Cultivated Lives | Heather Haupt

InCognito Testing: A Homeschool Mom’s Secret Weapon

2013-05-16T14:45:34Z

As sunshine streamed in windows, last week found us sprawled out on the carpet, noses stuck in a {text}book. I’m not much for text books, preferring living books. But this semester we branch out. We’ve coupled supplemental reading from Apologia’s Astronomy book with our KONOS activities.

We read with wonder about comets, asteroids and meteors. We try to grasp the speed, the distance, the orbits. This wondering leads us to get up, move and create. Inspired by our Orderliness Unit, we set out to make a comet. Boys pepper me with questions, Can they launch it? How big will it be? How will we make it steam?

I wonder along with them as we pull out crushed ice and place it in our zip lock bag. We continue to think out loud as we search for the perfect rock for the center of our comet. Thoughts are forgotten momentarily as fistfuls of sand get tossed at the bag of ice and rock and our comet gets stored in the freezer to re-freeze together into a nice sized ball.

Questions surface again. Where will the smoke be? They are fixated with smoke and don’t understand that this ‘smoke’ and ice are really the same thing. I try to explain and falter. Isn’t this the way it is sometimes? Finding ways to help young one’s understand abstract concepts isn’t easy. I see a glimmer of understanding in my 6.5 year old, but the youngest is still confused. Explanations just aren’t cutting it. As our comet forms, we pull out more ice and head to the stove so they can SEE that ice, water and steam are all the same. This wasn’t on the lesson plans. It was just the natural progression of talking and discovery. It inevitably leads to more questions.

Boys pull stools up to the stove and watch in awe as the pan full of ice cubes turns to a pan with water. They play with the lid and capture steam only to find water droplets again… They see with their eyes the transformation from solid to liquid to gas until the pan is empty. And they get it.

Now it is TEST TIME!

Our comet is formed so we head outside. We play around with dryer lint representing the steam. They show me what direction the tail of the comet extends (always away from the sun), they walk out thin elliptical orbits around our ‘sun’. And then grab the globe and contrast that with planetary orbits. They excitedly point out the ice, rock and sand.

I ask them more questions and we continue to discuss what they have learned. It is ‘test time’ and they don’t even realize it.

I test them again, over the weekend as we read about the recent meteor in Russia…

Oh the power of dialogue and giving them opportunity to share what they are learning with others!

The final will come later when they will get the opportunity to explain what they’ve learned with Dad or maybe with a grandparent. This is far more effective than any fill-in-the-blank test and yet mostly painless too. {That is unless, they can’t explain anything at which point, I have to swallow MY frustration and go back to reviewing and discussing what we’ve learned until they grasp it.}

And tomorrow we get to explore some more.

InCognito Testing: A Homeschool Mom’s Secret Weapon is a post from: Cultivated Lives | Heather Haupt

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10 Boy Toys that Ignite the Imagination

2013-05-14T15:45:27Z

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The imagination is such a powerful tool. A child at play is a beauty to behold. What looks like mere child’s play is actually learning at work. Because imaginative play is so important, I love to select toys that encourage this kind of play, this solidification of learning… So today, I want to share with you 10 toys that my boys have loved and have encouraged their imaginative play. I selected these toys because they are typically used in open-ended ways which make the possibilities in playtime simply endless.

1. Play Silks ~ I’ve written about these beauties so many times. They are the ultimate open-ended, imaginative play inspiring toy in my opinion. If we had to up and move and could take only one toy, these would be it!

2. Cowboy Boots ~ With three boys in the house, our cowboy boots have been well used and not just for cowboy play. A good pair of boots can ‘make’ just about any costume – soldier (every era), farmer, explorer, etc… With luck, you might find a pair at a thrift store. We’ve completely worn out our smallest pair which went through nearly daily use for each of our boys. They make a great birthday or Christmas gift, so even if you can’t thrift a pair, I think they are well worth the price to add them to the pretend play arsenal! They also look nice for regular wear too.

3. Costume Jackets ~ We are huge fans of costumes over here. I hit the jackpot a few years ago when I found two Captain Hook costumes at our homeschool support group clothing exchange. These red jackets get worn at least weekly and came in handy when we were studying the Revolutionary War last year. Patrick Henry made his favorite speech in this jacket and there were many a battle between the patriots and the redcoats… Again, I check thrift stores and keep an eye out during the fall for sales on costumes that I think would make a good addition to our costume bins. It doesn’t even have to be something complicated. One of my Oma’s old cardigans and a police shirt stand in for patriot coats!

