If you're looking for a tool to help you keep your projects organized, especially if you work on those projects with other people, Asana is a new webapp that can help you keep on top of your to-dos, get updates from other people helping you, and capture everything you and your team are doing in one place so everyone can refer to it quickly.

The developers of Asana definitely had groups and teams in mind when they built the tool. You can use it to keep track of your own responsibilities and projects, and it has a number of powerful tools like categories, dependent tasks, and sub-projects to help you stay organized but still see everything you have going on in one place. However, it really shines when you have a group of people to collaborate with. Asana gives your team a single place to see everyone's to-dos, related documents, notes, and conversations. Instead of emailing files and endless debate threads in your inbox, your team can visit Asana to discuss tasks and review documents together. Everyone else can see updates in real-time, assign each other tasks, and mark their to-dos complete when they're finished.

Asana is free for individuals and teams of up to 30 users. The service just launched its public beta today, but it's been in private beta working out the kinks for several months now. If you're looking for a to-do manager that can help you herd the cats in your office or just organize an event that requires input from multiple people, it's worth a try. Do you have a preferred tool for managing projects with groups? Let us know in the comments below.

Asana

You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+.

This looks like an interesting cloud-based project management tool for students on the go, which let's be honest, that's all of them.

Kids Can Write Blogs Too

by Dr. Rick

Quick, what’s the purpose of writing?  Yes, yes, self-expression, developing clarity of thought, improving vocabulary and grammar skills, expressing concisely, and learning precision.  Those are all significant.

 

But the real reason to write is to be read.

 

Without readers, what’s the purpose?  Even Emily Dickinson, one of my favorite poets and America’s most famous recluse, knew – she had to – that her poems would be read and loved someday.

 

So, when kids write knowing that someone other than Ms. Payne will be reading their words, they’re more careful, more thoughtful, more motivated to do a good job.

 

When I read recently about elementary kids in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area whose classroom and homework writing occasionally includes blogging, I sat up and took notice.

 

They may be competition for the Dr. Rick Blog, but these kids are getting a great learning experience!  As the article reports, kids are seeing “the power of words” as they write and recognize that other people are reading and responding to their well-planned words.  They’re also reacting to the words of other students, as well.

 

I can think of other benefits, too, as well as a caution or two.

1. Improve writing skills.  People sweat the details more when they know others will be reading their words.  This means kids will pay closer attention to their ideas, their word choice, their spelling, and their grammar.  People won’t take you seriously if you write, “Teacher’s only give homework to torchur there student’s.  We lern enuf in class.”

Reach a larger audience.  Kids can express their thoughts on topics ranging from the food in the cafeteria, their homework assignments, their favorite pastimes, their hobbies, or their favorite subjects, and know that someone will be thinking about their words.  It’s even better when the readers respond.

Develop clear thought.  When kids are writing to explain something – “Here’s what I did for my science fair project” – it’s best when they’re clear and precise.  If they know someone is reading their words and inevitably judging whether those words make sense, writers will make their explanations clear and lucid.

Write descriptively.  Descriptions are clearer, more imaginative when the writer has an audience.  Kids will learn about and use metaphors, analogies, and other figures of speech more readily if many readers are involved.

Tell good stories.  Nothing encourages a story teller more than an appreciative audience.  When kids are testing their creative juices – writing poems, short stories, or even short plays – an audience can be just the motivation they need to be extra original, imaginative, and inventive.

Persuade with authority.  Persuading someone to take action or to accept your point of view takes thought, logic, and compelling ideas.  Convincing others that homework, for instance, should be outlawed requires well-thought-out sentiments and weighty arguments.

Respond to others.  Writing and thinking improve when you’re responding to others’ ideas, too.  It takes just as much thought to add to someone’s theories as it does to write them in the first place.  Or to agree with them.  Or to refute them.  Forcefully but civilly, of course.

Make creative assignments.  When kids are writing for others, teachers can motivate their students with creative assignments that stretch abilities and are fun as well.  “Pretend you’re Thomas Edison telling skeptical lantern makers about your electric light bulb.”  Or, “Write a letter to the principal asking her to rethink her decision to eliminate the school field trip this year.”  Or, “Write a story about a dinosaur family, including their surroundings, their habits, and their fellow creatures.”

