The Learning Well Tutor » Learning http://www.thelearningwell.com Speak to Learn, Visual Learning at its Best Sun, 13 Mar 2011 18:02:07 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Better questions, better answers, better life – Questions are the answer! http://www.thelearningwell.com/better-questions-better-answers-better-life-questions-are-the-answer/ http://www.thelearningwell.com/better-questions-better-answers-better-life-questions-are-the-answer/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:04:39 +0000 Alan http://www.thelearningwell.com/better-questions-better-answers-better-life-questions-are-the-answer/ Children are great at asking questions and you as a parent can be the expert at giving them the bigger view by putting questions that are relevant to the subject or cicumstances . Putting questions to your children is a chance for you to guide them to create the amazing habit of continuously asking better questions.

The habit of better questions leads to better answers, better feelings and better motivation for when they are learning.

Are questions the answer to better learning?

Do you like questions? What a question!

We are all wired to be interested and fascinated by questions.

Just think of the following successful programs on TV.

Mastermind
Eggheads
Family fortunes
The weakest link
Who wants to be a millionaire?

Why are they are so successful? What is it about these programs that make them so popular?

The answer is that they are all about ………QUESTIONS!

People love questions, our minds are programmed to be interested in questions, and of course children love questions.

In fact you and your children think by using questions. Questions are the building blocks to thinking and children are natural question machines continually asking questions and if given the opportunity they soak up knowledge like sponges.

As soon as you or your children ask a question the mind focuses on finding the answer. The very act of asking a question causes the mind to think because thinking is the process of asking and answering questions.

Think about a simple thing like making dinner this evening. What are you thinking about? I’ll bet that you are asking questions, it can’t be helped. You automatically start to ask questions that need an answer. What will we eat? At what time? How many people is the dinnner for? There could be many other questions.

So, thinking is all about posing questions and receiving answers.

When you help your children ask questions and provide answers you are helping them with their thinking skills.

And so what questions should you ask and how can you get your children thinking?

The answer is by creating the right questions.

What questions to ask?

Do you remember the film The Jungle Book made by Walt Disney? This film was based on a story by the writer and explorer Rudyard Kipling.

Kipling wrote in his poem the Elephant’s Child:

“I keep six honest serving men,
They taught me all I knew,
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who?

We like to put these questions in this order:

What, where, when, how, why, who? We think it has a certain ‘ring’ to it this way.

The questions then need to be put in a way that helps your child think and find answers.

For example why not try the following with your child or children like I did not so long ago.

Go to a historical place and ask six questions beginning with the six words. For example:

What is this place?
Where is this place?
When did people live here?
How did they live?
Why don’t they live here anymore?
Who lived here?

So, questioning is one the most important skills that you can teach and guide your child to improve their ability to think and learn.

Questions help motivation!

At The Learning Well questions are continually asked and answered and you will hear us say “better questions, better answers, better life”. This is because in addition to thinking and learning, questions can also improve your children’s motivation.

How?

Because questions can change the focus of the mind towards better answers and these better answers can change the way your children feel. Better answers and better feelings leads to better motivation.

This next point is very important!

You can be an expert!

To repeat what was said above. Children are great at asking questions and you as a parent can be the expert at giving them the bigger view by putting questions into context. Putting questions to your children is a chance for you to guide them to create the amazing habit of continuously asking better questions.

The habit of better questions leads to better answers, better feelings and as we have seen better motivation.

Phil Race said that “All knowledge is the answer to a question”

So, to go back to the original question, yes, we think that better questions are indeed the answer to greatly improving your children’s learning!

]]> http://www.thelearningwell.com/better-questions-better-answers-better-life-questions-are-the-answer/feed/ 0 Repetition is the mother of all skills http://www.thelearningwell.com/repetition-is-the-mother-of-all-skills/ http://www.thelearningwell.com/repetition-is-the-mother-of-all-skills/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:49:00 +0000 Alan http://www.thelearningwell.com/repetition-is-the-mother-of-all-skills/ Luckily repetition is the mother of all skills so if you can steer children to do something that that they like doing, and that is at the same time good for them, such as learning, then they will repeat it and repeat it and increase their skill at doing it.

Kids have a natural tendency to repeat the things they like, for example my kids will watch the same film a hundred times and they just love it whereas me, if I watch a film once it would have to be three years before I could watch it again.

So, when kids like something, they want to do it over and over and over again. So how can you encourage your children to repeat things that help them improve their learning and abilities at school.

As Children are wired to repeat what they like, this fact can be used to increase their knowledge. Here is how!