4. Hats, Hats, Hats! Hats go a long way to light up the imagination. I’ve found that my boys will get quite creative and use hats for a variety of different imaginative play situations and have grown to think of hats as so critical that they’ll make up their own in a pinch. We own two different kinds of Tri-corner colonial hats the fancy one I just linked to and an ordinary ‘work-horse’ one here that has been stomped on and get used for Revolutionary War era play and pirate play. Cowboys hats are worn frequently. The Newsboy cap I found when Xander was in the Cheaper by the Dozen play has seen a lot of use too! Again, thrift stores are a great place to find hats and occasionally I’ve found some good ones at Oriental Trading Company.

5. Stick Horses ~ These wood stick horses are played with every day because everyone needs a horse, right? We had fabric ones before that the boys wore out. A few years ago, my parents bought the boys each one of these wooden ones. I was initially a little worried about them possibly being used as a weapon against each other, but they’ve all had a decent amount of respect for their ‘horses’ and each other and haven’t hurt anyone.

6. Swords, Guns and Arrows oh My… For some reason, I had an idea that I was going to limit weapons in my home. When my oldest was merely two years old, he caught a glimpse of an old b&w World War 1 movie that my Opa was watching. Just a quick glimpse resulted in him converting his powder blue teddy into a machine gun… I quickly realized that even if I didn’t supply them with toy weapons, they would make them one way or another. We’ve allowed toy weapons and have talked about chivalry, proper use of toys and such… We are constantly picking up foam swords from the Target $ bins when I see them and this plastic armor set has been used when learning about the middle ages, as Roman soldiers when acting out Bible stories and put to use when we were learning about spiritual armor. Duct Tape and hot glue are our very best friends in elongating the life of these beloved toys. I was a little surprised to see the poor reviews on these pop guns that we own. We got a screamin’ deal on then one year and bought one for each boy in our family. We’ve loved ours and again, they are simple and open-ended enough that they get used in all kinds of settings. And of course our bow & {suction-cup} arrow sets have been used until they fall apart too! This company has great customer service and has sent out replacement arrows when the boys have broken theirs.

7. X-Drum ~ Now this is a toy that surprised me. A few years ago, the boys received a rhythm kit that contained this drum. They enjoyed making music, but the design of this drum has lent itself to countless open-ended play uses. The boys love to slip a playsilk or belt through the handles and strap it to their waist. They’ve played marching band many a time after seeing The Music Man. They’ve also used it to be drummer boys going into battle and have used it as a Viking and knight shield.

8. Colored Wood Stacking Bowls. I love Waldorf-inspired wood toys and these gorgeous bowls top the list. My babies and toddlers love to stack them and find hidden ‘treasures’ that we’ll place under some of them. My preschoolers have played lots of sorting games and they have come in handy as my boys have played all kinds of imaginary games – including ‘house’. For all of their macho, rough and tumble tendencies, they also love family and play ‘house’ with surprising frequency. If bright primary color aren’t quite your thing they come in natural stain, cool or warm colors.

9. PVC Pipes. These aren’t necessarily toys and I’m not even sure how we acquired them, but we have a couple of PVC pipes of varying lengths and diameter. The boys LOVE these and use them for spears, cannons, a looking glass and a telescope! If you don’t have any, you could try the dumpster at a construction site or buy a piece at Lowe’s.

10. Wood Blocks. And finally wood blocks! They enrich all kinds of pretend playtime! We love our basic big blocks and our citi-blocs.

These are the primary creativity, imagination boosting toys we love over here.

What delights your children and fosters their imagination?

I’m linking up with the ladies from the iHomeschool Network for 10 Weeks of Top 10 lists as well as Angie from Many Little Blessings.

10 Boy Toys that Ignite the Imagination is a post from: Cultivated Lives | Heather Haupt

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Is it Possible to Fly Screen-Free???

2013-05-09T16:41:49Z

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Last Thursday morning found my four children, hubby and I packed and toting bags through Sky Harbor Airport – Florida bound for my sister-in-laws wedding. Snaking our way through the line at security, I was feeling good. Why? Because I’m a pro at this whole flight thing… Ok, maybe I’m a little bit nervous this time around. It was Screen-Free week and for the first time since my kids were old enough to be interested in screens we were going the old-fashioned route and flying screen free. I severely limit screen-time for our children. But I groaned inwardly after agreeing to this screen-free challenge when I realized that I’d have to take 4 children into a metal tube in the sky without a visual sedative, aka portable DVD player.

Thankfully, I’m one who relishes a challenge and if generations before me could do this, so could we. I packed well: books, our Lyra Ferby pencils {yes, we are a bit obsessed with them}, a car cozy {packed with matchbox cars}, wikki sticks and a huge ball of freshly made peppermint scented playdough. We were set.

A twinge of panic set in as a TSA agent told us he needed to confiscate the playdough. Noooooooooo, not my beautiful playdough. No hands but mine had yet touched it. Anticipation was high since we hadn’t made playdough in nearly a year… The TSA agent must have seen Rich and I exchange desperate glances or overheard us mumble something about this being our kids activity on the airplane… Poor guy was pretty mortified to claim a kids toy in the name of national security, but there was no way around it. Apparently any ‘form-able substance’ is now forbidden. It is a sad day and age.

