You may think that I am writing yet again about math. Well, you are only partly right. That was where it started, but it goes so much further.
And you may be thinking -- Oh, no! A call back to "Schoolhouse Rock"! But, no, I am not putting lessons to music. Although I did do that for memorization, but I digress.
What I am referring to is MOVING! If your muscles do not move, they are going to get tired. Now, that sounds the opposite of what should happen, but it is true. Old school recess (now considered mostly unnecessary) was used to stimulate learning. If a child sits in one place for too long, his body cannot clean itself out; it stagnates. Those muscles need to pump the sludge out of the system.
Here is where math came in. I had a first grader who would sit for half an hour and could not get more than two or three problems finished. He said that he could not stay awake. So I told him to only do two problems, then "hip-hop" to the next chair at the table and do 2 more before moving again. In ten minutes he had finished several laps of the table and a full page of thirty math problems.
Moving your body keeps your brain awake no matter what your age. I would see my older children getting antsy in their seats and foggy in their brains. That was not the time to tell them to buckle down and focus. Three laps around the house was the cure, then they were able to concentrate again. However, I did begin to wonder if they were trying to avoid classes when they would tell me they needed three laps and didn't come back inside right away.
Moving does not have to be a full set of calisthenics (although they do work on rainy days -- "Ten jumping jacks, then five more questions." It can be as simple as changing rooms when you begin a different lesson. Do literature on the sofa, math at the table, history on a blanket in the yard, science in a small dark room with a projector, or grammar in a circle on the floor with a chalkboard or white board.
Just MOVE!
~Suzi
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