Tag Archives: critical thinking skills

Using Your Noodle as You Doodle

Posted on by
doodle

It’s so interesting how you can find many different ways to get your little one to use her noodle. My seven-year-old loves journaling and notebooks. Recently, my mom bought her a small, pink doodling book that includes blank pages and pages that are partially drawn on. These page may have half a circle or an empty  playground and allows the doodler to use her imagination to finish the picture in any way she artistically sees fit. Unlike most activity books, this one doesn’t ask the child to do a crossword puzzle, or connect the dots. Of course, those are also fun and entertaining.

What this book does that is different is allow the child to use her imagination in a different way on each page. For example, my daughter will write a story then draw a picture about her story. Or she will finish a picture then write the story to match it. Or she may feel inspired to write about her day or something she recently did that was exciting. Each time she opens the book there are different ways in which she can use her noodle.

Drawing for children offers a number of different benefits. According to Artsz.org, one of the many benefits for children includes improving hand-eye coordination. When young children are asked to draw a portrait of something, they will learn how to make  comparisons between objects of different sizes or shapes. Comparing objects through art can be as simple as asking a child to draw a picture of children having fun outside. Through this task, they will learn to draw the bird smaller than the tree in a way that is realistically proportional.

Drawing also encourages children to use their imagination and develops their creative thinking skills into critical thinking skills, and it refines cognitive and creative skills. Plus, when it comes to holistic learning, drawing also improves a child’s ability to problem-solve, a skill that can add to  better grades and success in school.

The next time your child sits down to color, consider asking her to draw you a picture of a something she saw that day, either while on the playground or outside of her bedroom window. This will give her a great chance to practice some of those important skills and use her noodle as she doodles.

Not So Bored with Board Games

Posted on by
Justice-Jonesie-Board-Games (1)

I have vivid memories of being about seven-years-old and sitting at the small table in the brown-and-yellow-wall-papered kitchen of my childhood home. Across from me sat my mom, or sometimes my brother. If my dad wasn’t working, he loved to join us.

In the middle of the table was a board game of some sort. Usually we played a memory game, Chinese Checkers, or Clue. When my brother joined us, we played Monopoly, his favorite game since it gave him a chance to count money and strategize.

Playing a board game was a treat in my house—something I had to beg my brother to do with me. When I played with my mom, I knew it was our special time. It gave us quiet, one-on-one time together.

That was almost 30 years ago, and do I feel old when I say times have definitly changed. Today, it seems that board games are “old-fashioned” or unpopular with our modern-day kids. With all the electronic games and their constantly updated technology, you have to convince today’s child that playing a board game is not at all boring. Flipping cards over to find a match just seems silly, especially when there are 3D handheld devices or body-activated video games waiting to be turned on somewhere.

Or maybe I’m wrong?

Recently, I took out some of the board games my kids have collected over the years and set up a game night. It was the weekend, it was dark, and it had been raining all day. Everyone had cabin fever and my own eyes were tired of looking at the computer screen or the TV. I had just finished my last good book and I was itching for something to exercise our brains—something that didn’t have a bright screen with small words and a keyboard, or a big screen with flashing images. I was bored.

When I started to set up the first game, I was surprised when everyone gathered around the table with excitement. They were ready to play. We played game after game of Memory and began a pretty stiff competition. I lost nearly every game as my mommy brain was no match to their young and sharp minds. Hard to remember all the little images! We ended the night with a great game of scrabble between my 10-year-old and me.

We all had a great time that night. My kids didn’t even realize they were using their critical thinking skills or using a game without batteries. After the games were done, the kids headed upstairs for bed and everyone was all excited at the “new” games they forgot they had. We had a chance to have fun together and look each other in the eye, instead of avatars of each other on a screen. And we enjoyed each other’s company. Imagine that!

Do you like board games? What’s your favorite one?