At Engage the Brain, we are all about helping students and families: A. Get back on track, B. Stay on track and or C. Explore the tracks in more detail. Put another way, we provide families with: interventions, solutions and or enrichment opportunities.
A few weeks ago we posted a blog about Following Directions and provided some fun activities for parents to do with their child. This week we are going to suggest some of the best Podcasts for Kids to continue practicing listening skills in an entertaining way.
In this digital age when everyone (including children) is discussing the latest celebrity tweet and or viral video, one digital communication channel tends to get ignored: Podcasts. They are NOT as “shareable” or “consumable;” two must haves in today’s 162-character environment. But, often times they are rich in content.
Podcasts are great entertainment ideas if your family is traveling by car for any distance. Children can listen to them before bed to help settle down and prepare for a good night’s sleep. Or, after dinner, after all the homework is done and the dishes are put away, gather the family in the living room and listen to an exciting story told by real actors. Use of one’s listening skills and imagination is necessary to fully enjoy the podcasts.
Pause the podcast at natural breaks in the story or wait till the end and discuss the content with your child. Ask questions to determine his understanding of the topic. Try to start conversations. And share your thoughts too.
So, what are the best kid’s podcasts? Glad you asked! Engage the Brain selected 7 Podcasts from different entertainment categories. There is a link to each and brief summary of the content.
Best Kid’s Podcasts
Storynory – Stories range from myths and fairy tales to mysteries and humor. There are literally 100’s to choose from.
Stories Podcast – A wide range of stories are told in dramatic readings including the classics like Peter Rabbit and original stories.
Story Pirates – This great podcast uses cool sound effects to enhance the stories being told by “first-rate actors and comedians.”
Old Time Radio Nostalgia – This podcast uses actors and techniques that recreate radio shows that were popular before the invention of television.
Brains On– This fantastic podcast focuses on science and discussing how things work. It delves into gastrointestinal distress – think smelly noisesJ – and how a GPS unit works.
Astronomy Cast – This podcasts explores the cosmos and everything in outer space.
Classics for Kids – This podcast introduces kids to classical music in an entertaining way. In addition to the music, information about the composers is presented in a fun way too.
Wrapping it up
Everyone’s listening skills can be better. Many people have selective hearing… tuning in only when they need or want something. (Dads and kids tend to be guilty of this.) Listening to podcasts is a wonderful way to enrich your child in literature, music and science AND practice listening skills. Make sure you discuss the podcast; just listening to them is not enough. As a family, begin with the Best Podcasts for Kids listed above. Once your family finds one they like, it won’t be long before they find podcasts they love.
Ask 100 schoolteachers what the number one skill their students need to work on is, and the likely answer: listening. A close second: following directions.
There are many theories as to why today’s students seem to have a harder time listening and following directions. Some blame too much screen time and not enough interaction with other humans. Some cite the break down of the modern family, hectic schedules and the disappearance of the family dinner.
Whatever the cause of the seemingly cotton-filled ears of students populating modern classrooms, there is a solution. Listening skills can be taught and practiced.
Engage the Brain curated some listening activities that parents can do with their kids. (Attribution is below each activity.) The activities are divided into two age groups: Elementary and Middle, though many high school students could benefit from some of these activities, too.
A key to engaging a child your in these activities is to have fun. Set these activities up as games. Challenge your child to improve his listening skills. Like any new skill, listening takes consistent practice over a period of time. Set a goal of practicing listening skills several times a week.
Without further ado… Here are the listening activities:
Elementary Age Children
1. Sticker directions
Materials: index card, colorful circle stickers, a pen
Give your child the following instructions:
1 Take the green sticker and put it in the top left corner.
2 Take the orange sticker and put it in the bottom right corner.
3 Take the pink sticker and put it in the center of the card.
4 Get your pencil out and put a smiley face in the pink sticker. The smiley face should have two eyes and a mouth.
The Handy School Counselor Blog
2. What letter am I?
Materials: paper, pen
Draw a 3 by 3 grid on a piece of paper. Place lower and upper case letters in the boxes. Create a set of set directions for you child to follow:
1. I am not a capital letter.
2. I am not the letter X or the letter V.
3. I am not a vowel.
4. I am in any row but the last row.
5. I come after the letter N in the alphabet.
| m | t | U |
| v | P | i |
| H | x | r |
3. Listen and Color
Materials: paper divided into boxes with various shapes drawn in each box. You can make the activity more challenging by adding more rows and more shapes.
