The Importance of Creative Learning

Primary education is considered to be one of the most significant among all phases of education in the life of a student. The nature of the stage of growth enables all that is learnt to make an everlasting impression in the mind.

This is what makes primary curriculum extremely important to a child. Its importance not only lies in what is being taught but the methods in which the same is taught as well.

Creative Learning

Over the years of educational study there has been plenty of deliberation that is given to methods of effective teaching. It has been held that the methods of teaching that are employed are also significant in delivering the positivity of results among students.

So what is then the way a creative learning curriculum will function?

Here are some of the aspects of a creative curriculum design for your reference.

Approaching subjects through activities

Learners are given the freedom to choose their favorite subject than a set routine

Problem solving puzzles or lessons through block building are an important part of this curriculum

Stories are told to them as part of their learning process

There is an approach for the development of mental faculties as well as of the proper physical movements and skills development

There is an all round approach towards education touching upon various important aspects of life like to eat their food or to keep their things properly

These are some of the aspects of creative curriculum design. The important facet of a creative curriculum planning is that you do not have to follow a set pattern. There is a great deal of scope for improvisation and modification to yield better and positive results.

Cross-Curricular Learning

The initiation of education began with a perception that education is like the golden grains of knowledge that was filled into an empty sack which was a child's mind by teacher. The advent of modern education brought about the popular implementation of cross-curricular learning.

The work of educationists like Rousseau and John Dewey among many others altered this theory. These great men stressed on the fact that education was a lifelong process that was gathered with experience.

John Dewey was among those great educationists who played a pivotal role in bringing the child as the most important factor in the educational system. He had propounded the idea of child centric education along with others of his time.

Here is what cross-curricular method of education has in store for its learners.

Emphasis on learning with experience

Lessons supplemented with activity

A blend of learning through illustrations of pictures and videos or even models of things

A lesson of science that is supplemented with related activity or articles for better and clear understanding

All this makes learning experience a pleasant and a fruitful one. Child psychologists and educational analysts have found that retention of a learnt subject along with recall and recognition is more when measured with a normal approach to a subject.

This approach has been found consistently functional and successful among various age groups of children and for a variety of subjects.

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Creative Learning Curriculum for Everyday Lessons

Education, like charity, begins at home. And it has been seen that young mothers often get hyper about the child's education in a manner that makes it look like the child will appear in some graduation level examination at the tenser age of two! The only reason behind it is of course the fact that the adults today are very well aware of he cutting competition in the existing job market and they wish to give their child every opportunity and advantage so that when he is of age, he finds a well paying job and can lead a comfortable life without any worries. But on the other hand, it has resulted in only over burdening the child and instead of grasping what life has to offer, they get stuck with books and up mugging up their lessons.

For this reason, educationalists have asserted that a kind of balance has to be maintained between the important and the so- called trivial ways of study, so that it facilitates all round development of the child. This is what they call, Creative Learning. Which is a blend of the formal and more interactive and interesting way of studying, so that the child does not merely read about, but is exposed to the practical things of life, thereby improving his faculties and thus having a better understanding of his surroundings. For this, it is not necessary to chart out a very high profile plan with an expert with a lot of fee. In fact you should do it in accordance with your child's likes and dislikes and according to your own discretion as a responsible parent.

Therefore, trainers and young parents, who are teaching a child at home, should draw a plan and divide the child's lesson accordingly. So if the morning is dedicated to the alphabets and evenings to basic science then, apart from just reading about the plants, take them out to the garden and let them touch the leaves and fruits and flowers. If you have older children in the house, encourage them to perform the experiments that they have studied and take an active interest in helping them out so that they know what they are learning is greatly appreciated. Draw out a plan where you have equal hours dedicated to study, play and any other extra curricular activities that he might like to follow.

The bottom line is not just to leave them alone with their books and enquire only when the annual report comes in. if you do not look into his development yourself, and then there is no use complaining when he does not turn out to your liking.

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The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook - A Creative and Stress-Free Approach to Homeschooling

Within society, we often lose our way. As a result, many have taken it upon themselves to provide handbooks in order to help the rest of us find our way. There are handbooks available for most any situation, from how to survive in the wilderness to building a house out of surrounding materials. We can get the information we need to aid in our trek around the world seeking adventure and all that nature has to offer through handbooks. They have increasingly become an important part of helping us through life itself.

As it so happens, there is a movement afoot that is capturing the attention of parents everywhere. It is a movement borne out of concern regarding the educating of our children and the increasing evidence that supports the position that the educational system in its present form is failing our children's academic needs to a greater extent than ever. Being that necessity is the mother of invention, Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore have produced a handbook for the ages.

"The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook" is just such a book to meet the parent's need to guide their children through the jungle that is the educational system. And, it provides those needs in a simple, small bites approach. It is not a book that strictly advocates removing the child from mainstream schools and teaching them at home; it more accurately sees the desire for parents to do whatever is necessary to ensure their child's education and champions that position, whether it be in the home or the traditional educational arena.