The flight out went well. Thankfully the boys are older now and quite used to having to entertain themselves without the aid of screens. They played, snacked, colored and read. The 19 month old… Well, there is no easy way to fly with a child this age. A new sippy cup with a straw helped occupy attention as well as lots of laps up and down the aisle as she flirted with other passengers.

But can anything in life be truly screen-free?

When I first participated in ‘screen-free week’ several years ago, it was so easy to limit access to ALL screens. But now, unless you want to stay in your home for an entire week, it is impossible to go completely screen-free. And the OCD personality inside of me so likes tidy, exact following of the law. You can’t walk into a grocery store, doctor’s office, the airport or a hotel lobby without finding a TV screen broadcasting something back at you. Our flight out even had screens built into the headrest of the seat in front of us, so even while I turned our screens off, I found the boys craning their necks to glimpse what people were watching in the row in front of us.

As I snapped pictures at the wedding, I realized how mesmerized the boys were with the weather channel updates in the hotel lobby… Thankfully, I’ve learned to relax and obey the spirit of the law {limiting our intentional use of screens} and not fretting about inadvertent exposure. For those that know me and how black and white my thinking can be, you can say, “finally.”

So what did we do in our room with that nice big, blank flat panel TV staring at us? Pillow fights and wrestling…

So it is back to normal desert living. We’re feeling refreshed after our screen-free week and quick weekend trip to Florida.

p.s. If we thought we had trouble with the TSA on the way out, it was nothing compared to the way back. Since I had Greta in the Ergo, they always test my hands {for explosive material, I guess}. I’m not quite sure why wearing a baby automatically leads to that, but it is done every time. In this tiny Florida airport however, I set off alarms and had to undergo a full body pat down and piece by piece detailed search of my luggage. Memorable for sure. Something I hope to never repeat.

Is it Possible to Fly Screen-Free??? is a post from: Cultivated Lives | Heather Haupt

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10 Things Homeschooling Has Taught Me …about Myself

2013-05-15T12:45:50Z

It is amazing what a difference there is between knowing about something and the knowledge that comes from experience.

I remember rubbing my belly fondly when I was pregnant with my first and confidently telling someone that I was so well-prepared for parenthood because I had babysat so much… And then once the 24-7 care of a little person who I would give my very life for arrived, the enormity of the responsibility hit and I realized how little I really did know about this whole parenthood thing.

Well, I’ve found the same to be true with homeschooling. Since I’ve been involved with the homeschool community for 27 years now {Yikes, that makes me feel old} I’ve come to realize that while I knew a lot about homeschooling and was an expert on what it was like from the student end of things, there was still so much to learn as I transitioned into the parenting end of the homeschool spectrum. Here are 10 things that I’ve learned about myself so far…

1. I’m not as patient as I thought I would be…

Before I had kids, I thought I was VERY patient. I remember thinking about my mom’s lack of patience from time to time and vowing that I would be different. And then reality set in. After my 3rd child was born I really came face to face with the fact that children have a way of revealing lurking impatience. I’m not as ‘perfectly patient’ as I first thought. Thankfully, homeschooling has given me ample opportunity to grow in this area.

2. Homeschooling provides character lessons for me too.

Parenting in and of itself is character building. Homeschooling merely amplifies this and provides ~~daily~~ hourly opportunity to practice what I teach. The Holy Spirit is always quick to convict me as I carefully train my children and work on their character development. Lessons for them, become lessons for me. My children recognize my character flaws and sometimes point them out which gives further opportunity to practice humility… Growth isn’t always comfortable, but it sure is good.

3. I’ve found it easier than I thought.

My parents always delighted in learning alongside us. The power of dialogue and pursuing topics together has become a natural, everyday occurrence around here. As we’ve encouraged and cultivated curiosity it is amazing to see how easily we’ve slipped into ‘real-life’ learning as family. It’s as simple as asking/encouraging questions, pursuing answers and sharing our discoveries with each other.

4. I’ve found it harder than I thought.

When you are on the child end of things, you never recognize the amount of work and dedication that mothers put into raising and educating their children. I was no exception. I learned that homeschooling isn’t always effortless and easy. It takes discipline and a lot of hard work. Once again, I imagined myself far more disciplined than reality revealed. I’ve had to focus, close down distractions and set about the time-consuming work of prayerfully considering how to best teach my children and then actually do it.

5. I’m still ‘cookie-cutter’ prone.
One of the perks of homeschooling is that you get to escape the one-size-fits-all, cookie cutter mold that traditional school most often provide. I’ve waxed eloquent on this for years. But through parenting in general and homeschooling specifically, I’ve discovered that I’m still tempted to lump all of my children into the same mold. Sometimes I hold tightly to something because it worked for me growing up. Sometimes, I have to remind myself that while the first two may have had a similar developmental trajectory, the third boy is altogether different. I’m thankful for the daily reminders that each of my children are unique.