Follow the directions and color.
1. Color the first diamond yellow.
2. Color the square red and green.
3. Color the first shape purple.
4. Draw a big blue dot in the middle of the third shape.
Middle School Age children
1. Listen and draw
Materials: white drawing paper, pencil or pen
Give these directions orally to your child. Tell your child that you will only be reading each step of the directions twice, so they need to pay close attention.
Step 1: Turn your paper horizontally. That means “landscape” or long ways.
Step 2: Draw a two-inch five-point star in the left hand corner. The top point and the left point should touch the edge of the paper.
Step 3: Now, move your pencil to the middle of the paper. Draw a one-inch square. Shade or color in the square.
Step 4 : On the bottom right hand corner of the paper, draw a two inch circle. Leave about a one-inch margin, which means to come over one inch on the edge of each side of the paper. Inside the circle, draw a happy face.
Step 5: For the last object, you are going to draw a two-inch equal lateral triangle. It goes in the top right hand corner. Leave a one-inch margin on both edges of the paper.
How does the picture look?
2. Origami
Materials: Origami paper, directions
Origami is a challenging activity when you can see the directions. Challenge your child to make a pelican from only your oral directions.
Origami Pelican
| 1. Start with your paper white side up. Fold in half, along the line shown, then open out again. | 2. Fold the outside corners into the center line and crease well. |
| 3. Fold the outside edges into the center once again.
| 4. Turn model over and fold bottom point up to the top point. Crease very well.
| 5. Fold in half.
| ||
| 6. Rotate model so it is now lying down. | 7. Raise the inside triangle upwards slowly, then flatten and crease well. | 8. Inside Reverse Fold the head along the crease shown. |
| 9. Fold each wing upward as shown, then fold it back again slightly. The pelican will now rest on its wings and sit up. |
3. Mystery Pictures
Materials: white drawing paper, pen or pen
Draw a picture using common shapes on a piece of paper; don’t let your child see your drawing. (Example below) Give your child a piece of paper and give her directions so she can try to replicate your picture on her paper. After you are done, compare the pictures.
Now switch! Let her draw a picture and give you the directions to try and recreate the picture on her paper.
How to draw funny cartoons
Wrapping it up
No doubt you have experienced a bout of selective listening with your child. It tends to kick in when a child is asked to start his homework, clean her room, or complete some other unnecessary task that distracts from fun and entertainment. (Editor’s note: Dad’s can suffer from this affliction too.)
The listening activities listed above are suggestions and starting points. With a little creativity these activities can be used many times with just slight tweaks. And the challenge level can be adjusted easily up or down too. With consistent practice in a fun atmosphere, a child can improve his listening skills. It will benefit him in school, life and career.
When you were a kid, what was your favorite toy? I had two: My Evil Knievil stunt wind up motorcycle and my tiger striped drum set. Like most boys who grew up in the 70’s, I wanted to jump over greyhound buses just like Evil Knievil, But after a few bad outcomes trying to launch myself over an overturned garbage can using a homemade ramp on my Schwinn Stingray, I decided my tiger striped drum set might be a better option.
Today, kids have so many options when it comes to choosing a toy. Fortunately and unfortunately, electronics has infiltrated the world of play. Fortunately because there are some awesome toys that integrate technology to combine learning and play in a seamless fashion. Unfortunately because some video games are so fun that kids don’t want to explore other options for play.
Why should you disconnect the video games and encourage your child to play with toys? Stevanne Auerbach, known as Dr. Toy says, “Play reduces stress, improves self-expression, supports emotional development, strengthens physical development and much more.” If somebody known as Dr. Toy says toys are good for kids, then I’m all in.
The Creativity Institute divides toys into four categories:
Toys for physical or muscle development such as wagons, bikes, boxes, puzzles, blocks, brooms, and shovels.
