How to Further Advance Your

Child‘s Learning?

Edition Number: 2

Published By Learnhive Pvt. Ltd.

Date of Publication: 11-11-2013

Copyright © Learnhive, 2013

All rights reserved.

ii

About the Authors

Captain Unni Krishnan is a Founder and Director of

LearnHive; he is also the Founder and Managing Trustee

of Primus Public School, Bangalore. Prior to that he was

the Founder and Trustee of Indus International School. At

Primus, he has been instrumental in implementation of

new teaching pedagogies. He has seamlessly integrated

the International and Indian syllabi to help prepare

students for higher studies both in India and Overseas.

Capt. is a 'Sword of Honor' from the prestigious Officers

Training Academy of the Indian Army.

Shiv Shankar (shiv@learnhive.net) is the co-founder

and CEO of LearnHive. He cofounded Learnhive committed

to creating a unique knowledge ecosystem which will make

it easy to create, organize, share and obtain learning

materials for K-12 education.

Tajinder Singh Sidhu is a Founder and Director at

Learnhive. He has over 20 years of experience in various

leadership roles designing and managing complex

technology solutions. Prior to Learnhive, he worked for

over 14 years at Goldman Sachs in New York.

iii

He holds a B.Tech degree in Computer Science & Eng.

from IIT, Delhi, and a Master's in Computer Science from

College of William & Mary, Virginia. He has taught students

as part of the NSS scheme in India, and currently is a

volunteer teacher with the Literacy Volunteers of America.

Dr. Vani Vijayaraj is the Founder and Director

of Impressions Dental Clinic, Whitefield, Bangalore. She is

an Endodontist and Cosmetic Surgeon by profession.

Karthik Ramaswamy is currently pursuing a

Bachelor‘s degree in Mechanical Engineering from VIT

University, Vellore. He is a captain at Assailing Falcons,

VITU's debut aero design team. He is a writer at the Brain

Bought blog.

Pallavi Rudraraju is a student of 12th grade (High

school) in Vienna, Virginia. She has a passion for singing

and dancing on top of avid reading and writing - much of

her time is occupied by singing in her school choirs and

dancing Bharatanatyam under the tutelage of her long-

time guru. She hopes to become an author and an English

teacher following graduation from college. Bringing

awareness and joy to people throughout the world,

through writing, is her lifelong goal.

iv

Crystal Maria Andrade is a Content Developer at

Learnhive. Nature, travelling, music, movies and fun

interests her. She has a profound passion for writing. She

believes making the most out of every opportunity. Her

hobbies include collecting quotes, learning new words and

playing crosswords and puzzles. She‘s a fun-lover and is

surrounded by fun-loving people. Spreading happiness is

her mantra.

Jenna Murdoch is a student at Barnard College of

Columbia University in New York City. She is an

instructional technologist who is interested in evolving

learning models.

v

About the Authors .................................................................................... ii

Index ............................................................................................................. v

Preface ...................................................................................................... vii

Chapter 1: Are Children Learning or Studying? .............................. 1

Chapter 2: How involved are you in your kid’s education?......... 7

Chapter 3: 6 ways to get involved in the education of your

Kindergarten child ............................................................ 11

Chapter 4: 5 frequently asked questions about reading answered

.................................................................................................. 18

Chapter 5: Make learning effective – address the misconceptions

.................................................................................................. 23

Chapter 6: 3 ways to help your children learn better and 5 tips to

make home work effective ............................................. 27

Chapter 7: 10 activities to engage with your kids in .................. 32

Chapter 8: 5 Useful Tips for Successful Learning ........................ 36

Chapter 9: Secrets fo Learning!.................................................41

Chapter 10: 10 Ways to Enhance Memory for Children! ............. 49

vi

Chapter 11: Are you giving enough blended learning for your child?

.................................................................................................. 59

Chapter 12: Why should you be using the Internet for your child’s

education? ............................................................................ 65

Chapter 13: How to get the awesome results from parent teacher

meetings? ............................................................................. 71

vii

Technology in education is many a time

misunderstood; it is not a means of replacing a teacher or

reducing their skill on the contrary for effective use of

technology the teacher must be more conversant with the

topic and have the ability to moderate discussions within

the class. Technology must be used in conjunction with

classroom teaching to strengthen understanding of

concepts among students. Learnhive as a platform wishes

to address this need and in addition also aims at being a

reference point for parents by providing information on

areas in education that are important. A series of such

information has been consolidated in this e-book and is

being published for assistance of parents.

By Captain Unni Krishnan

1

Chapter 1:

Are Children Learning or

Studying?

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can

teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue

the learning process as long as he lives.

By Clay P. Bedford

2

Chapter 1

Are Children

Learning or Studying?

By Captain Unni Krishnan,

Photo Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1361797

3

Children are most precious to parents and their

future the top most priority for them. It is with the

purpose of helping their child achieve great heights

that parents seek the best possible education for

them. Having been educated in the post-

independence but pre economic autonomy era, I

have experienced a system of education that is

skewed towards marks rather than towards

knowledge. Every opportunity of employment was

governed by ―What degree do you have? What

marks did you get?‖ The questions "What is it that

you know‖? Or ―What is it that you can do‖? had no

relevance. This led to a single point of focus in

education which clearly conveyed that ―marks are

not everything but they are the only thing‖.

