they become adults. Do you want them to leave you behind? Instead, be their parent. You can hold that title forever. Then, when they become adults, you can establish friendship easily, as you would with any other adult you met with whom you want to be a friend.
So, the decision that they will go to college begins with you. You establish the environment and culture that makes that possible. Environment is the rules and expectations you lay down as normal for your home. Culture is more than most people think. Culture is not just opera, art museums, and tea parties. Culture is that part of life that appreciates beauty in all - ALL - its forms. From mathematics to sports, poetry to fishing, literature to cooking, carpentry to the Bible, art & music to auto mechanics, and ALL the other areas of knowledge, one can see beauty and appreciate it, even if one does not particularly enjoy that certain form of knowledge. As an extreme, I can see and appreciate an enemy's strengths without agreeing with his actions or beliefs. Indeed, if I am to defeat that enemy, I must appreciate those qualities.
What are some ways to establish an environment and culture in your home that college is the expected pathway for a child's life? Before we go there, I will answer another question: does this mean that every child should go to college? No, it doesn't. However, I fail to see why someone who has decided to go into a trade or certificate program for a career or to become a full-time mother at home should be uneducated in some areas. Does wanting to be an auto mechanic mean you should be ignorant of math or art? No, it doesn't. Have you ever met anyone who wishes they had fewer math skills? Everyone I know wishes they had more. Have you ever met anyone who says, "Boy, I wish I'd never learned to read" or "I hate being a good writer?" I think not. So, preparing an average child to be educated well for college entry will not harm them in any way. It should make life easier if they choose a vocational pathway. So, returning to the question, how do we establish an environment and culture that says, "You will go to college."? (sic)
First of all, one must begin the process way younger than many think. The pathway to college begins no later than third grade. Once a child can read independently, it is time to begin seeding the idea of college into the child. When a parent begins this early, there is a great deal less rush at the end of the process. If you don't start till later, you CAN catch up, but it will take all the effort that would have been in the earlier years poured into a shorter, or even much shorter, amount of time.
One begins the process by the way a parent talks and by the things that he/she does. For example, one must be careful what is said before the child. It must no longer be "You must learn this thing in case you want to go to college." When the thing that must be learned is unpleasant, the child hears this: "You can avoid the unpleasant thing by deciding not to go to college." Remember that sinful nature thing? Which way will Child choose?
Instead, one must rephrase things in this manner: "WHEN you go to college, you will need this thing so learn it." "When you go" establishes that the direction has been decided. Instead of avoiding an unpleasant thing, one is filling the tool belt or tool box with things that WILL be needed. It also establishes an expectation of higher education, an inner confidence that your parents think you CAN make it, and a clear goal. Hard things should be learned because, "When you go to college, I want you to have an easier time there because you have learned THIS thing." "Wow! Mom's trying to make my life easier! I can go with that!"
This month, I'll give you one more element to add to your life. The others will be given at an upcoming webinar you can attend, and - should you decide to do so - when you join our new college mindset program that will begin this summer. The second element of the environment, after watching your language, is to make sure there are plenty of opportunities for your child to read good books. Whether you own the books or have them on loan from the library, books should be easily seen in your home and easily used. Don't bring in lots of currently popular books. The language of recently written books is guaranteed to be dumbed down, and it won't stretch them upwards to college-level reading. Think of those popular books as chocolate, something to be had in small amounts. For language development the easy way, have books written before 1900. Avoid some of Mr. Twain's novels (Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn) for a while. They are written in a common man dialect, which you do not want your student to pick up casually. The internet will do THAT to them, without the need for Mr. Twain's help.
At first, your student will whine that the books are too hard, boring, impossible to read, uninteresting, I-don't-like-it, etc. {Walking a mile is hard too unless you do it every day!} However, if you have the child read this genre daily - yes, every day, which means 7 days a week - for at least an hour in elementary school and two hours in high school, the language will open up to them after about 3 weeks. It will become easier because their brains developed! Reading the written word causes connections to be made in your brain that cannot be made by viewing videos. Is viewing videos bad? No. However, it cannot be substituted for reading; it is, instead, a supplement to reading.
These connections will make information more accessible from all parts of the brain. The math side will begin to speak to the poetry side which begins to speak to the mechanical side, etc. The brain's development in this way cannot be acquired by any other method. {And, by the way, you can start this for yourself as well and see major results.} You might even notice that the student's speech and writing improve as well. The vast amount of research on speech and writing says that your speech and writing mirror what you are reading. No reading? Lower brain activity. Lower brain activity? Who wants to brag about that? Plus, lower brain activity is connected with the beginning of Alzheimer's. Use it or lose it DOES apply to the brain.
So, if you want your student to go to college and finish, you need to start adding these first elements to your environment and to begin gently to add culture - the appreciation of beauty in every subject - to your home. Want more info? Join the webinar in April. (Info will be posted later this week.)
You CAN do this. It is not too hard. Come with me. I'll help you.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Monday, December 20, 2010
November Winner!
Congratulations to Christine Phillips for her name being drawn as the winner of the November blog response. Christine has a choice of a $25 gift card from one of the following places: Publix, Walmart, Olive Garden/Red Lobster, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon. Thanks,everyone. Your comments are valuable to me.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Why I Like Drama
by Sandy Hancock
Reminder that there is a monthly drawing for a $25 gift card. All you have to do to get your name in the drawing is post a response to any September blog by October 1st,making sure to leave your name or email address so we can contact you if you win. You don't have to be a member of NCCS to respond. Gift cards are from your choice of: Publix, WalMart, Olive Garden-Red Lobster, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon.
Having just finished the fall drama Lifeboat, though goodness knows, much of it is STILL in my living room, I have to say I really, really do love drama. Three days before performance, I hate it, but, afterwards, I love it again.
I have no background in drama in high school or college. I saw my first professionally done play in Houston when I was in 11th grade. It was Fiddler on the Roof, with the original cast. I was enthralled. A short time later, I saw The Importance of Being Earnest, and loved it as well. However, I knew I could never do that kind of thing.
Later, at what was then New Covenant Fellowship, I saw my first non-professional play, an Easter play I'd grow to love called Road to Calvary. It was done outdoors, complete with small horse for Jesus to ride. One of the actors had died about 4 days before the performance, and they handled the loss well, leaving an empty chair where he would have sat and moments of silence where he would have spoken. I was enraptured with the whole thing.
Shortly afterwards, I went to the director, Becky Williams, and said, "I have never done anything with drama, but I feel God pulling me into this. I'll do whatever you want me to do if you'll allow me to be involved, actor or backstage, whatever." She said that what she really needed was someone who would run errands and help keep order backstage. I said I'd do it. Over the next few years, Becky moved me from position to position, sound, lights, costumes, makeup, props, writing, stagehand, curtain puller, whatever she needed that year. Then one year, she said, "You know, I was thinking about how to use you this year, and it occurred to me that you have now done every backstage position at least once, and you've been faithful and didn't gripe, and you even encouraged me. How would you like to be assistant director?" And so that was my job, my love, for years. When Becky became fatally ill with cancer, she gave me the director's position. I will always be thankful for the mentorship she provided along with her friendship.
So, what is it that is so interesting about drama? First, drama allows you to be someone else for a short time. You get to see life from a different perspective. You can improve your craft every time by trying something new, even if it is a simple hand movement gesture or an accent. Drama encourages you to watch people so you can use things you observe in future performances. You can also observe nature and places as well, so that creating sets and props can be done with excellence.