Toys for sensory (touch, sight, sound, taste, smell) development such as water toys, musical instruments, bubbles, play dough, and sand toys.
Toys for make-believe and social development such as dolls, dress-up clothes, cars, trucks, games, and books.
Toys for creative and intellectual development such as clay, crayons, paints, books, paper, and scissors.
The Child Development Institute says, “The best toys engage a child’s senses, spark their imaginations and encourage them to interact with others.” To that end, Engage the Brain has gathered a selection of toys for parents to consider purchasing for their child. Rather than link to specific toys with exact prices, we are going to offer categories for parents to contemplate buying.
Toys
Models – Good old-fashioned models build patience, direction following and fine motor skills. There are cars, planes, boats and buildings to name a few.
Science kit – Science kits are offered in a variety of age ranges. The best ones come with tools such as microscopes and activities and experiments that are well written and easily followed by the child.
Magic kit – Magic kits can provide a lifetime of play. These kits usually introduce kids to some of the secrets of magic such as sleight of hand and optical illusions. And who doesn’t love a good card trick?
Terrariums – These offer wonderful opportunities to learn about plant and flower growth. If you are an adventurous parent, you can introduce critters into the terrarium as well. Children learn about life cycles and nutrients that are necessary to sustain life.
Cooking kit – My daughter had an Easy Bake Oven; though there really wasn’t much baking going on. As technology has developed, cooking kits have become more sophisticated and offer real learning opportunities about the culinary arts.
Train set – Train sets can provide hours of entertainment. In addition to running the trains, a child can build models to add to his community. Changing the landscape by season can keep tour child interacting with the trains year round.
Legos – Legos have come a long way since the 1970’s! Simply put, visit any store – online or brick and mortar – and your child will find a wonderful toy that will provide hours of building and learning.
Wrapping it up
Toys provide learning opportunities and benefits that can last a lifetime. Think about your favorite toy from your childhood; I bet you remember it. Toys can act as a springboard to learning more about a topic. (My tiger striped drum set morphed into a full professional drum kit I play to this day). Together with your child decide what type of toy interests him and check out a few options. Then watch as your child’s imagination and creativity come to life.
David Karch (Learning Specialist with Engage the Brain)
Every parent has experienced that frightening moment when you bring your first child home from the hospital and realize there is no owner’s manual. There she sits, three days old, in the car seat on the kitchen table. Now what?
Some how you manage to make it through the first two years, and now you are confronted with the “Terrible Twos.” You want your kid to put on his sweatshirt because it is chilly outside. Your son doesn’t want to even wear a shirt. It is the beginning of the strive for independence in your child, and it NEVER LETS UP.
Fast-forward ten years and your child is in middle school. She brings home an “F” on a science test. You ask for an explanation and your daughter says, “It was a surprise test and everyone in the class failed. Mr. (fill in the name) is such a jerk. Nobody likes him.”
How you handle these two scenarios can help determine which type of parent you are: helicopter or free range. According to Wikipedia, Helicopter parents are overprotective and take an over excessive interest in their child’s life. Free Range parents encourage children to function independently in proper accordance of their age of development with a reasonable acceptance of realistic personal risks.
Courtesy New York Times learning blog
The idea of Free Range parenting came to attention when a mother in New York City allowed her then nine-year-old son to ride the subway unattended, then wrote about it in a book.
Like most things in life, striking a balance seems to be the best approach. At Engage the Brain we witness, on an almost daily basis, the results of the different approaches to parenting. Being the detached professionals that we are – we never have these issues with our children! – this is the advice we give to the parents in our practice:
Parental Advice:
Encourage your child to advocate for him or her self.
Allowing your child the opportunity to solve a problem first builds self-esteem and a sense that they can control the outcome of a situation.
Allow a child to fail
Always bailing your child out does not teach him responsibility. Many parents we talk to tell us that their child wants to be independent and not be “nagged” by mom and dad. You must allow your child to succeed OR fail on their own. Failure has a way of motivating a person to try harder the next time.
