Thursday, April 16, 2009

How to make a difficult subject fun!

At a recent meeting the presentation was about how to make a difficult subject fun and interesting, for the mom and the child! Although the subject matter was general, we ended up talking about math mostly as for some of us math is challenging and we don't have nice memories of studying it in school. Here are some tips on what to do when you're frustrated with a subject in your homeschool:

Difficult to teach? Hard to Understand?
  • Go back a grade level to review the steps to learning the skill until all the basics are there
  • Recruit help from dad, grandparents, other family, older siblings
  • Relax and enjoy teaching and put aside your own bad feelings about the subject
  • Discuss the subject matter outside of class during the course of the day
  • Don't push! There doesn't need to be any pressure for your child to finish all of the subject areas at a certain grade level all at once. Enjoy the freedom that homeschooling gives you!
  • Use helpful vocabulary. Difficult>challenging Hard>takes more effort

BO-ring?
  • Buy toys or games on the subject, or off the subject that can be made to play on subject.
  • Computer games
  • board games
  • card games
  • manipulative toys
  • Get up and move (esp. boys), use song or rhyme. Look in the library for rhyming educational poems, we've gotten some fun ones from there, or modify popular tunes to set them to the vocabulary you are studying
  • gamesforlearning yahoo group is a great resource for turning everything into a game, and they have templates in the groups files, from the author of the book "Games for Learning"
  • involve food preparation, shopping, travelling, in the subject area

Child hates the subject
  • Find what your child likes and relate the difficult subject through that theme
  • Example: fashion girl
  • Math: how many dresses do you like. Make a fraction showing the number of dresses to those that you would wear
  • English: How does it make you feel when you have a new outfit on? What was your favorite outfit and why did you wear it for the first time?
  • Science: Natural fibres vs chemical fibres and why those in top fashion would need both to create their fashions
  • Social Studies/History: How clothing has changed for women over the years, and why
  • Arabic studies: What are the terms for the clothing in Arabic, describe the ideal outfit in the Arabic language
And of course ask Allah to help in any situation and Allah will give you ease in your work. Remember always the goals of homeschooling that you have set out, and remember that your children must enjoy the school experience to get the most out of it, and you will burn yourself out pushing too hard on a subject that you are frustrated with as well.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Phases of Learning according to Erik Erikson


Born in Gernmany, in 1902, Erik Erikson would study in Austria and the United States to develop important observations about children.

While he was at Yale University, as a researcher, he wrote "Childhood and Society", considered a classic by those in the related fields.

He came up with an idea called the "8 stages of man", summed up here from a website on childhood development*:

Erikson's Eight Stages of Development


1.  Learning Basic Trust Versus Basic Mistrust (Hope)


Chronologically, this is the period of infancy through the first one or two years of life.  The child, well - handled, nurtured, and loved, develops trust and security and a basic optimism.  Badly handled, he becomes insecure and mistrustful. 


practical suggestions: hold babies close, respond to crying babies right away


2.  Learning Autonomy Versus Shame (Will)


The second psychosocial crisis, Erikson believes, occurs during early childhood, probably between about 18 months or 2 years and 3½ to 4 years of age.  The "well - parented" child emerges from this stage sure of himself, elated with his new found control, and proud rather than ashamed.  Autonomy is not, however, entirely synonymous with assured self - possession, initiative, and independence but, at least for children in the early part of this psychosocial crisis, includes stormy self - will, tantrums, stubbornness, and negativism.  For example, one sees may 2 year olds resolutely folding their arms to prevent their mothers from holding their hands as they cross the street.  Also, the sound of "NO" rings through the house or the grocery store.


suggestions to foster independence by: giving children simple choices, don't give false choices, set clear, consistent, reasonable limits, accept children's swings between independence and dependence and reassure them that both are okay.


3.  Learning Initiative Versus Guilt (Purpose)


Erikson believes that this third psychosocial crisis occurs during what he calls the "play age," or the later preschool years (from about 3½ to, in the United States culture, entry into formal school).  During it, the healthily developing child learns:

 (1) to imagine, to broaden his skills through active play of all sorts, including fantasy 

(2) to cooperate with others 

(3) to lead as well as to follow.  