Celebrate.  When kids see that others read, enjoy, agree with, disagree with, or are motivated by their writing, let them know that they’ve now discovered the real purpose of writing.  Whether it’s with blogs, a classroom Facebook page, or a traditional paper publication (or all of these), celebrate kids’ successes.  Encourage clear, correct, compelling writing – which doesn’t take away from tweeting or other informal writing, just expands kids’ fluency.

But be careful.  Kids writing blogs brings up lots of privacy and safety issues, of course.  Teachers and parents need to monitor kids’ writing carefully and allow kids to post their writing only on sites that allow just classmates, other teacher-sponsored writers, or approved guests.  Kidblog is one such site.  So is edublogs.  Still, use your good judgment and use this opportunity to teach, re-teach, and teach again about Internet safety.  Have the kids come up with rules with you.  They’ll be stricter than you will.

Recently I read of the death of Frank Neuhauser, 97, a Washington, D.C.-area lawyer who at the age of eleven made national headlines as the first-ever winner of a national spelling bee.  It was 1925.  His prize was $500 in gold pieces, and he got to meet President Calvin Coolidge. The word that put him over the spelling finish line was “gladiolus.”

 

I hope his home’s garden was filled with gladioli.

 

His death got me to thinking of the benefits of spelling bees.  (There are plenty, and we’ll get to them shortly.)  One of the thoughts I had was a distant memory of spelling bees in which I participated as a kid.  Although I never reached Neuhauserian heights, I was pretty good at spelling and enjoyed the adrenaline rush of competition in an area where I could hold my own.  I like to think I learned something about sportsmanlike rivalry as I drilled and practiced with study buddies, faced them in classroom and school-wide competitions, and congratulated the winner later.  From time to time I was on the receiving end of the kudos.  Nice.

 

Spelling bees may not have the popularity they once did.  The age of spell check has put an end to them, although we all know the dangers of spell check. That loss of popularity is a shame.  Kids can learn a lot from spelling bees.  Here are some of the benefits of learning spelling and participating in spelling bees.

1. Improve vocabulary.  Kids who prepare for spelling bees certainly polish up on the meanings of those words they’re learning.  Ever notice how once you learn a new word you see it everywhere?  Kids love this kind of discovery.

Promote literacy.  Besides learning new vocabulary, kids benefit from improved reading comprehension, grammar usage, and writing skills.  Why?  Because they’re not just learning and memorizing words in isolation – they’re learning how to use those words.

Learn etymology.  Kids learn the origins of words and how to figure out words’ meanings by being “forensic readers.”  Taking apart the words, learning prefixes and suffixes, knowing certain language roots.  Take Mr. Neuhauser’s word, “gladiolus.”  When kids know that the word’s Latin root gladi means “sword,” they quickly understand how this flower with sword-shaped leaves got its name.  (“Hey, I’ll bet that’s how gladiators got their name, too!”) 

Provide goals.  Participating in a spelling bee can make a great school year goal for many kids.  It’s easy to monitor (“Did you study your words this week?”), easy to check (“Let’s go over those words.”), and gives a sense of satisfaction and confidence (“Eight out of ten!  Way to go!”).

Have a place to show off skills.  Athletes have playing fields.  Musicians and actors have stages.  Science and tech geniuses have labs.  Artists have studios and galleries.  Good spellers can have their place to shine, too – the front of the classroom or later, if they’re lucky, the auditorium stage.  Every kid should have a place to shine.

Build friendships.  Kids with similar interests motivate each other, they form bonds, and they encourage one another.  If your kids are fortunate enough to enjoy lots of different interests, they’re also building a diverse group of friends.

Start small, end big.  Encourage spelling at home, of course, as kids learn their letters and become more efficient in their reading and writing skills.  At school, spelling bees can begin in the classroom, extend across a grade level, then move on to a school-wide contest.

Sponsor a Bee.  I’ve written before about how businesses or professional organizations can become involved in their neighborhood schools.  Spelling bees are excellent ways to show your business’ enthusiasm for literacy development – future workers need to communicate clearly and correctly.

Develop potential.  If a kid is proficient and lucky enough, she could be in for some cool travel to a state-wide, regional, or – who knows? – national spelling bee.  Or a scholarship.  Or new study opportunities. 