A planner is mandatory
Many of the children we work with struggle with Executive Functions issues. At the core of the issue is organization and time management. Parents report their child never turns in homework, forgets to bring home the right text book, didn’t know there was a test today, etc. REQUIRING your child to use some version of a planner is critical for sustained success. We wrote a blog, In Defense of a School Planner , which outlines all the reasons to use one.
Wrapping it up
In reality there are as many different types of parenting styles as there are parents. Whether you tend to hover like an action news helicopter covering a car chase or lay off like a free range animal enjoying your large expanse and mountain views, there is some common ground to meet on. Helping your child to gain independence is the goal. By encouraging your child to advocate for herself, requiring her to use a planner and when necessary allowing her to fail, you are providing her the tools she will need to live a happy and successful life.
David Karch (learning Specialist with Engage the Brain)
“A Penny saved is a penny earned” remarked Benjamin Franklin over 200 years ago. As smart as Ben Franklin was – the man discovered electricity! – even he could not have foreseen the average American amassing over $160,000 in debt. And according to NerdWallet, of that total, $15,355 is credit card debt.
The balance of the $160,000 is mortgage, automobile and student loans. That debt is the price of being a productive adult.
So, let’s focus on the credit card debt. Much research points out that money spending habits begin to form in children as early as elementary school and become entrenched by high school. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes and Watson to discover that money-forming habits are taken from the home. This means you, mom and dad. Put another way, monkey see monkey do.
I am not here to judge. If you and yours are bucking the consumer debt total up, that is your business. But wouldn’t it be nice to send your children out into the world armed with some basic money management skills? Like spend less than you make?
Engage the Brain researched 5 websites that teach money management skills in a fun way to kids. Check them out:
Practical Money Skills – This website offers money advice for kids, parents and teachers. There is a great game section where the site has partnered with the NFL and FIFA that teaches money skills to kids while they play a computerized football or futbol game.
Rich Kid Smart Kid – This website is loaded with games to teach kids about the value of money. There is a page for a parent with lesson plans to help extend the learning beyond the video games on the site.
Change Maker – This fun game for elementary age kids is found on the funbrain website. The game practices making change for a certain amount of money. It offers escalating levels of difficulty by making change for totals less than a dollar, under $5.00 and under $100. Players earn money in their piggy banks for correct answers. The game even allows for different countries currencies – Canada, Mexico and England.
biz kids – The slogan on this site is “no homework, no school, just games.” The games are appropriate for upper elementary school and middle schools age kids. These games are more about financial strategy and running a virtual business. Kids learn what owning a business entails.
Citi Group – Citi Group has a section on its website devoted to teaching children about financial literacy. There are interactive games for elementary age students and middle/ high school age students. Each game has printable resources for parents to extend the learning beyond the computer screen.
Wrapping it up
Spending habits are formed early in life. Like all habits, good ones are as hard to break as bad ones. Help your child form good financial habits early in life. By introducing financial terms and sound money management fundamentals, you will help your child successfully navigate his way through the difficult world of debt and savings.
David Karch (Learning Specialist with Engage the Brain)
For many of us, January signals an opportunity to start over, resolve to do things differently or hopefully better. And for parents, many of our resolutions involve our children.
How can we better help our kids achieve success and perform to the best of their ability?
One thing we hear about from parents at Engage the Brain is the lack of enrichment opportunities at their children’s schools. Whether programs have been scaled back to better prepare for high stakes tests, or school budgets have squeezed enrichment activities out of the school day. The bottom line is that quality enrichment programs are now left to parents.
The good news is we live in Central Florida, and we have an abundance of indoor and outdoor cultural activities available 12 months a year. You just have to know where to look.
Engage the Brain has done the heavy lifting for you. (You are welcome:-) Below is a list of 10 wonderful activities and programs you can explore with your child, each with a link to more information.
Central Florida Enrichment Activities
Blue Spring Park in January is home to the manatees. Located about 45 minutes east of Orlando in Orange City, the park is a temporary retreat for manatees that enjoy the warm springs water. There are great observation decks and a restaurant that features pancakes.
Go ice-skating at the RDV Sportsplex in Maitland. It’s great exercise and will give “transplant” parents from up north a chance to relive their skating days when they were a kid.