Admission to a good college ensures a good

placement and in turn admission to a good college is

based on the marks that you achieve in the Board

Examination or the Entrance Examination.

In this age, when success is measured by

remuneration, getting qualifying marks becomes all

important. What this has done to the education

system is that it has taken away the aspects of

4

learning like application, analysis, creativity and

innovation and got students oriented to just

studying for examination with the sole aim of

getting marks.

This has resulted in a rat race where

education related discussions revolve only on

cut-off marks. The effect of the percentage

phenomenon has been such that it has engulfed

even the education boards resulting in a cut–off

at 100% this year. What next?

Let us ask ourselves, does a 100% mean

the student has mastered that complete subject

and is a pundit at it?

Childhood comes once in a life time and

sadly the pressure of contesting at every step

has taken away the social aspect of growing up

with friends and appreciating others. All that

matters is ‗I‘ ‗me‘ and ‗myself‘. All assessments

create a student represented just by numbers.

5

Sadly, in this whole journey, what we have left

behind is the need for real education. Education was

meant to help a child learn and then apply that learning

to life in different situations that they would come across.

Today, education has got limited to studying for marks

and learning is of no consequence.

As per our philosophy parents and teachers

are potters and are trying to give shape to their

children. There is a Chinese saying ―Give a potter

a seed and you will get a Bonsai‖.

If you give a seed to a Gardner, you can

have a tree that will give you flowers, fruits and

even shade.

The same philosophy applies to business as

well where it is essential to emphasize on

creating a work ecosystem that provides every

individual an opportunity to optimise their

potential, work on their strengths and avoid

areas of weakness; profits are bound to come in.

6

To prepare our children for the new era, let

us try to get their focus on learning to

experiment rather than just study for marks

because this will

help them be creative, innovative and in turn

successful in life.

7

Chapter 2:

How involved are you in your kid’s

education?

Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right

paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in

their own hands.

Anne Frank

8

Chapter 2

How involved are

you in your Kid’s education?

By Tajinder Singh Sidhu,

Photo Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/495427

9

Do you know which subjects your kid is taking at

school? Do you know which of them your kid loves the

most? Do you know the name of your kid‘s best friend

in school?

School going kids spend 60-70% of their waking

hours, including the weekends and holidays, outside of

their school. Time and again it has been seen, the more

the parents gets involved with their kid‘s education and

school, the better their school results have been. The

parent‘s active involvement helps in emphasizing in the

kid‘s mind, that the home and school are inter-

connected.

There are several ways you can get involved. As

my wife and I go about parenting our 2 kids, who are in

the 10th and 7th class, here are few tips (that we got

from others) that are working for us.

Show consistent interest in what they are doing in

school. We continue to learn a thing or two from our

kids or sometimes have a good laugh, when they come

home excited to tell what happened in school today.

This conveys to them that you value what is happening

in school.

10

Get passionate and learn up about any sport,

activity, hobby that your kid is crazy about, and

participate whole heartedly in it. Yes, it can be an

online/video game too! The enthusiasm and

camaraderie that you will build here will help you have

better conversations around their learning and

education.

Sometimes, have conversations with them on

what they don‘t like about their school education or

what worries them. It will identify issues that you might

be in a position to help and fix. However, be mindful

that there will be some lame excuses here!

And of course, visit their school regularly,

especially when they are participating in any school

activity or sport. That goes a long way in boosting their

confidence.

11

Chapter 3:

Six ways to get involved in the

education of your

Kindergarten child

Get over the idea that only children should spend their

time in study. Be a student so long as you still have

something to learn, and this will mean all your life.

Henry L. Doherty

12

Chapter 3

Six ways to get

involved in the education of your

kindergarten

child

By Dr. Vani Vijayaraj, Endodontist and Cosmetic Surgeon

Photo credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/992545

13

I like to play a very important role in the

education of my four year old child. There is an

old Chinese saying. ―Give a seed to a potter and

you shall have a bonsai". If we depend only on

the school curriculum to enrich our child‘s

knowledge, then we are not entirely nurturing

the child‘s mind, body and spirit. In the early

years, children spend most of their time outside

of school. Parents should provide meaningful

learning activities at home for their children,

prepare, support and enhance what is taught at

school.

When I was teaching my then three year

old about the different professionals, we took her

to a fire station, met with a policeman, a dentist,

a doctor, cab driver, gardener, maid, engineer

etc. She can now relate to all of them and this

provides a stimulating experience.

Here are the six ways you as a parent can get

involved.

14

1. Maintain a daily and weekly family

routine For example, every Sunday evening we

have a family routine. We as a family sit in our

garden on

our respective comfortable chairs along with our

own books and have our coffees, fruits and milk

spending quality time and as we read our books

we even discuss the books. Have a clutter free

desk for your child to study every day.

Set a fixed time each day for study and

homework and do not negotiate. Read to your

child every night, reading aloud is the most

important activity that parents can do to increase

their child's chance of reading successfully.

2. Regularly communicate with the school

Informal discussions with school staff is the most

useful way to find out about children‘s progress

in school. It can help us focus on things that the

child needs help with.