Being a director has positives as well. You get to encourage other people to take steps beyond where they have been, to move beyond their comfort zones and thereby increase their confidence in all sorts of life situations. They might even like a role so well, that they incorporate some portion of it into their own lives. You get to solve a great puzzle by figuring out how to do things like make a boat in an ocean in the middle of a stage, and have people believe it is so. You get to solve the puzzle of getting numerous people to work together on stage and off stage who may not otherwise have ever met each other. You learn how to decide what's really important and where to spend the money versus where to spend the elbow grease. You have to figure out how to motivate an actor to develop the role on a pace so that they don't get to the perfect level before the performance, lest they peak early and then get bored with it, let their minds wander, and lose the performance. You have to figure out what makes dawn look different from dusk, so you can explain it to the lighting guy (the gaffer). Or how does rain sound on water when it's gentle or what does an earthquake sound like, so you and the soundman can work it out.
Shakespeare said something like, All the world's a stage, and we are just the actors and players upon it. In many ways, he was correct. What I've learned in theater has helped me immensely in my Christian walk. I've learned that the best way to get to know each other is in hard work. Hard work sands off the veneer of politeness, and you'll see the person who is really there. I've learned that every one of us is walking a difficult life, perfectly designed by God to get each one of us ready for the heavenly performance. God doesn't let it happen all at once, or we'd get bored and wander off. You learn that we all need encouragement, even when we're acting a part and smiling through the real hurt. You learn how to work with the fellow believers of your own church, whom you probably wouldn't have met or associated with if the church wasn't there. We hurt inside, but show the world a different face; actors know that, and begin to see past it. Or some days, we're so joyful that, even when we have to act somber, we can't help but put a little bounce in the step.
Unlike sports - from which research is now showing that the participants of soccer, football, basketball, and baseball - end up with brain injuries that affect their concentration and short term memories, theater increases your memory capacity and your concentration ability. Little physical injury results from drama (although I have fallen from the stage more than 10 times). Therefore, theater is a better activity than sports for teamwork, personal confidence, memory, concentration, and the ability to develop one's character. That's my stance, and I'm sticking with it! What do you think?
Oh, and it's not too late to sign up for the Spring Drama, either front or back stage work, and we need adults as well as students. A willing heart is what we need; we can train you for the part. I know. It happened to me.
Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone! Make gratitude your attitude.
by Sandy Hancock
Reminder that there is a monthly drawing for a $25 gift card. All you have to do to get your name in the drawing is post a response to any September blog by October 1st,making sure to leave your name or email address so we can contact you if you win. You don't have to be a member of NCCS to respond. Gift cards are from your choice of: Publix, WalMart, Olive Garden-Red Lobster, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon.
Having just finished the fall drama Lifeboat, though goodness knows, much of it is STILL in my living room, I have to say I really, really do love drama. Three days before performance, I hate it, but, afterwards, I love it again.
I have no background in drama in high school or college. I saw my first professionally done play in Houston when I was in 11th grade. It was Fiddler on the Roof, with the original cast. I was enthralled. A short time later, I saw The Importance of Being Earnest, and loved it as well. However, I knew I could never do that kind of thing.
Later, at what was then New Covenant Fellowship, I saw my first non-professional play, an Easter play I'd grow to love called Road to Calvary. It was done outdoors, complete with small horse for Jesus to ride. One of the actors had died about 4 days before the performance, and they handled the loss well, leaving an empty chair where he would have sat and moments of silence where he would have spoken. I was enraptured with the whole thing.
Shortly afterwards, I went to the director, Becky Williams, and said, "I have never done anything with drama, but I feel God pulling me into this. I'll do whatever you want me to do if you'll allow me to be involved, actor or backstage, whatever." She said that what she really needed was someone who would run errands and help keep order backstage. I said I'd do it. Over the next few years, Becky moved me from position to position, sound, lights, costumes, makeup, props, writing, stagehand, curtain puller, whatever she needed that year. Then one year, she said, "You know, I was thinking about how to use you this year, and it occurred to me that you have now done every backstage position at least once, and you've been faithful and didn't gripe, and you even encouraged me. How would you like to be assistant director?" And so that was my job, my love, for years. When Becky became fatally ill with cancer, she gave me the director's position. I will always be thankful for the mentorship she provided along with her friendship.
So, what is it that is so interesting about drama? First, drama allows you to be someone else for a short time. You get to see life from a different perspective. You can improve your craft every time by trying something new, even if it is a simple hand movement gesture or an accent. Drama encourages you to watch people so you can use things you observe in future performances. You can also observe nature and places as well, so that creating sets and props can be done with excellence.
Being a director has positives as well. You get to encourage other people to take steps beyond where they have been, to move beyond their comfort zones and thereby increase their confidence in all sorts of life situations. They might even like a role so well, that they incorporate some portion of it into their own lives. You get to solve a great puzzle by figuring out how to do things like make a boat in an ocean in the middle of a stage, and have people believe it is so. You get to solve the puzzle of getting numerous people to work together on stage and off stage who may not otherwise have ever met each other. You learn how to decide what's really important and where to spend the money versus where to spend the elbow grease. You have to figure out how to motivate an actor to develop the role on a pace so that they don't get to the perfect level before the performance, lest they peak early and then get bored with it, let their minds wander, and lose the performance. You have to figure out what makes dawn look different from dusk, so you can explain it to the lighting guy (the gaffer). Or how does rain sound on water when it's gentle or what does an earthquake sound like, so you and the soundman can work it out.
Shakespeare said something like, All the world's a stage, and we are just the actors and players upon it. In many ways, he was correct. What I've learned in theater has helped me immensely in my Christian walk. I've learned that the best way to get to know each other is in hard work. Hard work sands off the veneer of politeness, and you'll see the person who is really there. I've learned that every one of us is walking a difficult life, perfectly designed by God to get each one of us ready for the heavenly performance. God doesn't let it happen all at once, or we'd get bored and wander off. You learn that we all need encouragement, even when we're acting a part and smiling through the real hurt. You learn how to work with the fellow believers of your own church, whom you probably wouldn't have met or associated with if the church wasn't there. We hurt inside, but show the world a different face; actors know that, and begin to see past it. Or some days, we're so joyful that, even when we have to act somber, we can't help but put a little bounce in the step.
Unlike sports - from which research is now showing that the participants of soccer, football, basketball, and baseball - end up with brain injuries that affect their concentration and short term memories, theater increases your memory capacity and your concentration ability. Little physical injury results from drama (although I have fallen from the stage more than 10 times). Therefore, theater is a better activity than sports for teamwork, personal confidence, memory, concentration, and the ability to develop one's character. That's my stance, and I'm sticking with it! What do you think?
Oh, and it's not too late to sign up for the Spring Drama, either front or back stage work, and we need adults as well as students. A willing heart is what we need; we can train you for the part. I know. It happened to me.
Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone! Make gratitude your attitude.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Congratulations to September's winner!
Congratulations to our September winner of the Principally Sandy $25 gift card. Janelle Velez was the winner. Janelle should contact us and let us know which gift card she would like from this list:
Publix, WalMart, Olive Garden-Red Lobster, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon.
Thanks everyone else who commented. Try again for the October card.
Publix, WalMart, Olive Garden-Red Lobster, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon.
Thanks everyone else who commented. Try again for the October card.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Sleepytime
Reminder that there is a monthly drawing for a $25 gift card. All you have to do to get your name in the drawing is post a response to any September blog by October 1st,making sure to leave your name or email address so we can contact you if you win. You don't have to be a member of NCCS to respond. Gift cards are from your choice of: Publix, WalMart, Olive Garden-Red Lobster, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon.
*********
Last year, most of my blogs were related to understanding and then teaching academic subjects. If you have questions about those areas, see one of the posts done in academic year 2009-2010 in the Archive section.
In this entry, I'd like to talk briefly about the importance of sleep. I want to encourage every parent to do two things in regards to sleep. First, I want you to make sure that you YOURSELF are getting enough sleep. Our lives are quite harried. The internet has made it even easier to spend long hours into the night doing something very important. We know it is very important because we spend long hours doing it, and we're willing to spend long hours doing it because it is very important. That's what is known as circular reasoning. It's a mental trap from which one finds it difficult to be sprung. Spring it!
