January 25, 2013

Weekend Reflections: Encouraging Reading (Changing Strategy)

Dominique Parenting and Kids, Weekend Reflections Reading, weekend reflections

Books on a ledge

School is into it’s 3rd week and the boys are now back into the school routine for 2013. This year my focus with them is to encourage them to read more and add in more varieties of books to exposure them to the vast amount of literature that is out there. Many times they stick to only the types of books that interest them – Non fiction science facts and the Adventures of Geronimo Stilton which does not help in developing their creativity and analytical thinking.

I personally do read a great variety of books on a monthly basis. You just need to click on the category- book reviews to see my latest reads. I’m really hoping that the kids will be exposed to more a great selection of books from the authors which I used to read during my childhood. There are also many new good books out that I will be slowly introducing to them.

From this month I am going to chance the way we borrow books from the library. We used to let the kids pick out the books which they would like to read. Now I’m not going to let them have free reign of what to add to the library check out bag. They will still get their choice of books but I will limit it to the maximum 2 books. The other books that they read will be selected by me.

We normally check out about 16 books but most of the time do not get around to reading all of them as the kids are caught up with school work or the extra activities which they need to do. From next week we are only going to check out a maximum of 8 books. Half the original number. This way it will be easier for me to monitor which book is being read and the kids will have to write out book reviews after they have completed reading so I can assess their understanding of what they had recently read.

Doggie boy needs to ramp up his vocabulary in order to be on par with his peers in school. From the Thinkersbox assessment I learned that I need to do a lot more reading together with him and giving him more opportunities to vocalize and use whatever new vocabulary he has learned in daily context.

I will be doing daily reading and weekly activity sessions in regards to reading with all 3 kids. Hopefully this would boost their interest in reading.

What do you have plan to encourage your child to read?

What is on your mind this week? Join in by listing your post below in the linky.

January 25, 2013

Improving Congitive Thinking with Thinkersbox

Dominique Parenting and Kids, Recommendations, Reviews Cognitive skills, Thinkersbox

Being a parent cum teacher I am always on the look out for programs that can really stretch my kids and improve their learning abilities. Last month I was invited by ThinkersBox to let the boys try out their cognitive skills assessment. I was keen to learn more about which areas they were weak/strong in so that I have a better understanding of how was their learning process.

I’m very keen to know what were the boys weaknesses and how I can tailor my teaching so that it would boost their learning capabilities. The assessment would certainly give me an insight into their learning abilities. It would provides answers to why the boys are careless in their work, why they forget the thing they have learned or why they just cannot figure out the question.

The boys

As Monkey boy and Doggie boy are of different age group the assessments that they went through were different. Monkey boy’s assessment lasted 3 hrs and he was tested on 27 Cognitive Skills while Doggie boy’s assessment lasted an hour and were for 11 Cognitive Skills.

Monkey Boy’s Report

Monkey boy was tested on 5 learning functions:

Comprehension
(The speed at which information is processed and understood)
Memory
(The capacity of remembering previously taught information to store and retrieve for use)
Problem Solving
(The ability to apply knowledge to given questions/problems to arrive at the right answer)
Evaluation
( The ability to judge and decide which is/are the most appropriate methods to apply to solve given questions/problems in relation to problem solving)
Creativity
(The ability to be flexible and adaptable to different factors of given questions when questions are phrased differently or when numbers are slightly re-arranged)

He did relatively well on the assessment as he based on a scale of 1-9 he scored a 9 for 3 out of 5 main areas. Monkey boy scored a 7 for the other two areas where he was slightly weaker. Looking at the results he can be considered a High achiever however I’m sure that he can still be stretched and yet to perform up to his optimal capabilities.

Areas needing more attention

Monkey boy is weaker in Figural Content learning, Memory and Creativity.

Doggie boy’s report

Doggie boy’s results were not as outstanding as his brother. There were more areas which needed attention and certain pressing issues which I need to start working on immediately with him.

Based on the results he has issues with visual closure, vocabulary( math and reading), understanding verbal relations and extended verbal information.

What does that all mean?

In short it means that he has problem grasping information if they are delivered to him in a huge chunk. It has to be broken down into small steps and fed to him piece by piece. He needs more attention on helping to build up his vocabulary and reading skills as he maybe able to see complete words in reading. He has problem following directions and understanding overall ideas/concepts. A lot of explanation is needed before he is able to truly grasp what you are trying to teach him.

The instructor suggested that I use the fry slight word list with Doggie boy as I have tried phonics with him and it doesn’t seem to work.

My thoughts

It was a real eye opener for me to learn how the boys actually fared in their learning ability. I do know that Doggie boy is weaker in his academic learning as compared to his brorther but I didn’t know that he faced so many different issues that were raised up through the assessment. Now that I know the areas which they need more focus on I will giving them more materials to help improve their weaknesses.

In the following weeks to come I will be sharing more on how with the help of ThinkersBox I am using their suggested material to add in the cognitive development of the boys through home learning.

More on Thinkersbox

Here is an intro video below to learn more about what the company can offer.