We utilize Netflix to rent these series although you can probably find some other source.  If you can find an older series that your children find entertaining you will have many hours of commercial free quality television to occupy your children’s discretionary time.

The same holds true for you.  There are many entertaining TV series available on DVD these days.  Once you find one that is right for you, you can avoid the commercials and enjoy them in accordance with your schedule as opposed to the networks’.  Some of my favorites are LOST, House, and The West Wing.

If you have any recommendations for children or adult TV series please feel free to leave a comment.

Unfortunately, times have changed since September 11th, and visiting West Point is much more structured and supervised.  You cannot just stroll along the magnificent campus.  Having to take a mandatory tour does have its advantages such as having a knowledgeable tour guide.  Ours was a former drill sergeant.  There were many tidbits of trivia that were very interesting like what a prankster General Eisenhower was when he was a student and how General Douglas MacArthur’s mother hid food in cannons for him because she did not feel her son was being well fed.

What I found most interesting was that all West Point Cadets have to take one of the three following sports:  Golf, Tennis, or Skiing.  The reason for this requirement is these are life long sports; do not require many people to play them, and that business deals are conducted on golf courses, at tennis courts and in ski lodges.

I mention this as food for thought whether for your own information or perhaps to think about sports you may want to encourage your children to explore.  If participation in one of these sports is mandatory for the cadets of West Point, there just may something to the idea.  As an avid golfer and casual tennis player and skier I think you will find one of these sports to your or your children’s liking.  Give it a shot you won’t regret it.

A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

I was given this book by someone in the field of education in order to understand how we need to teach our students to succeed in this global age. While all of the skills in this book will certainly be critical to education both now and in the future it turns out that this was really a business book that has many applications

The arguments or premises that this book is based on are that computers and those living outside the U.S. can perform many of the skills we have acquired and that have sustained our economy thus far much faster or more inexpensively.   Therefore, we need to develop skills that cannot be performed by computers or a less expensive labor force.

The six skills outlined in the book are: design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning. Is argued in this book that mastering these skills is necessary to succeed in a global world. You will have to read the book to understand the definition and meaning of these skills as I cannot do them justice here, but I think you’ll find it a worthwhile endeavor.

Whether you are a parent raising a child, a high school or college student trying to decide on a career, an entrepreneur starting a business or a CEO of a well-established business you would be wise to read A Whole New Mind.

One note, do not get hung up on the first chapter as it is a somewhat scientific description of how the brain functions. In fact, I’m not entirely sure that it is necessary to read the first chapter to get the meaning from this book.  However, I am one of those people who feel they have to read every page.

Go ahead and purchase the book or audio version.  You won’t regret it!

How I Was Able to Ace Exams Without Studying by Scott Young

In high school, I rarely studied. Despite that, I graduated second in my class. In university, I generally studied less than an hour or two before major exams. However, over four years, my GPA always sat between an A and an A+.

Recently I had to write a law exam worth 100% of my final grade. Unfortunately, I was out of the country and didn’t get back by plane until late Sunday night. I had to write the test at 9 am Monday morning. I got an A after just one hour of review on the plane.

Right now, I’m guessing most of you think I’m just an arrogant jerk. And, if the story ended there, you would probably be right.

Why do Some People Learn Quickly?

The fact is most of my feats are relatively mundane. I’ve had a chance to meet polyglots who speak 8 languages, people who have mastered triple course loads and students who went from C or B averages to straight A+ grades while studying less than before.

The story isn’t about how great I am (I’m certainly not) or even about the fantastic accomplishments of other learners. The story is about an insight: that smart people don’t just learn better, they also learn differently.

It’s this different strategy, not just blind luck and arrogance, that separates rapid learners from those who struggle.

Most sources say that the difference in IQ scores across a group is roughly half genes and half environment. I definitely won’t discount that. Some people got a larger sip of the genetic cocktail. Some people’s parents read their kids Chaucer and tutored them in quantum mechanics.

However, despite those gifts, if rapid learners had a different strategy for learning than ordinary students, wouldn’t you want to know what it was?

The Strategy that Separates Rapid Learners

The best way to understand the strategy of rapid learners is to look at its opposite, the approach most people take: rote memorization.

Rote memorization is based on the theory that if you look at information enough times it will magically be stored inside your head.

This wouldn’t be a terrible theory if your brain were like a computer. Computers just need one attempt to store information perfectly. However, in practice rote memorization means reading information over and over again. If you had to save a file 10 times in a computer to ensure it was stored, you’d probably throw it in the garbage.

