Every Wednesday, I’ll post about multiple intelligences so we can better understand children and why they do what they do. --- If intelligences were based on interest alone, it would be safe to say that today’s young adults and teens may be the most music-smart generation ever. This is largely due to the iPod. It was invented in 2001 and iTunes was voted the invention of the year just two years later. Because music has always been readily accessible, this generation highly values it. They enjoy it. They prioritize it. They know it. But, when considering intelligences, ability must be factored in. Because of the quantity and variety of music on iTunes, bands on YouTube, and television shows they watch like American Idol, … [Read more...]
Helping Teachers See Students In A New Light
Every Wednesday, I’ll post about multiple intelligences so we can better understand children and why they do what they do. — Helping teachers see their students in a new light, with a healthy perspective on why they have the strengths they have, is one of the best things we do at Celebrate Kids, Inc. Being able to identify and classify strengths as intelligences is empowering and refreshing. When teachers know their students are smart, they are more likely to strategically teach to all eight smarts of the brain. This allows students to be more motivated and successful and feel smarter. This results in them actually being smarter because more intelligences are awakened and applied to the topic. It’s such a win-win! Last … [Read more...]
Old Skills Can Help With New Situations
Every Monday, I’ll post about discovering genuine hope and authentic answers for living a healthy life. — The next time you’re in a situation where you don’t know exactly what to do, look back. Chances are good that you have an old skill that may be relevant. We all have old skills. We may forget about them because of lack of use, but they’re there. We don’t forget them. Just about them. I’m not sure how young I was when I first shoveled snow with my dad, but I was young. My parents had lightweight shovels specifically so Dave and I could help. Unless the Milwaukee snow was the light-and-fluffy variety, Dad had to follow us with his heavy-duty shovel in order to get down to the cement. As we grew, Dave and I … [Read more...]
Logic Smart Kids May Struggle with Spelling
Every Wednesday, I’ll post about multiple intelligences so we can better understand children and why they do what they do. — Do you know any children who struggle with spelling? I do. I also make spelling errors. Spelling can be confusing if we are logic smart because we think spelling “rules” should work. And, we think one combination of letters should have one sound. Right? Of course. That makes sense! Why don’t break and freak rhyme? Horse and worse? Cord and word? Cow and low? What about comb, tomb, and bomb? Doll and roll? Home and some? Paid and said? (Pay and say rhyme!) The English language is confusing so mistakes will be made. It’s not necessarily because children are not smart. It might be because of … [Read more...]
The Shepherd’s Bell
My brother and I grew up just four blocks from my aunt, uncle, and cousins. We played with our cousins often, sometimes near our homes and sometimes on the school playground or field which was nearby. Tag, kick-the-can, and hide-and-go-seek were favorites. (Our neighborhoods were safe back then.) We also enjoyed tennis or baseball in the summer, by adding just a few friends, and ice-skating in the winter as the field was converted to an ice-skating rink. “Did you hear it?” one of us would tentatively ask. “No, what?” was often the first confident answer. “You know, the bell. Was that it?” Maybe we’d quiet down or maybe we’d increase the noise level in hopes we wouldn’t hear it. “There! Was that it? I think … [Read more...]
A Grandmother’s Wisdom for Thanksgiving Conversations
If you’re like many people, you’ll get together with relatives more often these next seven weeks than during any other time of year. I hope you’ll use these times for strategic conversations. Yes, it’s possible that even young people who are used to texting will talk face-to-face. My brother and I have four cousins on my mom’s side of the family. Through our young adult years, we got together with our parents, Great Aunts, and Grandparents, for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, in addition to other times during the year. (We were blessed to all live in the same city.) When we got older and some of us went off to college, holiday gatherings became more important since we were together less often. My Grandmother … [Read more...]
Speaking With Moms of Strong-Willed Children during Hearts At Home Conference
Have you ever been tempted to examine yourself to find the button your children easily find? You know the one I mean. The one they find and push to get you to do what they want. Do they sometimes make you feel like you really were created with a button? Strong-willed children are especially skilled at getting us to argue when we know we shouldn’t. They can also get us to throw up our hands in defeat and do for them what we’ve been asking them to do. They know how to find and push the button. Last week I had the great joy of teaching moms (moms-with-buttons-invisible-to-them-but-visible-to-their-children) strategies that help to keep the hands of strong-willed children off the button. Before teaching the strategies, though, I … [Read more...]
Thankfulness Lifts the Exhausted Soul
One of the most meaningful keepsakes in my shadow box is a card that accompanied flowers delivered to me on the last day of school back in 1980. It was my third year of teaching second graders and Paul was one of my students. His parents purchased the flowers as a thank you gift. The card reads, “Thank you for investing in our son, Paul. You have made a difference and we are grateful.” Thanking someone is a beautiful thing. Thankfulness lifts an exhausted soul. Gratitude is like oxygen to the lungs and clouds under tired feet. Gratitude can clear cobwebs from overwhelmed brains and calluses from hardened hearts. Thankfulness restores and heals. Paul’s parents went out of their way to notice my efforts and Paul’s progress … [Read more...]
Security, Trust and Contentment
Security, Trust and Contentment In my third year of teaching second graders, I had a student who was, what I like to call, a handful and a half. In addition to academic challenges, his emotions weren’t steady and his friendships weren’t strong. Hoping to increase his security in himself as a reader, we used a system to increase his vocabulary. Not only did I hope his reading would improve, but he’d hopefully see me as an advocate who believed in him.One day, Craig let me know, in no uncertain terms, that he didn’t like the system. He ripped vocabulary cards into pieces and dramatically threw them to the floor. He screamed as he looked out to his classmates, “Now they all know I’m stupid, too!” … [Read more...]
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