"The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook" is wonderfully segmented into five distinct parts, dealing with such critical issues like that found in part two titled "Homeschooling Stress: Prevention and Remedy" addressing issues such as learning to slow down and not stress over the "what about their peers" question. In part four titled "Effective Homeschoolers Share Their Wisdom" you get a compilation of insights from actual homeschoolers sharing their experiences, revealing that each child is a treasure and unique in his or her own way. You will hear from people from every walk of life; the single mother, the Navy wife, physicians, artists, a former assistant attorney general.

In part five there are answers to questions such as how to get into college after being homeschooled, or how a working mother can still home school. You will also get some invaluable background as to how the home schooling movement was born as well as concerns regarding the dreaded word 'certified'.

In the epilogue of "The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook" you will find a chapter titled "The Moore Formula" that has been tried and true dealing with four critical areas vital to home school and, by default, societal success: head, hand, heart and health. This chapter will provide three main areas to address for the sake of the children and their future that is backed by documented research to be effective in furthering the child's academic and societal growth: study, work and service. It is the Moore's position that these are most critical if children are to succeed in life, whether it is from a home schooled environment or within the public educational system itself.

Never preachy, yet never compromising, "The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook" is nothing short of a Godsend when it comes to finding our way through life as it is today. Timeless principles abound within its covers and the message is evergreen for all generations to take heed. If we are to succeed as a society, indeed as a free nation, we need to take every step and make every sacrifice possible that our future generations mirrored in our children will receive the guaranteed need for that success. This is most assuredly found in Raymond and Dorothy Moore's wonderful book. Whether you are a single mom, grandparent or the 'stereotypical' intact family unit, "The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook" will be an invaluable guide helping you and your children see the world around you with eyes of wonder.

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Students in Poor Counties Get Creative Opportunities

Ms. Vela, the first in her family to go out of state to school, said she was not concerned about the academic challenges of college — she has been taking college courses since her sophomore year. By the time she graduates in the spring, she will have accumulated 30 college credit hours. Some of her classmates have double that.

Ms. Vela’s achievement is part of an initiative involving dual-credit courses that allows students to merge high school with college-level education to an unprecedented extent. Hidalgo’s school — once ranked among the worst performing in the state — is now one of the most successful.

An exceptional level of collaboration between local leaders in public and higher education has permeated Hidalgo for the last five years and is taking hold elsewhere in the Rio Grande Valley, which boasts some of the United States’ poorest counties, providing students with new opportunities.

In the 1980s, when Texas’ education-accountability systems were put into place, Hidalgo’s high school was ranked in the bottom 10 percent of the state’s schools in academic performance. The student population is 99 percent Hispanic, 89 percent of students are economically disadvantaged and 70 percent are considered “at risk” by the standards of the Texas Education Agency.

Today, Hidalgo students graduate at higher rates than the state average, and 98 percent — compared with 81 percent statewide — complete a recommended or distinguished curriculum as defined by the state.

At most high schools in Texas, students are permitted to enroll in dual-credit courses only after they have entered their junior year. Even then, they can enroll in only up to two at a time.

But such limits do not exist at schools in the Early College High School Initiative, a national program started in 2002 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation’s idea was to finance small schools that, in partnership with local colleges, would provide an early introduction to the concept and rigor of higher education to up to 400 low-income high school students, 100 per grade.

In Texas, there are currently 49 such schools, financed jointly by the Communities Foundation of Texas and the Texas Education Agency.

But Hidalgo has taken that notion even further.

Daniel P. King was the Hidalgo Independent School District superintendent in 2005 when the local early college effort began. Mr. King liked the idea but thought it could be improved.

“Early college high schools were already outside the box,” he said. “We wanted to go outside their box.”

Many of the early college high schools were on college campuses, which was limiting. Hidalgo’s public high school serves more than 800 students, and Mr. King was not interested in reaching only half of them. Instead, he proposed leveraging two grants to convert his entire school to the early college model. He created the first “early college district” in the country, according to Joel Vargas, a vice president at Jobs for the Future, the Boston-based organization that coordinates the nationwide initiative.

Hidalgo’s first partner was the University of Texas-Pan American, a four-year university in Edinburg, 15 miles to the north. Later, Hidalgo joined with South Texas College, a community college in nearby McAllen, and Texas State Technical College.

Robert Nelson, president of U.T.-Pan American, said a side effect of the collaboration had been a need to increase the rigor of his school’s college courses to account for students’ increased preparedness.

Similarly, middle schools have increased their standards to prepare students for early college high school. At Jaime Escalante Middle School in nearby Pharr, Maria Valencia, a sixth grader, recently chose St. Edward’s University in Austin as her top college pick. Her next project is preparing to take the PSATs.

The middle school is in the 32,000-student Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District, where Mr. King now serves as superintendent. He is trying to replicate the success of the Hidalgo model in a district 10 times the size, and he is quick to leverage any sources he can to reach as many students as possible.

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