Secondly, make sure your students are getting enough sleep. This can be harder than you think, by the way. Whenever students are having difficulties getting their work finished and their parents talk to me about it, I try to make sure I ask them how much sleep their children are getting as well as how much they are getting.
A recent study shows that inadequate amounts of sleep led to lower math and reading abilities. Studies show that lack of sleep causes permanent changes in brain development, almost as if they are acquiring brain damage at a time when their teen brains are supposed to be completing in development.
Even old habits of staying up later on weekends can lead to problems. For example, the student who stays up 3 hours later on weekends has the same health problems as someone who has flown over 3 time zones. It's jetlag. So keeping consistent sleep hours on weekends is also important. And, by the way, you cannot recoup lost hours of sleep by sleeping extra time on the weekends.
Scientists have found that most people's bodies operate on a 25 hour day cycle. This cycle is called the circadian rhythm. Inconsistent sleep hours interferes with the two systems that control sleep, the circadian rhythm and the homeostatic pressure system. Interference with those systems can create depression and stress in students and adults.
Another study shows that students who get enough sleep can easily handle more extracurricular activities and still maintain high grades. Students who do not get enough sleep can, at most, handle well only one of these. Those with part-time jobs will have less sleep than their non-working counterparts even though they are usually more physically tired. Also having less time to study because of the job, they are doubly prone to academic difficulties and often either do not finish or finish poorly their assignments.
On the other hand, students who receive adequate sleep also have almost 20% fewer wrecks and even fewer problems driving. Teen boys are particularly susceptible to fall-asleep crashes.
Research also shows an interesting thing about ADD/ADHD. At least 25% of students diagnosed with ADD/ADHD actually are sleep deprived. When put on a schedule for sleep and taken off ADHD meds, these students continue to function normally. Interestingly, one of the side effects of Adderall, a common ADHD drug, is difficulty sleeping, which further exacerbates the problem.
Sometimes, students receive enough hours of sleep, but sleep poorly. One symptom of this is childhood snoring. Snoring in childhood is considered a symptom of sleep disorders such as sleep apnea. Experts feel children under the age of 18 should never be snoring. Apparently, childhood snoring, seen in about 16% of children, is different from adult snoring and causes oxygen deprivation in the brain.
So, how much time DOES a person need? Students between the ages of 5 & 8 should be getting 9-11 hours of sleep each night. Students ages 9-11 need about 8 hours of sleep a night. Students between the ages of 12 & 18 should be getting 9.5 hours of sleep each night, and adults should be getting 7-9 hours each night. One reason teens need the extra hours is that their hearts grow at a steady rate while their bodies grow in spurts. Often times, the heart is behind the body in growth, causing the body to need more rest, just as you would see in heart patients whose hearts do not work sufficiently for their bodies. Only now are scientists finding that lack of sleep as teens can lead to heart problems later in life.
Several points may help you with your student's sleep habits.
a) Make sure your child is not getting up at night while you sleep, often to pursue gaming or other electronic media. Don't let them keep gaming controllers in their rooms at night. Particularly, make sure their cell phones are turned completely off at night, so friends aren't waking them up with text messaging or even phone calls you don't hear because they are using vibration instead of rings. You'd be surprised how often this turns out to be a problem with some of the most innocent of teens.
b) Don't let them drink caffeinated beverages or high sugar drinks or snacks in the late evenings. Twelve ounces of Starbucks coffee has as much caffeine as 4 cans of cola soda. Some sodas, such as Mountain Dew, have much more. Energy drinks are typically highly loaded with stimulants and sugar. Be careful with these. Half the caffeine in a beverage will still be in the body affecting the body 5 hours later.
c) Realize that it may take your family 3 weeks to begin to be able to go to sleep earlier. Increase the amount of time slowly by pulling back the bedtime gradually. While teens will feel pressure from friends to set their own bedtimes, teens are not in the best position to make sensible choices in this area.
d) Physical choices around your home can help you assist your student's biological clock to reset. Teens sleep best in dark, cool rooms. In fact, a drop in body temperature will cause a person to feel sleepy. One way to get this drop is to have the teen take a warm shower and then go into a cool bedroom.
Exposure to bright sunlight as early in the day as possible will also help reset the sleep clock. Avoid dark colored drapes or shades that keep the light out of your child's early morning bedroom. Light colored paint on the walls also encourages the spread of morning light in the room.
Discourage the use of electronics for one hour before bedtime. Insist on quiet activities, such as reading or quiet music.
e) Research on naps is also interesting. While naps can help one feel physically better, they do not increase cognitive (thinking) ability. In fact, a two hour nap is equal to drinking 120 mg of caffeine as it affects the body physically, so you may feel more energy. However, the mental tiredness will overcome you again very shortly.
As you try to re-establish good sleep habits in your home, expect some resistance. Peer culture will cause even more of that. Stand your ground on this. Remember that your student's academic ability and even their short and long term physical health will improve as they get more sleep. So will yours. And, since it is almost 2 a.m., I'd better get to bed myself!
Expect God's joy! Sandy H
*********
Last year, most of my blogs were related to understanding and then teaching academic subjects. If you have questions about those areas, see one of the posts done in academic year 2009-2010 in the Archive section.
In this entry, I'd like to talk briefly about the importance of sleep. I want to encourage every parent to do two things in regards to sleep. First, I want you to make sure that you YOURSELF are getting enough sleep. Our lives are quite harried. The internet has made it even easier to spend long hours into the night doing something very important. We know it is very important because we spend long hours doing it, and we're willing to spend long hours doing it because it is very important. That's what is known as circular reasoning. It's a mental trap from which one finds it difficult to be sprung. Spring it!
Secondly, make sure your students are getting enough sleep. This can be harder than you think, by the way. Whenever students are having difficulties getting their work finished and their parents talk to me about it, I try to make sure I ask them how much sleep their children are getting as well as how much they are getting.
A recent study shows that inadequate amounts of sleep led to lower math and reading abilities. Studies show that lack of sleep causes permanent changes in brain development, almost as if they are acquiring brain damage at a time when their teen brains are supposed to be completing in development.
Even old habits of staying up later on weekends can lead to problems. For example, the student who stays up 3 hours later on weekends has the same health problems as someone who has flown over 3 time zones. It's jetlag. So keeping consistent sleep hours on weekends is also important. And, by the way, you cannot recoup lost hours of sleep by sleeping extra time on the weekends.
Scientists have found that most people's bodies operate on a 25 hour day cycle. This cycle is called the circadian rhythm. Inconsistent sleep hours interferes with the two systems that control sleep, the circadian rhythm and the homeostatic pressure system. Interference with those systems can create depression and stress in students and adults.
Another study shows that students who get enough sleep can easily handle more extracurricular activities and still maintain high grades. Students who do not get enough sleep can, at most, handle well only one of these. Those with part-time jobs will have less sleep than their non-working counterparts even though they are usually more physically tired. Also having less time to study because of the job, they are doubly prone to academic difficulties and often either do not finish or finish poorly their assignments.
On the other hand, students who receive adequate sleep also have almost 20% fewer wrecks and even fewer problems driving. Teen boys are particularly susceptible to fall-asleep crashes.
Research also shows an interesting thing about ADD/ADHD. At least 25% of students diagnosed with ADD/ADHD actually are sleep deprived. When put on a schedule for sleep and taken off ADHD meds, these students continue to function normally. Interestingly, one of the side effects of Adderall, a common ADHD drug, is difficulty sleeping, which further exacerbates the problem.
Sometimes, students receive enough hours of sleep, but sleep poorly. One symptom of this is childhood snoring. Snoring in childhood is considered a symptom of sleep disorders such as sleep apnea. Experts feel children under the age of 18 should never be snoring. Apparently, childhood snoring, seen in about 16% of children, is different from adult snoring and causes oxygen deprivation in the brain.
