A Apple a Day - Enhance your child's mind with puzzles

      Optimize your children's brains and enhance their intelligence with puzzles!

Did you know that puzzles strengthen your brain? 

Puzzles create new neuron pathways and keep the mind sharp. They improve reasoning ability and help children optimize their math and reading skills. They keep adults sharp and fend off senility. They help develop the ever-so-important spatial and timing abilities that are important precursors to math understanding. They help children (and adults) see patterns in language and numbers, which skill spills over into other areas of their lives.

Puzzles help children learn to think abstractly, which gives them the ability to be better problem-solvers in life as well as in school. It has been proven that the maths and sciences help people learn to think and see alternate possibilities.

Children should start doing simple jigsaw puzzles as young as 18 months, if not younger. Start with wooden cut-out puzzles then graduate to cardboard jigsaws with increasing difficulty as the child ages.

The next step in the puzzle progression would be simple pencil word puzzles. For elementary school ages, the Highlights magazine is a good start, but there are also many other makers of children’s word puzzles.

In teenage and adult years, there are all kinds of pencil puzzle books from makers like Dell and Penny Press. My favorite word puzzles are Cryptograms, Flower Power, Cryptic Crosswords (British version), Math Story Problems, and anything that requires some sort of deductive reasoning. 

My all-time favorite number puzzles are “Math and Logic” puzzles, including Word Math (long division in letters), Kakuro (a.k.a. Cross Sums or Sum Totals), Sudoku (a.k.a. Number Place), Sumdoku (marriage of Kakuro and Sudoku), Crossmath, and Figure Logics, to name a few.

So the next time your teenager says, “Why do I have to take algebra?! I’ll never use it,” tell her that she needs algebra in order to think better in general. Tell her to look at algebra as a fun puzzle, too.

Just as a side note, you can use algebra on your shopping list to make your total come out exactly, so you DO use algebra later it life! I use algebra every day.

For instance, if you only have $100.00 to spend and tax is 6.25%, how much can you spend so that the amount plus the tax on that amount add up to exactly $100.00?

It is algebra – say that one “y” is the amount to spend before taxes, and that the tax (6.25%) would be “0.0625 times y” then your equation would be:

y + 0.0625y = 100.00.

Add the y's together (or distribute out the y). Do the puzzle: y(1 + 0.0625) = 100.00, or

(1.0625)y = 100.00.

Remember that algebra solves like fractions, so

y = 100.00/1.0625 (The slash line means divide).

Then y = 94.12 and the tax (94.12 x 0.0625) on that amount = 5.88, so

$94.12 + $5.88 = $100.00. 

The maximum you can spend before taxes is $94.12. When you add the tax on that amount, you spend your $100.00 exactly. What a fun (and helpful) puzzle!

You can do this with any dollar amount and any tax rate. It’s a great way to keep a tight allowance within budget!

http://thegodfreymethod.com

An Apple a Day - Helping your child learn through field trips

Homeschool Field Trips – Helping your child learn hands-on:

               We use every situation as a learning situation or field trip. When my husband goes on out-of-state fishing trips, he takes our son with him and turns it into a learning experience. He has my son write down all the wildlife he sees, the geography of their travels, the states through which they pass, the license plates of other vehicles – to see how many other states they can find, places and cities of interest, and they even check out library books about the flora and fauna of the destination area. They also talk about the types of fish they catch.

               Each state has a website of interesting things to do, which can be used as hands-on educational experiences. There are cultural events, nature reserves, amusement parks, museums, libraries, symphonies, community playhouses, national parks, recreational facilities, etc. Wise parents will make use of these resources for interesting field trips, while getting to know their own state better.

               In each one of my volumes of It's Not Rocket Surgery! by Shannah B Godfrey on Amazon.com, I put ideas for things to do in Missouri at the end of each subject. There are similar types of activities for each state. Check them out! 

http://thegodfreymethod.com

Ten O'Clock Scholar - How to reduce those power struggles over learning

     Reduce those power struggles over learning!

               Here are some suggestions for taking the wind out of an argument’s sail. Talk with children, not to them. Win cooperation – recognize a behavior’s purpose; feel NO rancor; discuss.

                Use sentences like:  

                                                                    

•“How do _?”                                                      •“I wonder why _?”

•“You may be right.”                                            •“What if _?”

•“We’ll think about it and see what happens.”        •“What else could _?”

•“Do you have any ideas _?”                                •“What can _?”

•“I would appreciate it if you would _.”

•“I don’t agree with you, but you have the right to think so, if you wish.”

               We can improve the way we think about things with a few simple suggestions. We can replace negative habits with positive ones, as suggested below. 

REPLACE:

• Resentment & Discontent with GRATITUDE
• Criticisms with COMPLIMENTS
• Anger with HUMOR, PATIENCE, WISDOM
• Selfishness with SERVICE
• Ridicule with RESPECT
• Error with REPENTANCE
• Cruelty with CHARITY
• Contention with PEACE
• Pride with HUMILITY
• Rudeness with COURTESY
• Worry with FAITH

     “Life is not the survival of the fittest, but the fitting of as many as possible for survival.”                                                                                                 ~ Thomas H. Huxley, ad-libbed.