Encourage school spirit.  The whole school community can be involved in spelling bees.  Could even be a fund-raiser.  For starters, set up a Spelling Club.  For spelling bees, kids can design a logo for t-shirts.  Teachers can motivate and entertain by having their own spelling bee.  Everyone can dress up in bee-like yellow and black on spelling bee day.  Cheering encouraged.  For lots of creative ideas and helpful information including grade-appropriate word lists, study tips, and promotional materials go to the Scripps National Spelling Bee website.

Have fun!

Here’s a question we get a lot: how important is religion to a child?  Parents frequently wonder whether they should be giving their children a religious background or whether they should rear the children “religiously neutral” and let them find their own way when they get older.

 

“I’m spiritual, but I’m not religious” is a phrase I hear often.  I think I understand the sentiment, but it seems lazy somehow, a cop-out, an avoidance.

 

How important is it for kids to have the experiences of church or temple or mosque attendance, for them to receive instruction in a faith, for them to have a working knowledge of the cultural references that we encounter daily?

 

The question is fraught with emotion and even some controversy.  It’s filled with our memories and experiences, for some fulfilling, warm, and sustaining; for others doubtful, difficult, and permanently painful.

 

For some parents, it’s a no-brainer.  Their children will be exposed to the family religion – the religion, perhaps, of their parents and grandparents.  They believe in the tenets and dogma of that religion, and they want their children to have the same spiritual benefits they have had.

 

For other parents, because it’s so difficult, they simply ignore it.  It’s just easier that way, they figure.  “We can raise good and decent kids without religion,” they reason.

 

While I certainly understand and respect the latter, I honor and come down firmly in favor of the former.

 

Here’s why.

1. The power of belief.  I’m no theologian, but I can’t help but believe that we all yearn for something that’s greater than ourselves.  I understand the arguments for disbelief, the questions that inevitably arise when the world gives us yet another example of humankind’s propensity for evil and depravity, or another example of random, inexplicable disaster.  Still, if we allow ourselves to notice them, we can point to great and innumerable human and natural examples of transcendence, of timelessness, and of enduring hope that have given strength and dignity to people over the millennia.

The power of civilizing effects.  Yes, of course, religion is more than making us behave.  But it certainly gives us a moral compass, a code by which to live, a set of standards, and a sense of right or wrong that lives with us all our lives.  These civilizing effects can come from other institutions and customs, it’s true.  But it’s increasingly obvious that – for any number of social and familial reasons too complex for my poor mind to grasp – they often don’t. 

The power of rituals.   If you’ve read my blog with any regularity, you know I believe in the power that routines provide for children.  Homework, bedtime, mealtime, and playtime routines make kids feel secure and give them a structure in their lives.  Religious rituals can give kids the structure to develop their sense of spirituality, to evolve their nascent beliefs, and to indulge their natural curiosity.  It gives them a time and place to ask questions, to express themselves, to see their place in the world. And, let’s face it, there will come a time when they’ll have to attend a wedding, a funeral, or some other special occasion in a place of worship, and they’ll thank you for giving them the confidence that comes with knowing how to conduct themselves.

The power of culture.  Cultural references to religions and the Bible, for instance, abound in our daily lives.  (Would your child know what you were talking about if you praise someone brave and forbearing by saying, “She has the patience of Job?”  Would he get a rainy-day reference to Noah?  An admonition to remember the Golden Rule?)  These references can occur in wide-ranging settings, from art to literature, to music, to holiday celebrations, to architecture and much more.  Without advocating any one religion, I’d argue that being a part of a society is to recognize its values and to get its references.  Teens understand this implicitly.  We want to belong.  Understanding and respecting other cultures’ religions is the next step, a step to growth, a step – it’s not too strong to say it – to peace.

The power of expression.  Sometimes we want to express thoughts, emotions, ideas, or revelations that just seem inexpressible.  Sometimes we’re so overwhelmed with happiness (weddings) or pain (funerals) or gratitude (family, friends, health), for instance, that we simply don’t have the ability to make ourselves – let alone others – understand.  Grounding in a religion’s beliefs and rituals can give us the framework to cope, which may not be the same as understanding, but is often the best we can do.  Sometimes a prayer that comes unbidden, from repeated practice, is just the thing.

The power of belonging.  Humans are social. We want and need the benefits that come from belonging to groups.  We can still be proud of our individualism, but connecting to others is necessary.  The nurturing, the mentoring, the corporal and spiritual care that come with belonging to a trusted group sustain us and make us strong.  Learning our values, living our faith, and worshiping with others from our earliest youth can give us the foundation to navigate our adulthood.