So, how much time DOES a person need? Students between the ages of 5 & 8 should be getting 9-11 hours of sleep each night. Students ages 9-11 need about 8 hours of sleep a night. Students between the ages of 12 & 18 should be getting 9.5 hours of sleep each night, and adults should be getting 7-9 hours each night. One reason teens need the extra hours is that their hearts grow at a steady rate while their bodies grow in spurts. Often times, the heart is behind the body in growth, causing the body to need more rest, just as you would see in heart patients whose hearts do not work sufficiently for their bodies. Only now are scientists finding that lack of sleep as teens can lead to heart problems later in life.
Several points may help you with your student's sleep habits.
a) Make sure your child is not getting up at night while you sleep, often to pursue gaming or other electronic media. Don't let them keep gaming controllers in their rooms at night. Particularly, make sure their cell phones are turned completely off at night, so friends aren't waking them up with text messaging or even phone calls you don't hear because they are using vibration instead of rings. You'd be surprised how often this turns out to be a problem with some of the most innocent of teens.
b) Don't let them drink caffeinated beverages or high sugar drinks or snacks in the late evenings. Twelve ounces of Starbucks coffee has as much caffeine as 4 cans of cola soda. Some sodas, such as Mountain Dew, have much more. Energy drinks are typically highly loaded with stimulants and sugar. Be careful with these. Half the caffeine in a beverage will still be in the body affecting the body 5 hours later.
c) Realize that it may take your family 3 weeks to begin to be able to go to sleep earlier. Increase the amount of time slowly by pulling back the bedtime gradually. While teens will feel pressure from friends to set their own bedtimes, teens are not in the best position to make sensible choices in this area.
d) Physical choices around your home can help you assist your student's biological clock to reset. Teens sleep best in dark, cool rooms. In fact, a drop in body temperature will cause a person to feel sleepy. One way to get this drop is to have the teen take a warm shower and then go into a cool bedroom.
Exposure to bright sunlight as early in the day as possible will also help reset the sleep clock. Avoid dark colored drapes or shades that keep the light out of your child's early morning bedroom. Light colored paint on the walls also encourages the spread of morning light in the room.
Discourage the use of electronics for one hour before bedtime. Insist on quiet activities, such as reading or quiet music.
e) Research on naps is also interesting. While naps can help one feel physically better, they do not increase cognitive (thinking) ability. In fact, a two hour nap is equal to drinking 120 mg of caffeine as it affects the body physically, so you may feel more energy. However, the mental tiredness will overcome you again very shortly.
As you try to re-establish good sleep habits in your home, expect some resistance. Peer culture will cause even more of that. Stand your ground on this. Remember that your student's academic ability and even their short and long term physical health will improve as they get more sleep. So will yours. And, since it is almost 2 a.m., I'd better get to bed myself!
Expect God's joy! Sandy H
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Seeing the Whole Wide World: Teaching Geography
Reminder that the monthly drawing for a $25 gift card is still going on for June and will include responses to the May blog as well. All you have to do to get your name in the drawing is post a response to any of the May or June blogs. You don't have to be a member of NCCS to respond. Gift cards are from your choice of: Publix, Walmart, Olive Garden-Red Lobster, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon.
Geography is my favorite subject to teach and to learn. Enthusiasm is high for this subject. As usual for one discussing one's favorite subject, I don't see how you can live without it. Bear with my joy here.
I believe a student should be learning geography almost every year. It is one of the most practical of subjects. Understanding the world involves knowing geography. If I don't know the difference between a state and a country, how can I possibly understand political, cultural, and economic issues? If I believe that Greece is one of the states of the US, as I heard someone say recently, am I going to panic hearing that Greece is going bankrupt? And even if it isn't a state, shouldn't I still be concerned? Geography affects how you dress, how your home is built, what you eat, how you travel, and many other basic everyday functions.
Kindergarten is a great time to begin learning geography. I once wrote a Kindergarten and First Grade geography curriculum that focused on two aspects of this subject. The first was how physical geography affects cultural geography. The second was on how geography affects mission activities. It was even used in the classroom by teachers who found it to be a great program, even though it had hand-drawn activity pages and I'm not that much of an artist.
Geography can first be taught using one's own life. Children can learn about the climate of their area by keeping a chart of weather each day. (This also helps in the science sense.) The parent can help them make the connection between the weather and how we dress and what we do because of the weather that day. We can go to local farmers' markets and see locally produced fruits and vegetables and then visit a grocery store and talk about how things that are non-native to our area are going to be more costly to buy because of the greater amount of gasoline and other shipping costs. Florida oranges in orange season will be cheaper than Chilean oranges in Chilean orange season, which is at the opposite time of year.
The clothes I wear today are chosen because of the weather. I chose light-weight clothing such as slacks and short-sleeved shirt that allows air to flow to keep cool but not so light as to make me cold indoors in air conditioning. If I were going to be outside today for more than a few minutes at a time, I would probably have chosen shorts, a light colored shirt and a long-sleeved white shirt to keep the sun off my arms and neck. Those choices have to do with geography.
When I lived in Texas, where the land was more than pretty flat, we talked about distances in terms of miles. How far was it to grandma's house? 220 miles. How far was it to the grocery store? About 2 and a half miles. The land was flat; the weather was pretty constant. You knew how long that would take you in the car. The road stretched to the horizon. When I lived in the central part of Pennsylvania, all that changed. Central Pennsylvania is mountainous, though they are short ones. When I asked how far away something was, people would say 20 minutes or 3 hours or about 12 minutes. It really took me by surprise. And when I asked, "But how FAR is it?", they'd look at me dumbfounded. Who cared how many miles? Why the difference?
When a place is 10 miles away on the map, it could be flat land or hilly land or mountainous land. Ten miles didn't mean anything. Ten minutes on flat land would get you ten miles; ten minutes in mountainous land might get you only 4 miles, because the straight line distance of ten miles on the map was actually a curvy road that would take your car 20 miles to cover, and the speeds would be changeable depending upon the grade. In winter, you had to add more time, because you'd be driving much slower over slick, icy roads, maybe even with more snow or sleet or ice coming down. Your speed would be much lower, so the time would increase greatly. Being told how much time it would take you was much more practical to what would happen.
There are a number of different types of geography that you should study. Physical geography is the study of the land itself and its climate. It includes the study of the available water and resources. It is the geography you can see from space. Knowing the principles of physical geography will allow you to figure out many political situations and economic situations. It allows you to understand military campaigns more easily. Island nations will need resources from abroad and will usually have both fishing fleets and military fleets. Plains nations will often have vast agricultural areas, so getting food isn't such a problem. High mountains mean one side will usually be more desert-like and one side more lush or even have jungle. They will be a natural border for political divisions. The type of mountain can influence history as well in such events as earthquakes and volcanic activity. Mountains can give military advantage by providing high ground or can be a disadvantage due to the nature of that particular type of mountain. Mountains usually mean coal, gold, silver, and other mineral resources. So knowing the principles of physical geography will enormously enhance one's understanding of the world and the competition between nations.
Cultural geography is the study of how the land and climate have affected everyday choices, such as the available food, the necessary clothing, the shelter types, the transportation system, and even religion and the arts. Certain types of religions are more likely to develop in mountain countries. Certain other types are more likely to develop in desert countries. Think it's a coincidence that Christianity, Islam, and the Jewish faith all developed in desert countries? There's a reason. Study cultural geography and find out. I mean, if you don't have any trees, you probably aren't going to develop a religion based on worshipping trees, right? This kind of study is extremely valuable for those in the church who need to understand cultural geography as they make church decisions about missions. I hate it when television reporters say that the average citizen of the country of Mars only makes $20 a month because it DOESN'T say that "and by the way, it only costs 12 cents to go to the movies, and you can eat an entire meal for less than 15 cents, and the house didn't cost anything, because it was made from wood available to everyone, and no one owns any of the land - you just park where you want. This doesn't mean there is no poverty. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that, unless you know the microeconomics of that country, knowing their salary is pointless. When TV commercials guilt you by saying it takes only 20 cents a day to feed that child, it also means that 20 cents covers most meals for most of the people.
