Many parents face homeschooling their multi-aged children with understandable anxiety and fear. Wrangling children is difficult enough, but how do you deal with children of different ages and needs beyond what the school may or may not be providing?

Flexible scheduling: While many educational professionals promote routine, a flexible routine often decreases anxiety and allows for more success.  Consider the day as a series of blocks of time (1-2 hours) and divide the blocks into types of activities:  physical activity (play and exercise),  reading (quiet time for language and literacy activities),  math,  science, social studies (which can be adjusted as age-appropriate) and art.  Consider five hours a week for each subject (which can be adjusted for age and the subjects that need to be covered given your school district), but allow yourself the flexibility to change the time you a block during the day depending on your children’s attention, interest and activity level, as well as your own.  Sunny day when the kids are very energetic?  Have them learn about plants, animals or natural phenomenon outside, make that a 2 block session and do more social studies on a different day. Raining day? An additional block of reading and language studies may work best.  Setting weekly goals, as well as allowing for daily flexibility, can decrease everyone’s stress.

Hands-on activities: Educators know that elaborative learning, deep understanding versus an ability to memorize and repeat by rote, is promoted by hand-on, engaging activities.  Consider creating puzzles and games for your kids that can also be adjusted to be age-appropriate. For example, download a map of the US (or any part of the world) and leave off the state (country) names and have them fill them in; older child? Cut off the map and have them put it together. Older still, fill in capitols (and look up a fact about each state or country).  There are also a number of science experiments that can be done with household goods, and while doing the experiment may be entertaining and introduce younger children to scientific principles, older children can research how the experiments work further to enhance their knowledge. i Older students can be encouraged to use the internet, and the Khan academy is not only helpful for more complex subjects but offers educational support in subjects where parents may feel in over their heads.ii

Outdoor activities:  Allow for physical exercise, time to blow off steam, and numerous learning opportunities for all ages.  Young children can learn about plants and animals by observation and encouraged to draw and write about what they see to work on their language skills. Older children can be encouraged to take their real-world observations about plants and animals, weather, geographical formations or historical sites to the internet and further research these topics.

Reading and storytelling: Literacy and language studies include reading, comprehension, writing, and other communicative skills.  Having children of different ages actually facilitates developing these skills.  Encourage older children to read to younger children; this not only develops the reading skills of the older child but the comprehension skills of the younger child, particularly if you ask questions and encourage them to discuss what they have read.

The best way to learn is to teach: Having older children work with younger children on their reading actually helps to develop the older child’s comprehension as well, in addition, younger children are less intimidated and anxious working with other children rather than adults. Older children also develop leadership skills, patience and empathy working with younger children.

Having children draw pictures of what they read is another form of elaborate rehearsal and furthers cognitive development.  Encourage children to tell and write stories. This improves their communication skills.  Younger children learn about plot and progression by telling stories to others and often take great pride in doing so.  Older children can write and illustrate their own stories as well as transcribe the stories of younger siblings.   Encourage imagination and exploration. Have younger kids that are into dinosaurs? Let them draw and play with dinosaurs. Let the older kids supervise and actually look up the dinosaur types and the prehistoric periods to enhance their science education and teach their younger siblings at well.

Art is not only important in and of itself as a form of expression but it also allows kids to process hands-on, in ingenious ways, what they have learned which facilitates long-term memory and learning.  Children also develop fine motor skills, learn about self-expression, and simply have fun.

Kitchen math and science:  Once or twice a week consider making meal-time a learning opportunity. Children of all ages can make menus, and using My Plateiii or other online tools, can learn about nutrition.  Cooking allows students to learn about weights and measures and following recipes is an excellent way to introduce kids to the lab experiments they will do in higher grade science class.

Many of these activities allow a parent to share educational activities with the family so what may have seemed to be a burden placed on one or two parents become a shared responsibility where the family as a “village” participates in “raising” one another.

TV and Movie Binging does not have to be a passive activity: Enjoy those family times.  But you can also discuss what you have watched over a snack or meal.  What makes the main character heroic? What makes the villain evil? Is it what he does? Is it how he looks?   What do you think of how they were portrayed? Are they like you? Would you do what they did? Discussing what kids think about what they are watching offers parents a great insight into how they are perceiving the world around them and offers the opportunity to interact and influence the views they are forming.