The Orlando History Center is located right in downtown Orlando. Exhibits include Destination Florida detailing 100 years of tourism before Disney; First People describing Native American life pre-European Florida; and an Aviation exhibit which includes a replica WW11 bomber.
Orange County Public Library has many wonderful programs for kids. Programs include kidsconnect that connects you to everything in the library for children; tweens prescribes activities for kids that are “too old for kids stuff and too young for teen stuff,” and Informed Teens, which details activities about gaming events and book clubs.
Take in a play at the Orlando Repertory Theater located in downtown Orlando in Loch Haven Park. If your child is interested in acting, the theater offers classes, camps and workshops.
The Mennello Museum of American Art is located across the street from the Orlando Rep Theater in Loch Haven Park. Every second Sunday of each month offers free admission to the galleries, mini-tours and the opportunity for your child to make a craft.
The Home Depot offers free woodworking programs on the first Saturday of each month. Knowledgeable Home Depot staff provides all the materials, tools and expert advice.
Engineering for Kids is an after school program that teaches STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math lessons. The programs are conducted in local schools. Check the website for participating schools and details about the classes.
Stand Up Paddleboarding has grown in popularity over the past year or two. Paddleboard Orlando offers a great beginner rental package that tours the Winter Park Chain of Lakes. And with Florida’s temperate winters, January is good time to try it out. If you get hooked, they sell boards and equipment too!
Is your child a budding musician? If so, School of Rock in Oviedo may be a great after school program for your kid. Musicians are placed in a band with peers of like ability. Through the guidance of working musicians, the band practices and eventually plays at a concert for family and friends.
Wrapping it up
Enrichment activities present opportunities for children to learn more about the world around them. In Central Florida, we are fortunate to have array of family-friendly activities available year round. Brainstorm with your child a list of her interests, then pick one of the links above and begin exploring. Who knows… while enriching your child, you may end up enriching and tightening your family bond.
David Karch (Learning Specialist at Engage the Brain)
Some parents are lucky. Their children are born with no complications; are potty trained by 18 months; speaking in sentences by two years old; and head off to kindergarten at five years old and never look back. Ivy League schools, here we come.
Then there are the rest of us parents… We hit bumps in the road with our children. Thank goodness for community colleges. (Joke)
Perhaps there is a language delay. Or your child just can’t seem to stay seated on a chair. It’s as if the earth’s tectonic plates always shift under your child’s chair. Or meltdowns seem more frequent and intense than other people’s kids. Perhaps your child’s backpack looks like a cross between a garbage can and recycling bin.
After exasperation and complete denial you were ever like this (ahem), what is a parent to do?
Ask for help.
There are an abundance of services and networks of professionals available whom are trained and ready to help your child. Engage the Brain has developed a glossary of the most popular education services and a brief description of what each provides.
Glossary of Education Services
Speech and Language Pathologist
A specialist who evaluates and treats patients with speech, language, and cognitive-communication issues. Speech and sound production; articulation; fluency – think stuttering; language development – comprehension and expression; even feeding and swallowing issues
Occupational Therapy
The primary goal of occupational therapy is to enable people to participate in the activities of everyday life. Occupational therapy can help improve motor, cognitive, sensory processing, communication, and play skills.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapists (PTs) are highly-educated, licensed health care professionals who can help patients reduce pain and improve or restore mobility – in many cases without expensive surgery and often reducing the need for long-term use of prescription medications and their side effects. PTs use exercises and special equipment to help patients achieve mobility.
Counseling
Counselors work with students on many different topics. Some use talk therapy or play therapy to assist a child in identifying problems and developing strategies to work through them. Other counselors specialize in working with high school age students and assist them with career and or college decisions.
Social Skills
Some children have a hard time in social situations. Whether it is in the classroom or at Boy Scouts, some children need explicit directions on how to negotiate a social situation: taking turns, winning and losing gracefully, teasing and being teased. There are professionals who specialize in developing these critical life skills.