The strategy of rapid learners is different. Instead of memorizing by rote, rapid learners store information by linking ideas together. Instead of repetition, they find connections. These connections create a web of knowledge that can succeed even when you forget one part.

When you think about it, the idea that successful learners create a web has intuitive appeal. The brain isn’t a computer hard drive, with millions of bits and bytes in a linear sequence. It is an interwoven network of trillions of neurons.

Why not adopt the strategy that makes sense with the way your brain actually works?

Not a New Idea, But an Incredibly Underused Idea

This isn’t a new idea, and I certainly didn’t invent it.

Polymath, cognitive scientist and AI researcher Marvin Minsky once said:

“If you understand something in only one way, then you don’t really understand it at all. The secret of what anything means to us depends on how we’ve connected it to all other things we know. Well-connected representations let you turn ideas around in your mind, to envision things from many perspectives until you find one that works for you. And that’s what we mean by thinking!” [emphasis mine]

Benny Lewis, polyglot and speaker of 8 languages, recently took up the task of learning Thai in two months. One of his first jobs was to memorize a phonetic script (Thai has a different alphabet than English). How did he do it?

“I saw [a Thai symbol] and needed to associate it with ‘t’, I thought of a number of common words starting with t. None of the first few looked anything like it, but then I got to toe! The symbol looks pretty much like your big toe, with the circle representing the nail of the second toe (if looking at your left foot). It’s very easy to remember and very hard to forget! Now I think of t instantly when I see that symbol.

It took time, but I’ve come up with such an association for all [75] symbols. Some are funny, or nerdy, or related to sex, or something childish. Some require a ridiculous stretch of the imagination to make it work. Whatever did the job best to help me remember.”

The famous British savant Daniel Tammet has the ability to multiply 5 digit numbers in his head. He explains that he can do this because each number, to him, has a color and texture, he doesn’t just do the straight calculation, he feels it.

All of these people believe in the power of connecting ideas. Connecting ideas together, as Minsky describes. Linking ideas with familiar pictures, like Lewis. Or even blending familiar shapes and sensations with the abstract to make it more tangible as Tammet can do.

How Can You Become a Rapid Learner?

So all this sounds great, but how do you actually do it?

I’m not going to suggest you can become a Tammet, Lewis or Minsky overnight. They have spent years working on their method. And no doubt, some of their success is owed to their genetic or environmental quirks early in life.

However, after writing about these ideas for a couple years I have seen people make drastic improvements in their learning method. It takes practice, but students have contacted me letting me know they are now getting better grades with less stress, one person even credited the method for allowing him to get an exam exemption for a major test.

Some Techniques for Learning by Connections

Here are the some of the most popular tactics I’ve experimented with and suggested to other students:

1. Metaphors and Analogy

Create your own metaphors for different ideas. Differential calculus doesn’t need to just be an equation, but the odometer and speedometer on a car. Functions in computer programming can be like pencil sharpeners. The balance sheet for a corporation can be like the circulatory system.

Shakespeare used metaphor prolifically to create vivid imagery for his audience. Your professor might not be the bard, but you can step in and try them yourself.

2. Visceralization

Visceralization is a portmanteau between visceral and visualization. The goal here is to envision an abstract idea as something more tangible. Not just by imagining a picture, but by integrating sounds, textures and feelings (like Tammet does).

When learning how to find the determinant of a matrix, I visualized my hands scooping through one axis of the matrix and dropping through the other, to represent the addition and subtraction of the elements.

Realize you already do this, just maybe not to the same degree. Whenever you see a graph or pie chart for an idea, you are taking something abstract and making it more tangible. Just be creative in pushing that a step further.

3. The 5-Year Old Method

Imagine you had to explain your toughest subject to a 5-year old. Now practice that.

It may be impossible to explain thermodynamics to a first grader, but the process of explanation forces you to link ideas. How would you explain the broader concepts in simpler terms a child would understand?

4. Diagramming

Mind-mapping is becoming increasingly popular as a way of retaining information. That’s the process of starting with a central idea and brainstorming adjacent connections. But mindmapping is just the skin of the onion.

Creating diagrams or pictures can allow you to connect ideas together on paper. Instead of having linear notes, organized in a hierarchy, what if you had notes that showed the relationships between all the ideas you were learning?