Self-care for the mom or dad juggling so much.  Taking care of yourself during this time of added stress is extremely important.  If you kids aren’t earlier risers, you don’t have to get them up the same time they attended school.  Take some time before they get up for yourself, have a cup of coffee and read the paper, take a long bath or a walk, center, and if they are earlier risers take some time at the end of the day, have a treat of your choice, unwind to music or a show, meditate or do some yoga. Taking care of yourself lowers your stress and makes it easier to show up for your kids.

Prof. Colleen Donnelly

University Of Colorado – English and Health Humanities colleen.donnellly@ucdenver.edu

i STEM: 20 Kitchen Science Experiments Your Kids Will Love https://modernparentsmessykids.com/stem-20-kitchen-science-experiments-kids-will-love/

ii Khan Academy https://www.khanacademy.org

iii My Plate. https://www.choosemyplate.gov

This post is an article from Professor Colleen Donnelly, from the University of Colorado,  English and Health Humanities Department. MINES is Cross-posting to share information and resources and is no way representing the material as our own.

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The tag line on the cover directly implies that performance is impacted by “the desire to know and why your future depends on it.”

Leslie describes three types of curiosity. “diversive curiosity” is the restless desire for the new and the next. Think scrolling through your cell phone apps such as facebook, twitter, emails, wordpress, and news feeds, while spending very little time on any one piece. The value of “diversive curiosity” is that it helps the exploring mind find the new and the undiscovered. Its ultimate value is helping us be curious enough to learn futher about a subject, to do a deeper investigationThe second type of curiosity is “epistemic curiosity.” It is a “quest for knowledge and understanding, it nourishes us. This deeper, more disciplined and effortful type of curiosity” is the focus of the book ( prologue, p.xx).

The third type of curiosity is “empathic curiosity.” This is “about the thoughts and feelings of other people. It is distinct from gossip or prurience, which we can think of as “diversive curiosity” about the superficial detail of others’ lives. You practice empathic curiosity when you genuinely try to put yourself in the shoes – and mind – of the person you are talking to, to see things from their perspective… (p.xxi).”

The relevance for psychology of performance in business is far reaching. Given the complexity of our business environments, advances in science and technology, and the exponential growth of knowledge. Organizations and individuals who are not curious will become obsolete or become further and further behind compared to those who embrace epistemic curiosity and life-long learning.

Leslie does us the same service Malcom Gladwell and other synthsis writers do by diving into the scientific literature behind the statements in the book. One area that is concerning is the role of core subject knowledge and the ability to be curious. Schools who teach process skills without content knowledge produce students who are less capable of the creative, cross-discipline insights and thinking required to solve the complex and diverse problems we are faced with. This body of research is counter to what has happened in many schools across the country. One has to have information in order to know whether one wants to be curious and learn more about it.  Leslie’s handrail was “knowledge loves knowledge.”

He adds an interesting case study related to Disney and Pixar concerning then-CEO of Disney Michael Eisner and co-founder of Pixar, Steve Jobs. Leslie looks at an interesting quote from Jobs stating that as Pixar was the creative organization producing one money making film after another while Disney was the distributor, Eisner only spent a little over two hours at Pixar rather than learning how Pixar was doing what it did and taking it back to Disney. Finally, after Eisner and Jobs left, Disney bought Pixar. If someone is out-performing you as an organization or individually, being curious as to how they are doing that could be a good process to go through rather than avoiding it, resting on the status quo, or other reasons for not learning more.

Leslie discussed breadth versus depth in knowledge and the need for both. He uses the concept of a “foxhog” (p.152). “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing” (p.151). A foxhog is one who combines deep knowledge of a specialty with broad understanding of other disciplines. Leslie also pays tribute to one of my favorite business people and writers, Charlie Munger, who is exemplary in his pursuit of knowledge outside of his field and in learning useful mental models from other disciplines. From a psychology of performance point of view, Charlie Munger and Warren Buffet have performed at high levels in their field for decades.

In order to improve your performance over your lifetime, be epistemically and empathically curious, be a lifelong learner, apply what you know, and take action!

Please have a day filled with loving kindness and extend compassion and sympathetic joy to everyone you meet.

