Learning - SarahMae.com

“Exercise increases oxygen flow into the brain…One of the most interesting findings of the past few decades is that an increase in oxygen is always accompanied by an uptick in mental sharpness.”

-John Medina, Brain Rules

Apparently, exercise is super good for you.

Okay, yes, I know, that one is obvious, but did you know that exercising makes you smarter? It’s true.

I’ve been reading the book, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, and it’s absolutely fascinating the way God has designed our brains; they are truly remarkable. And you know what else is remarkable? The fact that if we exercise just a bit, our brains benefit: we become sharper, smarter, and have better long-term memory. I’m so inspired by what I’m learning about exercise and the brain, that I just have to pass the information along.

Here are some things I’ve learned from Brain Rules:

If You Exercise, You Will Be Smarter, Have a Better Memory, & Think More Clearly

“A lifetime of exercise can result in a sometimes astonishing elevation in cognitive performaance, compared with those who are sedentary. Exercisers out perform couch potatoes in tests that measure long-term memory, reasoning, attention, problem-solving, even so-called fluid -intelligence tasks. These tasks test the ability to reason quickly and think abstractly, improvising off previously learned material in order to solve a new problem.”

I know I’m not the only one out there who has foggy-brain syndrome. If walking a few times a week gives me some clarity and better reasoning and attention abilities, I’m all over that.

If You Exercise, You Are Less Likely To End Up in a Nursing Home

“…one of the greatest predictors of successful aging was the presence or absence of a sedentary lifestyle. Put simply, if you are a couch potato, you are more likely to age like Jim {a man who spent his days in a nursing home, mostly staring off into space}, if you make it to your 80s at all. If you have an active lifestyle, you are more likely to age like Frank Lloyd Wright {famous architect that had clarity of mind and was in his A-game even in his 90′s} and much more likely to make it to your 90s.”

Really, must I even comment? No.

Wait, yes I must. I’m a blogger, therefore being a couch potato is kind of in the resume. I am completely inspired to get off my rear-end and get moving so I have a better chance of being like Frank!

If You Exercise, Your Chance of Getting Alzheimers Goes Way Down

“Your lifetime risk for general dementia is literally cut in half if you participate in leisure-time physical activity…with Alzheimer’s, the effect is even greater: such exercise lowers your odds of getting the disease by more than 60%.”

60%?! That’s just crazy. I’m going walking right now.

If You Exercise, You Will Be Less Depressed

“…in one experiment with depressed individuals, rigorous exercise was actually substituted for antidepressant medication. Even when compared against medicated controls, the treatment outcomes were astonishingly successful. For both depression and anxiety, exercise is beneficial immediately and over the long-term.”

This is just super hopeful.

If Your Kids Exercise, They’ll Be Smarter, Too

“They took time away from academic subjects for physical education … and found that, across the board, [physical education] did not hurt the kids’ performance on the academic tests. … [When] trained teachers provided the physical education, the children actually did better on language, reading and the basic battery of tests.”

We’ll be walking a lot more this year. Sneakers for everyone!

…

What, if anything, inspires you to exercise?

Print this!

I am a curriculum junkie.

My thinking is that if I just have the right curriculum, I’ll follow through with it and my children will be smart, and I’ll have been a good teacher. But I’m pretty much a curriculum failure. That’s the downside. The upside is that I’ve learned a few things about teaching my children, and they involve little more than a library card, a notebook, and a pen.

The focus on education in our house right now is reading. My oldest is six and half years old and she still isn’t reading fluently, even though we’ve done reading curriculum since she was four. Here’s the part where I feel like a big homeschooling failure. We’ve never completed a reading curriculum, and let’s see, we’ve tried:

TATRAS

The philosphy behind Teach Your Child to Read and Spell (TATRAS) is fantastic, and by far my favorite way of teaching my child to read. It teaches using vertical phonics, which is all about decoding words so that your child not only learns to read, but also to spell. For example, when you learn the letter “a”, you learn all the sounds that the “a” makes. Love love love this. Unfortunately, the layout of this curriculum was confusing to me. I need to be able to have things simple: turn the page, do this, do that, bada-bing, bada-boom. I also tried starting this program when my girl was four. That probably wasn’t a great idea.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

We made it to lesson 87 and the lessons weren’t stickin. Neither of us enjoyed this program, and I especially didn’t like that decoding or rules weren’t taught-I want my children to understand the English language, not just be able to read. However, I know many people love this program. In fact, my mentor Sally Clarkson used it with her children.

Phonics Museum

Since we started with 100 Easy Lessons, my daughter was in a strange reading phase where certain things were too easy, but decoding was difficult. This curriculum is beautiful, and I love the art focus, but it was just too much for me. My daughter loved it, but that’s mainly because it involved crafts, and she loves crafts.

All About Reading

I wish I would have started my daughter on this program from the beginning. It’s simple, fun, easy for me and my daughter, and explains how we use language (why do we use a “k” instead of a “c”). At this point, however, I just use this curriculum as a guide.

Since I’ve experienced four different reading programs, I’ve come to learn a thing or two about teaching my daughter to read and what works for us.

What I’ve Learned About Reading Curriculum

I have found reading curriculum to be way more intense/complicated/busy than what is required to teach a child (my child) to read. I understand curriculum developers want to make it fun, but it just makes the process more difficult and time-consuming (unless you like that sort of thing – many people do, I don’t).

How I’m Teaching My Daughter To Read

I go to the library and check out books appropriate for my daughters reading level (what I know she can read with help). I look through the first book, write down the words I know she’ll have a hard time with and words where I can teach her a rule (“when you see ie together, you say “e”). Then write in my notebook the rules and the words I want her to learn. Once I’ve done that, I ask her to come for her reading lesson. We go over my notebook of words and sounds, and then I hand her the library book and tell her I’ve prepared her to read it. She reads, and we work on fluency. Then she’s done. Once she completes reading 10 books she earns a prize.

That’s it, that’s her reading curriculum. Bada-bing, bada-boom.

We don’t spend more than 10 or 15 minutes on reading lessons, but she will have to read me the book again in the evening, and of course, I read to her.

Eventually, we will use curriculum again for reading. For my other children, we’ll just go straight for the notebook and pen.

…

Do you use curriculum? What have you found to be enjoyable and successful for you and your child when it comes to teaching them how to read?

Print this!