3. Monitor after school activities

15

Make sure your child is always supervised,

arrange for after school activities like group work

on science projects (a group of parents can take

turns to help the children), music, dance, sports,

literary activities etc. These will help in the

development of the child‘s social skills.

4. Plan Field trips

Plan field trips with either with a group of your

child‘s friends or just the family. Field trips give

your children the opportunity to touch, hold, see,

taste and live what they are learning from books.

Plan a trip to the farm, a wild life sanctuary,

planetarium etc.

5. Involve yourself in your child’s project

work

When you help your child with their project, give

a lot of input, help them browse the internet for

the best information, take them to the libraries

and help them present the project in an excellent

manner, which gets appreciated at school and

makes the child want to do more.

16

6. Talk to your children about what they are

learning at school

It is important to ask your child about school, be

it a Kindergartner or a high schooler. Always ask

open-ended questions about their class work —

questions that can‘t be answered with a ―yes‖ or

‗no.‖ Make sure you share any knowledge you

have and if required read the textbooks or

browse the net for more information.

I want to share my experience on how I

got involved with my child's project work. The

month's topic in my daughter‘s school was

seasons. I taught my daughter her seasons, by

not just showing her pictures, but by making a

diorama with her helping out. We used scrub

pads to make the leaves.

Spring: Blooms everywhere with the big yellow sun

and butterflies

Summer: Blooms turning into fruits, with thirsty

birds on a bird bath.

Autumn: Yellow and orange leaves falling, rain and

also a rake.

17

Winter: Snow and snow man. No leaves on the

branches and the sun farthest away.

I created a chart to show all four seasons in one. She

learnt quickly and the teachers told me she did a

wonderful job explaining the seasons in class during Show

and Tell.

18

Chapter 4:

Five frequently asked questions

about reading

answered

No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find

time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen

ignorance.

Atwood H. Townsend

19

Chapter 4

Five frequently

asked questions about reading

answered

By Captain Unni Krishnan,

Photo credit: Preethi Vijayaraj

20

Reading is a dying habit among the current

generation of youth and is a matter of concern. I

thought I would highlight the benefits of reading in a

Q&A approach with the aim to not only influence a few

more people to read but also motivate them to get their

children to start reading.

1. How does reading influence a person?

Reading influences a person‘s speaking and writing

abilities and more importantly has a great bearing on

the personality as a whole because - Reading improves

awareness on varied topics and in any gathering helps

interact on a larger spectrum of issues.

2. What is the ideal age to start reading?

Reading is a habit and the earlier you start the better it

is. The best way is for a mother to regularly start

reading aloud to a little baby and then slowly grow this

to sessions where both read together. As a family if you

can have reading time that would be ideal. It is never

too early nor too late to start reading. Of course it is

easier to start reading when you are young and as you

grow older you need more push.

3. How does reading benefit?

21

Some of the long term benefits are if you are person

who reads, you will never be bored, as a book is a

friend that can always be with you, it builds your self-

esteem because you are considered a resource person

within your group.

Reading is an active mental process and it is said that if

you are mentally active you can stay away from

Alzheimer; well then it is a great incentive.

4. Why should a child take up reading?

Among children reading can be of great help, it helps

improve their vocabulary as they are exposed to so

many new words and its different usage, it improves

their concentration and focus, it improves their memory

and above all improves their visualization - when you

read a book you visualize a scene your way and when

you see a movie you see it depicted as visualized by

someone else.

5. Is there an age by when it is too late to start

reading?

It is never late to start or improve your reading habit

but an important aspect in this regard is to be serious

about. Have a schedule or an allotted time every day

that must be religiously followed for reading if you can

22

have a common time as a family when everyone is

reading then it is the best.

One interesting method suggested is what is

called DEAR – which stands for Drop Everything and

Read. You can follow this at home or office or anywhere

else: set an alarm and whenever the alarm goes off

stop whatever you are doing pick up a book and read.

You can read for 15 minutes, 30 minutes or even

an hour depending on the time you have. You can even

have more than one such slot every day or 2 slots on

holidays and Sundays during vacations and so on. You

can add incentives and penalties to it. The options are

plenty DEAR can be as creative as you want it to be the

aim is to promote reading.

If you have been reading keep doing if not start

now. Wishing all of you happy reading.

23

Chapter 5: Make

learning effective- address

the

misconceptions

The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to

think, than what to think – rather to improve our minds, so

as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the

memory with thoughts of other men.

Bill Beattie

24

Chapter 5

Make learning

effective- address the

misconceptions

By Shiv Shankar,

Did you know that kids have strong

misconceptions? Watching lecture based video lessons

will not help the kids to learn the concepts. This was

explained in a recent article. An example of

misconception is that kids believe that the earth is flat.

When the (video) teacher explains that the earth is

round, the kids imagine that it is like a pancake, round

and flat. So, how do we solve this problem and make

learning more effective?

It is very important to bring out the child's

misconceptions and replace it with the correct concepts.

25

Following the above example, asking the question

whether the earth is like a pancake and explaining that

the earth is like a ball will remove the misconception.

Derek Muller in his Ph.D. thesis explains the best ways

to teach Physics by addressing the common

misconceptions.