Stronger minds than mine have tackled this timeless question, and these humble ideas are my attempt to answer it.  No doubt you have your own.  I’d love to hear them.  Click on the comment button and share them with us, won’t you?

The elementary school where I do some volunteer work has an amazing and unusual extracurricular program for second and third graders.  Students from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, one of the nation’s premiere music conservatories, located just around the corner, come to the school to give harp lessons to second and third graders.

 

Harp lessons!

 

I don’t know how or why the harp came to be the instrument of choice, but I do know that the kids have a ball.  They sit with their tiny harps and pay attention to their new heroes, the “big students” from the Institute who show them how to sit, hold the instrument, and pluck.  If I didn’t know them so well, I’d say the kids were angels.  That’s the harp’s effect.

 

I come from a music-loving family (Dad played the saxophone as a young man and “serenaded” us at his ninetieth birthday party two years ago), and I have a brother who’s a professional musician.  Alas, I’m a piano lesson drop-out.  But watching, observing, and teaching music-playing students over a long career, I’ve seen first-hand that learning to play a musical instrument has great academic, social, and lifelong benefits.

 

Here are some of them.

1. Brain development.  You engage both hemispheres of the brain when you play an instrument.  The practice “exercises” that kids experience engage the whole brain.  Think of them as brain workouts.

Fine motor skills.  Fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and general dexterity improve when kids play musical instruments.  Piano, guitar, flute, oboe – doesn’t matter. 

Presentation skills.  When kids learn to play an instrument and play for one another, for their teacher, for their parents, or for small audiences, they develop a “stage presence,” a confidence that spills over to other aspects of their school and later work life.  Oral book reports, science fairs, debates, and workplace presentations become a little easier.

Memorization skills.  Memorization is a useful and valuable skill.  When kids memorize practical and relevant information, when their actions become second-nature automatic, they’re efficient learners.  Confidence rises.

Expressive skills.  Learning to express ourselves through various ways – writing, painting, physical activity, acting, creating, or music – is a valuable life skill.  Playing music allows us to express love, rage, confusion, excitement, patriotism, awe, worship – any human emotion.

Team skills.  Playing in a band or orchestra is as much an exercise in team work as playing on a sports team.  Players work together to reach a common goal, they encourage each other, they support each other, they learn from each other’s talents.

Concentration skills.  Enhancing kids’ concentration will carry over to every subject they study.  Music lessons demand concentration and focus.  They music they produce, the admiration of listeners, and the encouragement of parents and teachers, heighten confidence, encourage further concentration, and build more success.

School performance. There’s been a lot of research about the academic effects of studying music on young students.  Researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, for example, found in 2006 that music-studying youngsters 4-6 years old, developed better memories and had higher literacy and math levels than students without music lessons.  

Music appreciation.  It sounds like an old-fashioned term, but music appreciation adds enjoyment and diversity to our lives.  A wide ranging knowledge of and appreciation for various kids of music will add richness and depth to life.

Adults’ encouragement.  Kids can’t do it without us.  Just as with sports or any other extracurricular activity, they need our support, our cheering on, our inspiration, and our encouragement.  Don’t let them “drop out” at the first sign of discouragement.  Instead, jolly them along with gentle pressure and modest rewards.  Take them to concerts, introduce them to new and unusual recordings, and show your interest in lots of different kinds of music.  Expand their worlds.  Enrich their lives.

Kids learn quickly when they can be actively involved in their lessons.  In recent Dr. Rick Blogs, we’ve discussed how singing and drawing allow kids to use their brains in active ways to learn and remember.  Another way kids learn is through movement, being physically involved in their learning.  Some call this “learning by doing.”  Elementary school teachers call it common sense.  Kids call it fun.

 

When kids are actively engaged, they’re a part of their lessons, using their bodies and their minds together to learn new skills and knowledge.  Parents and teachers know that when kids are engaged and active, they’re learning – not disrupting, daydreaming, dawdling, or delaying.

 

There’s a lot of learning in school.  Some of it comes from kids being told stuff – easier for the teller than for the told.  Parts of speech, for example, or the circulatory system.  But isn’t it more effective – and, face it, more fun for the kids – if kids can act out adjectives, adverbs, and verbs?  Or construct red and blue pathways on the gym floor to be arteries, veins, and capillaries leading from the heart, through the body, and back to the heart?
  