I once lived in a country where the houses had dirt floors. It was an advantage. There was almost no rain in that country, and the floors were packed hard. If water dripped on the floor, it just soaked in. You didn't have to clean it up. The floor was so hard packed that there wasn't even dust from it. It was almost like rock. It retained warms in the winter and was cool in the summer. Yet commercials talked about it to ignorant Americans as "look at these poor people who have no floors." The same principle works with those "houses have no walls." That means it is cooler all year. And they have almost no domestic violence because eveyone knows how you treat your family because everyone will see what you do. Sigh. Off my soapbox. Knowing cultural geography means understanding the beauty and goodness of other cultures and their choices, which may be highly reasonable in their geographic region.
Political geography is the third major area of geographic study. This involves the study of the political divisions {both international and intranational boundaries}, government types, military usages, diplomatic relationships, exports, imports, products, etc. It involves knowing the infrastructures available to a region. Political geography is the most unstable area of geography as nations come and go, and boundaries shift, wars change relationships, and nations progress scientifically, artistically, and economically. Political geography can be the least important of the 3 areas to master, since it will change so much in so little time. For this area of study, it is more important to know how to find the information when you need it: almanacs, resource guides, etc. and what those terms mean so that you can understand a country quickly when you need to do so. For example, if I already know what an oligarchy, a tyranny, a marxist, a communist, a democratic, and a capitalist government are, and I have need of studying the country of Peru, I can look in an almanac, get the current form of government, the GNP, the resources, the population growth rate, educational levels, and a few more factors and if I can locate the country on a map and tell you its physical geography issues, I can pretty much know the current country of Peru ENOUGH to understand some political issue that arose or what issues we might face placing a permanent mission there. I haven't walked a mile in their shoes yet, but I would know the kind of shoes in which I'd be walking.
As said earlier, the study of geography can begin very early with physical and cultural geography. Eating the food of a country, learning how to say some standard phrases, wearing the clothes of that country (made out of paper of course), and drawing maps are easily enjoyed by young children. Take a different country each month. Talk about how far away that country is in terms easily understood. (It would take 40 days of walking ten hours a day to get to that country from our house .) Pray for the leaders. Pray daily for the Christians there to be good testimonies of the Lord. Pray for more workers to teach. Watch a movie from that country or about that country. Visit the country's internet site. Listen to their news on the internet in their own language daily for a month. You'd be surprised how fast the kids go from thinking "that's a bizarre language" to "I almost think I could understand it."
For older kids, there are some really nice programs out there. One I love for grades 7 and up is Runkle's Geography. It is a Saxon-like approach to the principles of physical geography. In the first year, your student will learn all the principles of physical geography with units on how water placement affects life, how mountains affect life, how resources affect life, etc. He or she will also learn to draw by heart maps of each continent, including countries and rivers and mountains. There are other things to memorize as well. It is wonderfully easy to use.
Bob Jones Press has a wonderful high school geography course that focuses the first half of the book on physical geography principles {and you get to create your own nation as you go}and the last half of the book on political and historical geography.
Rod and Staff has a great book on Latin American History and Geography (about half a year of each). Your students will learn about Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. In the history section, you will learn how the history of the regions has played a tremendous role in the problems they now have as well as the victories they now have. When have you ever heard of the Pacific War, the War of the Triple Alliance, the Cenepa War, the Chaco War, The Thousand Day War, the Rebellion of Tupac Amaru II, Federal War, the Dirty War, the Plantine War, the War of the Confederation, the Gran Colombia-Peru War, the Chilean War, the Argentine War, the Spanish-Portuguese War, or the French-Portuguese War? It's a boy's dream world of whole new wars about which to learn!
Galloping the Globe and the Trail Guide are two series for elementary kids that have great reviews from our parents. I have not used them myself, but I've looked through them and they do a good job.
Another series is Alpha Omega's 3rd grade and 4th grade social studies. In 3rd grade, you learn US geography by focusing on about 8 key types of states (plains, mountain, industrial, etc.). In 4th grade, you focus on world geography, using a trio of physically similar nations in each unit (3 island nations, 3 mountain nations, etc.). These are great fun for the kids IF you include the activities suggested in the teacher's manual, including reading the novels set in each country.
Six items should be in every home studying geography:
• The first is a globe with physical geography prominent. Get one that's bumpy for the mountains. One on a floor stand will not take up limited desk or table space.
• Also, get two 3D maps, one of the world and one of the US. You will be amazed how much history you understand when touching one of these kinds of maps. I'd recommend one of the state of Florida as well, but it isn't worth the cost because it isn't much different from a 2D map of Florida.
• I'd also have Uncle Josh's Outline Map Book by Wiggers. It is a book of outline maps for all states, all regions of the world, and many, many countries of the world. I got my husband to use his saw and cut the pages away from the binding so I could hole-punch them into a notebook for much easier scanning on the printer.
• A Geography Terms Chart, available for about $5 from Geography Matters at http://www.geomatters.com
• Get Eat Your Way Around the World by Arimini for all those cultural foods OR just use the internet to get recipes as you need them.
This is geography. It's my school subject passion. I've already written 2, 350+ words, so now I'll stop. I've got a million ideas I could share about geography for all ages. Invite me to a Mc Soda some day, and I'll share them.
Geography is my favorite subject to teach and to learn. Enthusiasm is high for this subject. As usual for one discussing one's favorite subject, I don't see how you can live without it. Bear with my joy here.
I believe a student should be learning geography almost every year. It is one of the most practical of subjects. Understanding the world involves knowing geography. If I don't know the difference between a state and a country, how can I possibly understand political, cultural, and economic issues? If I believe that Greece is one of the states of the US, as I heard someone say recently, am I going to panic hearing that Greece is going bankrupt? And even if it isn't a state, shouldn't I still be concerned? Geography affects how you dress, how your home is built, what you eat, how you travel, and many other basic everyday functions.
Kindergarten is a great time to begin learning geography. I once wrote a Kindergarten and First Grade geography curriculum that focused on two aspects of this subject. The first was how physical geography affects cultural geography. The second was on how geography affects mission activities. It was even used in the classroom by teachers who found it to be a great program, even though it had hand-drawn activity pages and I'm not that much of an artist.
Geography can first be taught using one's own life. Children can learn about the climate of their area by keeping a chart of weather each day. (This also helps in the science sense.) The parent can help them make the connection between the weather and how we dress and what we do because of the weather that day. We can go to local farmers' markets and see locally produced fruits and vegetables and then visit a grocery store and talk about how things that are non-native to our area are going to be more costly to buy because of the greater amount of gasoline and other shipping costs. Florida oranges in orange season will be cheaper than Chilean oranges in Chilean orange season, which is at the opposite time of year.
The clothes I wear today are chosen because of the weather. I chose light-weight clothing such as slacks and short-sleeved shirt that allows air to flow to keep cool but not so light as to make me cold indoors in air conditioning. If I were going to be outside today for more than a few minutes at a time, I would probably have chosen shorts, a light colored shirt and a long-sleeved white shirt to keep the sun off my arms and neck. Those choices have to do with geography.
When I lived in Texas, where the land was more than pretty flat, we talked about distances in terms of miles. How far was it to grandma's house? 220 miles. How far was it to the grocery store? About 2 and a half miles. The land was flat; the weather was pretty constant. You knew how long that would take you in the car. The road stretched to the horizon. When I lived in the central part of Pennsylvania, all that changed. Central Pennsylvania is mountainous, though they are short ones. When I asked how far away something was, people would say 20 minutes or 3 hours or about 12 minutes. It really took me by surprise. And when I asked, "But how FAR is it?", they'd look at me dumbfounded. Who cared how many miles? Why the difference?
