- Part 98

July 9, 2012

Childrens’ Theater Great for Visual-Spatial Kids this Summer

This weekend was the 25^th anniversary of our local children’s theater group. The Children’s Theatre of Elgin was founded by two brothers, both of whom are attorneys, and is dedicated to “live theater for children, by children”. Parent volunteers provide most of the labor, while grants allow them to use of state of the art theater facilities. The group puts on four shows a year with student performers ranging from ages seven to twenty one, depending on the show. What a great, creative outlet for your visual learner this summer!

July 5, 2012

American Independence: A Product of Innovation

Yesterday, as I watched our local Independence Day parade and delighted in the colorful fireworks, I thought about some of the attributes that have helped shape our nation. Before and after we became the United States of America, we were blessed with remarkable men and women of vision, fierce determination and persistence. Long before there […]

July 2, 2012

How to Get More out of Your Child’s Education

Writing my book, Being Visual, has been a long and insightful labor. Now that it’s complete (to be published September 2012), I have been honored to speak and share what it’s like to be a visual-spatial learner, the struggles these visual kids face in our current education system and some suggestions of how to better reach them. A few days ago, I spoke to a group of businessmen and women that work in the field of education, and when I was finished speaking, I was thankful to have several people from the group share their thoughts with me.

June 25, 2012

Here are Fun Summer Activities for Kids in Your Community

Looking for local activities that cater to kids and families this summer? Look no further than your fingertips! The internet is a great resource for endless ideas of local fun in your community. Check out some of the great websites we found for cities around the nation:

June 22, 2012

Summer Workshops and Camps for Kids

School’s Out! Here are some of our favorites from the 2011-2012 school year.

June 20, 2012

How to Keep Your Child’s Brain Active this Summer

While the typical family is enjoying a casual summer schedule, research shows that the typical student brain is also taking a summer break and forgetting up to 40% of the information learned during the school year. Worse yet, can take up to 6 weeks to get back into the swing of learning once a student returns to school. In the average school year, that can add up to almost 50% learning loss overall, an overwhelming statistic in a make-it-or-break-it educational environment. The good news, however, is that while it’s easy to forget – it’s just as simple to put a plug in the drain and keep that brain active, engaged and learning while still having fun through the summer break.

June 18, 2012

Keeping Children Engaged: Fun Summer Activities for Kids and Families

Summer is a great time of year — the sun shines, days get longer and our schedules loosen. This makes it the perfect time to have a little fun and a lot of R & R, but how much of your family’s downtime is being spent in front of the TV or the Xbox? We’ve compiled a list of our favorite activities for your kids and your family to do this summer…

June 13, 2012

Multisensory Learning Activities: Keep Your Kids Mentally Fit This Summer

As parents, we can look forward to summer as a time with lighter schedules, less structure and no homework. Let’s face it — we all need a break, and the warm, carefree days of summer give us the perfect opportunity. However, too many lazy days can lead to boredom, resulting in the well-worn phrase “I’m bored.” Today’s kids have so much technology at their fingertips — TV, movies, video games, the internet — that it can take some special effort to get them engaged in a wider variety of activities.

June 11, 2012

Kids’ Summer Activities: Engaging Outdoor Play for Children

Summer is a great time to get children involved in outdoor activities. When our children were young, our favorite family vacations were spent in northern Wisconsin. Each summer, we gathered our own four kids and a group of carefully chosen friends and headed north to play. Our plans included swimming, hiking, boating, fishing, game playing, bonfires — just about any kind of unstructured family fun. When we started the Wisconsin cabin tradition, our first cabins were pretty rustic, with few perks beyond running water. Over the years, the cabins have included a few more luxuries. I was determined to keep the focus on interactive play, so the first thing I did when we arrived was unplug the television and bury it in a closet. Initially, the kids were confused, but quickly caught on and took great pride in their ability to go without.

June 8, 2012

The Being Visual Blog by Bette Fetter: Insights and Tips on How to Develop a Child’s Visual Learning Skills

There is tremendous value in developing children’s creativity and learning abilities, but being creative is not just about the arts. Thinking creatively is the ability to see new solutions to a problem, to connect disparate thoughts and find and apply new ideas. This is a process of divergent thinking which comes naturally to right-brain, visual-spatial […]