Strategic Tools for the
Highly Intentional Education 
of Your Child

Eleven Layers of Learning

and why it matters....

Strategic Tools:

Redundancy and 
Learning

Active
Memorizers

Why Intentional
Learning?

Aiming for Things
that Matter Most
(AKA:  A Perfect Cup of Coffee)

Intentionally
Thinking Through My  
Pedagogy

Strategic Tool:  You
For the Love and 
Care of Self

Redundancy and Learning

Much of the material at Learning Helps is oriented to children for whom learning is NOT effortless and who need

  • specific  tools that give them meaningful hooks as points of access
  • systematic, explicit instruction
  • high levels of redundancy
  • strong, intentional means for practicing recall using expressive language

The aim being that children grow their active memory and secure their learning experience.  That the learning process not feel lost to the proverbial beads on an untied string.

ACTIVE MEMORIZERS

Such children are ACTIVE memorizers for whom the process is in no way passive.


Active Memorizers need active, effective, strategic tools for successful learning
whereby they grow confidence and competence -
experience Mastery as Erik Erickson calls it.

Why Intentional  Learning?

Not all learning is equal.  Take time to specifically think about what learning means to you.  What things matter most and why?  What is it that you want your children to learn during these twelve years of on-purpose intellectual becoming?  The best way to do this is to   Begin at the end.  What are you aiming for in your child's academic beliefs and convictions when they emerge as young adults?  What is it you would like your child to know? to value? to discover? experience?  Fall in love with?  Leave home with?

More on Strategic Tool:  Intentional Learning

Strategic Tools

Strategic Tool ...

Knowing My Aim:
A Perfect Cup of Coffee

Coffee varies.  Both in quality and in taste.  Who or what is setting your criteria for a perfect cup of coffee?.

Who in your life can discern a good cup of coffee?  Can you?  Can the people you trust?


A Perfect Cup of Coffee Requires a Discerning Palate ...

Strategic Tool...


Pedagogy

Take Time to Define Your Pedagogy
(ped·uh·gah·jhee)

Pedagogy - is a very fancy word for how a teacher teaches - their opinions on what should be taught and how it should be taught. You will want to give your self a good amount of time to think about your pedagogy.  Many folk naturally do this.  They move throughout life with a clear understanding of what they want because they clearly seem to know what is important to them.

I am not such a person.  I had to give great time and thought to my children's academic journey and in light of our cognitive differences in learning, I had to give even more thought to the outcomes I wanted.  Some of the ways that I had expected we would learn, simply were not relevant, nor possible, for our journey.  And in this process, I realized how easily life can be reduced to the acquisition of information and a long ago learned thought from Dallas Willard came to mind.... 

More information on Strategic Tool:  PEDAGOGY 

Strategic Tool ...


YOU

Be Encouraged - You Will Be a Great Teacher ...

Not all of us are confident  as we start to contemplate the possibility of homeschooling our own children.  We wonder if we will be a good teacher, basing our criteria on a particular sort of academic ability or memory of what good teaching should look like.  

If you were someone who truly hated school and did not perform well and are not sure that you are the right person to homeschool, I very much want to encourage you.  You are most likely a best  person  to home school - as long as you have a vision for it.  A learning parent is an extremely exciting teacher.

More on Strategic Tool: YOU

Strategic Tool ...


Time

In all that you do, time is your friend....
Profound Thoughts and the Joy of Mastery Follows

As important as curriculum is to the learning journey, it is helpful to remember that time is for you not against you.  

In the midst of all you do,  remember, time is your friend.  Everyone knows Rome wasn't built in a day.  But it was built.  Consistent meaningful encounters grow children confidently.  

When it comes to memory work, stickability varies  greatly.  Some of us are active memorizers who need lots of lively and intentional encounters and practiced recall to get the thing stuck well in our mind.  But time is kind.  And you have plenty of it.  Your are not in a race against time.  Time is your friend.  It is, indeed, the stuff of life - this side of eternity; the operative word being:  LIFE.  Time is for living.  And, therefore, it is always a gift.

More information on  Strategic Tool:  Time as a Gift to Learning

Strategic Tool ...


Build a Cooperative Learning Community!

Many Families Formally Pool Resources Together
to Build Dynamic Learning Communities . . .



Use Your Words