Learning....

I will never cease to be amazed at how kids learn. I remember having to write my spelling words 5 times and hating it until someone explained to me how the brain has to see something so many times before it will remember it. It is even better when you have to use two skills, reading and writing it because then your brain processes it in different ways. I try to use that knowledge when trying to teach my own kids how to remember things.

My youngest son is in Kindergarten and he is going all day because the teachers thought he could use some extra help in preparing for 1st grade. At first I was worried, but today I discovered that he just needs to process the information a few more times before his brain memorizes it. He got his report card yesterday and the box that says "Knows telephone number" had not been checked. We went over telephone number in preschool but when I asked him what it was he could only remember part of it. To help him, I wrote it on a piece of paper and we practiced it last night and this morning before school. We had to do it over and over and over again before he finally got it all right. Instead of it taking him hearing and saying it 5 times to memorize it, it took him 10+ times.

I should have realized he was like this earlier. When he gets a new toy he has to ask the name of it repeatedly until he can remember it. Now that I know this about him, I think I can help him learn better through increased repetition. It is obviously going to take more time but unlike his brother was at this age, he likes to write and practice his numbers and letters.

The brain is kind of funny. Shapes registered for him the first time he laid eyes on a shape book. He knew what an oval was at the age of 2. He uses shapes to describe a lot of things. A Hershey bar is the "long rectangle with little rectangles inside candy". Candy corn is his favorite "triangle candy" and string cheese is "circle cheese" because of the circle on the end. He even describes many of his letters with shapes, a lowercase g is a "circle with a hook".

No matter how he is learning I can say this...he's scarily smart when it comes to getting his own way and manipulating his brother and it's about time his mother figured out his learning style!

Traveling with Children

My boys and I made a road trip to Many, Louisiana to visit my brother over the Columbus Day weekend. I had a bunch of great things they could do in the car...their number one choices of things to do:

10 year old - listen to his new iPod and watch DVD's on my laptop
5 year old - listen to story podcasts on his brother's new iPod and watch DVD's on Grandma's laptop

Oh well, I tried! Anyway, here is a great website that has tips and tricks on traveling with kids...
http://familyfun.go.com/family-travel/