This will be my last post about quiet books for a while! Thanks for your patience, friends. I know you’re not all rearing little ones, but… yanno… it was a big project for me so I’m still excited about it :D. But really. Last one. For a long time.
So I made 16 sets of this page. They are felt chain links that can be snapped together to form a rainbow chain. Kids can (quietly) practice their rainbow colors while getting some fine-motor skill practice in! Nice, right? The most annoying part was learning how to apply the snaps. It wasn’t hard to do, but I had to do some research to figure out the easiest and least expensive way to apply the button snaps, since I had (16 x 8 x 2) = 256 of them to do!!
Although it took a lot of time, I had fun making these pages!
Earlier this week, I shared about the quiet book I made with some friends. (Er, the fourteen quiet books we made together.) It was a fun and very satisfying project! If you have a baby or young child to care for, consider organizing some other crafty mama friends to make your own! It will be a treasured item for the years to come, and a must-bring item when you head for a plane ride, car ride, church service, or visit to grandma’s!
Parents, have you ever heard of a Quiet Book? Also known as a Busy Book? It is a cloth book filled with fun activities that your child can play with… quietly!
My baby girl LOVES her quiet book!
BRILLIANT isn’t it? From making different Mr. Potato Head combinations to counting cupcake sprinkles to buttoning buttons to building sandcastles, quiet books help children hone their fine motor skills, review educational concepts, and encourages creative thinking all while keeping your child busy and quiet.
Um. Yes, please. (Go HERE to make your own!)
You know that exasperating thing that happens where you call on a student and they give the same answer that has just been said?
Me: What are some things we see in the sky?
Student #1: The sun!
Student #2: Planes.
Student #3: The sun!
Me: Someone already said that. Do you have another idea?
Student #3: Oh… um. PLANES!
Me: …
Or when they ask you a question that you’ve literally just answered:
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I had just started teaching a new group of students for Sunday school. After I introduced myself to the students, I immediately insisted on hand-raising. One kid rolled his eyes at me, as if to say, “Really? You’re going to make us do this?”
I shot him the look. He raised his hand.
I mean, I kind of get it. There were only six kids in the class that day– was this really necessary?
Today I’m going to share one of those simple but foundational teaching ideas. It’s called The Zone of Proximal Development. It is Vygotsky’s concept that basically says that there are things a learner can do on his own, things he can learn to do with help, and things he cannot do yet!
I still remember that weekend. A bunch of college students were spending the weekend at our home and needed the downstairs space, so Ben and I were holed up in our office. I can’t remember the exact circumstances anymore, but here’s what I do remember: I had done something wrong, and I was mad about it.
Yep, you read that right. I was upset. Not the “Oh shucks, I made a mistake!” kind of mad at yourself, but the defensive kind of mad where you sit there fuming, trying to convince yourself of all the reasons why the other person was somehow more wrong than you. I’m not proud of it– that’s just my natural tendency. I promise I’ve come a long way since.
But eight years ago, that’s how I dealt with the people closest to me, like Husband. I found ways to blame and point fingers and be upset with the person who, in reality, I had probably wronged.
So there I was, sitting and stewing in my misplaced resentment. There he was, at his computer, click click clicking away on his computer game. And right there and then, I decided it was because of the computer games.
I can’t wait to teach my children stuff. Anything. Even teaching my baby to stick out her tongue has been super exciting the last couple of weeks, so you can imagine how much more I look forward to teaching her about reading and writing and math and art and science and Jesus and music and sports and baking and being kind and EVERYTHING! I can’t wait!!!
I know I’m not the only one. Most of you are parents or teachers, and you know there’s nothing that satisfies like seeing a child learn something you taught. They may be proud of their new skill, but you are equally pleased that you were able to teach them effectively! Today, I want to share one of the most effective methods of teaching/learning I know: The Apprenticeship Model of Learning. I think the term hearkens back to the days when a blacksmith would take on an apprentice and train him up through a process of showing, guiding, and eventually working on his own.
There are a lot of ways to teach, and the method you employ at any given time depends both on who you’re teaching and what you’re teaching. Sometimes it is appropriate to let students fumble through something and learn on their own. Sometimes it’s better to let them observe their peers and gradually catch on. Other times, though, it’s best to teach with direct instruction, offering a straightforward and clear model of how it should be done, then coaching them to independence.
The five steps
I find that when I’m teaching a new skill or strategy, I often use the last approach.
Here is one of my best tools for teaching: The Pair Share.
Most people learn well when they have a chance to verbally share and process new information. While it would be nice if they could share and process new learning with the instructor, this isn’t always realistic. Enter The Powerful Pair Share. There are many ways to use it.
One of the best ways to learn from someone else is to get inside their head. One of my favorite blogs is www.younghouselove.com, a blog by a couple that does a lot of DIY with their house and shares about their lives while they’re at it.
There are many reasons I like the blog, but a big one is that I actually learn stuff and gain confidence from them. For example, there was this one post where they shared the new gallery wall above their master bed. First of all, I could never do that, because we live in the land of earthquakes and that’s just asking for trouble. But I read it anyway, because I wanted to learn something from them.
Now, home stuff and DIY and artsy craftsy is not my forte… but that’s why I like this blog. Since I don’t know much about it, and I don’t know what factors to consider when I’m looking at our house, I love getting in their head and seeing what they thought of when they worked on theirs.
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