6. I need to set goals.

I’ve confirmed two things in recent years. 1) I’m easily distracted. 2) I need to set goals to keep me on track. I use my ‘semester goal-setting sheet‘ to write down academic, character building, spiritual and physical goals that I have for each of my children. I can’t major on everything at one time, so it has been helpful for me to focus on a few things for each child, each semester and use that as a benchmark to stay on track.

7. I desperately need to rely on the Holy Spirit.

Speaking of unique personalities and learning styles, patience, personal character growth needs, distraction and the need for discipline, I’ve learned how necessary it is to seek the Holy Spirit for specific direction in everything I do in life and specifically when it relates to how we raise and educate our children. God cares about the nitty-gritty details of our lives and wants to provide direction and provision. I simply need to ask and listen.

8. I’m stronger than I imagined.

While homeschooling has revealed many of my flaws, it has also showcased how the Holy Spirit is at work. I’ve discovered that I am far stronger than I imagined. You’ll regularly find me muttering under my breath…

If at first you don’t succeed… try, try again. Lord, please help!

And then tackling the challenge at hand.

9. I’ve learned more than I imagined.

I’ve heard many a homeschool mom talk about how much they learned during their homeschool years. I can now testify to how true this is personally and tell you that it is exhilarating. True education never ends and for the homeschool mom it goes into hyper-drive!

10. I’m amazed by the rewards.

While I always knew I wanted to homeschool, I’m continually amazed at how rewarding it can be. I love to take middle of the day bike rides with the kids and watch the string of bikes ahead of me and listen to the giggling girl right behind me. I marvel that I get to spend each day with them, learning along side them, training them and preparing to launch them into all that God has for them. I rejoice at the glimpses of fruit in our lives as we travel the challenging paths of learning and living together 24/7. I’m amazed and excited to see what else God has in store for us.

What have you learned about yourself

on this journey of motherhood or homeschooling?

I’m participating with iHomeschool Networks 10 in 10. Be sure to check out what others have learned through their homeschool journeys!

10 Things Homeschooling Has Taught Me …about Myself is a post from: Cultivated Lives | Heather Haupt

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Screen-Free Bliss! See you in a week…

2013-04-27T15:50:38Z

Well, after all of my big talk about limiting screen-time, I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited to go screen-free myself. I’m not used to the every-day blogging like I did for this last series and my poor brain is feeling pretty fried. Ironic, isn’t it? So as I mentioned 2 weeks ago, next week is national “Screen-Free Week” and we are participating!

I also want to avert any more of this… My 5 year old decided to color on baseball catcher leg guards one day this week when I was putting last minute touches on a post. A clear reminder why I must blog when my kids are sleeping.

Plus, I’ll have plenty of time to READ!!! I’m looking forward to Kevin DeYoung’s, The Hole in our Holiness. Are you reading anything interesting right now? I’m always looking for interesting books.

We are also going to dive into more books from our Heritage History collection. Remember when I wrote about them? I read a book about the adventures of Captain Cook on my own. It was fun spending an evening going back and forth between the book and my globe as I tracked his progress across the Pacific. I think I’m going to select Heroes of Progress from the Early American CD for my next fun read! The boys are excited to dive into Stories of Robin Hood for our next read aloud! By the way, they are having a great sale right now if you want to take advantage of it.

Also on my MUST DO list: Capitalizing on the last of our spring weather to get outside and enjoy the last vestiges of our desert spring before we hit the 100′s…

On a recent trip to the Blythe area to speak to a homeschool group, some friends took us off-roading and we found these incredible petroglyphs. I’m thinking we need to go find some closer to home now!

Ok, signing off. See you on the other side!

{This post contains affiliate links. I truly appreciate your support of this site. Please see my disclosure for more information.}

Screen-Free Bliss! See you in a week… is a post from: Cultivated Lives | Heather Haupt

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How To Turn Passive Learning Into Active Learning

2013-04-26T17:03:45Z

Whew! We made it to day 10 of this series on Boosting Brain Power. Are you still with me??? We careened through some of the basic necessities for brain boosting: water/nutrition, sleep and exercise. Then we explored the magic of movement and why multi-sensory learning is so vital. I shared how important music and active, rough and tumble play is and how harmful too much screen-time can be. You stuck with me though that one and then went crazy over the Brain Breaks that I shared.

One of the benefits of homeschooling is that we don’t have to stick to the traditional school model of learning. We have the flexibility to break free from the school mold and embrace a home where we learn. We can embrace this kind of multi-sensory, experience rich environment. A few years ago I wrote about experiential learning and the famous research by Edgar Dale showing the rates of retention with various types of learning. Here’s how it breaks down.