When a place is 10 miles away on the map, it could be flat land or hilly land or mountainous land. Ten miles didn't mean anything. Ten minutes on flat land would get you ten miles; ten minutes in mountainous land might get you only 4 miles, because the straight line distance of ten miles on the map was actually a curvy road that would take your car 20 miles to cover, and the speeds would be changeable depending upon the grade. In winter, you had to add more time, because you'd be driving much slower over slick, icy roads, maybe even with more snow or sleet or ice coming down. Your speed would be much lower, so the time would increase greatly. Being told how much time it would take you was much more practical to what would happen.
There are a number of different types of geography that you should study. Physical geography is the study of the land itself and its climate. It includes the study of the available water and resources. It is the geography you can see from space. Knowing the principles of physical geography will allow you to figure out many political situations and economic situations. It allows you to understand military campaigns more easily. Island nations will need resources from abroad and will usually have both fishing fleets and military fleets. Plains nations will often have vast agricultural areas, so getting food isn't such a problem. High mountains mean one side will usually be more desert-like and one side more lush or even have jungle. They will be a natural border for political divisions. The type of mountain can influence history as well in such events as earthquakes and volcanic activity. Mountains can give military advantage by providing high ground or can be a disadvantage due to the nature of that particular type of mountain. Mountains usually mean coal, gold, silver, and other mineral resources. So knowing the principles of physical geography will enormously enhance one's understanding of the world and the competition between nations.
Cultural geography is the study of how the land and climate have affected everyday choices, such as the available food, the necessary clothing, the shelter types, the transportation system, and even religion and the arts. Certain types of religions are more likely to develop in mountain countries. Certain other types are more likely to develop in desert countries. Think it's a coincidence that Christianity, Islam, and the Jewish faith all developed in desert countries? There's a reason. Study cultural geography and find out. I mean, if you don't have any trees, you probably aren't going to develop a religion based on worshipping trees, right? This kind of study is extremely valuable for those in the church who need to understand cultural geography as they make church decisions about missions. I hate it when television reporters say that the average citizen of the country of Mars only makes $20 a month because it DOESN'T say that "and by the way, it only costs 12 cents to go to the movies, and you can eat an entire meal for less than 15 cents, and the house didn't cost anything, because it was made from wood available to everyone, and no one owns any of the land - you just park where you want. This doesn't mean there is no poverty. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that, unless you know the microeconomics of that country, knowing their salary is pointless. When TV commercials guilt you by saying it takes only 20 cents a day to feed that child, it also means that 20 cents covers most meals for most of the people.
I once lived in a country where the houses had dirt floors. It was an advantage. There was almost no rain in that country, and the floors were packed hard. If water dripped on the floor, it just soaked in. You didn't have to clean it up. The floor was so hard packed that there wasn't even dust from it. It was almost like rock. It retained warms in the winter and was cool in the summer. Yet commercials talked about it to ignorant Americans as "look at these poor people who have no floors." The same principle works with those "houses have no walls." That means it is cooler all year. And they have almost no domestic violence because eveyone knows how you treat your family because everyone will see what you do. Sigh. Off my soapbox. Knowing cultural geography means understanding the beauty and goodness of other cultures and their choices, which may be highly reasonable in their geographic region.
Political geography is the third major area of geographic study. This involves the study of the political divisions {both international and intranational boundaries}, government types, military usages, diplomatic relationships, exports, imports, products, etc. It involves knowing the infrastructures available to a region. Political geography is the most unstable area of geography as nations come and go, and boundaries shift, wars change relationships, and nations progress scientifically, artistically, and economically. Political geography can be the least important of the 3 areas to master, since it will change so much in so little time. For this area of study, it is more important to know how to find the information when you need it: almanacs, resource guides, etc. and what those terms mean so that you can understand a country quickly when you need to do so. For example, if I already know what an oligarchy, a tyranny, a marxist, a communist, a democratic, and a capitalist government are, and I have need of studying the country of Peru, I can look in an almanac, get the current form of government, the GNP, the resources, the population growth rate, educational levels, and a few more factors and if I can locate the country on a map and tell you its physical geography issues, I can pretty much know the current country of Peru ENOUGH to understand some political issue that arose or what issues we might face placing a permanent mission there. I haven't walked a mile in their shoes yet, but I would know the kind of shoes in which I'd be walking.
As said earlier, the study of geography can begin very early with physical and cultural geography. Eating the food of a country, learning how to say some standard phrases, wearing the clothes of that country (made out of paper of course), and drawing maps are easily enjoyed by young children. Take a different country each month. Talk about how far away that country is in terms easily understood. (It would take 40 days of walking ten hours a day to get to that country from our house .) Pray for the leaders. Pray daily for the Christians there to be good testimonies of the Lord. Pray for more workers to teach. Watch a movie from that country or about that country. Visit the country's internet site. Listen to their news on the internet in their own language daily for a month. You'd be surprised how fast the kids go from thinking "that's a bizarre language" to "I almost think I could understand it."
For older kids, there are some really nice programs out there. One I love for grades 7 and up is Runkle's Geography. It is a Saxon-like approach to the principles of physical geography. In the first year, your student will learn all the principles of physical geography with units on how water placement affects life, how mountains affect life, how resources affect life, etc. He or she will also learn to draw by heart maps of each continent, including countries and rivers and mountains. There are other things to memorize as well. It is wonderfully easy to use.
Bob Jones Press has a wonderful high school geography course that focuses the first half of the book on physical geography principles {and you get to create your own nation as you go}and the last half of the book on political and historical geography.
Rod and Staff has a great book on Latin American History and Geography (about half a year of each). Your students will learn about Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. In the history section, you will learn how the history of the regions has played a tremendous role in the problems they now have as well as the victories they now have. When have you ever heard of the Pacific War, the War of the Triple Alliance, the Cenepa War, the Chaco War, The Thousand Day War, the Rebellion of Tupac Amaru II, Federal War, the Dirty War, the Plantine War, the War of the Confederation, the Gran Colombia-Peru War, the Chilean War, the Argentine War, the Spanish-Portuguese War, or the French-Portuguese War? It's a boy's dream world of whole new wars about which to learn!
Galloping the Globe and the Trail Guide are two series for elementary kids that have great reviews from our parents. I have not used them myself, but I've looked through them and they do a good job.
Another series is Alpha Omega's 3rd grade and 4th grade social studies. In 3rd grade, you learn US geography by focusing on about 8 key types of states (plains, mountain, industrial, etc.). In 4th grade, you focus on world geography, using a trio of physically similar nations in each unit (3 island nations, 3 mountain nations, etc.). These are great fun for the kids IF you include the activities suggested in the teacher's manual, including reading the novels set in each country.
Six items should be in every home studying geography:
• The first is a globe with physical geography prominent. Get one that's bumpy for the mountains. One on a floor stand will not take up limited desk or table space.
• Also, get two 3D maps, one of the world and one of the US. You will be amazed how much history you understand when touching one of these kinds of maps. I'd recommend one of the state of Florida as well, but it isn't worth the cost because it isn't much different from a 2D map of Florida.
• I'd also have Uncle Josh's Outline Map Book by Wiggers. It is a book of outline maps for all states, all regions of the world, and many, many countries of the world. I got my husband to use his saw and cut the pages away from the binding so I could hole-punch them into a notebook for much easier scanning on the printer.
• A Geography Terms Chart, available for about $5 from Geography Matters at http://www.geomatters.com
• Get Eat Your Way Around the World by Arimini for all those cultural foods OR just use the internet to get recipes as you need them.