It is now time to abolish monologue lecture videos

as a means to teach concepts. A concept can be taught

very effectively if a student is included in the video and

there is a dialogue with a student. The student in the

video should actively ask questions to clarify the

misconceptions. This will help the child who is watching

the video to assume the role of the student in the video

and activate mirror neurons leading to better

learning. Arindam Nag, one of our co-founders has

applied this principle and did an excellent job of

explaining the concept of infinity to his daughter. You

can watch this awesome infinity concept YouTube

video .

I have given some references in the next page if

you are interested in exploring further.

26

References:

1. "Students come to the classroom with

preconceptions about how the world works. If

their initial understanding is not engaged, they

may fail to grasp the new concepts and

information that

are taught, or they may learn them for purposes

of a test but revert to their

preconceptions outside the classroom."- Book:

How people learn?

2. Mental Models of the Earth: A Study of

Conceptual Change in Childhood

3. Expert gently asks whether Khan's Academy

videos promote meaningful learning

4. Designing Effective Multimedia for Physics

Education

5. Mirror Neuron - wiki

6. Learnhive video - Concept of Infinity

27

Chapter 6:

3 ways to help your children

learn better and 5

tips to make homework

effective

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember,

involve me and I learn.

Benjamin Franklin

28

Chapter 6

3 ways to help

your children

learn better and 5

tips to make

homework

effective By Captain Unni Krishnan,

Photo credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/193524

29

Reinforcing learning in our child is something all

of us are very keen about. By virtue of my few years as

an educationist and as a parent of a growing boy, I

experienced and noted a few interesting ways to help

the process of learning including completing school

homework which I found quite successful and thought

would share.

1. Teach reading of maps

Reading a map is a skill that is of great help and can be

made very interesting. Along with your child, try and

create a small map of the house and your immediate

locality and mark the places the child visits every day.

Create interesting signs to depict information and then

make a legend of the same. You can mark as much

information as possible on the map so that it is used

during discussions at home. Now when you get a real

map the child will find following the map much easy.

2. Discuss recent purchases

In the next step, take up discussions based on things

that are bought and then relate them to their place of

origin. For example if you buy a new mobile phone,

discuss about the country where it was made, the

capital of that

30

country, the language spoken in that country, cities

that you know of in that country and so on. These

discussions are a wealth of information for the child and

will remain with them.

3. Ask requests in writing

Writing is again something which all of us find the new

generation to be reluctant about – to improve this, try

to get them to write a request for what they

want. Instead of shouting/ punishing them, ask them

to write an explanation about why they made the

mistake. An apology letter is also a constructive

punishment.

Tips on making homework effective

Have a regular schedule i.e. fixed time and place for

doing homework.

No TV or radio during home work time.

Try and be with your child during home work time

and preferably read/ catch up with your work - it is a

great motivation for the child.

Try and get your child to teach you what was done

as home work – ‗you learn better when you teach‘.

31

Prioritize difficult homework over easy ones, as the

child wouldn‘t be stressed while doing easy

homework if it gets late.

Appreciation, Attention, Affection and

Acceptance are key factors in developing a learning

culture among children and parents play a key role in

this.

Different children respond differently and even

same child responds differently at different times, I am

sure parents would have successfully tried a number of

methods to help their children, please feel free to share

your tips as it will help others as well.

32

Chapter 7:

10 activities to engage with your

kids in

Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to

suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young

children, before they are aware of their own self-importance,

learn so easily.

Thomas Szasz

33

Chapter 7

10 activities to

engage with your kids in

By Tajinder Singh Sidhu,

Photo credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/299893

34

I want to share how parents can get passionately

involved and engaged in various sports and activities

that their kids enjoy doing. This is a follow-up to my

previous blog on ‗How involved are you in your kid‘s

education‘.

Here are some edutainment activities you can do

with your kids – some we have enjoyed doing at home

with our 2 kids, and there are others that I know, are

avidly done by some of my friends and families. And

often some friendly competition with your kids, in some

of these activities, can spice up the excitement.

1. Picture puzzle boards – you can get various

difficulty levels for various age groups, plus there is

a collective sense of achievement (and sometimes

relief)

2. Treasure hunt – good one to organize inside (or

outside) your home. Sometimes include your

neighbour‘s kids and their house too!

3. Building blocks – works well with kids in the 3-7

years age group.

35

4. Plant an indoor house-plant – for the nature-

inclined kids. A money plant is easy to grow and

maintain.

5. Wash your car or motorbike together on

summer day – Usually anything with water is fun,

and you have a shining car/bike at the end.

6. Bead-work – Girls more inclined towards this and

you can get the Grandma involved too.

7. Go on a bicycle ride with your kid(s) – Make sure

there is enough open space or the side roads are not

busy.

8. Dance at home – find songs that you both like and

the tune is easy to dance with. Exercise and have

fun at the same time.

9. Play tag – never goes out in style with younger

kids.

10. Do you have something that you enjoy doing the

most with your kids? Please post here.

36

Chapter 8:

5 Useful Tips for Successful

Learning

A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and

instill a love of learning.

Brad Henry

37

Chapter 8

5 Useful Tips for

Successful Learning

By Pallavi Rudraraju,

Photo Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/472030

38

Have you been worried that your kid crams

all night to get good marks in exams? Do you feel

that your child doesn't do well in studies and does

not have the right habits of learning? Here are a

few quick tips for better and faster learning that

will help your child to retrieve better during

examinations.