The more involved a child becomes with the process, the more they learn. We want to embrace an active approach. So for this last day in my 10 day series, I’m going to share with you 5 ways to convert passive learning into active learning…

Standing Instead of Sitting ~ Remember how I wrote about the importance of movement. Look for opportunities to learn ‘standing up’. You could take your kids for a walk and review what you learned that day. I know for me as a girl growing up, I needed to march around the kitchen table reciting my multiplication tables. 2×2 is 4, 2×3 is 6, and so on… Getting my body moving enabled my muscle memory to kick in and remember those previously allusive facts. I’ve taken to this same technique with Xander recently and it works!
Talking vs. Merely Watching ~ We want to encourage our children to ‘be the teacher’ and explain what they’ve learned to you, their little sister, dad when he gets home, a grandparent via Skype or in a co-op situation. Encourage a home where dialogue is valued. It keeps the brain engaged and fosters critical thinking. If your child starts to get squirrelly, have them stand up and give a ‘speech.’
Writing in Addition to Reading ~ Taking notes and encouraging our children to extract meaning from what they are reading about helps make meaningful and lasting connections in the brain. The information will stick so much more than if they had merely listened to or read material. Teach your children to take notes!
Project-Based Approach ~ Give them a problem to solve and encourage collaboration either with you, a sibling or a homeschool friend. This activates critical thinking and movement helps solidify and bring to fruition the ‘information’ that your child has acquired. The possibilities are numerous. One of my favorite projects was when my sister and I pulled together an Egyptian feast for our girlfriends. We planned the menu, the décor (trying to make it feel as authentic as possible), a skit and other aspects. It was a great culmination of our semester long study of ancient Egypt. Another example is beautifully depicted in the movie, Dolphin Tale. Did you see it last year when it came out? I love how the boy goes from being uninterested in just about everything to becoming fascinated with helping to rehabilitate the dolphin. This pursuit had so many educational benefits and most importantly woke up his God-given desire to know, understand and learn about the world around him! Cindy is doing a great 10 day series on Project-Based Learning and I’m intrigued to read this book on Project Based Homeschooling…
Imaginative Play ~ This is the apex of learning and an area where homeschooling gives an edge! Instead of wasting time standing in line, going from class to class or waiting for the next assignment to be handed out, we can give our children time to PLAY. Play incorporates movement, emotion and information as they use their imaginations to act upon what they’ve learned! It’s so important, I’ve written about how it affects creativity, how to maximize open-ended play, how it lays a foundation for deep understanding. It’s important, so make time for it!

I hope you have found this helpful. It is inspiring to see how simple it can be to embrace a natural life-style of learning and promote brain boosting opportunities at the same time!

How To Turn Passive Learning Into Active Learning is a post from: Cultivated Lives | Heather Haupt

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Engaging the Senses Boosts Brain Power

2013-04-25T20:03:47Z

Oh I had so much fun sharing about our ‘Brain Breaks’ a few days ago and it’s been wonderful to hear how helpful these ideas have been to you all! While there are certainly times in our day where we need to get some seat work done, I love incorporating a multi-sensory, hands-on component to most of our learning so that the brain boosting benefits are built into the learning process.

Why Multi-Sensory Learning Works!

If we want to optimize learning, we need to involve the senses – hearing, sight, touch, even smell and taste. The more we diversify sensory input, the greater the impact on learning because we are diversifying connections in the brain.

For instance, if we are learning about George Washington, it helps to not just have me tell them about him, but to read engaging ‘living books’ about him and to inspect pictorial representations. If we want to strengthen the learning impact, dressing up and getting our bodies involved by dramatizing the crossing of the Delaware or making his favorite breakfast will not only increase the connection points in their mind, but solidify it into long-term memory.

Or if you are studying geography, it is helpful to not only look at a map, but to draw your own, to get your whole body involved in exploring continents. The memory my boys have of playing with ice cubes and penguin figurines is etched into their memory. Anytime they get really cold {you have to understand, we are desert folk}, they start reminiscing about everything they know and all that they learned about Antarctica. This happens every time we enter the cold veggie area at Costco. They’ve taken to referring to this room as the Antarctica of Costco and usually bring hands inside their shirts and waddle like penguins for affect. The ‘cold sensations’ that they feel triggers these memories.

Instead of merely studying a picture of an ear and then turning around and filling in the blanks on a worksheet printable, it is making a crawl through of the ear or getting a hands-on wet look at why we have an auricle instead of just an ear canal…

It can be using math manipulative’s. It could mean taking your spelling practice outside and using ice cubes.

Remember:

A fully engaged body ->

means the brain is better utilized ->

and learning sticks.

