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Develop Your Child’s Genius
Weekly Newsletter
Contents
Welcome
and Update
Developing
Your Child's Self Identity
Simple
Tips to Get the Best Grades With the Least Amount of Effort by Joakim
Fannick
Questions
and Answers
Welcome
and Update
It has been a long time since I have sent out the last newsletter. I
apologize. Things haven't been easy here, my husband lost his eye sight
suddenly, and it has been getting worse gradually. He is now to the point
that without my help he finds it difficult to function. It is not easy, but
I have to keep working,
Good things have happened too. My son Eric has completed his PhD in math, at
the age of 24. We got to go to the ceremony, and there were no prouder
parents in the crowd.
He has gotten a position as a post doctorate at a known university here in
the US, and will this year teach 2 courses, one course is a completely new
one, Eric will get the opportunity to write the syllabus and develop the
course from scratch. It is a graduate course, and he will have to teach
students his own age as a professor. He will also engage in research, and
already has 3 papers to publish and is working on the fourth one.
Thanks again to everyone who sent their questions. I love haring updates
about your children, getting pictures and answering questions. I also have
plans for some tele-seminars and other exciting things are coming down the
pipe.
If you'd like to find out more information and ideas to develop your child's
genius, please take a look at "The
Manual Your Child Should Have Come With - How to Develop Your Child's Genius".
Enjoy!
As
usual, you are invited to email to me with any questions, thoughts, comments
and input. I always go to great length to answer each email personally, so
you can expect to get a personal reply. Email me at esther@all-gifted-children.com
Esther Andrews
http://www.all-gifted-children.com
Developing Your Child's Self Identity
There is no need to explain why it is so important for your
child's development to have a sound and positive self identity. How your
child thinks about herself will determine her future, her destiny.
You, the parent, have a major role in the development of your child's self
image. You can influence this development deliberately and at will.
Here is a technique to do just that. This is appropriate for school age
children. However, if your child is younger, you can adapt it to your
child's individual age and development.
Start by having a conversation. Ask your child how peers at school would
describe her. Make a list of features and character traits your child comes
up with. Then ask how teachers and other adults in her life would describer
her, and keep writing them down. Next add to the list the character traits
that your child would like to have. What kind of person would he like to be?
How would he like to be seen by his friends? If your child doesn't
immediately come up with a reply, let her think about it. This is not an
exercise that you do in minutes. You can also make suggestions, but let your
child decide which traits he chooses.
You will want to do this process with your child regularly, and the list
will change over time.
After you feel that you have a good list, take out anything negative or with
a negative connotation, and leave only the positive in your list.
Now ask your child to describe each trait in the list. Write down the
description of each trait. What does it mean to her?
Go to a dictionary, and understand with your child exactly what the
dictionary definition is of that trait.
With each step, for each word, decide if you want to include this word or
not. You will discover that some words are not appropriate to keep. You can
also use a thesaurus to find other words that describe more closely what
both of you wanted to include.
Keep the whole list for future reference, however at this point, it is
advisable to choose the most important 3 or 4 character traits.
When you get to this point, know that you have done a tremendous amount of
work. Pat yourself on the back, and praise your child
enthusiastically.
Please know that this whole process can be spread over several days, and
done while you are driving, eating dinner or doing many other activities.
The important thing is to remember and write down the character traits your
child and you come up with.
Once you have the 3 or 4 most important features, write them down in a
sentence, in present tense. Example: "I am a strong, intelligent
person. I am hard working and a leader". This is now a sentence you
want to repeat as often as you can. You can use arts and crafts to create a
wall hanging or a poster and hang it up in your child's room. You can create
together a screen saver for the computer, so that the first thing your child
sees when he goes to the computer is this sentence. Repeat it to your child
at least a few times a day. Sing it - see if your child can come up with a
melody to turn it into a song. Use your creativity and imagination to see in
how many ways you can have your child repeat it, read it hear it, sing it in
a day. Make it a routine.
This process will benefit your child, but what about you? You can use the
same process for you too, it will change your life!
The proof is in the pudding: does your child improve her skills? Is her
confidence improving? Please write to me and tell me about your successes,
so that I can share them with the rest of us. esther@all-gifted-children.com
Simple Tips to Get Better Grades With the
Least Amount of Effort by Joakim
Fannick
When we first begin school, well meaning parents and teachers might tell us to put aside a specific amount of time to study each day.
That sounds like a common sense advice, doesn't it?
However a lot of things that seem common sense are not really true.
We say the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, but really, it's not the sun that rises or sets, but the earth that rotates.
The same goes
for allocating study time. Many people continue to study by giving themselves an allocated time per day or per week to study a certain subject, all because they really don't know any other way to study.
If you study with this "time" objective in mind, work will expand to fill the available time, kind of like a goldfish in a bowl.
If you give yourself two hours to read a chapter, that's how long it will take to do it.
If you give yourself one hour to do 10 math equations, that's how long it will take you to solve them.
But how should we study if we want to be as effective as possible?
If you are after results, you can change your approach from studying a certain amount of time, to studying by objectives.
