Activity Centers To Develop Kids Minds?

This isn’t really new research, when I was in graduate school in 2006 we were discussing the correlation between screens (over stimulating cartoons, movies and video games) and the increasing trend of ADHD. We plop our children down in front of the TV for hours to view very colorful, flashing and noisy programs without any activity center; then wonder why they can’t sit in class quietly and complete a worksheet. When my kid was growing up we got the best baby activity center so they could develop!

Bring Back Activity Centers

Schools are using too much “screen time” with teaching as well.. my kids are forced to use a school issued laptop for everything it would be better if they had an activity center .. the downfall is one teacher failed my child on a test because his Google grading program counted her answers wrong because she didn’t quote Google word for word giving her a 59, when infact she made a 91 because her answers were correct when he took time to formally grade her assigment.. my other daughter had her laptop crash and they dont get issued loaners, her band teacher is counting off every day she doesn’t record her chair test and send it in because they no longer do chair tests in class among the peers, which teaches confidence … screen time, computers and phones given or being forced on them for learning and/or ‘quiet time’ is ruining children. Kids need outside time and pencil, paper and books again.

More Activity Less TV

First it’s radically different than the way we us parents learned, so we really don’t understand what it’s trying to do. Imagine my surprise when I realized it’s trying to teach exactly the way I do arithmetic in my head. Doing groupings and estimation is a process I developed for myself over a long period of time on my own through doing math every day. It was a revelation once I figured out common core’s goals.

That leads to the second failure, it’s execution. The way it tries to teach these strategies doesn’t really work and ends up with child, parent, and teacher all on different pages doing different things, and it breaks down. If they found a way to mix both the old way (which still resonates with many kids) and the new way (which hopefully catches everyone else) it would end up being a really kickass way to teach math.