5. Storytelling to Remember Numbers and Facts

Pegging is a method people have been using for years to memorize large amounts of numbers or facts. What makes it unique isn’t just that it allows people to perform amazing mental feats (although it can), but the way it allows people to remember information–by connecting the numbers to a story.

Pegging is a bit outside the scope of this article, but the basic idea is that each digit is represented by the sound of a consonant (for example: 0=c, 3=t, 4=d…). This allows you to convert any number into a string of consonants (4304 = d-t-c-d).

The system allows you to add any number of vowels in between the consonants to make nouns (d-t-c-d = dot code). You can then turn this list of nouns into a story (The dot was a code that the snake used…). Then all you need to do is remember the order of the story to get the nouns, consonants and back to the numbers.

The Way We Were Taught to Learn is Broken

Children are imaginative, creative and, in many ways, the epitome of this rapid learning strategy. Maybe it’s the current school system, or maybe it’s just a consequence of growing up, but most people eventually suppress this instinct.

The sad truth is that the formal style of learning, makes learning less enjoyable. Chemistry, mathematics, computer science or classic literature should spawn new ideas, connections in the mind, exciting possibilities. Not only the right answers for a standardized test.

The irony is that maybe if that childlike, informal way of learning came back, even just in part, perhaps more people would succeed on those very tests. Or at least enjoyed the process of learning.

Scott Young is a university student, author and head of an online service designed to teach you rapid learning tactics.

There is a product out there that can help.  It is a software program called Amazing Slow Downer and it has made my life much less stressful when helping my children with their music practice.  This software allows you to slow down or speed up for that matter any song that you have in your digital library.  Having your child’s s exact song in your digital library can be a challenge.  If anyone knows a good destination to purchase digital music that is played in schools I would love to hear about it.

The cost of the program is $49.95 and you can get it instantly at their website www.ronimusic.com.  I would say this software or something similar is essential if your child is just starting out.  Many of the teaching music books available include a compact disk that you can import into your library and then play along at whatever speed you or your child is comfortable with.  I would highly recommend that you have a set of speakers where you can raise the volume high enough so that you can actually hear the music over the playing.

Playing a musical instrument can be very frustrating when first starting out but using a program like Amazing Slow Downer can definitely ease the frustration.  It also can provide you with means to get involved in your child’s practice and help them develop their playing ability. The more you can incorporate yourself into your musical realm the more likely they will stick with it and excel.  You may also be surprised how it will add another positive dimension to your relationship with them.

One of the key roles of a parent is as the encourager. It is one thing to tell your child to read but it is another, and much more effective, to encourage your child to read. How do you do that? Reading to your child is one way. Setting a good example by reading yourself is another.

My Living Room Wall

The same is true for encouraging your child to expand the artist within them. In school children are constantly producing vast quantities and styles of artwork. Where does all that artwork end up? Often the smaller pieces are enthroned on the refrigerator until something more urgent or livelier takes their place. Then what happens to them? Most of the time they are either discarded or placed in a location that might be explored during spring-cleaning or moving day.

I would like to suggest that you choose some of the artwork that your child is most proud of, pieces that you enjoy most, or pieces that compliment your home and adorn your walls with them. Don’t just tape to them a wall, buy a nice frame and hang them. Michaels, the craft store, always has coupons that will allow you to purchase a decent frame at an affordable price. If you cannot find a frame that the artwork will fit into adequately buy a larger frame and place a large piece of colored paper behind it that will act as a border.

I recently painted out living room where we have had two professional paintings hanging on the wall for years. I had planned on returning them to their usual setting when I remembered I had two framed pieces of children’s artwork waiting to be hung in different room. I placed them on the wall and I must say they look absolutely beautiful in my living room.

Not only do I have a much more colorful and happy room but also my children feel good about themselves when they see them hanging on the wall. As for those pieces that do not get chosen, you may want to take photographs of some of your or your child’s favorites and don’t forget the outdoor chalk drawings. I recently created a photograph album on my computer for my children’s artwork. The pictures are very clear and fun to look at from time to time. In this age of digital photography it is simple, doesn’t cost anything except a little computer storage, and there are no boxes of old artwork lying around. One a side note, I did this for many of our family’s trophies. It feels good to throw things out. Simplify your life.

Displaying your children’s artwork celebrates your children’s’ achievements and gives them a sense of pride. It encourages them to continue to pursue art for the sake of creating artwork. I have found that as children grow older, artistic endeavors, unless it is their passion, tend to fade away. Having their artwork displayed around the house just may keep that creative candle lit a little longer and who knows what might happen as a result. Art is an activity that can be practiced for a lifetime and is a wonderful hobby. As a parent the more you can inspire your children to engage and continue the artistic craft the more well-rounded and happier they will become.