As a student, months away from receiving a high

school diploma, I feel like I have just the right balance

of youth; yet modern experience in the current

education system to offer you and your child successful

learning tips. It is best to begin walking your child

through these study habits once they begin their

education, but any time is a good time to start with

teaching learning routines for a happy, motivated

student.

1. Select a time period during the day in which

your child will learn and complete homework. Making a

routine schedule is ideal for setting a habit and

maximizing your child's focus.

39

-It might be best to ask your child which time of the

day they‘d like to learn, but also consider the ideal time

for you to be able to help them while determining a set

study period for your child.

-If you have more than one child, try to keep study

times similar, but allow more or less time for each child

depending on individual learning pace or level of

education.

-It is not a good idea to set study time right after school

or right before bed as sleepiness or excitement might

not allow your child to focus to the fullest extent of their

abilities.

2. The length of time your child needs to complete

schoolwork varies from child to child, along with the

level of coursework. So, if your child needs more time,

snacks and breaks then they are helpful to keep your

child happy and focused.

3. Allow your child to work alone on homework, but

help whenever he or she asks for it. Make sure your

child does not become frustrated.

4. Always be patient with your child- if you are

getting frustrated, perhaps, your child simply doesn't

comprehend the way in which you are trying to explain.

40

5. If you find for any reason you are unable to give

your child time or help in certain subjects, look for a

peer or even professional tutor that can simplify the

process for your child.

The key to setting good study habits is to follow

them regularly at scheduled intervals and maintain the

happiness of your child to make sure he or she is

engaged. As each child's course load is different due to

age, level, and understanding; it might take your child

varying amounts of time to finish work. Nevertheless, if

you allow study time to be fun, relaxing, and

stimulating; you can guarantee that your child will

enjoy studying while getting the best results out of it!

41

Chapter 9:

Secrets of Learning!

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use

to change the world.

Nelson Mandela

42

Chapter 9

Secrets of

Learning!

By Crystal Andrade,

Photo credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/717339

43

You may be curious as to know how humans

learn. The ability to create new memories, store

them for a longer period of time and recall them

when they are needed is something marvelous about

human memory. But, how parents and teachers

think about learning taking place in children is

erroneous. Let‘s look at what memory has in store

for us.

Learning is a continuous process which lasts life-

long in humans. It begins right when the baby is in

the womb till we die. There has been lot of research

done as to how learning takes place in humans.

Today, we find parents worrying that their children

do not do well in their studies and some children find

it difficult to grasp concepts and lag behind while

others are fast learners and get bored or impatient

as they learn quite faster than the others and don‘t

fit into their peer groups. Why do you think this

happens? Do we not know that each individual differs

from the other even in terms of learning and

memory?

44

Learning is different for each individual because

we learn in different places and situations. Learning

depends on whether it is formal or informal. People

learn through different ways like touch, auditory,

visual, behavior, attention, rote memorization,

observing, and perceptions and so on. Moreover, we

learn through variety of formats like multimedia,

books, lectures and the like. Our learning is

influenced by our culture, family, social status,

genetic traits, developmental ability and age. Thus,

learning is unique to each individual. Furthermore,

one needs to know that learning and memory are

interdependent. Learning takes place because of

memory and without memory you cannot learn.

Misconceptions about learning

The fact that everybody needs to know about how

learning takes place is crucial in determining better

results and how to overcome some common

prejudices. Learning is not as simple as we think and

it is much more than cramming. Teachers and

parents make their students and children follow

stringent studying habits without understanding the

45

aspect of how learning takes place in children or

humans in general. Learning is the result of memory

and the process of learning depends on how the

information in processed in the stages of our

memory. The stages that makes memory is due to

encoding, storing and retrieval. If we have learnt

something then it is because there is a relative

permanent change which has taken place in our

behavior, mental processors and our perceptions

about the concepts which is solely due to the result

of our experience.

Stages of memory

What everybody needs to know is how the

information is processed in our memory and how

learning occurs in humans. The stages are as

follows:

Stage 1: This is the first stage of memory and the

information which we have perceived or seen is

encoded for a brief period of time i.e. few seconds.

This information must be either transferred

immediately to short-term memory or else it is liable

to be erased or ceased. This stage is called sensory

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information.

Stage 2: The second stage of memory lasts for 20

to 30 seconds. Some selective sensory information

which is stored in our active memory or conscious

mind is called as short-term memory. Most of the

short-term memories are quickly forgotten, to locate

them for future reference, one has to attend to this

information so that this information moves to the

next stage.

Stage 3: The final stage of memory refers to

information which lies deep in our unconscious and

can be retrieved whenever desired. It‘s a stage

where old information is replaced with new and the

information stored here can be retrieved for a

lifetime. It plays a vital role in learning without which

our purpose wouldn‘t be served. This stage is called

long term memory. Information stored here is

permanent.

Memory like music

Memory can be compared to music on your phone. If

you watch a YouTube music video then it would be a

sensory information for your phone. If you download

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a song and if it is in your playlist then it would be

short term memory. Once the new songs are added,

the old ones will be automatically moved from the

playlist. If you keep playing the new songs many

times, they will be on your phone as most played.

