Teacher or parent? Games for those moments of indecision

We want to support our children but at the same time we don’t want to end up being yet another teacher. The way we were taught isn’t necessarily the same as they are teaching now and we don’t want to confuse them with our methods. After all the reason they came to us in the first place is because they are already confused.
Having worked in education for over 25 years, I have found various ways of having fun with children and at the same time teaching them skills and techniques which have come from them. If you would like some of these games boards then email me and I will send you a copy of two or three which I, and the children, have enjoyed playing with.
So what can we do with children when on journeys or at times when they have to be occupied and quiet?
One my mother used to do with me was to guess how long a minute was. I was to be quiet and work out what felt like 1 minute, 2 minutes and 5 minutes. It not only helped me stay quiet but it also taught me to gauge time, a skill much needed in this world. She would also do it with distance; how long will it take us to get to …. if we keep driving at this speed…if we keep walking…
Another way to keep their minds working is to use the alphabet as the foundation of creating lists of words which are all linked by their type. For example, animals could be; alligator, badger, cat, dog, elephant and so on, until they get to zebra. This could be played in turn so each person has to come up with one for a specific letter. The trick here is not to give the child the answer but to give them a clue which will help them find the word in their head. In school one of the most difficult thing to get children to do is to write using the whole of their word knowledge. Games such as this help them revisit their internal vocabulary list and as with most things, the more you use it the easier it is to access it. I have used this game with Christmas words, animals, countries, towns, people’s names, Easter, and of course to revise subjects.
The alphabet can also be used as a way of developing really long sentences, another skill children have to develop. An example of this would be; a bold, courageous, dog edged fiercely, growling. It gets children to use descriptive words more and again accesses their vocabulary bank as well as extends it because of the words they hear others use. In games like this it is always a good idea to have an adult playing as well.
A lovely one many of the children enjoy is the wandering story. This can be done on a computer, which increases their typing skills, or verbally, which increases their ability to communicate clearly and fluently.
On a computer start a story with three sentences you make up. The child then does another three sentences which continue the story. This you do back and forth until a plot begins to develop. If done without any comment between you it is amazing how much skill starts to pour out onto the page. I have done this with children of all ages up to 13 years and the results have been amazing.
Imagine this translated into speech and you have story that becomes told. These can get really exciting and it’s amazing how quickly the children become engrossed in it.
Packs of cards have always been an excellent tool for basic maths. Take out all the picture cards save the aces and read these as 1. Now split the pack between those who are playing the game. The aim is to continuously add together the cards as they turn over one by one. If you make a mistake, you have to pick up the pile of cards and start again; the aim is to be the first one with no cards left. Try it this way for subtraction, but make sure you feel confident about it too. Again no picture cards start with the number 250 and as you turn over a card subtract that from the total. An example would be 250 – [10 hearts] = 240-[7 clubs] =233 and so on. Again a mistake means you pick up the pile and the winner is the first one to get rid of all their cards.
Another way to use cards is to do multiplication. Take two cards from the top of the pile, turn them over and multiply them together. This concentrates on the simple times tables 1 – 10 and is perfect for any Primary pupil.
So there are a few ideas to be going on with and I will add more as time goes on. If you have any ideas you think would be good on the Blog, email me your ideas and I will include them here. Let’s face it; we have children because we want them not because we fancy becoming teachers when they start school. So let’s stay their parents, enjoy them and leave the hard task of teaching to the teachers!

Brain development in children

The way we talk and interact with our children will affect them for the rest of their lives. It will mould them and set values and beliefs which will become the core of their being—these will either serve them well or hinder them. Which ever way they go, it is the adults in their lives which ultimately will be responsible for their well-being as they grow into the adults of the future.
A daunting prospect and one, none of us get a blue-print for when we sign up to be parents, let alone teachers, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters etc.
How many of us have heard those immortal words from a frustrated mother, “Right, that’s it. You’re going to bed when you get home!” or, “That’s it, I’ve had enough, your not having your Playstation!”
Threats wielded from an exasperated mother which render the child in tears (most of the time) but rarely get carried through. What is going on in such a situation as this?
To understand this we need to go back to the development of the brain and how this manifests itself in the growing child.
The brain begins its development whilst the baby is not much more than a foetus. The brain is very primitive, being no more than a small bulb of cells at the end of the emerging spine. Its main function at this stage is to separate out into the main parts of a functioning brain so the emerging organs will have something to drive and control them.
By 7 weeks the main areas of the brain can be distinguished and from then to birth a rapid expansion of nerve cells called neurons takes place.
By the time a baby is born there are approximately 100 billion nerve cells! Sounds marvelous and the capacity to learn is astronomical but at birth the cells are mostly un-connected and little happens except the very basic functions of breathing, eating, excreting and movement. In fact only three parts of the brain are fully operational at this time, the brain stem, the thalamus and the deep cerebellum and until the age of three, the part of the brain which makes memory is still in its infancy of production and will not have come on line as it were and cannot make memories or respond in anything other than an instinctive way - something I find surprising, especially if you watch a baby respond to its mother or its surroundings. Latest research has found that until a child is 3 years old it only responds because it is programmed to through the most primitive part of the brain. It is a response to survival and unless something happens which is highly significant, will not remember anything from that time.
However, for a child to go on and make memories and develop ideas those first three years are some of the most important ones for opening up and laying down pathways and connections within the brain.
At the beginning I said the adults are responsible for giving the child its values and beliefs as well as a code by which it grows up and then adapts in adult life. During these first three years the type and quality of stimulation given to the baby will determine how it will interpret stimulation after that age—in other words how it will learn, interpret and act upon what it senses from the world around.
The nerve cells the child is born with develop connections depending upon the stimulation they receive. More stimulation results in more connections and the number of cells which are killed off because they are unnecessary (because they have not been fired up and tied into the network) are reduced.
What happens after the initial period? The part of the brain called the cortex begins to develop and memories begin to be laid down. The more times something is repeated the stronger the connections for that pathway become until some behaviours and actions become second nature. They will develop by investigating on their own and by copying those they trust. Slowly they will develop skills that identify them as the child of… and their skills range will closely reflect the skills of the family.
In parts of Japan, apprentices are not allowed to do anything except watch the master for some time so they absorb the actions and movements the master performs. If you watch these apprentices they are copying the actions until they have them perfectly off pat and then they are allowed to try it for themselves.
So children will copy and mimic because it is a very good way of learning. When they have reached the point where they have some attention span built into their brain function (any where between 4 and 6 years of age) they begin to explore for themselves using the blue-print provided for them by their parents. If they have spent most of their time in front of a TV then this blue-print will be very poor and their skills reduced.
When I asked a group of children to write an imaginative story few could write as if they were part of the story. They had watched so much TV they saw the world from a distance and wrote in that style. I was reminded of a phrase a colleague of mine uses, ‘having a near life experience’ and began to wonder if these children were growing up as if their lives were just that and programmes such as East Enders more real than their own lives.
So the first 3 years of any child’s life is vital if it is going to utilise as many of the nerves it is born with. By the time the excess are killed off the connections have to have been made and once gone they are not replaced.

