Look for the Rainbows

There are times that the Earth is solid under your feet. Events you can count on. Things that pull you through...a new season, back to school shopping, the first touches of cool morning air and the first yellow leaves on the trees. This year seems to have none of those. Like, seriously? This has been the longest 6 months of my life. As an extroverted introvert, it’s not people I miss so much, but the events that propel us forward.

As we move toward November, I believe it’s safe to say that we’re all exhausted. Teaching kids from home is difficult for every parent. Even the ones who teach 30 kids a day every day. I’ve been pulling out all the tricks lately to support Atticus as he learns from home. He misses his friends. And I miss his time doing boy things and getting into mischief on someone else’s watch. I find myself counting to ten more often than I would like. And I’ve been remembering the things I know to be true about the human brain and about how we learn. Some things I have tried in the classroom just didn’t work. Other ideas have worked year after year. I call these ideas “sticky learning”. I thought I might give these things a shot at home and see how they work in real time. (I am planning to share daily this month on Facebook to give you a behind the scenes look at how it’s working or not working).
Here is what I know for sure:
•Our brains learn best with pictures. Colors yes. Images yes. Words (the fewer the better).
We’ll be creating mind maps as a way to remember things.
•Our brains function fully in 15 minute segments of time. After that, we begin getting distracted, wiggly, and unfocused.
We’ll be learning in 15 minute segments divided by stretching, snack, drum practice or other activity.
•Large goals like “learn your multiplication tables” are much better reached when broken into a list of smaller, achievable goals.
We’ll be creating checklists and other printables to reward our smaller goals.

We invite you to follow along and share your sticky learning adventures with us as well. Here’s to the sticky stuff! May it grow in our learning and not in our carpets.