Our children and our teenagers are going to live in a world of rapid, unpredictable and may be contradictory, as was the twentieth century, the century of the greatest achievements of humanity and the most terrible episodes. How do we educate? Who should do it? Do you raise them for the foreseeable future or desirable for the future? Education thus becomes art know, the more involved, complex, and necessary. And in that we want to lead us.
“A world full of opportunities difficult“. We want to help parents in their educational work, but we also want to be aware of the signs of the future. Science, particularly neuroscience, advancing with giant strides. We know what it is. Why? To explain the world of education. We have no strong scientific institutions to consider these things. There is a fragmentation that weakens us all. American Psychological Association is fifty divisions, which do not speak. The European Union has decided on a new educational model based on eight competencies. But becoming obsolete by leaps. “
Fun way to teach memorization
Plastic lids of all sizes are a fun way to teach memorization. It doesn’t matter whether they come from coffee cans, ice cream buckets, or somewhere else.
Turn the lids upside down so the ridges face upward. Using a permanent marker, write one word on the inside of each cover. For example, if you’re teaching the Bible verse “For God so loved the world …” write each of the words on a separate cover.
Once the complete verse is written with one word on each cover, mix them all up and throw them like saucers all around the room. Once the kids’ giggling subsides, have them collect the lids one at a time, placing them in the correct order so as to make a path with all the words. They should be able to start with the first cover and walk on each cover forming a path through the house, reading the verse as they go along to the end. Of course, they’ll want to repeat this exercise!
Let them be a contributing part of the family
Toddlers are certainly small, but they have an attitude of energy that should be in all of us. They’re always looking for things to satisfy their curiosity, so use that natural characteristic to keep them busy and let them learn at the same time.
Teach them how to set the table even if you have to use plastic or paper plates for a while. Let them fold dishcloths and pair up socks when you’re folding the rest of the laundry. They love getting into cubby holes so have them crawl under the bed to find all the lost treasures there. Let them wash their toys and separate the pieces to their games. Talk to them about the different colors, shapes, and textures as you work. Give them a soapy washcloth to wipe down the refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher.
They can fill the toilet paper roll dispenser, remove the paper off a new bar of soap, and hang a fresh hand towel. Don’t dismiss their anxiousness to help. Instead, let them be a contributing part of the family.
Teach them responsibility
As your children grow in homeschool, organizing and keeping the rest of the home orderly is extremely important. Because each of the family members is a part of an entire family, there are certain responsibilities that go along with that position. Therefore, everyone should have ways that they physically contribute to the cohesiveness of the whole family.
Make a perpetual calendar. That way it won’t matter what day of the week the 16th or 27th fall on and display the chart where it can’t be missed by anyone. Older children should get the most difficult chores to do while the younger should have the easiest. Still, each should have particular chores to do each day.
Dishes always need to be washed and dried, laundry always needs to be folded, vacuuming, dusting, making beds, and bathroom cleaning need to be done constantly so include your children in the chores. It will teach them responsibility and show them how valued they are.
Use chalk boards and marker boards
Requiring the children to use chalk boards and marker boards periodically is good for a number of reasons. For younger children it helps them to use larger muscle groups, especially for very young children who haven’t yet mastered the small muscles in their fingers and hands.
It’s also great for allowing eye and hand coordination which develops their brains. It helps teach their body to transmit to the brain what their eyes are seeing, and then teaches their hands to do what their brain is telling them to do.
For any age children, it’s a way to relax from the pencil and paper routine and gives their eyes a break from the fine print they spend most of their time looking at. So, help them out by letting them learn in a number of different ways.
Talent Education
And then it gave me great pleasure to read in depth the conference a person I greatly admire, whom I consider one of my greatest teachers, a real luxury for the Spanish culture: philosopher José Antonio Marina, which presented the Educational Foundation Parent University at the Teatro Reina Victoria in Madrid on Monday of last week (June 22, 2010). With Cortijo Enriquez for sending the text.
José Antonio Marina titled his lecture “Talent Education”. After thanking the audience (including Eva Almunia, Secretary of Education and mother, or Teresa Entrecanales, “the soul of this celebration”) their presence, said that “cinema has taught us that every moment of our life should have its soundtrack.” JAM chose yours. It started with the 5th piano concerto, Emperor, Beethoven (thanks to Youtube, while reading the text of my dear Marina, I’ve heard the version of the legendary pianist Claudio Arrau). Beethoven, the spirit of the Enlightenment, to infect the rush they feel in the UP. Citing Neruda (who attributed the rush for clarity):
No time to lose
There are too many dark corners
Too many missed opportunities.
There are too many voices unheard.
Too many loves without object.