Losing that confidence within

Working with so many children I see the embryonic stages of that loss of self confidence.

School can be a harsh environment for some, especially if they find aspects of the curriculum difficult. All too quickly they learn their own inadequacies, stop trying and then become disaffected, bored and sometimes a problem.

Teachers are expected to prove their levels of skill by getting as many of their pupils through the yearly examinations. They have to show an increase in SAT’s levels each year and are expected to justify any failures. They attend meetings with the senior management who tell them the expected levels they should reach irrespective of the pupil’s abilities. Sometimes these targets are virtually impossible. They leave those who struggle to concentrate on the upper part, in the hope these pupils will get the grades expected.

The levels of success at SAT’s and GCSE are then translated into league tables and this in turn translates into which academic group of pupils is sent there.

It’s very much the chicken and egg—what do you tackle first? The pupil who is struggling, or the ones who are potentially bored, because you are helping the one who is struggling?

In an ideal world all pupils should be catered for and systems should be in place to nurture everyone whatever their level or expectations.

Let’s face it, as a parent this is what you would expect for your child. But does this happen? How does a child feel at 6 years of age when it has sat its first big examination and not reached the levels his or her friends have? What happens when that very same child reaches 10 years of age and has their worst fears confirmed—yes, I have failed again because I got low levels?

He/she enters senior school and is expected to work in the bottom sets doing ‘baby work’ in the hope of catching up, but knowing they wont? Where does the lack of self esteem kick in? At 6? At 10? At 11?

As I said, I work with children at both ends of the spectrum. The ones at the very top who are desperate to achieve higher because they are afraid of failing, and those from the lower sets who are already aware they are failures and are trying to lift themselves out of that situation.

My first question is, when did we, as a society decide to label these children? My second question would be why did we feel we needed to do it? And my third would be, so how do we undo the damage we have created over the passed ten years or so?

When I first began teaching there were those who found academic subjects tough. They still did them, but they also worked in areas where they could excel such as mechanics, woodwork and such and would sit City and Guild qualifications which led to apprenticeships or college courses. They had worth and would be proud of it. Some of the pupils would be excellent in sport, so would represent the school, the county or the region. Again they would be expected to do the academic subjects and work hard but they too, had areas of excellence.

In each case the child was able to prove itself and have that pride, that self esteem which allowed them to grow into a balanced and educated adults.

I met with a parent who took the City and Guild examination in Social Mathematics, a colleague and I created back in the 1980s. She loved it and was really proud to be able to say she had a distinction at both Stage 1 and Stage 2; the course was stopped by the government at the beginning of 1995 because it did not contain enough algebra!

She knew she had found the academic side of mathematics hard, but enjoyed this course, as it helped her learn maths in the world, rather than maths in the classroom. It had been accepted as proof of her skills when she applied for a job and the fact it was a City and Guild, meant the company recognised the certificates worth and value.

She was sad her daughter would not be able to do it as well. She knew her daughter would have to follow the ‘one size fits all’ route of GCSE and probably fail. The problem is her daughter also knows she has to do the GCSE and is already asking the question, ‘but what use is this when I leave school?’ I must admit I do find it very difficult to justify algebra in its purest form.

So what do we do? What do we do about these people who are leaving school disillusioned and already feeling they are on the scrap heap at 16 when they have the whole of their working lives ahead of them? How can we complain when these very same people go for anything they can get by whatever means they can get it?

The generation who spit on the streets, binge drink, run up massive debts, graffiti on walls and houses, steal cars and have whatever they want is a creation of the society we put in place. We have created the ‘testing’ society where everything has to have a number to be valid. Where and how do we give childhood back to children and self worth and self esteem back whatever their academic level of achievement?