Need help with a free project for all of our use, no money or advertising involved.
I'm creating a Google Doc anyone can join (if they have the link) that allows you to do the following:
You can anonymously put in your weekly activities and other home-schoolers can join you (they don't need to re-post if it's already posted).
You can look and find activities you might not have considered, find other home-schoolers, get some socializing for your child, and otherwise have some company yourself.
All free.
Categories:
Last update
Username
Location
Activities
How we recognize each other
Cost
Date
Days
Time
Example:
Date of Last Post: 8/16/12
Neverbug (6)
Mama Fu's Restaurant, outside and at the windows, The Grove Playscape, South Park Meadows
Playscapes, restaurants, play fountain, evening performances
Wear blue if you can so that people recognize the blue group sitting together.
For food/drink varies - no cost required otherwise
Tuesdays
12 pm to 5 pm
Come put your own data in the Google Doc. It commits you to nothing, not even showing up for your own event. It's just an indicator of what you normally do.
If you'd like to have access, just ask me and I'll invite you. Send your email to me privately or go to the site and send me a message (whatever works).
Feel free once in to invite others. Spread the word if you find it useful and worth it (it's free and there is no advertising - it's a Google Doc).
I'll moderate it (though you are free to help) to say thank you for the wonderful resources here and in the other homeschooling groups.
This particular Google Doc is located for the Austin, Texas area.
But COPY IT! If you like the idea and want to create one for a different area, ask for access, copy the format, and use it for other cities!
It doesn't have to be home-schoolers, either.
I have loved the parents and children I have taught for four decades and it is the least I can do, and I look forward to far more in my life to help and find joy in.
Contact me at will with ideas/suggestions/concerns about the Google Doc or anything else.
Home School Connections Spreadsheet
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ap9yuJ_eAjpWdExYVGliT2UtQ0c5Z0RGWC1weWNrcHc#gid=0
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
All I Ever Needed To Learn About Sensory Development I Learned In…This Site!
All I Ever Needed To Learn About Sensory Development I Learned In…This Site!
1) The vast majority of the brain is not developed by reasoning or "thinking", but by what sensory stimuli the brain is exposed to.
2) Although there are different senses that each child may learn better using, overall learning is helped by developing all the senses rather than catering to the ones already favored.
3) The number of neurons increase rapidly, with an average of 80% developed by age three and 90% by age five, so early exposure to a variety of sensory stimuli is essential for later abilities to develop.
4) Your brain has several "levels", the lower levels dealing with sensory-motor functioning, your upper levels dealing with cognitive/thinking functions.
5) The lower portions of your brain are developed through sensory-motor activity.
6) All your senses, except your vision, come through those lower portions of the brain.
7) The better developed the lower portions of the brain are, the better functioning the upper portions of the brain will be.
8) Millions of species of animals develop their brains by everything except reasoning and thinking. By limiting your child's educational program to such things, you ignore a vast portion of their brain development and the support system for the cortex (the portion dealing with thinking).
9) Research on infants whose needs are met for food, drink, shelter, and all needs save sensory development show very high rates of mortality, and led to the modern day drive for sensory development for young children.
10) Research has shown that even teenagers, especially during puberty, can benefit greatly from such a sensory program.
11) Our present environment is designed to avoid touching things, with paths, roads, railings, cut-back plants despite millions of years of exposure to constant touch for our species with brush, crowded conditions, bare feet, etc. Without a compensatory response, our children simply do not get the stimulus their development requires.
12) Modern research shows a number of children develop sensory deprivation issues, causing developmental delays.
13) Emotional security has been closely tied to exposure to touch (holding, cuddling, hugs, etc.) regardless of the verbal comfort also offered.
14) Lack of tactile stimulation has been shown to lead to mental and emotional disorders, including depression, violence, self-mutilation, aversion to touch and self-mutilation.
15) Often forgotten is that there are multiple aspects of each sense (heat, pressure, pain, with touch alone) that register differently and are ignored in many sensory programs due to their simplicity.
16) Often forgotten is balance, a sense that is absolutely necessary to brain development (try living without it for a day and see how well you function…).
17) Although the number of neurons developed after age six is minimal (though growth does continue for the rest of your life, and neurons have been shown to reproduce in adults) the number of synaptic connections (connections between neurons), the size of neurons, and the size of glial cells (the support cells around neurons, an essential part of brain development) have been shown to be increased by a variety of sensory programs and aid in intellectual development.
18) Physical development is highly influenced by sensory development.
19) Children who develop in sensory deprived environments have a much greater chance of addiction to illegal substances in later life as well as a stronger drive for sexual stimulation to compensate for earlier deprivation in basic sensory stimulation.