So What’s the Deal With Hands-On Learning:

A huge part of the brain is devoted to the hand and as such what we touch and handle with our two hands shapes our cognitive, emotional, linguistic and psychological development – hence the term ‘hands-on’ learning! Actually having REAL experiences matters and wires the brain far more effectively than merely ‘watching’ or ‘listening.’ Active engagement is needed!

And does this kind of learning stick? YES, even with the youngest in our families. We had a multi-sensory approach during my homeschool childhood years. I still remember clearly the day we spent at the park learning about the make-up of an atom. We dramatized atomic theory by taking turns being {negative} electrons whipping ‘angrily’ around a {positive} proton and a {neutral} neutron. We laughed as we got our whole bodies and even our emotions involved in the process. I was in 4th or 5th grade at the time. My baby sister was only 5. About seven years later my mom was revisiting this topic with my sister. Evie calmly said she already had learned this and proceeded to explain about positive protons, negative electrons, and neutral neutrons with appropriate positive, negative and neutral facial expressions. While she still needed to learn about atomic theory in detail, she had retained a huge amount of information. We may sit down while we read or acquire information initially, but an action must be taken to anchor it into long-term working memory.

We have the ability to give our children an experience rich life where we read a lot and then optimize that information input by seeking experiences to solidify it.

So don’t just settle for passive information intake.

Seek out opportunity to engage the senses!

Tomorrow we’ll wrap up this series with some practical suggestions on transforming passive learning into active learning!

Be sure to check out other posts in my 10 day series!

Engaging the Senses Boosts Brain Power is a post from: Cultivated Lives | Heather Haupt

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The Role Music Plays in Boosting Brain Power

2013-04-25T01:44:12Z

Many of us may have this mental image of the large homeschool family lined up with their violins or the Chinese student that is a musical prodigy… Well, it turns out that there are some powerful ‘brain’ benefits to learning how to play a musical instrument. Music goes a long way in helping to wire the brain to learn and you don’t have to be a Tiger Mom to see your children reap the benefits…

Music stimulates parts of the brain that are related to reading, math and emotional development! Pairing music and movement enhances the vestibular system and activates large areas of the motor cortex, frontal eye field area and produces that magical neurotransmitter – Dopamine. A study of slow readers found that just 5 months of playing an instrument such as the violin, recorder or similar instrument where rhythms were felt against the body and teeth increased their reading scores 4.5 grade levels.

A recent study came out in the Journal of Neuroscience that highlighted the benefits on brain development for children who had started music instruction before age 7. It appears that between the ages of 6-8 there is a ‘sensitive period’ when musical training interacts with normal brain development to produce long-lasting changes in both motor ability and brain structure. It highlighted and confirmed benefits to learning to play a musical instrument.

Benefits of Learning a Musical Instrument:

Requires and strengthens coordination between the hands and visual or auditory stimuli.
Boosts the normal maturation of connections between motor and sensory regions of the brain.
Creates a framework upon which ongoing training can build.
Learning to play the piano strengthens bilateral integration as the two hands learn to coordinate together.

Why Listening to Music Matters?

CAT scans have shown that different aspects of music activate different parts of the brain. In fact, half of the brain processes the words of the song while the other half processes the music. Listening to music and playing music games, therefore, helps children to use the various parts of their brains simultaneously. Music also stimulates a child’s frontal lobes, which are important to both language and motor development.

Learning Through Music

Learning information through song is helpful because it takes several discrete pieces of information and combines them into one larger piece of information – a song. Processing that one piece of information is much easier than processing a long list of segregated facts. There are so many options out there to learn through song. For the younger ones, we’ve loved the Wee Sing series – especially their Bible Songs, Nursery Rhymes, Finger Play Songs, Wee Sing and Play and the Patriotic song set. For older kids it is fun to sing geography songs, history or even grammar songs (we need to get these pronto!).

Music Therapy

A good friend of mine, who also happens to be our Kindermusik instructor, discovered the profound benefits of music therapy helped her son who had developmental delays due to a serious childhood sickness. You would never guess there were any delays now… He was recently featured on a local news program. Check out his story. It is inspiring to see how active, involved parents and the power of musical instruction can make such an impact.

So How Can You Capitalize on This?

Learn to play a musical instrument. In our home growing up, we were all required to take 2 years of piano (all of us ended up doing it longer), my sister has started her daughter in Suzuki violin and we do Kindermusik for two years before starting piano lessons. {Currently, piano lessons aren’t in the budget, so yours truly is trying to tackle that on her own. Pray for me…}
Listen to Music in the Home. We love to play all kinds of music, but especially classical music. It is fun to try and pick out the different instruments played and have fun telling the story we think the music might be trying to portray. In addition to listening to straight classical music, we also adore this Introduction to the Classics series featuring the story and music of famous composers!
Sing and Dance. Put in your favorite songs to sing to and get moving. There is something profound about learning how to feel the beat and like I mentioned earlier singing the words while listening to the music helps the two hemisphere’s of the brain work together. I love to do this with worship songs for the soul benefit as well!
Learn through Song. It is so much more fun to sing your way through reciting the States, your multiplication tables or any other topic. I’m constantly on the lookout at conventions for fun ways to incorporate this. {I’m all ears if you have resources that you love. Please share!}

Want to explore more?