Using fun techniques such as The Learning Well Memory Map is an easy learning method that can be used to increase children’s skills in writing, speaking and almost all areas of literacy learning and children will therefore want to use them time and time again.

Repeated use of mapping massively increases their abilities in all areas including schoolwork.

These Memory Mapping skills are explained in more detail elsewhere on this Blog.

What is Memory Mapping?


Well it’s a bit like Tony Buzan’s Mind Mapping highly focused on the skills of learning and remembering in a very easy and structured fun way.

Here is an example of a Memory Map to help someone speak about Memory Mapping.

Both kids and adults love the technique and the point is that your children will want to use it time and again.

]]> http://www.thelearningwell.com/repetition-is-the-mother-of-all-skills/feed/ 0 Stand up for yourself and your children – activities for putting your own learning resources into action http://www.thelearningwell.com/stand-up-for-yourself-and-your-children-%e2%80%93-activities-for-putting-your-own-learning-resources-into-action/ http://www.thelearningwell.com/stand-up-for-yourself-and-your-children-%e2%80%93-activities-for-putting-your-own-learning-resources-into-action/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:53:44 +0000 Alan http://www.thelearningwell.com/stand-up-for-yourself-and-your-children-%e2%80%93-activities-for-putting-your-own-learning-resources-into-action/ Have you noticed that children find it difficult to sit still? When sitting still for too long their concentration can wonder.

What learning resources do you have to help maintain their concentration?

What learning activities can you encourage your children to do to help them stay focused on their learning?

Put simply what do you do when you are at home and want to help your children with their learning and maintain their concentration, focus and energy?

The answer is simple and believe it or not, you do have the necessary learning resource at your fingertips to help your children maintain their concentration.

What is this resource?

When they are learning get your children to stand up and that way they will be more focused, full of energy and their concentration will be more likely to be maintained. Sounds too simple? Too good to be true?

Well, Dr Max Vercruyssen of the University of South Carolina doesn’t think so. He has found that the way a person positions their body has a marked affect on their ability to learn and retain focus. He therefore recommends that amongst the many learning resources available that standing is used to improve learning.

Two things help your children when standing. First the blood and oxygen flow to the brain increases significantly and secondly the psychological affect on the child is to make them much more alert with the brain then learning more.

What activities could your children undertake when standing so that their concentration is maintained and their learning improves?

As you may know The Learning Well recommends children and adults to produce Memory Maps to help with learning.

Memory Mapping uses a combination of location, words, images, and colour and a Map can be produced whilst standing and moving about, all learning activities and learning resources that massively help concentration are great fun, keep boredom away, and result in a great improvement in your children’s ability to learn. So memory mapping is one way of addressing this point.

You can learn about Memory Mapping and Memory Maps and how to use them for learning here at this Blog.

]]> http://www.thelearningwell.com/stand-up-for-yourself-and-your-children-%e2%80%93-activities-for-putting-your-own-learning-resources-into-action/feed/ 0 Start, stop, start, stop, start ….. “learning little and often” is one of the best learning strategies for your children http://www.thelearningwell.com/start-stop-start-stop-start-%e2%80%a6-%e2%80%9clearning-little-and-often%e2%80%9d-is-one-of-the-best-learning-strategies-for-your-children/ http://www.thelearningwell.com/start-stop-start-stop-start-%e2%80%a6-%e2%80%9clearning-little-and-often%e2%80%9d-is-one-of-the-best-learning-strategies-for-your-children/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:29:05 +0000 Alan http://www.thelearningwell.com/start-stop-start-stop-start-%e2%80%a6-%e2%80%9clearning-little-and-often%e2%80%9d-is-one-of-the-best-learning-strategies-for-your-children/ What is one of the very best learning strategies you can use in helping your children with their learning?

Were you ever in a lesson at school or a lecture at college in which the teacher or lecturer spoke and spoke and spoke and went on and on and on for hours on end? Did you learn anything?

I have been in just such a situation several times and I have to say trying to keep my attention was like torture. Did I do any learning? Did I retain anything? Not a bean! Such lessons to me where as useful as an asthmatic ant carrying heavy shopping to my house, no use at all! (Thank you for that line Blackadder).

Why are long continuous lessons such ineffective learning strategies?

Well, because as researchers and writers such as Eric Jensen have concluded “the brain learns best in the pattern of a pulse. Learning is best when focused, diffused, focused, diffused…..”.

So what are the best learning strategies?

The best learning strategies have activities based on a start, stop, start, stop approach.

Your children learn for a relatively short period of time and then take a break, doing something else in the break. After the break you start the learning once again.