20) There are specific, sensory-rich materials and resources that can help develop your child in a conscious, non-pressure way for various periods in their prenatal, infant, toddler, child, and teen states. Most of them are utterly free and easy to do with a little time and effort.
21) Children often live in a world where adults look at anything except the child, due to fear of strangers, an unwillingness to let other adults interact with them, and often with cause, but the cost of it is high, and some form of compensation, greater sensory and social interaction is essential. Eye contact is particularly lacking for many children in the adult world.
22) In a world filled with 2D video screens, the issue is worse for smell, taste, touch, and balance but with increased hearing and sight stimulation, though only for 2D situations, not 3D.
23) Most of the playgrounds have removed many of the structures that do properly stimulate sensory development, particularly movement and short of a carnival are hard experiences to replace.
24) If you wish to do more advanced sensory development, research the interoceptive, vestibular, and proprioceptive senses.
25) A fetus has functional nerves around eleven weeks after conception and reflexive behaviors around 26 weeks after conception.
26) Mouth and tongue are formed by 8 weeks after conception. Around week 20 the fetus develops taste buds and does react to bitter tastes by week 28. At age 3 to 6 days old a newborn can reacts differently to breast milk and formula.
27) A fetus consumes around a liter of amniotic fluid each day in utero - a good reason to consider a varied diet for the mother.
28) A fetus develops a nose by 8 weeks. Despite lack of access to air, the nose still detects chemical changes in it's environment.
29) The ear is functional by 24 weeks after conception. Amniotic fluid is an excellent sound conductor, but little research has been made about the level of sound that affects fetuses, though that also means that there is not evidence of damage - still, concerns have been raised for long-term and extreme noise exposure. Normal level talking and music seems to have no apparent negative effects.
30) Evidence has demonstrated that children do remember some sounds and music after birth when exposed to them prenatally.
31) The visual system develops last, starting by day 22 after conception, but do not open until 7 months. The eyes continue development for three to four months after birth.
32) Levels of sensory ability can by improved above normal, allowing greater sensory stimulus without hypersensitivity.
33) Infants differentiate a mother's voice from others shortly after delivery.
34) Children with sign language exposure often communicate several months before their peers do with voice at an average of 6 months vs. 10 months for spoken language.
35) Sensory discrimination, being able to tell the difference between different sensory experiences is essential to development, as illustrated by a simple example: Imagine eating ice cream for the first time, then more, then more, until that is all you taste for days on end. The experience would be very unpleasant over time. That is how it is for children with insufficient ability to differentiate various sensory experiences. The more differentiation, the greater the enjoyment and development intellectually. Lacking that differentiation the child either withdraws or becomes hypersensitive.
36) The experience of lack of stimuli for period of time is underestimated in Western culture. Pauses and periods with no stimuli can help the brain sift and process sensory experiences better.
The only question is how long you will wait until you consciously develop a program for your own child?
There are no studies showing malformations or physiological developmental problems due to lack of book learning.
Sensory development, however, has a long list of such problems when ignored.
For advice and further ideas for your individual needs, feel free to email me (free).
Spiral-Matrix can be hired to actively create such programs in cooperation with parents, but there is so much you can do completely on your own.
Michael Corrinet
spiralmatrixeducation@gmail.com
Spiral-Matrix Academic Resources & Tutoring
(Facebook, Twitter, Wikidot, Blogger.com)
Austin, Texas
1) The vast majority of the brain is not developed by reasoning or "thinking", but by what sensory stimuli the brain is exposed to.
2) Although there are different senses that each child may learn better using, overall learning is helped by developing all the senses rather than catering to the ones already favored.
3) The number of neurons increase rapidly, with an average of 80% developed by age three and 90% by age five, so early exposure to a variety of sensory stimuli is essential for later abilities to develop.
4) Your brain has several "levels", the lower levels dealing with sensory-motor functioning, your upper levels dealing with cognitive/thinking functions.
5) The lower portions of your brain are developed through sensory-motor activity.
6) All your senses, except your vision, come through those lower portions of the brain.
7) The better developed the lower portions of the brain are, the better functioning the upper portions of the brain will be.
8) Millions of species of animals develop their brains by everything except reasoning and thinking. By limiting your child's educational program to such things, you ignore a vast portion of their brain development and the support system for the cortex (the portion dealing with thinking).
9) Research on infants whose needs are met for food, drink, shelter, and all needs save sensory development show very high rates of mortality, and led to the modern day drive for sensory development for young children.
10) Research has shown that even teenagers, especially during puberty, can benefit greatly from such a sensory program.
11) Our present environment is designed to avoid touching things, with paths, roads, railings, cut-back plants despite millions of years of exposure to constant touch for our species with brush, crowded conditions, bare feet, etc. Without a compensatory response, our children simply do not get the stimulus their development requires.
12) Modern research shows a number of children develop sensory deprivation issues, causing developmental delays.
