Benefits of Arts to Kids

Children naturally love art – painting, drawing, making music, the theater. Unfortunately, when schools cut back on budgets, the arts are usually the first to go.  It seems that schools do not appreciate the importance of art in building a kid’s brain.Physiologically, the human brain consists of 2 parts, the left and the right hemisphere.  The left brain is used in logical thinking and analytical processes.  This is typically what is trained in school work that consists of math, reading and science.  The right brain is used in emotional perception, intuition and creativity.  It is the right brain that is mainly used when a person is involved in creative endeavors such as making art.  It is this part of the brain that typical school environment neglects to train.

Lists other benefits of exposing children to art:

• Your kid learns to think creatively, with an open mind

• Your kid learns to observe and describe, analyze and interpret

• Your kid learns to express feelings, with or without words.

• Your kid practices problem-solving skills, critical-thinking skills, dance, music, theater and art-making skills, language and vocabulary of the arts

• Your kid discovers that there is more than one right answer, multiple points of view

• School can be fun – playing can be learning

• Your kid learns to collaborate with other children and with adults

• Arts introduce children to cultures from around the world

• Your kid can blossom and excel in the arts.  Even with physical, emotional or learning challenges can experience success in the arts.

• Arts build confidence.  Because there is not just one right way to make art, every child can feel pride in his or her original artistic creations.

• Arts build community.  Schools with a variety of differences can celebrate the arts as one community.

The Importance of Play in Early Childhood Development

Child's play has an important role in your child's mental development. Contrary to popular belief, your kid does not play just to amuse himself. He is building his brain!

When your kid is playing, he is creating the foundation for his intellectual, social, physical and emotional skills.  He is preparing himself to succeed in school and in life:

• Stacking blocks and mixing sand and water develop mathematical thinking, scientific reasoning and cognitive problem solving.  Perhaps this was how Einstein got started.
• Rough and tumble play, tackling, and wrestling develop social and emotional self-regulation.  This is particularly important in developing competence of boys.  This is how all sports stars get their start.

• Imaginative play develops creativity and flexibility.  Your kid is building his brain when he pretends to make a house out of pillows.

• Games of pretend, especially with friends, encourage conversation skills, communication, and social problem-solving skills.  This is how good businessmen and negotiators are made.

•  When your kid plays with other kids, he learns to combine ideas, impressions and feelings with the experiences and opinions of other kids.  Kids form ideas about the world and share them.  They create a culture and society with their playmates.

• Studies also show that free, unstructured play can enhance your kid’s creativity, help him discover what he loves and develop problem-solving skills.

•  Child’s play should be something that he starts himself, and not imposed by grown-ups.  This way, your kid feels competent and self-confident.

• When your child plays, he learns things that are by-product of the play, and not its goal.  Climbing a tree, for example, does not only test his strength, it also brings out his inner fortitude.

Reward & Punishment & How It Might Affect a Student's Motivation

From the time preschoolers receive their first stickers, they may forever expect extrinsic rewards for their work. And that's a bad thing. Today, much evidence suggests that student motivation is particularly ill-affected when tied to such a system.

Seeking Extrinsic Rewards

Punishment and reward are two sides of the same coin. Whether you offer or deprive students of something they want, the message is the same: they're performing a task for results outside of themselves. Although this sort of reward system has been used since Skinner’s time, parents and educators are seeing its backfire effects. Students may work ONLY if they are rewarded. Rather than perform tasks based on intrinsic motivation, they seek affirmation from others.

Short-Term Results

In the short term, a reward-punishments strategy may work to effect singular change. Students looking for stickers or grades may perform a task to amass more rewards or better grades. Students punished for not doing homework may indeed do their homework. Summer reading programs are good examples of what’s right with reward. With tangible incentives, like the free pizza offer through one pizza company reading program, students read to achieve. Many parents and educators are sometimes less concerned with what is motivating a student to read and more concerned that he's reading.

Spark an Interest

Another positive result from extrinsic motivation may be its ability to spark an interest in a subject. Rewards were effective at establishing “interest in activities that lack initial interest.” Perhaps a lackluster reader, for example, happens to be a pizza lover. The hope is that as he strives for the pizza reward, he may also discover a love of reading.

Bad for Creativity

Some education critic noted that “rewards kill creativity” and “undermines risk-taking.” He suggests that students who are motivated solely by extrinsic rewards will take the easiest path to that end, whereas students motivated by their own passions will be creative risk-takers. Reward systems set a bad precedent for parents and educators who want students to eventually achieve on their own. Students need to feel in charge of their own learning, noting that regardless of the extrinsic rewards a teacher may offer, “some students will exert their need for power or control and simply not learn if they do not agree with the reason for learning.”

The Alignment of the Five Reading Components

Successful readers are not born; they are made. The act of reading, though a seemingly single process, requires the brain to perform several functions at once, from decoding words to analyzing the information obtained. Reading is made up of five different components, each of which must be mastered and aligned to create quality readers.To obtain the best results, each of the components must be introduced in a logical sequence and in a method that ensures the information is clear, focused and illustrative. This allows each principle to build upon the previous ones, thus procuring the proper alignment.

Phonemic Awareness

The first step in reading involves learning to recognize and identify the various sounds within words. Phonemic awareness focuses more on sounds than sights and reveals that words are made up of a collection of different sounds, called phonemes. Phonemic awareness is greatly benefited by nursery rhymes and songs which often serve as the introduction to rhyming sounds and phonemic patterns.

Phonics

Phonics involves the association of letters and sounds, as well as the combination of those letters to create blends and words. Phonics also focuses on the relationship between written and spoken letters and words by exposing individuals to flashcards, worksheets and other materials bearing printed letters while reinforcing the sounds made by those letters.

Vocabulary

There are two portions of vocabulary: spoken and written. Spoken vocabulary refers to words and terms that people use and are exposed to during their lifetime. Children, in particular, are very curious and quick to ask about words they don't understand. It is imperative that adults don't shy away from words they assume are too complex, but rather take the opportunity to use and explain the terms. Written vocabulary refers to the words that people can read and identify on their own. An individual's vocabulary, both spoken and written, should increase steadily throughout his lifetime.

Fluency

A fluent reader is one who reads accurately and smoothly at a consistent speed. Fluency also encompasses proper expression, a trait that is often overlooked by beginning readers. As people become more comfortable in the first three reading components, their fluency should improve.

Comprehension

The entire purpose of reading is to absorb knowledge, whether it be to learn something new or to dive into a fictional account. If nothing is gained from the effort, there's no reason to read. Comprehension is the process of taking the information that was read and assimilating it into something useful. Comprehension involves both understanding and the application of that understanding.