This then gives the brain the best chance of remembering what you have learned.
Jensen says that if you are working with young learners that activities should be limited to 5 to 10 minutes, for adolescents 10 to 15 minutes and interestingly for adults 15 to 25 minutes.

The point is this; when you as a parent are helping your children with their learning, by far the best learning strategies are based on, as we say at The Learning Well, doing it “little and often”.

If you ask your children to carry out an activity or activities and follow the ‘little and often’ approach your children will be learning in the best way; they will be learning in the ‘pattern of a pulse’ and using one of the very best learning strategies.

As is said at ‘The Learning Well’ do it “little and often”.

]]> http://www.thelearningwell.com/start-stop-start-stop-start-%e2%80%a6-%e2%80%9clearning-little-and-often%e2%80%9d-is-one-of-the-best-learning-strategies-for-your-children/feed/ 0 The Learning Well Method Part 4 http://www.thelearningwell.com/the-learning-well-method-part-4/ http://www.thelearningwell.com/the-learning-well-method-part-4/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:28:07 +0000 Alan http://www.thelearningwell.com/the-learning-well-method-part-4/ Hi again

The Learning Well Method in combination with Memory Mapping is a very,very, strong learning and memory technique for helping you massively improve your children’s academic and literacy abilities.

We have walked the path of The Learning Well Method in improving the abilities of many children and now we want to teach you how you can walk with us so that you too can help your children massively improve their learning and learning abilities.

We said that we would summarize for you the four stages of The Learning Well Method. We have covered three so far and so here is the fourth and final part of the Method.

4) Do what works

Everyone has their own style and preferred method of learning. Success is about looking at what works and then putting it into practice to make it a habit. Encourage your children to use the Memory Maps to speak about the things that they are interested in and to talk about their schoolwork.

Help your children to make Memory Mapping a habit, so that they use Mapping over and over and over again and see the results as their abilities improve.

Ask them to use their maps to help them tell you all about the subject of a map. See what they know.

Remember, if they can say it then they know it!.

The Method is summarised by the phrase “SPEAK TO LEARN”. If your children can speak about a subject they know about that subject and can write about it when the time comes.

It’s that simple and easy as that. All you have to do is put it into practice and make it a habit.

We hope that you have enjoyed this four part summary of The Learning Well Method and that it has given you an understanding of how your children’s abilities can be greatly improved.

We’ll say it again; if your children can say it then they know it. They can cover masses of learning ground using Memory Mapping.

Please do give it a go. You will enjoy it and so will your children.

Remember – Make it fun, then you’ve won.

See you in the next Blog.

Emmmm, what shall we talk about next? Ah yes ……………………

]]> http://www.thelearningwell.com/the-learning-well-method-part-4/feed/ 0 The Learning Well Method Part 3 http://www.thelearningwell.com/the-learning-well-method-part-3/ http://www.thelearningwell.com/the-learning-well-method-part-3/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:50:20 +0000 Alan http://www.thelearningwell.com/the-learning-well-method-part-3/ Hi again,

You probably have read about the first two stages of The Learning Well Method of learning. We now have reached stage 3. If not we invite you to read our earlier two Blog entries before reading this one.

3) The third stage is – Do you know it?

We believe that the important thing when ‘testing’ is for your children to be able to express what they know.

The Memory Map can be used to test what your child or children know about the subject, as written down in their Memory Maps.

At the heart of this system, is creating the habit of expressing what your children know without a judgment about getting it wrong. There is no failure, there are only results. Instead of criticizing, the testing process is about gaining feedback and learning what can be improved on next time. How do you do this?

How long does it take to write a Memory Map? Not long. As your child thinks about what the content of their Map will be, they can express these thoughts and write them or draw them onto the Memory Map.

There is writing involved in creating a Memory Map, but by far the most important thing to do is to encourage your children to speak about the content of their Maps and what they know.

To remind you what a Map looks like here is the one that we had in our earlier Blog about Part two of The Learning Well Method:

When your children have completed a Map on a school subject, or a subject of their choice, to ‘test them’ you will ask them to verbally tell you about the subject of their Map. As we speak at 100-150 words a minute, far far more ground will be covered on a subject by speaking about it rather than if you only ask a child to write down what they are learning as an essay.

Speaking is KEY to the secret of using The Learning Well Method when testing.

When your children can speak it they know it!

Which is why we have a phrase at The Learning Well which really captures the Method;

“SPEAK TO LEARN”

If your child or children can speak about the subject then they know about the subject and can then, when the time comes, write about it. It’s really very easy and if you use the Method it will make a huge difference to your children’s abilities.

