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Involve Me And I Learn

Posted on May 17, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

We have all heard this quote “ Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

I would like to emphasize the last point again “involve me and I learn.” If you take a moment and think about how you learn, and when you have retained information the best, was it not through involvement? To illustrate this point, let's look at learning to drive.

For those reader based elsewhere, I will be using the model by which we learn to drive in Australia. If you are 16 years old, you can then sit a written test, know as the Driver Knowledge Test. You can only sit the test once you have read the “road users handbook," and the guide on “getting your driver's license.”

Once you pass this test, you are then given a “Learner Driver Log Book," and you have to log a minimum of 120 hours driving with a parent or instructor. You also need to be over 17, and held your learner license for a minimum of 12 months. Only then can you attempt to move onto your provisional license.

So if we think about this for a second, and use the above proven model when applied to our children’s learning? We will note that the majority of the time should be spent in the doing, whilst combining the written knowledge of others experience with action.

I think it can be safely said that we all learn more rapidly and completely if we are doing something. This necessitates the need to learn.

In an experiment by the “One Laptop Per Child Organization." They dropped off tablet computers with programmed applications to Ethiopian Villages to see what would happen.

The goal was to see if illiterate kids with no previously exposure to written words could learn how to read by themselves. These children could experiment with the tablet and its preloaded alphabet training games, e-books, movies, cartoons, paintings, and other programs.

Within five days they were using 47 apps per child, per day. Within 2 two weeks they were singing ABC songs in the village, and within five months they had hacked the Android, to turn the camera on that had accidentally been disabled. Each kid customized the desktop to suit him or herself, even though this too had been disabled.

You see Negopronte who leads this organisation felt, “if they could learn to read, the could read to learn." He has stated “what can we do for these 100 million kids around the world who don’t go to school?" Can we change the paradigm so they may learn too?

Our children learn through doing, and as the above story illustrates, the combination of reading and action can produce unbelievable results. We can learn to drive, but more importantly our children can learn to learn.

Posted in child education, Early child education, zero to five

Children And Being Artistic

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

Child development, the arts, and your little ones brain.

Today's post is dedicated to the creative child in all of us. And how we might help our little ones find their creative spirit, and why this matters.

A report produced by the Dana Consortium coming out of Harvard looks specifically at Learning, Arts, and the Brain. What we found interesting about this report was the connection with the Arts and child development.

It is of course our view that your child has intelligence in all the multiple-intelligence areas. Merely knowing about them individually we are all best placed to nurture our children.

Music - Surprisingly it turns out that the practice of music helps in the study of symmetries, in mathematics, and reading. A child practicing music will also develop the pathway for literacy.

Role Play & Acting - This appears to improve memory, recollection and to be able to understand and look at general knowledge.

Dance - By practising and learning dance, children develop observational skills. This could transfer to other cognitive areas.

The study shows that the “appreciation of the Art’s will lead to pleasure in producing that Art." It also demonstrates how practicing an Art can impact and develop many areas of the brain and the associated pathways. And how visual, linguistic, movement, and music develop completely different areas within the brain.

So whether your child likes music, dance, role-playing, painting or any of the arts. All of them are benefiting brain functions, and each one has a different result.

So have fun, paint a picture, role-play, dance and listen to music, it all matters and it works.

Posted in child education, creative child, Early child education, learning style

The Gifts to Give Your Child

Posted on May 14, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

Gifts to give your children

The Gifts to Give Your Child

We came across an interesting paper written by Dr. Ben Bissell, “Building Self Esteem: The Ten Gifts To Give Your Children."

We are going to give you an overview what we believe these to be, and why they matter. We know that every parent wants to give their children with the best start in life possible. You, just like us are committed to knowing all you can to achieve this.

So what are the gifts?

In order, but not in importance.

1. A good name: This does not refer to their birth name, but rather a nickname, like bossy, or little terror, or a troublemaker, etc. Whilst these names can be humorous and certainly describe some behaviours. They can create permanent labels, and if we are to create labels, would it not be better to give one that builds their self esteem? Like “Smart Steve," because he is always finding ways to get up out of bed, “Thoughtful Annie," because sometimes she will play quietly in the corner, without fuss.

2. Listening to our children: This builds their self-esteem and lets them know they too are important to us, and their opinion matters. And by doing this it helps them create a sense of self worth, but lets them improve their ability to think and express themselves.

3. Letting Your Child Make Decisions: If you give your child the ability to be included in family decisions you let them know their opinion matters in the family. Your child will also begin to feel special about themselves. They will develop an ability to make decisions now and later in life, and be confident about them.

4. Allow Your Child To Feel: Simply put if they hurt themselves, or something makes them sad let them express this. Look to understand rather than make them hold the feeling back.

