No matter whether you believe that dreams can help you solve problems, give insights into what’s to come into your life, or simply are strange jumbles of emotions and images from your day…they do offer an interesting look at your unconscious and can be great fodder for analysis or creative writing.
We all dream every night…about once every 90 minutes or so. And even if you’re lucky enough to remember your dreams immediately upon waking, most times the details quickly fade and don’t get stored in an accessible memory bank.
Instead of having your child attempt to wake up enough to write down their dreams first thing in the morning or by the light of the moon, give them a voice recorder to save their recollections immediately upon waking.
It doesn’t matter whether you use an old cassette recorder (or mini-cassette recorder), a smartphone (there really ARE apps for that!), or a snazzy newfangled device like the LiveScribe Echo Smartpen…just getting kids in the habit of recording the way their brain processes information while asleep can improve their intrapersonal awareness. Plus, there’s no more fun breakfast conversation than the crazy dreams each family member had the night before.
When you tuck your kids in at night (with a recorder on the bedside table or next to their bed on the floor), before you turn out the light talk to them about things they might want to record when they wake up:
- key points of the plot
- any dialogue from the dream
- who was in it?
- any moods/feelings
- where did it take place?
- did anything stand out as strange?
If they’re particularly interested in this exercise, try having the alarm in their room go off 7.5 hours after they fall asleep this weekend and see if it triggers a more vivid recollection.
August 25, 2011
One day closer to the first day of school…
Below, we’ve compiled our favorite 10 language arts activities we’ve featured over the summer (as well as our Summer Reading Lists) to make sure your child gets in gear ahead of time and practices some of the concepts that they learned last year—in a FUN way—below. (That is, if your school follows the Core Standards.)
Want more? Several others are included here:
RECOMMENDED READING LISTS
for kids that particularly enjoy dabbling in specific Multiple Intelligence types.
August 16, 2011
Think about how you want to set up your event.
- Do you want people sitting in chairs facing you at the front (e.g. stage/audience)
- Do you want people sitting in chairs in a round circle?
- Do you want people standing up and talking to each other?
- Do you want a combination of a couple of the event formats above?
Next, think about how you will manage conversation at the event.
- Will you have people raise their hands to speak?
- Will you let them talk as needed?
- Will you have conversation “sticks” that people can use to show who’s up next to talk?
- Will you impose time limits on how much one person can speak?
How will you record people’s ideas?
- Will you tape record them?
- Will you video tape them?
- Will you have someone write them down on a sheet of paper?
- Will you have someone write them down on a chalkboard, whiteboard or easel?
It’s finally time for your event!
At your gathering, talk with others about how you can work together to affect change in this regard. Remind people how small changes on behalf of one or more people can create a positive chain of events that ultimately results in a BIG change.
Some people call this concept the “butterfly effect”…others call it a “ripple effect”…still others call it a “domino effect”.
Think about the small changes you are all willing to make individually and as a group.
- Will you talk to at least one person a day about your mission?
- Will you talk to your school PTA about it?
- Will you write a letter or email to your congressional representative, senator or the president?
- Will you create a petition?
- Will you create a YouTube video about it?
- How about a blog, Facebook group or a Twitter account?
- Is it a subject that your parents could post flyers about at work?
- Is it something that you want to talk to someone about at a local museum or bookstore?
- Do you want to do more research about it online and reach out to more influential people and get their suggestions?
Decide who will be responsible for which tasks. How will you evaluate the results of each effort? Then, set a date with those interested for your next meet-up. Encourage each other to find ONE more friend to bring to your next meeting.
Now, GO TO IT!
As Ghandi once said…
August 14, 2011
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