“Let’s act out slowly undulating, slinky, slithery snakes.”

 

“Let’s be blood cells and show how we flow through the circulatory system."

 

Seems that knowledge we gain by doing stays with us longer than knowledge we gain by being told.  That’s why we can get on a bicycle after many years and be able to ride it.  And why after an equal number of years we cannot for the life of us remember much about the Byzantine Empire.

 

So teachers know that whenever we can get the kids involved it’ll be a more memorable experience.  Kids act out scenes from history and literature.  They conduct interesting experiments in science class.  They sing as they learn processes.  They move, count, and align objects (“manipulatives”) as they learn math.

 

Here are some ways physical activity can enhance learning.

1. Timing.  Kids develop a sense of timing as they engage in learning.  Whether they’re learning when to add a certain substance to the chemistry experiment, when to lift the weight off the fulcrum in a physical science class, or just the right moment to lift their arms during the butterfly stroke, developing a sense of timing is a crucial skill.

Mind-body coordination.  Important for future surgeons, athletes, artists, craft workers, and mechanics, for example.  Kids learn how to make their bodies and minds work together when they’re active and engaged.

Games at home and the classroom.  When kids invent their own games on the playground at school or in their backyards at home, they’re being creative, explanatory, and physical.  Using their minds, expressing their ideas, and working their bodies.  Later they can write the rules and explain to new players.

Practice and drill.  The repetition of skills makes for easier recall, or “automaticity,” as teachers say.  Coaches and athletes know this.  So do actors and musicians.  And any professional who works with his or her hands.  Practice makes perfect.

Rhythm.  The cadence of movement helps kids learn.  I’ve written about that teacher who gets his kids to learn their spelling words by having them jump rope as they spell.  A perfect example of learning by doing, by movement, by active engagement.

Not all learning, of course, can be physical and lively.  Sometimes we just have to sit down and listen, watch, study, and concentrate.  But, especially for our youngest learners, if we can get them out of their seats and moving for a portion of their day, providing them with many different ways of learning, we’re doing their growing minds and bodies a great service.

In the last Dr. Rick Blog we discussed how drawing – and sketching, graphing, and representing ideas in pictures – can help kids learn.  Same thing for singing.  Singing helps us remember ideas, names, and other facts.  Admit it, when you have to alphabetize something or remember how many days in a month, you sing the alphabet song or “Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November . . .”

 

Learners who are sensitive to sound and rhythm – those kids who swear they need to have music when they study – know that music helps them to learn.  Music affects the brain, sparks it, gets it ready to learn, makes us sit up and pay attention.  That’s what teachers do daily.  Music works in the classroom, and it can work at home, too.

 

Young learners sing in their pre-school and kindergarten classes often.  So do most elementary school kids.  Creative, resourceful teachers – some working with music teachers, others working on their own – write fun songs that make lessons come alive and memorable.  Over the years I’ve seen classes sing about the books and stories they’re reading, about holidays, about important historical dates, about the planets, and even about the “distributive property” in math.  (I swear.)

 

I guess my favorite is singing along with second and third graders learning the names of the states.  Sing the “Nifty Fifty” song, and you’ll not be able to get it out of your head for hours.  The kids I saw merrily, and on their own, sang it in the cafeteria later.  And parents told me some kids sang it at dinner at home.  Families were impressed.  Whether parents could get the song out of their heads is another question.

 

Here are some ideas about helping kids learn through singing.

1. Turn lessons into lyrics.  Whether you’re a parent or a teacher, help kids turn their lessons into lyrics that they can sing, just like the “Nifty Fifty” song.  Use familiar tunes – “Row, row, row your boat” or “Twinkle, twinkle,” for example – and just replace the words with your own.

Turn lessons into rhythm.  I’ll never forget the creative teacher whose students I watched studying for their weekly spelling test.  They were jumping rope to the rhythm of the spelling, having fun, getting some exercise, and fixing the spelling in their little brains.  I found myself wondering if the kids needed to bounce quietly in their seats during the test.  Does it matter?

Enhance listening skills.  Learning songs requires kids to listen carefully, a necessary skill in any classroom.  When kids are paying attention, they’re learning.

Keep them engaged.  When kids are singing along with their classmates and teacher, when they’re listening, when they’re involved, they’re not fidgeting or chatting with their neighbors.  They’re engaged and active.