As an example your child falls down and grazes their knee, this happened with our daughter very recently. Instead of saying, “it is okay, and you're ok now," it would be better to say, I know that hurts and how about we fix that up. Our first instinct is to try and make them feel better immediately, but we need to allow them to express their feelings and show that we understand. This relationship with our child will help them develop the ability to express their feelings now and later in life.

5. Rules, Your Child Needs Them: This provides them with structure and the ability to understand that certain things are not ok. It also lets them know that there are consequences for their actions, which is something that will serve them well later in life. The rules need to be fair, and the consequences appropriate, and this will help them think through their actions.

6. Hugs: Now who does not need a hug, this is the physical act of letting your child know that you love them. And don’t we all need to know that those close to us love us? And can you give your child too much love, and spoil them this way, no. All studies indicate to date, that you cannot love your child too much. Your little one might say mum, that's enough hugs, and that might be your sign :)

7. Laughter & Play: Play is the work of children, and interacting with your child making a puzzle, building a tower, picking the toy your baby through on the floor, only so they can through it back again, builds trust and a sense of fun. They learn to communicate, interact, enjoy life and achieve, whilst enjoying the action along the way. Take a moment to chase your little one around the house, play peekaboo, or just tickle them. Life is meant to be fun, and they should believe this too.

8. Permission To Make Mistakes: Mistakes are good, that means we are learning and trying, both as adults and children. By allowing your child to make mistakes, you give them the permission to learn from them. If your child is to busy covering up their mistakes, they simply cannot learn from them. Because hiding becomes the priority and not what they learned out of the experience. Let them make mistakes, and learn, they will do this for the rest of their life, just like us.

9. The Truth: We need to tell our children the truth, they can handle it. It is important to consider the child’s age and maturity, but by telling your child the truth, you let them know that you trust them. They will in turn tell you the truth. Your child does not follow your words, they follow your example.

10. Freedom: The chance to learn and explore, and to grow into a little lady, or gentleman. This of course is also dependent upon age, and the boundaries available considering our own circumstances.

Ten wonderful gifts that you can give your child, that cost nothing but will be priceless.

Posted in child education, Early child education, gifts for children

How Do I Know My Child’s Learning Style?

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

Children are unique, and understanding your child’s learning style is critical to their success. Because when you understand how your child learns you can help them at any age.

There are some key things to look for when it comes to child development and learning styles. And all children are born ready to learn, and absorb information, experiences and the wonder of life.

The three most common learning styles are visual, auditory, and physical (Kinesthetic). To help determine your child’s learning style here are some signs to look for in each of the area’s.

Visual: They notice details, and are aware when their environment changes. You may have moved a chair, a picture, their toys and they notice. They like to read, remember things by seeing them. May often watch rather than talk.

Auditory: Talks out load to self, can be easily distracted, likes to read, enjoys music, outgoing by nature, happy to participate in activities, can remember steps to follow in a sequence.

Kinesthetic: They are often on the go the whole time, touching, grabbing and playing. They enjoy being active and you may have to chase them around the house to read to them. They like to solve their problems by physically working through them. And are generally very active in play.

In one of our earlier blogs, we take all of the above styles and break them down further into multiple intelligence categories. But for now we stick to the above general areas.

So once you have identified your child’s preferred learning style what are some of the techniques you can use to accelerate their development.

The Visual Learner

Making and or using flashcards
Allowing them to draw, paint, and create
They will like puzzles
Use posters and charts to explain things
They will enjoy any type of word game, as long as they can see the words

The Auditory Learner

Will obviously enjoy a good book (or ten :))
Listening to music, melodies, or rhyme’s
Use word games
Will absorb more information if they answer your questions orally
And they enjoy talking so this should be encouraged

Kinesthetic (or physical learner)

A physical learner is great at remembering what they do, so activities that include participation are very important.
Will like building things, such as models, towers, and playing with blocks
Playing games of any sort, as long as it includes touching
Will like puppet shows (so pull out some old socks)
Will enjoy putting scrapbooks together

So this outlines 3 general areas of learning and some ideas about catering for each of these styles. Do you see an area you fit into, or the one your child does, we would love to hear about it?

Posted in Early child education, learning style

My Childs Imprint Years

Posted on April 09, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

Did you know 90% of your child’s brain development by the age of three?

Our ability to understand brain development through neuroscience has changed dramatically. Over the last 20 years this has accelerated at a significant pace. The information on brain, child development was never previously available and so accessible.

However the disappointing aspect is that the information is not shared more publicly. If 90% of your child’s brain development occurs in the first 3 years, shouldn’t ever parent know this? This for me would be tax dollars well spent.

None the less, this means the role of the parents, carers, day care centres and early education centres is critical to our childs development. We need to not only be conscious of this, but create curriculums that develop each and ever child in a variety of areas.

