Learning Games to Stimulate the Brain

When your child has been diagnosed with autism, ADHD, and other conditions that affect children, you may be wondering what you can do at home to help your child. You will soon learn the importance of a routine that is structured and provides everything your child needs. However, when you have the opportunity, it would be beneficial to perform one of these learning games to stimulate your child's brain and encourage learning.

Counting

When your child is young, it is important to teach them numbers. There are many ways to squeeze numbers in your daily life because numbers are all around. One way to get numbers in your life is to count the animals, flowers, cars, or buildings on your way to school. Count them out loud with your child so he or she will see the number of something, hear the numbers with you, and count them over every day then this will create self confidence in counting and learning their numbers.

Writing

You don't have to wait until your child is in school to teach them to write. They can learn to write as soon as they can grasp a pencil. When writing, it takes a considerable amount of brain power to make it work and to create the right lettering, stay in the lines, be coordinated, and more. You can help your child be creative, express themselves more, and be able to communicated when they may struggle otherwise.

Song and dance

When your child is up and moving to music, they can learn anything as long as you put it to rhythm. If you don't have a radio to play music, clap your hands to keep rhythm, dance around, create a drum beat with wooden spoons, and more. You can sing your ABC's, 123's, or learn about colors.

It's important that your child doesn't find stimulation in television shows unless you limit the amount of television time they have. Too much television can be non-stimulating and can lead to an addiction to television. This creates less time to move around.

You can also make cookies with your child. Measuring ingredients and placing them into the bowl one at a time in a certain way will stimulate the brain and create games that are fun for your child. It's important that your child enjoy learning in order to create a positive learning environment.

It doesn't matter where you are and what you are doing, you can always create a game and stimulate the brain; pick up sticks, pick up toys in the room, eating breakfast, walking in the city, going to the park, driving to school, and more. When you go to the grocery store, there are so many different games you could play that will help you stimulate the brain and help them to learn. Having children is a pleasure so enjoy activities that are not only educative but also fun for both of you.

For the latest videos and training information on child development as well as books and curricula on Autism please visit childdevelopmentmedia.com.

The Classical Education Model

Touted to be the return to a proven method of past centuries, the Classical Educational Model is gaining in popularity among homeschooling parents. The model is characterized by exposure to history, art, culture, languages, philosophy, and literature of Western Civilization. With a Christian emphasis (it also concentrates on the development of a biblical view of the world and Theology is considered to be the queen of sciences), the core of this model is the Trivium, which tailors curriculum subject matter to a child's cognitive development.

The Trivium is based on three levels, or stages of teaching and learning based on the age and ability of the child. The goals of the Trivium are Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric.

Grammar Level

This stage is the based on concrete learning. In Bloom's taxonomy, this is considered to be the base of the learning pyramid. In this stage, rote memorization is the emphasis. Many public school systems call this "kill and drill." The idea is for kids to learn the vocabulary, rules, and basics first. This level is recommended for the elementary ages of children.

During this stage, children are taught Art, Bible, Geography, History, Literature, Math, Music, Oratory, Science, and Writing.

Dialectic Level

Also considered to be the analytical thinking and understanding stage, this is recommended for the middle school age kids.

The student learns to reason and to string isolated ideas together.

During this stage, students are taught more in-depth concepts in Art, Bible, History, Literature, Math, Music, Oratory, Science, and Writing. Language, Logic, and Government are introduced at this time.

Rhetoric Level

This is where abstract thinking and self-expression come in. It is recommended for the high school years.

During this stage, students take all that they have learned and develop the ability to apply that knowledge to abstract ideas. Rhetoric and Philosophy are added to the studies while Government and Logic receive less concentration.

On a side note, history is taught throughout all stages in four year cycles. Repeating the cycle allows for further understanding as the child's cognitive development advances.

This model can be explained in layman's terms by likening it to the process in which a baby learns to speak. A child first learns sounds, vocabulary, and simple sentences. He then learns how to apply the rules of grammar in order to express more complete thoughts. Finally, the child learns to express opinions and more complex ideas.

The supporters of the Classical Education Model argue that the modern education system expects kids to master subjects before mastering the skill of learning. A bit like putting the cart before the horse?

If you are looking into more information on Classical Education Model or would like to know about some great homeschool conventions visit http://www.greathomeschoolconventions.com