Immobilized by guilt, he is: (1) fearful (2) hangs on the fringes of groups (3) continues to depend unduly on adults and (4) is restricted both in the development of play skills and in imagination.  


Suggestions to support children's development of initiative in the third stage, educators can: encourage children to be as independent as possible,

focus on gains as children practice new skills, not on the mistakes they make along the way

set expectations that are in line with children's individual abilities

focus curriculum on real things and on doing


4.  Industry Versus Inferiority (Competence)


Erikson believes that the fourth psychosocial crisis is handled, for better or worse, during what he calls the "school age," presumably up to and possibly including some of junior high school.  Here the child learns to master the more formal skills of life: 


(1) relating with peers according to rules 


(2) progressing from free play to play that may be elaborately structured by rules and may demand formal teamwork, such as baseball,


 and 


(3) mastering social studies, reading, arithmetic.  Homework is a necessity, and the need for self-discipline increases yearly.  The child who, because of his successive and successful resolutions of earlier psychosocial crisis, is trusting, autonomous, and full of initiative will learn easily enough to be industrious. However, the mistrusting child will doubt the future. The shame - and guilt-filled child will experience defeat and inferiority. 




5.  Learning Identity Versus Identity Diffusion (Fidelity)


During the fifth psychosocial crisis (adolescence, from about 13 or 14 to about 20) the child, now an adolescent, learns how to answer satisfactorily and happily the question of "Who am I?"  But even the best - adjusted of adolescents experiences some role identity diffusion: most boys and probably most girls experiment with minor delinquency; rebellion flourishes; self - doubts flood the youngster, and so on.


Erikson believes that during successful early adolescence, mature time perspective is developed; the young person acquires self-certainty as opposed to self-consciousness and self-doubt.  He comes to experiment with different - usually constructive - roles rather than adopting a "negative identity" (such as delinquency).  He actually anticipates achievement, and achieves, rather than being "paralyzed" by feelings of inferiority or by an inadequate time perspective.  In later adolescence, clear sexual identity - manhood or womanhood - is established.  The adolescent seeks leadership (someone to inspire him), and gradually develops a set of ideals (socially congruent and desirable, in the case of the successful adolescent).  Erikson believes that, in our culture, adolescence affords a "psychosocial moratorium," particularly for middle - and upper-class American children.  They do not yet have to "play for keeps," but can experiment, trying various roles, and thus hopefully find the one most suitable for them.


6.  Learning Intimacy Versus Isolation (Love)


The successful young adult, for the first time, can experience true intimacy - the sort of intimacy that makes possible good marriage or a genuine and enduring friendship.


7.  Learning Generativity Versus Self-Absorption (Care)


In adulthood, the psychosocial crisis demands generativity, both in the sense of marriage and parenthood, and in the sense of working productively and creatively.


8.  Integrity Versus Despair (Wisdom)


If the other seven psychosocial crisis have been successfully resolved, the mature adult develops the peak of adjustment; integrity.  He trusts, he is independent and dares the new.  He works hard, has found a well - defined role in life, and has developed a self-concept with which he is happy.  He can be intimate without strain, guilt, regret, or lack of realism; and he is proud of what he creates - his children, his work, or his hobbies.  If one or more of the earlier psychosocial crises have not been resolved, he may view himself and his life with disgust and despair.


     These eight stages of man, or the psychosocial crises, are plausible and insightful descriptions of how personality develops but at present they are descriptions only.  We possess at best rudimentary and tentative knowledge of just what sort of environment will result, for example, in traits of trust versus distrust, or clear personal identity versus diffusion.  Helping the child through the various stages and the positive learning that should accompany them is a complex and difficult task, as any worried parent or teacher knows.  Search for the best ways of accomplishing this task accounts for much of the research in the field of child development.


     Socialization, then is a learning - teaching process that, when successful, results in the human organism's moving from its infant state of helpless but total egocentricity to its ideal adult state of sensible conformity coupled with independent creativity. 


* originally appeared at http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/erickson.shtml

Suggestions from "Theories of Childhood", by Carol Garhart Mooney