Robert A. Mines, Ph.D., CEO & Psychologist

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How much is enough? Ratey stated that walking is enough. Low-intensity exercise is at 55 to 65% of maximum heart rate, moderate is 65-75% and high intensity is 75-90%. “The process of getting fit is all about building up your aerobic base” (p.251). Ratey goes on to discuss the role of strength training and flexibility as important elements of optimizing your brain chemistry and hormone levels.

What does this have to do with optimizing your performance at work and in all areas of your life? Everything! Get started today and stick with it.

Have a day filled with optimal brain chemistry,

Robert A. Mines, Ph.D.
CEO & Psychologist

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I was exposed to traveling at a very early age and was always deeply appreciative that my parents expanded my horizons and perspectives through global travel. I’m sure my mom wasn’t completely surprised when I told her I had bought a one-way ticket to New Zealand and wasn’t sure when I would be back. And, sure enough, after two years of traveling out of a backpack, returned home to start graduate school. I loved the sense of intrigue and mystery that came with traveling to exotic lands and far away places.

I also came home with a profound sense of appreciation for the global diversity that we have right here! Looking at situations from a new perspective, asking open ended questions to understand a different point of view, and being curious about someone’s background or beliefs are all windows towards creating a sense of belonging to a global community. I feel so fortunate that much of the work I do in BizPysch – be it executive coaching, diversity training, or providing conflict mediation services – are all ways to build bridges and create a sense of community and connection.

Now, I’m getting ready to embark on another global adventure. As a parent who is committed to raising a “global citizen,” I am getting ready to move overseas with my son. We will be gone for a little less than a year and during that time we will both be students learning a new language and embracing a completely different way of living. There are so many ways to embrace global diversity, be it participating in a cooking class with foods from another country, learning a new language, seeing a foreign film, reading books about other countries, or following your curiosity by exploring new places on the internet!  I trust I will return with a new set of perspectives which is what makes traveling and experiencing different cultures, no matter how you choose to do it, so exciting!

Marcia Kent, MS
President, BizPsych

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Could we consider that focusing on educational excellence in the workplace may be necessary beyond the “on-the-job training” that generally and naturally occurs? Educational excellence means focusing on strategies that are effective for employees and the organization.  As was quoted in an email from our CEO this week, “No one can do your pushups for you, only you can decide to learn and use the information.”  So education in organizations is a combination of employer and employee responsibility. The employee must be self-motivated to learn and grow, and the organization can focus on using approaches, strategies, and educational opportunities that best promote useful expansion and growth.

The great organizational theorist Peter Sengee captured the term “the learning organization.” In his book, The Fifth Discipline, Sengee proposes “the basic meaning of a ‘learning organization’ is an organization that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future. For such an organization it is not enough merely to survive. ‘Survival learning’ or what is often termed ‘adaptive learning’ is important – indeed it is necessary. But for a learning organization, ‘adaptive learning’ must be joined by ‘generative learning,’ learning that enhances our capacity to create.” In his work Sengee speaks of the whole organization as a “learning organization.” In this system, individuals collectively make up this generative learning process.

Organizations promote educational excellence in a variety of ways:

1. TQM or the total quality management movement has focused on efficiency improvement. This can affect all levels in an organization to inspire a focus on creating better processes to create better results. Educational opportunity such as “six sigma” and “lean six sigma” have focused high-level education primarily on upper level managers to create greater efficiency.
2. In our EAP services through MINES and Associates, most of our client companies contract for a certain number of training hours. These contracted hours can be used for “lunch and learn” presentations offered to a wide range of employees on various topics such as communication, time management, financial issues, nutrition, or even humor and creativity in the workplace. Companies may choose to target these educational hours towards managers growing their management skills or to specialized departments on their interests or skill development needs.
3. In our work in BizPsych we may determine from an organizational assessment that a work group needs specific skill building such as conflict management skills or alignment skills.
4. Many organizations offer tuition assistance for employees to promote their own education, either related specifically to their jobs or to help them grow and develop in the directions of their choosing.

In any of these cases, if we consider it to be an organization’s essential responsibility to focus on providing educational opportunities for employees to grow in their work, it is important to focus on strategies that are most effective. Thus, many larger employers create “Learning and Development” teams and specialists dedicated to this pursuit. Strategies that are effective would define educational excellence in organizations. We may then move closer to Sengee’s ideals of creating learning organizations who build the capacity to “create their futures.”

Patrick Hiester, MA, LPC
Vice President, BizPsych

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