Likewise, this is how memory works. The more you

rehearse any information, the more you will be able

to retrieve or recall the information later.

Goodbye to cramming

Now that you know how memory works and how

learning takes place, you can get rid of your traditional

ways of teaching or studying and say goodbye to all

your prejudices about learning. Cramming or rote

learning entire night before the day of exam is not the

right way to study. Doing this will only result in mental

block or forgetting. Every time you sit for studying,

remember that rehearsing the information you have

learnt is very essential for learning to take place. This

indicates that revising helps in recalling the information

accurately.

Only when the information is rehearsed in the

short term memory, it will be transferred to the long

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term memory.

When this happens we know that learning has

taken place. Hence, practice is important so that your

memory knows that this repeated information has a

purpose and will be retrieved whenever you need it. So,

your memory is like a field. The more you sow, the

more you shall reap. Consequently, make your memory

your good friend, as you‘ll need its help for lifelong

whenever needed.

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Chapter 10:

10 Ways to Enhance Memory

for Children!

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

Aristotle

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Chapter 10

10 Ways to Enhance

Memory for Children!

By Crystal Andrade,

Photo credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1056131

51

You may wonder how you manage to remember

information for a test. Parents often worry how well

their children are learning and whether schools are

meeting educational standards. Parents and teachers

have big dreams that their children and students

should become successful in their life. But, whether

you succeed or not, all depends on this one aspect:

your mind. Your mind matters and what matters

more is your memory. Memory has three stages

which include sensory information (replica of what

you see and hear/ also called encoding), short-term

memory (active/working memory also called

storage) and long-term memory (permanent

memory/retrieval). Learning is the outcome of

memory and learning depends on how well you have

processed the information. As ability to recall

information is needed for students, the information

they learn should be passed on from the short term

memory to long term memory in order to retain

information during exams, tests or whenever

required.

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Here are some tips for learning that will enhance

your ability to recall information and achieve

excellent results:

How much is too much: There‘s a need to

understand the span of attention of students and

their capacity to store information in their working

memory. It is not educationally sound to impose on

the students huge amount of information for long

period of time, this will leave them confused and

clueless. Instead, giving them limited information for

study and helping them to learn with vigour will aid

in retaining the information for a longer period of

time.

1. Adding Emotion: Anything taught with the

element of emotion will be easily retained in our

memory. This means students are likely to recall

information that induces an emotional response.

Teachers can use this tactic in English, History and

Science classes. For example: if the lesson is on

galaxy, the teacher can induce emotions in the

students by showing them videos or pictures of the

galaxy and stars.

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2. Reading, writing and recollecting: Anything which

is read out loudly will enhance your retention than

just reading it. Writing down the important points or

facts will help in retention and will be useful while

studying for exams. Recollecting is the ability to

retain the information after reading and writing. If

you have encoded the information efficiently then

you will be able to retrieve the information.

3. Rehearsal: It is said ‗Practice makes a man

perfect‘, therefore, rehearsing information till you

master any concept is very important. Rehearsal

improves your memory and gets etched onto your

long-term memory. Also, rehearsing the right

information is essential because unlearning the

inaccurate information which is passed on to the

long-term memory will be a challenging task. Hence,

practice over time and ace your exams without

cramming all information in one night.

4. Give meaning: If there is any subject which has

many names, dates and figures; then it is always

better to associate these facts with something.

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Giving meaning to meaningless concepts or

information through ways such as poems,

mnemonics, music and rhythm will improve retention

of this information for future use.

5. Nevertheless, you can use an aid such as

chunking which plays a significant role in enhancing

the short term memory transfer to long term

memory. Chunking numbers, colours or aspects in

groups helps in remembering and learning the

concepts faster.

6. Make connections: It is vital to make connections

or associations between the new information and the

previously learnt information. The higher the number

of associations made, the more chances of retaining

that information easily and this in turn induces your

memory power through which you can retrace the

information easily.

7. Avoid distractions: While studying, choose a quiet

and peaceful environment, comfortable seating

and table, bright light, proper ventilation and

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avoid distracting things around you. Here, distracting

elements include anything that diverts your

attention, for instance: video games, T.V., music

player, phones, and the like. While studying, if

distraction persists then encoding the information

suffers leading to forgetting. Hence, for encoding to

be efficient you shouldn't give ways to distraction

instead concentrate and give maximum attention to

avoid the inability to retrieve information.

8. Get some rest: Take a break between learnings.

You have heard that ‗All work and no play makes

Jack a dull boy‘, so take breaks after few hours of

studying and relax your mind. Not only breaks but

physical exercise and sound sleep strengthens your

ability to retain the information. Sleep is very crucial

to boost your memory. Sleep helps us learn new

information and pass the information to the long-

term memory. However, for most of the problems

including imbalance of mind and body, stress,

preparing for exams- the best prescription commonly

given is get some sleep! So, say goodbye to

cramming all night.

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9. Teach others to help you revise better: Whatever

you have learnt will be useful when you share that

knowledge to another person. So, one of the best

ways to learn is to teach what you've learnt to

another person. This is the reason why teachers

have mastered the concepts they teach because they

have to teach the same lessons and concepts to

many batches in school. Adding to this, if the

concepts are thought using real life stories and

examples or experiments, then the students are

likely to remember them for life because anything

visual stimulates our attention and learning takes

place faster.