Keep them learning.  When kids are singing, they’re taking in and processing information.  Singing “Nifty Fifty” requires listening and concentration.  Pointing to the states on a map adds another dimension.  So does learning the proper spelling and maybe even the capitols.  Kids feel accomplished, smart, and ready for more learning.  Nothing wrong with that.

Make it routine.  Singing can be an important and regular part of classroom time, especially valuable for very young learners.  It’s a great way to begin the day and settle down for learning.  Parents at home know this at birthday parties.  How do you get them settled for cake and ice cream?  Start singing “Happy Birthday.”

Sing to raise spirits.  Singing helps to make us happy.  When kids need some cheering, some hope, some encouragement, or some consolation, the right song can help jolly them along.

Sing about practically anything.  Days of the week, the alphabet, the states, the presidents, the continents, the oceans, multiplication tables, spelling, the Ten Commandments, rules for a game.  If they can say it, they can sing it.

Dance, too.  Keep the learning active while you’re at it.  Stimulate the brain and the body while you’re enriching learning.

Don’t worry about your singing voice.  Kids don’t, why should you?  Teachers sing along with gusto, you can do the same thing at home.  Doesn’t matter if you’re not going to win a Grammy.  Kids like to show off what they know and what they’re learning.  So join in on the fun and build some memories.    Do it now.  Soon enough, they’ll be too jaded and “middle school” to be seen with you, let alone singing with you!

Remember those kids I mentioned earlier, the ones who swear they need music as they study?  If music is a distraction to you, it doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing for your child.  Let her have her music.  Her grades can be the determiner.  If grades fall, then turn off the music.  If the grades are good, what’s the harm?

 

As I was tutoring a fourth-grader the other day, I noticed that, without even thinking about it, he drew pictures as he spoke and listened.  We were reviewing and studying for a social studies quiz his teacher was giving soon.  The boy took notes and quite naturally supplemented them with drawings of the Battle of Bunker Hill, Paul Revere’s ride, and the Boston Tea Party.  At first I thought his attention was drifting, but then I realized he was fully engaged.  In fact, the drawing sharpened his focus.  I noticed that every page in his class notebook was accompanied by drawings.

 

On the day of the quiz, the teacher announced that kids could get some extra credit by illustrating their essay. (“Pretend you’re a colonist participating in the Boston Tea Party.  Describe what you see.”)  Cries of delight went up.  You could just see their little minds imagining what they were going to draw.

 

I’ve seen this phenomenon many, many times, of course, but it reminded me that for some kids, drawing can enhance their studying and learning.  Howard Gardner, who has written extensively on “learning styles,” calls these kids “visual learners.”  They’re good at drawing, sketching, graphing, painting, and creating three-dimensional representations.

 

Young learners can use lots of different strategies to make their learning easier, more efficient, or even more fun.  Drawing is one of them.  In future blogs I’ll discuss some others.

 

Here are some thoughts about drawing.

1. Visualization.  Drawing helps kids visualize their learning.  Just as my fourth-grader “saw” Bunker Hill, Paul Revere, and the Boston Tea Party, other kids can draw their lessons to help them visualize a concept, an event, a timeline, or maybe a person.  For some kids, a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Expression.  Kids don’t have the extensive vocabularies we adults have, so they can have a difficult time expressing their thoughts and ideas, especially during stressful times.  Drawing can help them find the right “words.”

Math.  Drawing can help kids learn patterns, shapes, and angles.  It can assist in showing relationships, measurements, comparisons and contrasts.  It makes learning step-by-step processes manageable.  Think long division. 

History.  Kids love to draw battles (Bunker Hill), royalty (Ferdinand and Isabella and Columbus), struggle (Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad), favorite historical figures (Martin Luther King), and scenes that spark their imagination.  When they combine words and pictures, they’re helping history take root in their minds.

Science.  Drawing helps kids during chemistry experiments, biology lessons, astronomy observations, and physics classes.  It helps them understand processes.  Creating charts helps them to organize their knowledge.

Writing.  Drawing helps young writers map out their ideas, visualize characters, imagine settings, and create interesting plots.  They expand their vocabulary, spark their imaginations, and trigger insights.

Art.  Of course.  Whether they’re painting, sculpting, or folding origami, drawing is the first and most important organizing step in much of creativity.

