RUDY DRAWS A MAP!

WHEN IS A CHILD MOST ENGAGED?

That's quite a question.  Hopefully there is a different answer for each child, and in general hopefully we are looking for constant clues from the child related to what they say and do to recognize the invitations to learn which we can present as guides.

Welcome back to my blog!  For those who are new, my name is Enrique and I'm the Founder of the F.A.M.E. Foundation.  We work with children, teachers and parents all over the world with organizations like our partners in Los Angeles, MyTown Music, Arts Integration Solutions and many others.  One of our long time partnering organizations is Child-Parent Centers Inc., in Tucson, Arizona.  Thanks to all my colleagues and friends there... you are brilliant human beings!

To kick off this blog, read the following which documents the basic's of how Rudy, age 4, was engaged by his teacher. 

Pretty amazing, right?  There is so much that these teachers do so well.  Among them is the asking of questions which engage the child's natural sense of curiosity.  Below you can sense the body language of Rudy.  Off to draw a map to the garden he goes... oh and there is so much more that happens in context!

Along the way, Rudy notices new things that perhaps he had not noticed before.  The experience of how observing is different than looking is a huge life skill.

Revision is another fantastic skill Rudy experienced by observing things more than once, drawing them, observing some more, and then making changes to show more detail.  What if every young learner was excited when they heard the word revision?  Hmmm...

Rudy notices colors, shapes and begins to attach this a growing vocabulary... and all the while acting as an explorer, a scientist, an engaged learner.

Rudy continued to experience the idea of "What Else?"  Looking for depth of knowledge over time transfers to growing our depth of being.... profound and all experienced in a play-based setting.

I LOVE this image of notes!  My Foundation has been working with this center on many things, including how to write music, write songs, and connect that to math.  Well... it looks like Rudy noticed that on his journey of creating a map!

It looks like Rudy has arrived at his destination... the GARDEN!

I present to you Rudy's Map of how to get to the garden at his center for learning, his home away from home.  Bravo Rudy and Bravo Child-Parent Centers!

LIVE, LOVE, AND LEARN LIKE A CHILD

Cheers!

Enrique

Our World is a Classroom

I'm sure you have heard of the Summer Slide.  If you haven't, it is simply how much a child slides backwards in his/her academics over the course of a summer when s/he is not in school.  There are many ways that families can prevent this phenomenon with their own children and it is NOT by skill and drill flashcards or sitting your child down for formal lessons every day. 
I use our world (along with every day fun) during the summer to continue my own childrens' learning throughout the summer.
My boys (ages 5 and 7) and I went for a walk in the City Forest on the bog walk and here are just a few examples of the learning situations that arose naturally during our expedition.

Signs are everywhere and children are naturally drawn to them.

 

Children love signs and, luckily, in our world they can be found everywhere you go.  This set of signs pulled my two little ones right in, so I jumped on it!  My little one found all of the "nos" and used the pictures to guess what the rest of the sign said and my big boy (who can read all of these signs) got to tell him how close is guess was. 

Science was everywhere during this trip.  Take advantage of your surroundings to teach your children about their world using (as in this example) informational text.  My boys love nature and were very interested in finding out more about the animals and plants there in the forest, many that they'd seen before, as well as many they hadn't.  You could always pull up web sites of some of the creatures or plant life your children find in their surroundings on the internet to introduce your child to informational text.

The boys made a game up that they couldn't step on any of the "new" boards.  This led us into a discussion about why the new boards were there and how they decided which boards that would be replaced.  Yes, simple concepts for us, but not so much for young, inquiring minds.  I am always planting seeds and trying to get them to wonder and think creatively and sensibly.

On the 88th pallet, my big boy noticed these little number plates labeling each one.  He, of course, started identifying the numbers sporadically while my little one identified numbers he knew as well (8-8 vs. 88).  They noticed that numbers increasingly got larger and so I asked them guess how many pallets there are on the entire boardwalk and they came up with 500 and 600.  I thought these pretty great estimations since the number ended up being:

Obviously, some summer fun will lend itself much better to learning than others, but no matter what you are doing there is something to be learned everywhere you go and in everything you do.  Help a child stay off the summer slide by inviting them into our worldly classroom!