Dr. Randy S. Chatelain, Chair of the Human Relations Department at Weber State University, developed the astute

Oppositional vs. Opportunity Systems:

Which kind of relationships do you develop? It is possible to discipline without anger, with love and logic. Better late than never.

               The Godfrey Method insists that parents de-fuse the control games by keeping the learning fun and stopping when young children are ready to take a break. Another way is to change your viewpoint of what it means to be the parent, the boss, the authority.

               Without the preventatives shown in this chapter, the cracks in your child may be dyslexia, speech problems, resource remediation classes, being teased, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, low self-esteem, insecurity, childhood depression, low self-confidence, lack of imagination, lower IQ, slower learning capacity, poor decision-making skills, lack of social skills, math incompetency, low-paying jobs, and/or caught in the downward educational trend. They all may be preventable or curable. You, mom and dad, are the key. It’s not rocket surgery!

http://thegodfreymethod.com

11 ideas for early math the right way

A Good Foundation - Early math the right way

      An early math skills foundation is almost as important as early reading. It’s definitely the runner-up in priority. The maths and sciences increase our ability to think of various possibilities to solve problems in all areas of life. And the foundation of maths and sciences is good reading ability.

      The best way to develop a mathematical mind is with patterning. Helping a child see patterns in the world around her is the first step in understanding spatial and time relationships, very important to math reasoning. 

      And the best way to ensure that your child can develop to his/her full potential is to start early to provide fun learning experiences. Here are some ideas for creating a child’s stimulating environment.

1.       An easy way to do this is to have your preschooler sort the silverware from the dishwasher, as discussed below.
2.       Making repeating patterns with building blocks or colored paper, paint, or crayons are also good ways to develop patterning ability.  
3.       As a parent, you can limit the mess without limiting your child's need to explore by providing bottom drawers in the kitchen full of accessible stuff to play with. Clear, plastic tubs can work, too. Children usually prefer real-life things over toys, and can tell the difference.
4.       Let your child help you sort silverware from the dishwasher, which is also good for her math and reading brain development. Place clean silverware onto a clean table, and have your child sort piles of forks, spoons, and butter knives (no sharp knives), as well as small and large spoons, etc. Then he can help put them into the proper slots in the drawer.
5.       Have play-crawling time, even with older children. Those who crawl more often do better in math and reading, as the Montessori schools found out years ago. Having play time to chase each other while crawling around the house is a great way to link the physical body's spatial and timing relationships with the brain through hand-eye-leg coordination, thus increasing learning capability.
6.       It's a good idea for parents to allow these kinds of play time at least once a week, if not every day. Children who learn spatial relations and patterns in the world around them usually do much better with the academics of reading, math, and science, as well as the artistic talents. Spatial and time relationships are intricately linked with our brain's ability to understand the patterns of numbers, phonics, and words.
7.       Besides patterning, a child needs to learn what numbers mean, such as the proper amount of dots next to each number. Playing non-gambling games with dice is a good way to start.
8.       With youngsters, I also play ‘Go Fish’ with playing cards, which have the number and its amount of hearts (spades, diamonds, or clubs) on each card. Rook cards and Uno cards don’t do this.
9.       When learning addition and subtraction, I also show my kids a number line that goes into infinity in the positive direction (shown with an arrow), and into infinity in the negative direction (shown with an arrow in the opposite direction), starting in the middle at zero, going both ways, to the right and to the left. It starts to prepare their minds for the idea of negative numbers, like being in debt. Or like digging holes versus building mounds.
10.       Playing with money and money values are also great games for math development.
11.       Calendars are another way to teach math skills, believe it or not. Besides learning the months, children learn the repeating patterns of days, weeks, months, and years. I always make my year-long, learning-calendars in a circle for maximum patterning. See the example below.

              A circle calendar looks like a pie, and it’s easier to show a half-year, quarter-year, and the continuous nature going from December to January of the next year. It also shows which months are exactly six months apart, which is handy and very visual. In this way, my calendar is introducing simple geometry ideas, too.

      Pictures taken from http://www.abcteach.com/directory/teaching_extras/calendars

 

                       Months of the Year Calendar

It’s also possible to show the continuity of days in a week shaped as a circle. See figure below.       

      Pictures taken from TGM books: "A Funny Boy Was Prince River", "A Sunny Kid Was Prince River", and "A Pretty Girl Was Alpha Bette".

 

                        Days of the Week Calendar

(Just for fun:)

Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's child is full of grace,

Wednesday's child is full of woe,

Thursday's child has far to go,

Friday's child is loving and giving,

Saturday's child works hard for a living,

But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day

Is bonny, blithe, good, and happy.†

†[I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 309-10.]

      Give your children every possible advantage to be their very best selves by exposing them to many wholesome experiences and, without excessive pressure, motivating them to achieve. There are many different types of intelligence that deserve recognition and expression.

More about learning math the right way is discussed in Volume 10 of It's Not Rocket Surgery!      

      Without these preventatives, the cracks in your child may be math incompetency, low self-esteem, caught in the downward educational trend, lower IQ, slower learning capacity, and/or poor decision-making skills. You are the key. It’s not rocket surgery!

http://thegodfreymethod.com/blog/good-foundation-11-ideas-early-math-right-way