Early Music Lessons Boost Brain Development

Listening to Music Lights Up the Brain

Mary at Home Grown Learners did a 10 day series on teaching music in the home.

Read Raising Musical Kids.

Check out my other posts in this series:

For other 10 day series, check out:

This post contains some affiliate links.

The Role Music Plays in Boosting Brain Power is a post from: Cultivated Lives | Heather Haupt

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Brain Breaks: An Important Tool for your Homeschool

2013-04-28T23:39:43Z

A year and a half ago while working with my oldest on spelling dictation, he started to get restless and completely incapable of focusing on the work at hand. We live across the street from a school. In frustration, I found myself pointing out the window and telling my son about the ‘poor children’ who had to sit at their desks from 8 in the morning until 3 every day, blah, blah, blah… As my monologue progressed, I noticed that he was zoning out even more. It was time for a change of tactics. I paused and in my very best army sergeant voice ordered my son to stand up and give me 10 jumping jacks. A look of surprise washed over his face.

He giggled. I gave my best over-the-top army sergeant glare and barked the order again, fighting back giggles of my own. He responded with a puny flailing armed set of jumping jacks. I mustered composure, told this ‘private’ that his performance was unacceptable and ordered two laps around the kitchen island before returning to spelling duty. He giggled again and complied.

Since then, I’ve introduced a number of fun little breaks that get pulled out at random times to wake up lethargic brains and bodies! We call them ‘brain breaks’. What I didn’t realize is that I had read about something similar years earlier in Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All In Your Head. This educational psychologist recommended short movement breaks as remedial exercises to help with bilateral integration in struggling students and eventually as break for the entire classroom. As I reread the book last year, I had an aha moment. What I was doing just to save our sanity was actually waking his brain up by activating the vestibular system, bilateral integration and giving the brain a fresh boost of oxygen!

So here is my little tip for the day! When you are doing some of the necessary seat work and you see that the lights are on, but nobody’s home, declare a ‘brain break’. A quick 2-5 minutes will work wonders to lighten the mood, get oxygen pumping and wake their brain up for diving back into the learning process! The key here is to make it light-hearted and fun!

You can have them:

♦ Sing a song

♦ Run a race

♦ Have a jumping jacks per minute challenge

♦ Do animal imitations

♦ Have a balloon tapping race.

♦ Let them juggle

etc, etc, etc…

Breaks like these work to wire the brain to learn, focus and perform better!

I’m giving you 15 awesome ideas that we use around here so that you can print them off and have your own set of ‘brain break’ ideas to utilize throughout the day. You can download a copy here!

Coming this Summer!

The Ultimate Guide to Brain Breaks – ebook

An extended version with 3x as many practical brain break ideas plus an extended guide on how to use them in your home, homeschool or even the classroom is coming out this summer!

Subscribe to my special Brain Breaks newsletter to be notified when it launches!

Day 1: Boosting Brain Power Starts with Food and Water

Day 2: How Sleep Makes Us Smarter

Day 3: Exercise Boosts Brain Power

Day 4: Why Movement Matters

Day 5: Active Play Boosts Brain Power

Day 6: How to Waste Brain Boosting Opportunity

Day 7: Brain Breaks: An Important Tool in Your Homeschool

Day 8: The Role Music Plays in Boosting Brain Power

Day 9: Engaging the Senses Boosts Brain Power

Day 10: How to Turn Passive Learning into Active Learning

Brain Breaks: An Important Tool for your Homeschool is a post from: Cultivated Lives | Heather Haupt

I'd love to connect with you on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or Google+

How to Waste Brain-Boosting Opportunities

2013-04-24T03:53:20Z

So we’ve been talking for the last week about boosting brain-power. Water, nutrition, sleep and exercise are foundational. When it comes to our educational environment, movement is the key to turning our children ON to learning. Friday, I wrote about how active, rough and tumble play contributes to wiring the brain to learn.

As much as movement turns the brain ON to learning, today I’m tackling the unpopular topic of how we turn their brains OFF to learning and rob them of the time needed for all of these brain-boosting opportunities…

Screen Time

Yes, the biggest culprit that kills active play and learning is screen time – and by this I include TV, movies, netflix, computer and touchscreens (like the ipad and iphone).

I think deep down, we all know screens are time-suckers and should have strong limits. But in today’s culture that is very hard to put into practice, isn’t it? So, let’s start with a fresh reminder of why we should limit screen time…

Why is Screen-Time So Bad?