This is geography. It's my school subject passion. I've already written 2, 350+ words, so now I'll stop. I've got a million ideas I could share about geography for all ages. Invite me to a Mc Soda some day, and I'll share them.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
History and All That Jazz
Reminder that the monthly drawing for a $25 gift card is still going on for June and will include responses to the May blog as well. All you have to do to get your name in the drawing is post a response to any of the May or June blogs. You don't have to be a member of NCCS to respond. Gift cards are from your choice of: Publix, Walmart, Olive Garden-Red Lobster, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon.
To finish off our series on various subject areas, I wanted to talk about social studies. Some people like to call it social sciences, but there is a real difference. Let's look at that difference first.
Social studies is study - discovering facts about something - and it usually occurs in the lower elementary through high school years. Social sciences often cover the same topics but in a different way. Social sciences stress the analytical aspect of the subjects. We learn to take, organize, and analyze the statistical data about man as an individual, man as a member of social groups, man as a member of community, and man in broad ethnic and national groups. It has more of the feel of science, and often involves experiments and surveys and focuses less on surface facts and more on motivations for actions. Interestingly, history is NOT considered a part of the social sciences because one cannot do experiments on past events and then recreate them. History is, therefore, considered a humanities subject for social science people.
Now, we will turn our attention to what is usually taught in schools, social studies. Generally, this means history and geography. Now this will take two blogs, so be prepared.
First, let's look at history. There are a number of ways to teach history. By its nature, history is a chronological subject. That is, one should teach it in time order. That being said and before I lose the unit studies people, let me say that one can study topics in history. To do it well still requires some sort of connection to a time line. That means that your student (or yourself) needs some way to hang the topic in time and space.
I can choose to study clothing as a history element. However, unless I also link that study to dates and places, my student will not know whether pantaloons came before or after George Washington nor will he know why that is important to know. Some clothing styles came into popularity because of odd political, geographical, or social events. Try this link for a fun read. http://www.poloindia.com/historyoftrousers/right_frame.htm
Studying the clothing without studying the events will not help the student truly understand the development of clothing. For example, certain hat styles came about when a popular queen started going bald and began wearing hats to cover her baldness. The people loved her so much that they wanted to copy her hats. So the question should be asked, why was she so popular that people wanted to be like her? The answer would come from studying her policies and her government, the wars into which her country became involved, the economic situation, etc.
Without the chronological study as well, the student is faced with an endless series of facts swirling inside his head. In other words, unit studies without chronology is like teaching history for a Trivial Pursuit game: nothing but unconnected facts that may or may not get you a chip. If you like the unit studies approach, make sure that you incorporate timelines and that your children have a strong basic understanding of history before beginning the study.
Another interesting approach to teaching history involves breaking history into broad categories, such as Old Testament history, Greek history, Roman history, medieval history, etc., and then taking a year to study each. I have to admit, I love the idea of this idea. If I could begin from the beginning with my kids, this would probably be a strong way to do this for the elementary grades. It does require a 4 or 5 or more year commitment to that one style and to homeschooling. It requires you know and don't fear being out of sync for testing for a few years, which isn't a bad thing, unless you worry about where you are all the time. For the upper grades, the multi-year study would not be as good, as you SHOULD then be spending more time looking at history's broad strokes and patterns, making all the dots connect from all the various histories you've studied and trying to understand the complex reasons behind things.
One weakness I have seen in the multi-year approach has to do with the fact that the underpinnings of our current world are anchored in those earliest of times. In this approach to history, those early times are studied at the youngest age when a student is least able to understand the political policies and the writings of those ages. Very few 2nd and 3rd graders can follow Caesar's Gallic Wars, although it is well written and easily followed by a more mature mind. Cicero's writing, pithy pieces and, by the way vastly applicable to today's politics, would not connect with the mind of young children.
What ends up happening is that the students study the curious aspects of Roman culture with brief interludes into the history and military battles; such things as the economics that were driving the military situations and the slavery needed in a society that valued freedom almost as much as Americans did 20 years ago cannot be studied as the mind is not yet ready. The student, and parent, believes he knows Roman history because he knows what they ate, how they dressed, how they built their houses, and how they were transported. He knows how their weapons are used but doesn't have the analytical ability or geographic knowledge yet to understand WHY they are being used.
These cultural facts that cause the students to believe they have studied the history leave them unprepared for dealing with modern world history and American history when they are older. Those histories depend upon an understanding of the older ages' philosophies and policies, things which couldn't be covered at the much younger age. So perhaps there is a major drawback to this approach to history for the young, that of matching mind skills with topics. Does that mean not using this approach? No, it means working this approach so that this weakness is resolved.
Deciding upon an approach to teaching history must include an awareness of the mental development processes within a child. We must also get past our own boredom with relearning something we learned in our childhood and realize that THEY haven't heard it and THEY NEED this material. We must understand that, in early years, children are best equipped to learn vast quantities of facts (dates, places, names, etc.) attached to general themes, such as time placement of the facts. They memorize easily. We do not, and we feel bad that we are asking them to memorize things. So we decide, let's build something instead of memorizing things. Instead, do BOTH! Memorize AS you are building things.
Scripture tells us that one way to teach our children their scriptures is to write them on the doorposts, the walls, our foreheads, whatever is needed to do the memory work. So take that example for your facts work.
Put a list of the ten highest mountains & their locations on the wall next to the toilet. Don't tell them to memorize it. Just put it there. Mention mountains in your conversation. "I've heard about this mountain called Mt. McKinley. I was wondering if it would be a good vacation to go there. What do YOU think? Do you know where it is? No? Hmmm. Okay." Don't tell them to go find out. Yet, sometime soon, the child will come back with the information you wanted them to know. "Mom, I found out that Mt. McKinley is in Alaska." This is called subtle memory work.
However, overt memory work is great as well. Let's come up with ten lists of ten things to know this year, kids. How about the ten largest American cities, the ten highest mountains in the world, the first ten presidents, ten top inventors and what they invented, ten elements from the periodic table, ten great composers & the name of one of their famous pieces, ten great American artists, ten Impressionist painters, ten birds and what they look like, ten vitamins we need, etc. Each month, choose one of the lists and, at the start of the day, just read the list out loud together once. In 3 weeks or less, your child will probably have the list memorized just from reading it out loud. Then the next month, start another list.
Another approach to history is to use good textbooks. Good textbooks are broken into units on specific topics. They give you a broad overview of a time period, and then you have the chance, if you are interested, of doing an in-depth study of a part of that section.
For example, the Bob Jones University Press 4th grade American history text has standard history chapters. I had my children read a chapter on Monday or on Monday and Tuesday (depending upon the length of the chapter), and then we orally did the questions over lunch. On Wednesday, we (sometimes me, sometimes them) picked some topic within the chapter and researched it (sometimes I'd have the books ready ahead of time, sometimes not) on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday was a great day for either choosing another topic for a quicker, one day study, or we might watch a video or build something or go somewhere related to the study or even read about the first topic more.
The textbook allows you to have someone else - the textbook author - do the basic research for you while the teacher's manual will tell you other ideas and projects. I mean, the purpose of studying history is to learn from the past, so do that by not feeling like you must reinvent the wheel by doing all the setup work yourself. Rather, you can allow someone else (an author) to do the grunt work of setting up a time period for you in the textbook. The author also gets to run around looking for the information at libraries, etc., instead of you doing that and wasting gas and energy and irreplacable time. Textbooks can be an extremely easy and interesting way to teach history while making sure you have all the connections in place. Just use the textbook instead of letting it rule you.
Jesse Stuart, a famous Appalachian teacher who did extraordinary things with his students, came to the conclusion after decades of teaching that the student's ability to learn had much more to do with his enthusiasm level regarding the subject than it had to do with the difficulty level of the subject. To go with that, remember that feelings follow actions. If you act angry, you will become angry. If you act like you like something, you may find that you do. Try it as you teach history and geography this year. It will change how much your students enjoy this fabulous subject. Know the approach you choose to use and eliminate its weaknesses; no one way works for everyone, but we DO need to understand the broad picture of what is taking place in our teaching and in our students' learning.