10. Questioning enhances learning: Asking questions

like why, how, what helps in learning concepts well

because here the reasoning, thinking and analysis is

involved. Anything which triggers our mental

processors helps in learning the concepts faster and

better. Finding answers to these questions makes

memory work out as all the mental processors are

involved making the memory charged and active.

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Besides, another way to ask question is by taking the

quizzes or tests which will help in reasoning and in a

way enhance your memory power. Here, the end

process will be getting feedback from the tests which

plays a vital role in knowing what is right and what is

wrong. All this collectively heightens your memory

power because your brain is at its maximum

functionality.

These are the 10 ways which will help you learn

efficiently and remember information so that they can

be retrieved whenever in need. If these procedures are

followed anyone can learn anything quickly and retrace

the information efficiently. However, all these

procedures have to be followed in a systematic way and

one shouldn't end up multi-tasking. The reason is

because our brain processes and stores the information

systematically. This is not practiced then certain

glitches can occur in the process of learning which will

lead to forgetting. Now, you know that the old myths of

rote learning don‘t work. These guidelines will help

students as it will help them reason and learn using the

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above methods which will have a great impact on the

way they can retrieve information whenever asked

for. Therefore, retention depends on how well you

make use of these sure-fire ways to become more

effective learner by simply enhancing your memory

power for excellent results. Ultimately, don‘t forget

that remembering is a skill that takes lot of practice

and learning is a life-long process and has to go on

for our existence on earth. So, happy learning as

memory is like a computer, you need to press Ctrl +

S (Save) for all important information, press

Backspace for all irrelevant information and press

Delete for unused/useless information. Now F5

(Refresh) your mind and practice these useful

methods.

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Chapter 11:

Are you giving enough blended

learning for your

child?

Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left

to educate themselves.

Ernest Dimnet

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Chapter 11

Are you giving

enough blended

learning for your

child?

By Jenna Murdoch,

Photo credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1109761

61

Most of the parents feel that in spite of sending their

child to tuition and school, the classroom learning

has not made much of an impact on the child. The

reason could be that the child has not understood

the concepts or that they maybe exceptionally

talented that they are bored of learning the

concepts. This is due to being exposed to only

classroom learning and not practical knowledge. Find

out what blending learning is all about and how it will

have a positive impact on your child's learning.

Within the modern school system, students are

arranged primarily by age rather than by ability. This

originated with the industrial model of schools,

where students were all trained in the same way to

prepare them to take the place of another on the

assembly line and are moved through the school

years in lock step. Of course, we are no longer in the

industrial age – we live in a knowledge economy

where not everyone is expected to be on the same

path, yet still, students are put in classrooms without

full regard to where they stand on the learning

spectrum.

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Pitfalls in levelled classrooms:

In order to adapt to the new economy, many schools

have attempted to address students of differing

abilities by creating leveled classes and introducing

opportunities for more advanced students such as

Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate

programs. Further, teachers have attempted to

design more ―modern‖ curricula that deviate from

the traditional industrial model by using new in-class

methods that encourage collaboration and project-

based learning. However, even within these leveled

classrooms, there is considerable variance in

students‘ level of comfort with coursework -

instructors still have to appeal to the most common

denominator in order to address the largest audience

possible. As a result, students who have trouble

keeping up may give up on understanding the

material while students who are exceptionally

talented in a certain subject may become bored or

even discouraged.

Online education aids practice and preparation:

In many subjects, online education may be a way for

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students who don‘t fit into the common denominator

to complement in-class instruction. Online education

is a particularly effective complement to work in

mathematics, since mathematical reasoning involves

practice and objective problem solving. Students

who are having a hard time keeping up with their

classmates can do online practice problems until

they have a better handle on the material or watch

tutorials that take them step-by-step through the

process of solving certain types of problems.

Learners who are ahead of most of their peers can

use online education as a way to solve more

challenging problems that can give them a leg up in

preparing for future coursework and can even help

get them prepared for the level of mathematical

reasoning that is expected of students applying to

top universities.

Optimizing online learning platform:

Though online instruction can be an excellent

complement for classroom materials, many parents

and students have a hard time deciding what

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features to look for when attempting to choose an

online learning platform. Many online education

providers have extremely limited materials or

demonstrate the same generalized approach that

drives students to online resources in the first place.

In order to maximize the benefits of complementary

online education, parents and students should look

for platforms that have broad content and have

adaptive resources that track a learner‘s progress

and generate additional materials based on the

user‘s demonstrated performance.

Blending in-class and online instruction:

Blending in-class instruction with adaptive online

complementary resources can allow students to

move at their own pace and can empower them in

the classroom.

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Chapter 12:

Why should you be using the

Internet for your

child’s education?

The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most,

but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.

Plato

66

Chapter 12

Why should you

be using the Internet for your

child’s education?

By Karthik Ramaswamy,

Photo credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/2281

67

Every student has a time in life where he feels

academically challenged - I myself was faced with that

dilemma during the time I was applying to different

Universities to pursue my Bachelor's degree in

Mechanical Engineering. There is a certain overflow as

well as a lack of information one finds in today's

education system: It has become more of a business,

and people fail to understand WHY learning and schools

were invented in the first place. The essence of learning

something lies in curiosity - if you are genuinely curious

about a topic, there's no way you can't learn more

about it.