13) Emotional security has been closely tied to exposure to touch (holding, cuddling, hugs, etc.) regardless of the verbal comfort also offered.
14) Lack of tactile stimulation has been shown to lead to mental and emotional disorders, including depression, violence, self-mutilation, aversion to touch and self-mutilation.
15) Often forgotten is that there are multiple aspects of each sense (heat, pressure, pain, with touch alone) that register differently and are ignored in many sensory programs due to their simplicity.
16) Often forgotten is balance, a sense that is absolutely necessary to brain development (try living without it for a day and see how well you function…).
17) Although the number of neurons developed after age six is minimal (though growth does continue for the rest of your life, and neurons have been shown to reproduce in adults) the number of synaptic connections (connections between neurons), the size of neurons, and the size of glial cells (the support cells around neurons, an essential part of brain development) have been shown to be increased by a variety of sensory programs and aid in intellectual development.
18) Physical development is highly influenced by sensory development.
19) Children who develop in sensory deprived environments have a much greater chance of addiction to illegal substances in later life as well as a stronger drive for sexual stimulation to compensate for earlier deprivation in basic sensory stimulation.
20) There are specific, sensory-rich materials and resources that can help develop your child in a conscious, non-pressure way for various periods in their prenatal, infant, toddler, child, and teen states. Most of them are utterly free and easy to do with a little time and effort.
21) Children often live in a world where adults look at anything except the child, due to fear of strangers, an unwillingness to let other adults interact with them, and often with cause, but the cost of it is high, and some form of compensation, greater sensory and social interaction is essential. Eye contact is particularly lacking for many children in the adult world.
22) In a world filled with 2D video screens, the issue is worse for smell, taste, touch, and balance but with increased hearing and sight stimulation, though only for 2D situations, not 3D.
23) Most of the playgrounds have removed many of the structures that do properly stimulate sensory development, particularly movement and short of a carnival are hard experiences to replace.
24) If you wish to do more advanced sensory development, research the interoceptive, vestibular, and proprioceptive senses.
25) A fetus has functional nerves around eleven weeks after conception and reflexive behaviors around 26 weeks after conception.
26) Mouth and tongue are formed by 8 weeks after conception. Around week 20 the fetus develops taste buds and does react to bitter tastes by week 28. At age 3 to 6 days old a newborn can reacts differently to breast milk and formula.
27) A fetus consumes around a liter of amniotic fluid each day in utero - a good reason to consider a varied diet for the mother.
28) A fetus develops a nose by 8 weeks. Despite lack of access to air, the nose still detects chemical changes in it's environment.
29) The ear is functional by 24 weeks after conception. Amniotic fluid is an excellent sound conductor, but little research has been made about the level of sound that affects fetuses, though that also means that there is not evidence of damage - still, concerns have been raised for long-term and extreme noise exposure. Normal level talking and music seems to have no apparent negative effects.
30) Evidence has demonstrated that children do remember some sounds and music after birth when exposed to them prenatally.
31) The visual system develops last, starting by day 22 after conception, but do not open until 7 months. The eyes continue development for three to four months after birth.
32) Levels of sensory ability can by improved above normal, allowing greater sensory stimulus without hypersensitivity.
33) Infants differentiate a mother's voice from others shortly after delivery.
34) Children with sign language exposure often communicate several months before their peers do with voice at an average of 6 months vs. 10 months for spoken language.
35) Sensory discrimination, being able to tell the difference between different sensory experiences is essential to development, as illustrated by a simple example: Imagine eating ice cream for the first time, then more, then more, until that is all you taste for days on end. The experience would be very unpleasant over time. That is how it is for children with insufficient ability to differentiate various sensory experiences. The more differentiation, the greater the enjoyment and development intellectually. Lacking that differentiation the child either withdraws or becomes hypersensitive.
36) The experience of lack of stimuli for period of time is underestimated in Western culture. Pauses and periods with no stimuli can help the brain sift and process sensory experiences better.
The only question is how long you will wait until you consciously develop a program for your own child?
There are no studies showing malformations or physiological developmental problems due to lack of book learning.
Sensory development, however, has a long list of such problems when ignored.
For advice and further ideas for your individual needs, feel free to email me (free).
Spiral-Matrix can be hired to actively create such programs in cooperation with parents, but there is so much you can do completely on your own.
Michael Corrinet
spiralmatrixeducation@gmail.com
Spiral-Matrix Academic Resources & Tutoring
(Facebook, Twitter, Wikidot, Blogger.com)
Austin, Texas
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Spiral-Matrix Free Wiki of Educational Resources
Adding to wiki each day. Email us at spiralmatrixeducation@gmail.com with your own additions.
http://spiralmatrixeducation.wikidot.com/start
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