A paper written by Pam Winter, P.H.D Early Childhood Services, Department of Education and Children’s Services, South Australia, March 2010, clearly highlights the need for development in all aspects of learning.

Pam highlights in the paper the “the first five years that matter a lifetime." The number of areas that are cited as critical to your child’s development is good nutrition, health, and exercise. Our children are born with ability to learn and absorb information like a sponge.

The greater the exposure they have to learning opportunities, good nutrition, exercise, safe, loving environment, will considerably and measurably help with their brain development.

As you would expect children who feel safe and secure, are more comfortable in expressing themselves and trying new things. So your little one is doing more, they are learning more. And “Play more than any other activity promotes healthy development of children”.

We have never had the opportunity to understand the human brain more than we do today. The advances in Neuroscience in the last 20 years is nothing short of breathtaking.

However the question is how can we use this knowledge to help our children to become all they can be.

The first part of the answer start’s hear. It starts with awareness, sharing this information with every parent we come in contact with, our friends, extended family and colleagues.

We all need to be aware that the first 3 years, are the imprint years and will matter to our little ones for the rest of their life. Making sure they have the right nutrition, exercise, and feel safe and secure, will go a long way to helping them develop well.

They are sponges, they are our children, and they will be our future.

There is honestly too much information on this area to include in one post, however, we will continue to write on this subject in the hope that this knowledge is shared now and often.

But for now the things we would love you to note are;

90% of brain development happens in the first 3 years
Children learn the most through play
They learn best in a safe and secure environment
Good health, nutrition, and exercise are critical

We would love to know if you were aware of this?

Posted in Early child education

Is your child word smart?

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

For the next 8 weeks, we are going to outline each of the broad categories of multiple intelligence, that we feel every parent should know. Now we should warn you up front that we hold the belief that every child is gifted and has their own unique talents. And one of our goals is to help you identify your child’s gift and or natural talents.

Please be aware that your child will posses all of the multiple intelligence areas, and will likely have a combination of these talents that are quite strong, and if you are not sure what skills your little one might have, keep an eye on these posts for signs.

So today we are going to discuss “word smart”, with a focus on 0 - 5 years old's.

As you might suspect word smart covers language, reading, writing and the skills associated with communication. It is important to note it is not really a combination of all of these skills, and sometimes it is just a deep skill in one of these area’s (like writing), and sometimes it involves all of these areas.

To illustrate this point further, did you know that when J.K Rowling came up with her idea for the Harry Potter novels in 1990 while traveling on a train from London to Heathrow, and she was too shy to approach fellow passengers on that train so she could borrow a pen and write down her idea! Interesting right?

So let’s begin, what to look for in your little one when identifying if they are “word smart”.

Your little one may have a fascination with books
Have you read to them for hours on end, or read for hours themselves
They may also pick books up, prior to learning to read, and pretend to read
They might like to repeat or tell you the sentence before you begin, and they may correct you, if you mispronounce a word, or miss a page accidentally.
They are likely to use words early, and try different combinations
They will want to develop their vocabulary, and use big words
They may be ready and wanting to learn to read as early as 2-3 years of age
They might like to make up stories, and you could easily find them playing and talking at the same time.
This child is also likely to form wonderful arguments as to why they should stay up late, eat chocolate, or ride their scooter in the house.
And of course they will talk your ear off for the rest of their beautiful lives.

A child with word smart is a gift to our world; they are the storytellers, they are poets, they are actors, journalists, communicators and creators of history.

Is your little one word smart? If so please share your story....

The 8 reasons why multiple intelligence matters to you

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Lubica Misevski

Multiple intelligence was developed in 1983 by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University. He suggested that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on I.Q. testing, was far too limited, and there was a broader area of disciplines that should be considered when developing Children and Adults.

Gardner chose 8 unique abilities that he felt meet the criteria:

Musical – rhythmic
Visual – spatial
Verbal – linguistic
Logical – mathematical
Bodily – kinaesthetic
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
And naturalistic

Of course as Dr Howard felt that every individual holds a unique blend of all the intelligences, and a greater understanding of all of the areas will “empower learners”, and allow them to explore more and defined areas in child development.

After all don’t we all hold a variety of skills, that were either nurtured as children or we ended up developing ourselves in our later years. It is a wonderful thing to be able to identify how your children learn, and their passions. By understanding the different learning styles of our children we can do more to bring out their natural talents, and develop weaker areas.

Kidzinc. was born from a desire to help parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, brothers, sisters, carers, anyone really who wants to help develop children to their fullest capability.

This is our beginning, and our mission is bringing you and your little ones, joy, development, and growth. We will search the world for products that fit these criteria’s, that are not just fun, but help you develop those you care about most.

We welcome your feedback and value your input! And welcome to KidzInc.
We would love to hear about your kid’s natural talents, please let us know below?