That curiosity is sometimes self-generated, but

most of the time, needs to be inculcated - which is why

learning about something is very different in

comparison to doing well in an exam and scoring

marks.

At the end of the day, both go hand in hand.

Genuine interest fosters a hunger for knowledge, and

later a desire to apply that knowledge - which is where

exams come in - in places where you can test your

understanding skills. And one has to agree; there is no

better place to do that than the Internet.

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I'm pretty sure many kids today are well

acquainted with the net. I was nothing short of shocked

when my 10 year old cousin came up to me and asked

me about things i hadn't even heard of before - which

explains how much these kids really get out of digging

around the internet. When I was in sixth grade, there

was no option really, other than paying attention in

class (or expensive personal tutors who, well, let‘s face

it, really didn't make kids learn the right way) and then

preparing all by yourself for examinations. The only

material you had was government-supplied textbooks

that focused more on an examination point of view

rather than actual learning. The skills needed for

grasping more complicated concepts in science was only

inculcated through active participation in competitive

exams such as Olympiads.

Today, if I want to read about airplanes, I can go

to Wikipedia and learn all about them the very same

day. So much so, that within a month, I can take online

lessons and match my knowledge to a graduate in

aerospace. This vast, vast treasure trove of information

comes with universities realizing that knowledge must

be

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shared extensively - with more involvement from the

student community, the internet continues to be an

invaluable resource to students all over the world. But

things are slightly different at the school level.

Of course, one cannot simply start reading

graduate level subjects out of interest. Moreover, it is

very important that the 'Base' - fundamentals or

'fundas' as they are better known - must be absolutely

concrete. And this can happen only at the school level.

If they aren't strong, the student will have to first build

them later on - which is frankly a waste of time, and no

student likes to go back to what he studied at the

school level once he graduates from school.

Any kid can read a textbook, learn a few lines,

write it in exams and get a good grade. But does that

really help them? Not really. Because when they have

to apply that knowledge, they fall behind people who

use these other resources - and actually learn the

subject. These 'resources' come in many shapes and

sizes, but what is important is that they must be

focused on making the student learn. Make him think,

develop his curiosity and

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then challenge him with applications of what he learned

- that way, he'll not see it as an obligation, but as a fun

activity that engages him in learning new things.

Textbook knowledge is not at all enough, and most

students find it boring to read the same thing again and

again.

Don‘t limit them as far as their education is

concerned - it's important that they pick up as much as

they want (and need) to along the way.

And with a toll as powerful as the Internet, the

whole world is, quite literally, at their fingertips.

71

Chapter 13:

How to get the awesome results

from parent

teacher meetings?

Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in

another time.

Rabindranath Tagore

72

Chapter 13

How to get the

awesome results from parent teacher

meetings?

By Captain Unni Krishnan,

Photo credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/180602

73

The days of ―Acharya Devo Bhava‖ (teachers are

god) probably no more exist, reasons for this may be

many. The dynamics of student teacher and in turn

parent teacher relationship in this era in our country

has a new dimension. To make a positive influence on

the child‘s development, it is essential that interactions

between teacher and parent are productive and

positive. We all understand that both parents and

teachers aim at the student doing well in life but for the

parent the child and probably the siblings or a few

children in the neighborhood are the only benchmark

and many a time the reaction is more emotional. The

teacher has a larger spectrum of children in the class, is

more clinical in observation and hence is able to assess

more dispassionately.

In an exchange of notes, if both are mature and

the aim is to not blame the child but help overcome the

shortcomings, the result will be very positive. Often it

happens that the teacher is critical about the child and

immediately, the parent becomes defensive, as a result

the communication is more of a confrontation and a

fault-finding session commences which does not benefit

any one.

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Parents and teachers in their discussions must

consider themselves to be on the same side that will

help them look at the child from the same angle.

While it is essential to be positive and motivate

children but we must also understand that children have

to realize the fact that excellence comes from hard

work. If parents negotiate top grades and positions then

children will become lazy and shun hard work.

Another important aspect where parents tend to

shield children is punishments (of course now schools

do not award any physical punishment but limit it to

restrictions or notes in student diary), Mistakes are a

part of growing up, and everyone makes mistakes and

gets punished as a correction process. If children are

playing they are bound to have arguments, fall, get

hurt, these are natural. So also, children fight and make

up but it becomes an issue when it comes up for

discussion in parent teacher meetings (many a times it

is the children who fight regularly who turn out to be

the best of friends).

How to conduct a fruitful Parent Teacher meeting?

It would be ideal if both the parent and the teacher

prepare on a positive note. Approach the meeting with

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the intent to listen to the other party rather to put

across concerns on their list. Teachers must make notes

of the concerns expressed by parents. Teachers along

with their concerns must suggest possible remedies.

Parents and teachers must consider each other to be on

equal footing rather than on a talk down approach.

Most importantly Parents must understand the

limitation of the school which functions for a community

of students and is not a one on one solution and hence

cannot cater to individual needs of each child.

*******

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