In the next Blog we will set out the fourth and final part of The Learning Well Method.

You can see by now how the whole system comes together to make a very strong learning technique.

]]> http://www.thelearningwell.com/the-learning-well-method-part-3/feed/ 0 The Learning Well Method Part 2 http://www.thelearningwell.com/the-learning-well-method-part-2/ http://www.thelearningwell.com/the-learning-well-method-part-2/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:30:05 +0000 Alan http://www.thelearningwell.com/the-learning-well-method-part-2/ Hi, this is Tony and Alan again

We said that we would let you into the secret of The Learning Well method and so as promised here is the second stage of the method.

2) The second stage is – Action Steps

The Learning Well Method uses The Learning Well Memory Map system for its action steps to greatly improve learning in any area and provide a step-by-step guide for you to follow and help your children improve.

Using the Method little and often achieves outstanding results, so take action in little steps and do it frequently.

Here is an overview of the Memory Mapping skill using a completed Memory Map.

The MEMORY MAP that you can see here represents a landscape A4 sheet of paper. Though this one is created using images downloaded from the net and words that are typed, you and your children can produce them using just pens and pencils and draw and write freehand.

In the middle, put the central word, words, idea, or topic on the subject that interests your child. Surrounding the central word are placed 6 other words, ideas or topics, including little drawings, with lines joining these new words to the central one.

No more than 6 words or ideas linked to the idea in the middle.

2 or 3 more words can be linked to each of the 6 words surrounding the central one.

This gives you a framework and structure for creative expression which is brilliant for memorizing and brilliant for seeing how ideas link together and is also ideal for testing.

The subject of this particular Memory Map shows you how to memory map, but it could be about any subject or topic that your children need to learn for school or a subject that they are interested in. At this stage please don’t worry what the particular words and pictures mean in this particular Memory Map. Remember this Map is focused on explaining how to do a memory map.

You will eventually learn how to do mapping and your children will greatly improve their abilities using them. It really is very simple.

Part 3 of The Learning Well Method will be found in our next Blog entry. See you there!

]]> http://www.thelearningwell.com/the-learning-well-method-part-2/feed/ 0 The Learning Well Method – Part 1 http://www.thelearningwell.com/the-learning-well-method-part-1/ http://www.thelearningwell.com/the-learning-well-method-part-1/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:55:34 +0000 Alan http://www.thelearningwell.com/the-learning-well-method-part-1/ Hi, this is Tony Lazar and Alan McMahon

Thanks for all the great feedback on our articles and reports. Its fantastic to know that it has been of use to so many of you and of course your children.

We spoke to a London based Head Teacher yesterday who was looking for ways of motivating children to do more outside of the classroom to improve their literacy and learning. During the discussion she asked us to summarize The Learning Well four stage Method of learning for children.

Just what is the secret of the method that has a tremendous impact on children’s literacy and related subjects and is so really very easy to learn?

We told her the answer and would love you to have The Learning Well Method summary as well.

Why? Because you can easily use the method to massively improve your children’s abilities at school!

We will therefore summarize the method in this Blog and three further Blogs as the method is a four stage process.
So, here is the first part of the summary that we produced:

There are 4 Stages of learning -

1) Whatever you are LEARNING
2) Take action STEPS
3) Ask, do you KNOW IT?
4) Do what WORKS

To remember this, think of the mnemonic:

“Learning Steps Know It Works”

The first of these stages is expanded upon in this Blog and the other three will follow very shortly.

The Learning Well Method Part 1

1) The first stage is learning

There are many areas that your children will need to learn and School provides an environment in which children work fairly hard.
However, the work at school will not be studied so readily at home.

If you try and carry out the same type of work, it is unlikely to be successful. Up goes the cry “I want to do something else”, watch TV, play computer games, sports, anything other than doing yet ‘more learning’. Even homework has the advantage of the fact that it must be completed for school. Any extra work is therefore a struggle.

So how do we help you to overcome this problem?

The answer is that the work has to be more interesting and more fun!

Instead of doing ‘more school work’ you need to meet your children in areas of their own interest. This could be those TV programs, computer games, sports; really just about anything that interests them. This will create motivation. Your children will want to use The Learning Well Method, because its fun!

Please do suspend your own judgment of what constitutes work, particularly academic work. Besides school subjects there are many other opportunities in your children’s lives that can provide the basis for their learning. Ideas to help you in this regard can be found throughout this Blog.

Please remember this.

YOU CAN IMPROVE YOUR CHILD’S LITERACY AND ACADEMIC ABILITIES DRAMATICALLY WITHOUT DOING SCHOOLWORK.