Robs Time ~ Watching TV (movies, etc) is a deprivational activity. It deprives us of the time and opportunity to do something more productive. For children – especially young children this critically inhibits the development of language and listening skills, imagination and various problem-solving processes that are essential in learning how to read. It robs all of us of opportunity for real-life hands-on exploration, creativity building and time spent exploring, talking (to real people) and real rather than virtual experiences. Time spent in front of a screen is time NOT spent doing something that builds the brain, builds relationships and builds a healthy, whole person.
Slows Brain Activity ~ Remember when we talked about the cerebellum last week? Computer imaging of the brain has revealed that the cerebellum is almost entirely inactive during the passive activity of watching a screen.
Lacks a hands-on, multi-sensory component that is critical to learning. When a person moves and interacts it fires up the cerebellum and speeds up the learning process.
Lacks verbal, personal interaction. Children need to communicate WITH someone, not just having an impersonal ‘machine’ talking at them.
Highly Addictive ~ A recent study came out that reveals that screen time produces a chemical response with dopamine in the brain similar to the affect of other addictive substances (drugs, sugar, cigarettes, etc). If you don’t think you or your children are addicted to your screen of choice, try taking it away for a day or even a week. It’s hard to do. Oftentimes, you’ll even notice withdrawal symptoms.
Rewires the Brain ~ As scary as this sounds, researchers are finding this to be very true. Even actively engaging with screens when we are on computers and touch screens is having a rapid and profound affect on how our brain is wired. Researcher Gary Small said, “The current explosion of digital technology not only is changing the way we live and communicate, but is rapidly and profoundly altering our brains.” The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains explains that the very act of how we read and process information is changing when more time is spent learning ‘online.’ For instance, we lose the ability to focus and and read long articles. We develop what’s been coined “popcorn brain” where we are constantly hopping around from topic to topic without the ability to delve deep. For children in this season of intense learning the affects can be devastating.

The New Nanny

In this digital age, it is vital for us as parents to constantly be assessing where our families are spending time plugged-in and whether or not this is beneficial. TV or video game consoles were the default ‘babysitter’ of choice when we were kids, but now with the technology boon, we have the opportunity to keep our kids plugged in at the park, in the car, at the store, the waiting room. It’s as easy as handing over our smart phones or a tablet. But should we be handing over these devices every time we want to keep them quiet? Are we abdicating our responsibility to parent and to teach self-control?

But Aren’t Touch Screens Different?

With the explosion of smart phones and tablets, many schools are rushing to embrace a tech-centric approach to education and marketers are quickly saturating the market with all kinds of ‘educational aps’. Since they are ‘educational’ does this make them good? Well, the truth of the matter is that there is NO real research on this. The ap makers themselves assert the benefits, but this is not true research. It reminds me of the whole ‘Baby Einstein’ craze and then subsequent recall when complaints were filed stating that parking kids in front of educational DVD’s didn’t actually make them smarter, but harmed them.

So What to Do? Some Thoughts…

Take Stock ~ Take time to record how much screen time your family is getting. It is helpful to see how much and when you are using screens.

Assess ~ Decide what amount of screen time you want for your family. Each family is going to be different. For instance, we are a football family. We watch almost every NFL game that is aired on ‘regular’ TV (we don’t have cable). But the kids don’t watch any other TV, we don’t have Netflix and they only watch an occasional movie, maybe twice a month or so. In our family, we utilize a portable DVD player on the airplane. Being trapped in a metal tube 30,000 feet in the air with a hundred other people made plugging my kids into a movie sound like a great idea. When we drive however, I have the ability to pull over and address temper tantrums and help my children learn how to occupy themselves in the car without the need to plug in. Car time, provides us wonderful opportunity to talk and for them to observe the world flashing by them… So we keep our car screen free.

Cut Back – Just do it! We’re going screen-free next week. Want to join us? {This mama needs it just as bad as the kids!}

Constantly Reassess ~ Last week, I had to take all four kids with me while I had my teeth cleaned. I strapped Greta into the umbrella stroller and had snacks for her and then let the boys take turns playing Angry Birds. In hindsight, I realized that they are old enough now that I could have had them bring a book to read. We’ve trained them enough on how to sit still and behave that I didn’t NEED to use the screen.

Let us encourage one another in purposeful parenting – to minimize screen-time and maximize relationships and learning!

Day 1: Boosting Brain Power Starts with Food and Water

Day 2: How Sleep Makes Us Smarter

Day 3: Exercise Boosts Brain Power

Day 4: Why Movement Matters

Day 5: Active Play Boosts Brain Power

Day 6: How to Waste Brain Boosting Opportunity

Day 7: Brain Breaks: An Important Tool in Your Homeschool

How to Waste Brain-Boosting Opportunities is a post from: Cultivated Lives | Heather Haupt

I'd love to connect with you on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or Google+