It doesn't mean that you should cut back on the amount of time you spend studying, it just means that you will focus more on the outcome of your study than
on the time allocated to it. I'm sure you will be happily surprised when you find that you not only learn things better, but also finish earlier and can go on to doing other things.
If you give yourself the objective to read a chapter, you may find that you're finished in one hour instead of two!
If you give yourself the objective to solve 10 equations, you may find you're finished in half an hour instead of one!
Such a little thing might seem
very simplistic, but it's amazing how much difference simple things like that can be.
For example, usually one thinks about homework as something done after the school day, but what if you do it before?
To read your materials before you go to class is a very simple yet very effective thing you can do to get your grades up and to keep them up.
This way, you will be better prepared for class and if there is something that is puzzling you in the text, you will discover that you can ask questions when they are relevant and fresh in your teacher’s mind.
The lecture and the text are meant to be complementary, not repetitions of each other.
Reading ahead will help you fill in the blanks during the lecture and it also helps you understand the concepts more thoroughly.
You will find that as you read, you will start to get a grasp on what is happening with the information, and then what your teacher says in class later on will further emphasize it.
Think about how much more effective a student you will be if you simply read ahead before going to class!
These are just two of the very helpful tips I've found in the book "Get Better Grades with the Least Amount of Effort" written by Dr Marc
Dussault. It's full of gold nuggets on how to study more efficiently and learn with better retention.
You can find it at http://bit.ly/StudySmarter
The author himself has used these strategies with amazing results.
For example, he completed a 4-year engineering degree, which takes many students 5 years to complete, in only 3 years, with two specializations (majors), not just one.
He studies for his MBA AND Ph.D. on a full-time basis, while running a
successful business. And he graduated with honors.
He completed a thesis for a Doctorate in Business Administration degree in 3 months instead of 1-2 years.
I really wish I had this book when I was in school.
I remember cramming for exams and then afterwards just forgetting everything
I've learned. At the time it seemed like a good enough idea, but now I really wish I could remember some of that stuff I
have studies. I think most of you have had similar experiences.
It's sad that there's such a lot of potential out there that goes unused.
Most low-performing students lack the right methods for studying, learning
and remembering, and that in turn leads to loss of motivation.
Also, children are not as stuck in the same old tracks as us adults tend to be.
To them, adopting these new ideas will be easy and they will have a really solid foundation and the most effective tools for future studies.
In fact, the younger, the better. Younger kids are often more open to new mindsets and ideas.
The best results comes from students who are open-minded about trying new things to get better results.
This book
comes with an 8 week 100% money back guarantee, there is no risk at all to
try it. You can find it here: http://bit.ly/StudySmarter
Give the book to all of your kids with your endorsement and positive encouragement.
Have them come back with their feedback once they’ve tried a few of the strategies.
Your kids' grades will improve and they will spend less time studying,
worrying and stressing.
Questions
and Answers
Questions:
Dear Esther, how can I discipline my teen-ager daughter, without having her
"hate" me?
Thanks,
Nurita
Answer:
Dear Nurita, thanks for your question.
Disciplining
teen-agers is not an easy task. Come to think of it, disciplining children
is not an easy task. It is especially challenging during your children's
teen-ager years. However, if you have created a good relationship with
your child over the years, and have disciplined them well, it will be
somewhat easier when they reach their teen-age years.
To
discipline a child and still keep a good relationship with her, you have to
use the idea of cause and effect. The cause was not created by you, the
effect was also not created by you. Your child will learn the lesson out
draw conclusions from it, without blaming you for it.
For
example: Your daughter has a very fun activity he is planning on doing on
Saturday. For that, she has planned to wear a specific garment she owns.
However, she has forgotten to put the garment in the wash, it is laying on
the floor in her room. You have already asked her to pick up her clothes
from the floor and put them in the wash, but she has neglected to do so.
Should you
keep nagging? NO! On Saturday morning, she will look for her dress, and find
it on the floor in her room. She might come running to you, telling you
about the disaster. Should you rush to help her out and wash the dress by
hand and dry it with a hair dryer? No, no no! Don't bail your child out, let
her learn from her mistake. You can then reinforce the lesson by saying
something like "It would have been better if you picked up the clothes
from the floor and put them in the wash a day before".
The main
idea: let your child make the mistakes and discover the consequences by
herself, don't bail her out. If necessary, help her arrive at the right
conclusion.
Sometimes,
things don't happen on their own. Sometimes you have to create the
situation, the opportunity to learn a lesson. For example, when I visited a
friend of mine, the following situation developed: her 17 year old daughter
was on her way out, she told Alisa (my friend, her mom) she is going to a
movie with friends. Alisa said: "Have you completed folding your
clothes? You know the rule is - you cannot go anywhere before you have
completed your obligations". The girl started folding the clothes, but
missed the movie. She was very upset, and Alisa was very sympathetic. She
said "I am so sorry you have missed the movie. I can see how this
upsets you. Next time you will manage your time much better,
right?".
I hope
this helps. Please let me know the results after you try this strategy.
Additional
ideas you can find in The
Manual Your Child Should Have Come With - How to Develop Your Child's
Genius".
Esther
To send feedback, e-mail to: esther@all-gifted-children.com
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