Do you find it challenging to motivate your children to accomplish tasks, chores, homework or any other request or expectation? Trust me you are not alone. Until you have succeeded in imparting these household virtues onto your children so that they become intrinsic, which may take a very long time; you might consider utilizing some type of reward system. There have been many versions of reward systems throughout the years all with varying degrees of success.

The system I am about to describe has been fairly successful for at least younger aged children (4-12 yrs old). Once the teen years hit your guess is as good as mine. Hopefully by that time you have successfully instilled the core values and life skills necessary to live a happy and successful life.

This reward system is called The Marble Jar and is very straightforward. The decisions that have to be made are: What size of container will you use to store the marbles earned? What size marbles will you use? How many marbles will be earned for a successful task? And what type of reward will be given when the jar or container is full?

To get off to the best start possible be sure to include your child in these decisions. As with any successful project it is best to get the buy-in of the participants. I have used Gatorade containers and typical larger jars with standard size marbles. You may want to purchase some new varieties of marbles to add a little zest to the process.

Determining the amount of marbles to be earned for various tasks can get tricky depending on precedents you set so start off small. For example, each day that your children clean their room they will receive five marbles, each spelling word they get correct in practice and/or on a test they get one marble. I have given 20 marbles for every book our child reads. If the book is more difficult than normal I may capriciously allow them to put in 30 or 40 marbles. You may offer them some quantity of marbles if they try a new food. The possibilities are endless. When the jar gets close to getting full typically the child will be looking for ways to earn marbles.

Now it is time for the reward for filling the jar. This could be either an individual reward such as a toy, a movie, etc… or it could be somewhat of a family reward like going to a movie of the child’s choosing or going to some other activity of the child’s choosing like roller skating. You can either precisely predetermine the reward or have some options that the child can choose upon completion. I remember one time my child wanted a big reward although I cannot recall what it was. We decided that he needed to fill four marble jars to get the reward. It took about three months but he did it and he was happily rewarded for some good old-fashioned hard work.

Motivating children can be a delicate matter and it takes patience and persistence to achieve the outcome you desire. Whether you use The Marble Jar method or some other type of approach never forget that the ultimate goal is to develop long-term positive habits that your children will need to live a good life. As Aristotle stated, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

Unfortunately, the weather has been colder than usual for this time of year. Entering the ocean is out of the question even for some of the more courageous in our family. However, there is always the pleasure of looking for seashells and shark teeth. The variety and beauty of seashells never ceases to amaze me. There is something soothing about the beach and searching for seashells adds to the tranquility. Maybe it is the immediate gratification of finding so many unique and colorful shells, or maybe it is the anticipation of finding that perfect shell.

Since coming to Amelia Island I have become somewhat obsessed in trying to find shark teeth. In my mind it is the holy grail of beach combing. On this trip, I found the best one yet; somewhat large and in perfect condition.

So if you can find the opportunity to take some time off, even if it is just a local weekend getaway, from the daily grind do not hesitate. You will be much more productive when you return and possibly more patient with your children.  It is just as important as eating healthy and exercising.  This is just as important for your children.  They need a break and change of scenery also.  If you have to pull them out of school for a few days, so be it.  Not only will it be a good break for them but it can be a very educational event if you make the effort.

First it is a wonderful story written by L. M. Montgomery. The basic plot is about an orphan named Anne Shirley who is mistakenly sent to live with an elderly brother and sister who requested a boy to help out on the farm. However, Anne Shirley wins there love with her enthusiasm for life and an over zealous imagination.

Second, Anne Shirley is a fascinating character. Her creative imagination and love of life is truly endearing. In my opinion she is a role model for young ladies. Additionally, there are several other well-developed and inspiring characters especially the brother played by Richard Farnsworth.

Third the movie is intellectually stimulating. Anne’s vocabulary is what we would all hope our children and ourselves to attain. The movie also emphasizes the importance of education and demonstrates that hard work will pay off.

Lastly, the movie has many real life dilemmas that cannot help but spark worthy discussions among family members. The emotional spectrum is virtually fulfilled by the end of the movie. I should also mention that the scenery is beautiful.

I cannot recommend this movie enough. And if you do like it as much as I did there is a sequel. However, we do not intend to watch it until our children read the book, which they are eager to do.