With the method you make it fun, then you’ve won!

The second stage of The Learning Well Method will be provided in our next Blog.

]]> http://www.thelearningwell.com/the-learning-well-method-part-1/feed/ 0 Motion creates Emotion and motivation for learning in Children greatly improving their ability in literacy http://www.thelearningwell.com/motion-creates-emotion-and-motivation-for-learning-in-children-greatly-improving-their-ability-in-literacy/ http://www.thelearningwell.com/motion-creates-emotion-and-motivation-for-learning-in-children-greatly-improving-their-ability-in-literacy/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:27:40 +0000 Alan http://www.thelearningwell.com/motion-creates-emotion-and-motivation-for-learning-in-children-greatly-improving-their-ability-in-literacy/ All motion creates emotion and the focus of this article is to highlight this point and its relevance to your children learning and improving their literacy using various learning strategies that use movement.

Movement is such an important thing and we all know that children are at their happiest when able to move.

However, the logistics of teaching in school means they if they were moving around all the time it would be total chaos and there would be little or no improvement in their literacy.

But what about in the home?

The expectation is again that children will sit quietly and get on with learning and homework. It is really important to realise that this expectation leads to a lack of motivation.

However, the parent at home has a great advantage over the formal setting of the school and that is that children can be encouraged take part in learning strategies that involve moving about. The resultant increased motivation to learn, and to do it for longer periods, greatly increases children’s literacy.

The Learning Well and TimesTablesMaths.com have developed a number of systems that use movement as one of the keys to learning and tapping into the increased motivation that this brings.

The systems can be used for children learning maths, writing, speaking, absorbing facts of all sorts, and greatly increasing the rate of learning for both their literacy.

One such system is the Memory Map. What’s that? Memory Mapping provides a very clear structure, is very easy to remember, and can be used to improve literacy in all its forms.

Children can produce a Memory Map and place it on a wall, an easel, or draw it on a chart and have a freedom to move which gets them working at peak literacy performance. Children love working in this way.

The Map uses speaking and movement as the key to improving literacy, enabling you to interact and provide feedback to your children learning.

Children can be walking up and down the room, play acting, anything that gets them using movement and the Memory Mapping technique to learn.

So, the whole process becomes more like play and fun and so their motivation is raised and their literacy abilities significantly enhanced.

You can create a superb learning environment in the home and outside and by using a combination of movement learning and memory techniques.

When do this you will be able to see a marked difference in your children’s behaviour, their ability to retain knowledge, and improved performance in the classroom, all this pointing to thier future success.

]]> http://www.thelearningwell.com/motion-creates-emotion-and-motivation-for-learning-in-children-greatly-improving-their-ability-in-literacy/feed/ 0 When learning Multi-path methods are the best http://www.thelearningwell.com/when-learning-multi-path-methods-are-the-best/ http://www.thelearningwell.com/when-learning-multi-path-methods-are-the-best/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:03:38 +0000 Alan http://www.thelearningwell.com/when-learning-multi-path-methods-are-the-best/ How can you best learn? How can your children best learn?

The brain processes, stores and recalls learning and experience in the form of different visual imagery, sounds and feelings. Images can be large, small, bright, dim, colour, black and white.Sounds can be loud, quite, have a rhythm or be random. Feelings can be hot, cold, hard, soft, fast, and slow.

The ways of describing how the brain processes and recalls are of course far more than we have set out here and this multitude of possible descriptions is a powerful pointer to the best way for you to experience learning and for your brain to learn.

For many people who want to learn something the method they will use will be to read and re read a script until such time as they can “remember” it. Obviously this is making use of just one method available to the brain for learning and most people, including children, will recall only a small portion of what they have read in this way.

Is there a better way? Yes there is!

The multiple ways the brain stores information points to the best way of learning as involving many different images, sounds and feelings and this is supported by many researchers and commentators.

To quote Eric Jensen “the brain seems to thrive immensely by pursuing multi-path , multimodal experiences”.

To aid and increase the rate of learning you can use methods that use imagery and pictures of all sorts, locations, words, sounds and feelings. Methods that use these factors directly respond to the need for the multi-path methods required for learning. Memory Mapping is a method of learning that uses all these factors.

Memory Maps are therefore brilliant for learning in just this way which is why we so strongly recommend them at The Learning Well. They are therefore great for learning just about anything and achieve outstanding results for you and your children.

So, how can you and your children best learn?

Have a look at other areas of this Blog and our reports and detailed explanations of Memory Mapping. Why not give it a go and improve your abilities and very importantly those of your children!

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