Suggested reading: Jesse Stuart's The Thread That Runs So True
Teaching Geography: see the next blog.
To finish off our series on various subject areas, I wanted to talk about social studies. Some people like to call it social sciences, but there is a real difference. Let's look at that difference first.
Social studies is study - discovering facts about something - and it usually occurs in the lower elementary through high school years. Social sciences often cover the same topics but in a different way. Social sciences stress the analytical aspect of the subjects. We learn to take, organize, and analyze the statistical data about man as an individual, man as a member of social groups, man as a member of community, and man in broad ethnic and national groups. It has more of the feel of science, and often involves experiments and surveys and focuses less on surface facts and more on motivations for actions. Interestingly, history is NOT considered a part of the social sciences because one cannot do experiments on past events and then recreate them. History is, therefore, considered a humanities subject for social science people.
Now, we will turn our attention to what is usually taught in schools, social studies. Generally, this means history and geography. Now this will take two blogs, so be prepared.
First, let's look at history. There are a number of ways to teach history. By its nature, history is a chronological subject. That is, one should teach it in time order. That being said and before I lose the unit studies people, let me say that one can study topics in history. To do it well still requires some sort of connection to a time line. That means that your student (or yourself) needs some way to hang the topic in time and space.
I can choose to study clothing as a history element. However, unless I also link that study to dates and places, my student will not know whether pantaloons came before or after George Washington nor will he know why that is important to know. Some clothing styles came into popularity because of odd political, geographical, or social events. Try this link for a fun read. http://www.poloindia.com/historyoftrousers/right_frame.htm
Studying the clothing without studying the events will not help the student truly understand the development of clothing. For example, certain hat styles came about when a popular queen started going bald and began wearing hats to cover her baldness. The people loved her so much that they wanted to copy her hats. So the question should be asked, why was she so popular that people wanted to be like her? The answer would come from studying her policies and her government, the wars into which her country became involved, the economic situation, etc.
Without the chronological study as well, the student is faced with an endless series of facts swirling inside his head. In other words, unit studies without chronology is like teaching history for a Trivial Pursuit game: nothing but unconnected facts that may or may not get you a chip. If you like the unit studies approach, make sure that you incorporate timelines and that your children have a strong basic understanding of history before beginning the study.
Another interesting approach to teaching history involves breaking history into broad categories, such as Old Testament history, Greek history, Roman history, medieval history, etc., and then taking a year to study each. I have to admit, I love the idea of this idea. If I could begin from the beginning with my kids, this would probably be a strong way to do this for the elementary grades. It does require a 4 or 5 or more year commitment to that one style and to homeschooling. It requires you know and don't fear being out of sync for testing for a few years, which isn't a bad thing, unless you worry about where you are all the time. For the upper grades, the multi-year study would not be as good, as you SHOULD then be spending more time looking at history's broad strokes and patterns, making all the dots connect from all the various histories you've studied and trying to understand the complex reasons behind things.
One weakness I have seen in the multi-year approach has to do with the fact that the underpinnings of our current world are anchored in those earliest of times. In this approach to history, those early times are studied at the youngest age when a student is least able to understand the political policies and the writings of those ages. Very few 2nd and 3rd graders can follow Caesar's Gallic Wars, although it is well written and easily followed by a more mature mind. Cicero's writing, pithy pieces and, by the way vastly applicable to today's politics, would not connect with the mind of young children.
What ends up happening is that the students study the curious aspects of Roman culture with brief interludes into the history and military battles; such things as the economics that were driving the military situations and the slavery needed in a society that valued freedom almost as much as Americans did 20 years ago cannot be studied as the mind is not yet ready. The student, and parent, believes he knows Roman history because he knows what they ate, how they dressed, how they built their houses, and how they were transported. He knows how their weapons are used but doesn't have the analytical ability or geographic knowledge yet to understand WHY they are being used.
These cultural facts that cause the students to believe they have studied the history leave them unprepared for dealing with modern world history and American history when they are older. Those histories depend upon an understanding of the older ages' philosophies and policies, things which couldn't be covered at the much younger age. So perhaps there is a major drawback to this approach to history for the young, that of matching mind skills with topics. Does that mean not using this approach? No, it means working this approach so that this weakness is resolved.
Deciding upon an approach to teaching history must include an awareness of the mental development processes within a child. We must also get past our own boredom with relearning something we learned in our childhood and realize that THEY haven't heard it and THEY NEED this material. We must understand that, in early years, children are best equipped to learn vast quantities of facts (dates, places, names, etc.) attached to general themes, such as time placement of the facts. They memorize easily. We do not, and we feel bad that we are asking them to memorize things. So we decide, let's build something instead of memorizing things. Instead, do BOTH! Memorize AS you are building things.
Scripture tells us that one way to teach our children their scriptures is to write them on the doorposts, the walls, our foreheads, whatever is needed to do the memory work. So take that example for your facts work.
Put a list of the ten highest mountains & their locations on the wall next to the toilet. Don't tell them to memorize it. Just put it there. Mention mountains in your conversation. "I've heard about this mountain called Mt. McKinley. I was wondering if it would be a good vacation to go there. What do YOU think? Do you know where it is? No? Hmmm. Okay." Don't tell them to go find out. Yet, sometime soon, the child will come back with the information you wanted them to know. "Mom, I found out that Mt. McKinley is in Alaska." This is called subtle memory work.
However, overt memory work is great as well. Let's come up with ten lists of ten things to know this year, kids. How about the ten largest American cities, the ten highest mountains in the world, the first ten presidents, ten top inventors and what they invented, ten elements from the periodic table, ten great composers & the name of one of their famous pieces, ten great American artists, ten Impressionist painters, ten birds and what they look like, ten vitamins we need, etc. Each month, choose one of the lists and, at the start of the day, just read the list out loud together once. In 3 weeks or less, your child will probably have the list memorized just from reading it out loud. Then the next month, start another list.
Another approach to history is to use good textbooks. Good textbooks are broken into units on specific topics. They give you a broad overview of a time period, and then you have the chance, if you are interested, of doing an in-depth study of a part of that section.
For example, the Bob Jones University Press 4th grade American history text has standard history chapters. I had my children read a chapter on Monday or on Monday and Tuesday (depending upon the length of the chapter), and then we orally did the questions over lunch. On Wednesday, we (sometimes me, sometimes them) picked some topic within the chapter and researched it (sometimes I'd have the books ready ahead of time, sometimes not) on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday was a great day for either choosing another topic for a quicker, one day study, or we might watch a video or build something or go somewhere related to the study or even read about the first topic more.
The textbook allows you to have someone else - the textbook author - do the basic research for you while the teacher's manual will tell you other ideas and projects. I mean, the purpose of studying history is to learn from the past, so do that by not feeling like you must reinvent the wheel by doing all the setup work yourself. Rather, you can allow someone else (an author) to do the grunt work of setting up a time period for you in the textbook. The author also gets to run around looking for the information at libraries, etc., instead of you doing that and wasting gas and energy and irreplacable time. Textbooks can be an extremely easy and interesting way to teach history while making sure you have all the connections in place. Just use the textbook instead of letting it rule you.
Jesse Stuart, a famous Appalachian teacher who did extraordinary things with his students, came to the conclusion after decades of teaching that the student's ability to learn had much more to do with his enthusiasm level regarding the subject than it had to do with the difficulty level of the subject. To go with that, remember that feelings follow actions. If you act angry, you will become angry. If you act like you like something, you may find that you do. Try it as you teach history and geography this year. It will change how much your students enjoy this fabulous subject. Know the approach you choose to use and eliminate its weaknesses; no one way works for everyone, but we DO need to understand the broad picture of what is taking place in our teaching and in our students' learning.
Suggested reading: Jesse Stuart's The Thread That Runs So True
Teaching Geography: see the next blog.
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