You will pick up new ideas from the book, Brain Rules by Dr. John Medina, regardless of what you may already know about learning and the brain. According to Brain Rule # 10 of the book, vision trumps all other senses.
I am sure many of you who are military families or whose spouses work in a field where it is expected that they will be gone now and then, will probably have a vivid sense of how it is to raise children by yourself. My husband is in the military, and he gets deployed a lot. In most cases, I am alone in dealing with our children’s activities. The stresses of our everyday life can easily become overwhelming.
One popular way I handle the chaos brought about by the demands of our daily schedule is through a family calendar of events and activities. The calendar allows me to visualize the flow of events, and it also gives me a feel of the amount of energy that will probably be required from me. It is a vital tool I consider when planning for next season’s activities.
A family calendar is an example of a graphic organizer. A graphic organizer is a visual tool anyone can use to outline relationships between (or within) facts, events, tasks and ideas. There is a plethora of graphic organizer samples in Internet. Two of the many fantastic sites to visit are http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/ and http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/.
You can also produce a style that suits you or your child’s learning needs.
I use graphic organizers in my home schooling. I have created some and have utilized many diagrams that I learned from the seminars and workshops I attended from our Charter school (River Spring Charter School).
Below is a sample of a completed Vocabulary Enrichment form I created for home school reading and vocabulary enhancement exercises.
Material Read: Advice to Little Girls by Mark Twain
Student: 5th Grader
| WORD | ETYMOLOGY | WHAT PART OF SPEECH | DEFINITION | SAMPLE SENTENCE |
| Trifling | Middle English | Adjective | Another way of saying unimportant | The student’s argument about the subject is trifling. |
| Peculiarly | Middle English | Adjective | Different from normal | That boy’s peculiarly odd taste in clothing sets him apart from the rest. |
| Aggravated | Latin | Transitive Verb | To make a burden | The girl’s injury was further aggravated by infection. |
| Eminently | Adverb | Has the same meaning of very, but high degree | The mother was eminently disturbed by the child’s shouting. | |
| Plausible | Latin | Adjective | Superficially fair or reasonable | The child’s wish was plausible given his condition. |
| Immediate | Middle English | Adjective | Acting without intervention or another object | His teacher is immediate of his actions in music class. |
| Whim | Noun | It’s like saying fancy | Adam’s father quit his job on a whim. | |
| Foibles | French | Noun | A weakness or a minor flaw of behavior | Officers study their enemy’s foibles. |
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