It is back to school time and we want our kids to have a successful school year. If the facts are a chore learning can be a bore.

But, we can encourage learning the facts above and beyond the bare bones minimum with 3 fun ideas.

We know this fact: the more senses involved when trying to teach/ learn the more information will be retained on the part of the student.

1. Involve the senses.

For example: MORE or less.

Picking up small colorful small fish with the fingers to sort of count is a fun way to encourage math concepts. Learning should be fun encourages founder of Heart Felt Play

• Hold MORE or less plastic fish in your hands.
• Count MORE  fish into one bowl. Then count less fish in another bowl
• Make signs with the < or > signs. Place to signs facing the > or < on the correct bowl. this many seem all to simple, but, again the more senses you use the more retention.
• Let’s add another sense or 2 using temperature and smell.

Temperature: Freeze some of the fish leaving some at room temperature. Don’t say anything…just watch the child reaction when they touch the icy cold fish. Now encourage the MORE or less observations.

Smell: If you have the good essential oils in the house, put a drop or 2, no more,of peppermint, wild orange or lemon on a cotton ball. Leave one or more cotton balls plain. You can stick a cotton ball in the fish. Then compare:

• Which smells more like peppermint?
• Which smells more like orange?
• Get creative.

Too old for cotton balls and plastic gold fish?

I still suggest using peppermint. Only get a small spray bottle. Pour in 1/2 cup or so of water then add a few drops of peppermint. Now you have a peppermint spritzer that will help revived a bogged down brain be more alert. (Try it then let me know if you like it more or less.)

Save the lavender essential oil for relaxing time for all ages.

2. Make a Fun Game: No Bones About It

On stripes of paper write out questions for research. Use concepts again like more or less. Make it a contest to be rewarded with a title treat.

For example the study is human anatomy:

Q. What is the smallest bone in the human body?

Q. What area of the human body has the most bones?

Q. How many bones does the human body have?

Here is the secret: While the student is researching for 2 or 3 facts they can’t help buy read a few more facts along the way that they will retain.

Of course, give a reward for the right answer. -See the above image for the answer to my above questions.

3. Make the facts into a song. The more silly the rhyme the better.

I have heard that Medical students will use rhymes, songs and acronyms to memorize and retain facts. Any age can use a simple ditty like Mary Had a Little Lamb or B-I-N-G-O as tune to memorize to.

When my children were very young I taught them to spell their names to the tune of BINGO.

When I was 8 years old I could sing all the books of the B-I-B-L-E. I can still get the books in order by singing a snippet of the tune.

Word of advice about music:

Now don’t be getting the idea that listening to music through ear phones while studying is the best idea gleaned from this post…TURN it OFF!

That crap is distracting your brain away from the priority focus , unless you can RAP a list of facts you have to memorize for tomorrow’s test.

This is the No Non-cents Nanna saying When studying make good choices on the stimuli around you. Use fun sensory tricks to help you concentrate on the facts.

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