Academic Tutoring
When school becomes challenging for your child, it may be time to consider an academic learning specialist. Learning specialists can assess your child to help you understand what your child knows, and just as important, where there may be some holes in her learning that are causing the learning challenges. Learning specialists then form a plan to help your child develop the skills needed to successfully navigate all her schoolwork.
Wrapping it Up
It Takes a Village is a real axiom when it comes to raising children. Inevitably a parent will need to enlist the help of a professional when a child hits a bump – however big or small. Understanding there IS help available is critical for parents and knowing some of the educational services professionals provide can help you determine who to contact.
Engage the Brain works with many wonderful education professionals who provide an array of services. We would be happy to speak to you and help point you in the best direction for your child.
David Karch (Engage the Brain Learning Specialist)
People have been making New Year’s resolutions for thousands of years. It started with the Babylonians, who made promises to their gods at the start of each year that they would return borrowed objects and pay their debts.The Romans began each year by making promises to the god Janus, for whom the month of January is named.
Now a day, most of us try to come up with a few juicy resolutions: I will eat healthier; I will go to the gym; I will start my novel.
And by January 31, many of us have either not started on our resolutions or have given up on them.
How can you make this year different?
Experts agree that in order to achieve a goal two factors must be present. First, write down the goal and keep it in a visible location. And second, tell someone. All the research agrees that by telling someone you are going to do something, you are more likely to accomplish it.
Now that you know the secret to setting and attaining goals, it’s time to bring your kids in on the fun. Late December/early January is the perfect time for the entire family to start a tradition of making New Year’s resolutions. Here’s how you begin:
Gather the family and discuss some possible family resolutions. Some examples are: play board games two times a month; unplug the phones for one hour each night; volunteer one time per month.
Once the family has agreed on one or two family resolutions, it is time to select individual resolutions. Parents ought to act as role models to demonstrate how to choose a resolution. Think about what worked this past year and what areas you would like to improve upon. Literally talk out loud so your child can hear you brainstorm as you reflect on this past year.
Ask your child to come up with two or three resolutions. You can suggest resolutions, but do not dictate. Some suggestions for kids are: keep bedroom clean; read more; help clear the table; walk the dog. Encourage your child to make SMART resolutions: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time specific. Rather than reading more, your child will read for 15 minutes 4 days a week.
Once your child has selected his resolutions, have her write them down and place them in a prominent location such as on the refrigerator in the kitchen. Each month revisit the resolutions to check on progress. Celebrate successes! If your child is having trouble reaching a resolution, brainstorm with your child on how to better achieve success. Help your child break the goal down into smaller, more manageable steps.
Wrapping it Up
New Year’s is a wonderful time to start over. Engage your child in the ritual of making New Year’s resolutions. Though it may not be a stated resolution, your family may end up bonding during this time of renewal and wind up closer while individually and collectively improving your lives.
David Karch (Engage the Brain Learning Specialist)
The holidays are here, and so is some time off from school. Those first few days are great for everyone. No rushing the kids out of the house at the crack of dawn. No lunches to make or schedules to remember. Peace has descended upon the household.
But, then the bickering starts. First, it’s just a murmur. Then it grows till it’s a full on frenzy. The kids are bored! Ugh!
Don’t fret. There is still time to salvage a peaceful holiday break. The trick? Or in today’s hip language, the hack? Occupying the kids with meaningful holiday activities. Engage the Brain curated the following activities from our family experiences and borrowed a few from the Internet.
Enjoy!
Make a silly holiday photo/card
Just about everyone owns a smartphone with a camera. Gather the family and encourage each person to dress up in their silliest holiday clothes. Think ugly sweaters, silly hats, etc. Add in a few props like stuffed Santa’s, reindeer, etc. Let the photo shoot begin. The kids will love the goofiness of the adults during the photo shoot session.
Research the best hot chocolate recipes… then try them out
Want to sneak in some reading and math over the break? Encourage the kids to go online and research the best hot chocolate recipes. Some call for more expensive chocolate and exotic ingredients. You may want to put a price limit on the total cost; this only adds to the math! Decide which recipes look the best and which one(s) you want to make. Help your kids to read the recipe to determine how much one batch will make. Do you need to double or triple the recipe for each person to get a mug full?