Reading.  Kids need help when they’re reading longer chapter-books.  When I taught To Kill a Mockingbird to “reluctant” teen-age readers, I had them draw their versions of the characters or cut out pictures from magazines.  We put these drawings and pictures all over the walls.  As we read or discussed Atticus, Scout, Mayella, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley (especially Boo), I noticed their eyes going repeatedly to the pictures. 

Note taking.  Drawings can bring organization to notes, help provide a structure to information, and allow visual learners to “see” what they’re writing about.  It helps to make the ephemeral concrete.

Research.  Especially for older kids who are researching a topic, either for school or for their own interests (a first car, a new pet, an unfamiliar sport), supplementing notes with charts, graphs, or drawings can help them make sense of complicated information or to come to reasonable conclusions.

 

Life is full of distractions.  They threaten to keep us from our work, our problem solving, our worship, our thinking, our family time, our rest, and even our driving.  They can be maddening.

 

Think of what they do to our kids.

 

After all, our kids haven’t mastered the techniques we use to tune out distractions, to keep to our schedules, and to organize ourselves.  Instead, the distractions de-rail them, affecting their study, their learning, their grades, their confidence, and even their behavior.  Distracted kids cause distractions.

 

Here’s the lesson we want kids to learn.  When you’re studying at home – or, when you’re in class – you need to be quiet much of the time and pay attention all of the time.  Constant interruptions and distractions rob you of valuable skills and knowledge.

 

What can we adults do to help our kids limit their distractions?  To show them the power of paying attention and concentrating?  To provide them with the skills to control their study environments?

 

Here are some ideas I’ve seen work over the years.

1. Limit TV and screen time.  Count the distractions in a typical television show – the commercial interruptions, the fast cuts among scenes, the furious pace – and you’ll lose count before you know it.  Same goes for video games.  Not everyone agrees with me, but I can’t think of any reason kids younger than two need to be assaulted with this.  And if no one’s watching it, turn the thing off.  It’s only making noise.  A distraction.

Provide toys that encourage creativity.  Toys that spark the imagination, that involve some interaction – building, assembling, manipulating, problem solving – are for the most part better than passive ones.  

Have quiet times and quiet spaces.  I’ve written about this before.  Expecting kids to have some regular quiet times in quiet spaces provides them with the rest their brains need and their bodies crave.  Read, think, create, and re-charge in these quiet times and spaces.

Tune out.  Kids need to learn how to “tune out” noise and distractions.  You can’t always control their environments, so show them how you’ve learned to ignore the distractions and control the interruptions that are so much a part of our lives. 

Stay on task.  As they’re learning how to tune out distractions, they still need us to show them the power of perseverance and diligence.  Time management, self-discipline, and concentration are valuable skills that will serve them all their lives.  They won’t learn them right away.  (We didn’t, why should they?)  But they’ll come to see that by staying on task they’ll end up with more free time in the long run.

Routines help.  As with most learning, routines create safety zones, expected behaviors, and patterns that make studying more effective.  Routines that involve quiet concentration during homework time actually work.  Improved classwork, better report cards, and increased confidence are powerful rewards.

Multitasking is a myth.  All right, I’ll grant that adults need to multitask often – our lives are busy and we think we’re good at doing many things at once.  But I’d argue that kids aren’t as adept, especially younger ones.  If a middle-schooler is working hard, with your help, to raise her algebra grade, she can’t give her undivided attention to more than one thing.  By definition, it’s impossible.  Multitask during non –study, non-homework, non-important times.

Be a role model.  Kids want to succeed.  They want to get good grades, to make us proud, to learn new skills, to gain new knowledge.  They may not listen to us when we tell them how to concentrate, but they do watch us as we go about our adult business and routines.  When they see us working, organizing, structuring our lives, they get the message.

Be patient.  Like most other skills, avoiding distractions doesn’t come easily.  Kids are naturally curious, easily distracted, and ready to jump from activity to activity, topic to topic, at the merest temptation.  Sometimes they’ll be really, really good, and sometimes they’ll be really, really lousy.  Take a deep breath.

Stay positive.  Remind yourself that eventually they’ll get it.  There are countless distractions out there, waiting, lurking, vying for our kids’ attention.  When we stay positive, convinced that we can help our kids and that they’re able to prevail, we’ve won the first battle for their future.