Edible gingerbread houses
Making edible gingerbread houses is always a fun activity. While at the market gather a box or two of graham crackers, a tin or two of vanilla icing, a bag of gum drops, and a mixture of other hard candies. Lie out all the supplies on the kitchen table and give each child a paper plate on which to build his or her house. The graham crackers act as the sides and roof of the house. The vanilla icing serves as the “glue” to keep the house together. The gumdrops and candies are for decorations. Encourage our kids to be creative in their house designs.
Indoor snowball fight
Do the kids need to get some energy out, or do you need to get some aggression out? Stage an indoor snowball fight. Send your kids to their rooms to gather up their white socks. To make a snowball, simply turn one sock inside out and roll it into a ball. Next, make some ground rules. Suggestions include no throwing at some one’s face, no throwing at breakable objects, and no teaming up. Once the ground rules are agreed upon, let the mayhem, um fun, begin.
Ask older family members to share holiday stories
When your family gathers around for the holidays, especially if your extended family gathers, ask older members of the family to share stories about the holidays from their childhood. There could be people around the table born 50, 60, 70 or even 80 years apart. Think about the difference of the world in the 1930’s till today. Not only will your children benefit from such stories, you will no doubt learn something new about your family too.
Wrapping it up
Keeping kids busy is always tricky during the holidays. It can be tempting to shuttle the little ones in front of the television or computer and let them silently pass the time. But with a little preparation, you can balance your sanity and provide entertaining activities for the kids. Once a day over the break, pick one of these activities and enjoy some bonding time with your kids. You might end up making some lasting holiday memories.
Happy Holidays!
Engage the Brain Learning Specialist David Karch
Last month we wrote a blog entry about Getting Boys to Read. One of the precipitators to writing that article was a conversation with a parent who felt her son’s lack of pleasure reading had limited his vocabulary development.
That got me thinking. Are there other ways to develop children’s vocabularies even if a child is not a voracious reader? While there is no substitute for reading, it turns out storytelling is a powerful tool that parents and educators can use to enhance a child’s brain development.
In fact, many studies have shown that children build vocabulary, use more complex sentences, and improve comprehension when frequently exposed to stories. The educational researchers Strickland and Morrow say “much of the language children learn reflects the language and behavior of the adult models they interact with and listen to.”
How can we put this research into practice? How about at the dinner table? With the holidays rapidly approaching and the kids out of school for a week or two, this is the perfect opportunity to try some storytelling in your home.
At Engage the Brain, we are parents too. We get what a school year schedule looks like: kids playing sports, clubs, school bands and don’t forget friends. Sitting down to eat dinner, as a family, is a rare occasion. But maybe over the holidays, everybody’s schedule will slow just enough to allow some family meals.
Rather than idly staring at each other making small talk, Mom or Dad, share a story with the family. The tale could be something about your day at work, a family memory, or a scene when you were a child.
If you are not comfortable telling a story, research one ahead of time. Perhaps you could print an interesting article and bring it to the table. Or, you could share a passage from a book you are currently reading. The key to the event is to make the story interesting and ensure it includes challenging vocabulary words. Your child will have a natural curiosity to see where you are going with the story.
Use the inflection in your voice to help your child key into important parts of the story. Drop hints to help your child determine the meaning of unfamiliar words by using context clues. Make it fun, and if you are so inclined, kids love sound effects. Spark your child’s imagination.
In her book Developing Literacy Skills Through Storytelling, Linda Frederic says, “Researchers who study brain and behavioral development have identified imagination, not only as the essence of creativity, but as the basis for all higher order thinking. With imagination, with the ability to understand symbols, create solutions, and find meaning in ideas, young people are more capable of mastering language, writing, mathematics, and other teachings that are grounded in the use of symbols.”
Are you sold?
Wrapping it Up
Storytelling is a fun way to engage the family in a language development activity. Not all kids are natural readers that like to curl up with a book. By sharing fun family stories, reading aloud from favorite books, or even grabbing something of interest off the Internet, children can develop an impressive vocabulary. Go ahead… Give it a try over the holiday break.