"Literacy Families and Learning" Hits 3 Million Reads!

I'm pleased to report that my blog has now reached over $3,000,000 reads. I want to thank you my readers for your support. Some of you have been reading the blog since 2007! My first post below features my first grandchild (and his Dad). Jake is now aged 22 and is now doing his PhD!

Some interesting facts:

My blog has readers from all continents (not sure about Antarctica!). Posts average 14,000 readers over time, but in 2024 this is closer to 30,000 to 40,000 readers each post. This has come from 507 posts!

Here is a small sample of the most popular posts over time:

'Fathers and Children's Education' (2007) 

20 Simple Travel Games for Children (2009)

Understanding and Developing Creativity (2009)  

Digital Learning for Kids 8 to 13: Fun Learning Games (2011) 

25 Great Apps to Stimulate Literacy, Learning & Creativity (2011) 

Enrichment for Gifted & Talented Children (2011) 

Great Educational Toys for Children (2014) 

Introducing Young Children to Shakespeare (2016)

Newberry, Caldecott & King Children's Awards (2016) 

Why Picture Books Matter, Even for Teenagers & Adults (2018)

70 Historical Picture Books for Children Aged 5-14 (2020) 

The Slow Death of Creativity Imagination and Creativity at School (2020)

Children's Literature that Invites & Encourages Resilience - 6 Great Picture Books to Share (2021) 

Stories for Children by Aboriginal Australians (2021) 

Selling Our Children Short: Educating the Disadvantaged (2023) 

Children's Book Week Awards (2023) 

'Seven New Children's Books that Shouldn't be Missed' (2025) 

Thank you to all of my readers across many nations. Some of my most faithful readers are from the USA, Australia, New Zealand, England, South America and Jordan. 

As we near Children's Book Week in Australia on the 16th to the 23rd September, I thought it was a great time to acknowledge the wonderful Children's Literature that is produced every year in Australia and around the world. 

  

 

 

 

'Identifying that which is valuable in EVERY child'

I'm not sure what your childhood was like, but mine wasn't great. As we have reached the end of the academic year in schools and universities within Australia, I thought it might be useful to revisit the first question in my pedagogical framework in 'Pedagogy and Education for Life'.

"Do I identify that which is valuable in each child?"

If you have followed my work, you will have realized that my family life was problematic. For most of my early years up to the age of 17, I lived in a dysfunctional family with two alcoholic parents. I also had the devastating experience of finding my mother had died during the night after a massive heart attack. This was the result of alcoholism that left her an emaciated woman, who ate little but drank much. My father was also an alcoholic for much of my early life, although thankfully he stopped drinking when I was 12 years, when he lost his job after being found with alcohol on his breath at work.

In my case, it was my 4th Grade teacher who was the first to recognize that while I was an annoying student at times (partly due to my struggles with life at home), he saw potential in me. I now know, my behaviour was due mainly to disinterest and boredom with what he was trying to teach me. But he invested time in me, trying to find something that would capture my imagination and hence improve my behaviour.

The secret of his success as a teacher, was that he saw some hidden potential in me that no other teacher had ever been able to see.He recognized that I was bored and had significant home life problems. He turned me around by providing some unique opportunities to stretch my knowledge and motivation by trusting me to undertake some special projects in our class.

Above: An early school photo. Good luck if you can pick me!

How did he respond to my disinterest and bad behaviour?

First, he created jobs for to keep me busy and learning something in the process. His most ambitious move was to turn over full responsibility for a brand new tropical fish aquarium that he trusted me to set up and care for. He also encouraged me to learn more about the tropical fish and give talks to our class and other students about them, including their habits, food and natural environments of the fish.

Second, he ensured that my learning opportunities were pitched at a level that challenged me, rather than making me do the whole class activities which I found, easy, boring and seemingly a waste of my time.

Every teacher reading this will probably be saying, "I can't design a separate curriculum for one nuisance student!" Of course you can't, but by recognizing that my ability wasn't being stretched, and my home life was appalling, he knew he needed to do something different for his benefit and also mine. I am so grateful he did! 

As teachers we need to realize that our students come to us with different strengths, abilities and interests. To some extent, this requires us to address the diverse interests and abilities in our classrooms and adopt varied methods and content.

My early teaching experiences

Given my early school experiences, it won't surprise you that when I became a teacher I tried many innovative things to engage my students. I was always looking for things that would stretch them, widen their knowledge, and inspire them to learn new things. For example, in my second year of teaching with a Year 6 class at the time, I came across an old gramaphone on the side of the road as I drove to school. It was being tossed out. Our family had a gramaphone when I was a child. It was in our garage, still worked, and I would play old records on it. 

I stopped my car, asked the owners were they 'really' throwing it out. They said yes and I asked could I have it. I managed to push it into the large boot of my car and slowly drove the 2km to my school. I had another staff member help me to take it to my classroom. I put it the middle of the room and wondered what my students would say when they saw it. One or two knew what it was and one student said they had lots of old records in his garage. He went home (he had a lunch pass) and returned with some records. We used the gramaphone for much of the rest of the day. We listened to it, explored how it actually worked without power, wrote about it and so on. It was an incredible learning experience. I took it home and restored iy on a tiny balcony of an apartment my wife and I rented. I still have it to this day, and it is a prized object that we occasionally play for fun.

Teaching the Whole Child

I know that some teachers feel the expectations they have today as teachers are different to what I had several decades ago. But the need to encourage creativity, and develop inquiring minds that lead them to ask questions and look for explanations for things that are new to them, is critical.

In the process, we might uncover knowledge and interests that will surprise us. Schools are so regimented and programmed today, that in many ways creativity is dampened. We need to look for opportunities to widen our students worlds.

A side benefit to such an approach to teaching will I believe lead us to discover things about our students that we were unaware. In the process we might just identify in each child things that are valuable and sometimes unique. 

Thank You

Thank you to the many thousands of people who follow my blog. This is my last post for the year. My apologies for not posting on this blog last month, life has been busy.

Seasons Greeting to all!! I look forward to staying in touch in 2025.

Trevor

Selling our Kids Short: Educating the Disadvantaged

This is a topic that has been around since I was a teacher many years ago. How do we support and help children who are disadvantaged to learn and flourish? The challenge is close to my heart, for I was one of those children. Born with a father who was a coal miner, as was his father, grandfather and great grandfather. Before that my family was growing potatoes in Ireland.

There were nine boys in my father's family, and when they came to Australia in 1922 they were all highly literate. They were all readers, performed reasonably well at school and went on to become leaders of a movement seeking to support and promote the needs of the worker, by helping to build strong unions. Two built the nation's largest poultry farm. How were a bunch of mine workers whose ancestors struggled, and lived in a two room miner's cottage with only shared a outside pit toilet and washroom able to do these things (my Father's town below). 

           Above: Main street of Caldercruix (Scotland)

Beyond the amazing resilience of the miners and their families, there was a strong commitment in Scotland to school education. In the late 18th and early 19th Century the government set out to educate the poor. Its public education system was a leader around the world. What about today? How well do our public systems compare today?

Why was their education so good?

I discovered an old post that I didn't quite finish back in 2011! In it I reported the comments of Alfie Kohn titled "Poor Teaching for Poor Children". The following snatch from it is still very current:

"Love them or hate them, the proposals collectively known as 'school reform' are mostly top-down policies ... pitting states against one another in a race for federal education dollars...  offering rewards when test scores go up ... firing the teachers or closing the schools when they don’t."

I hear many echoes of this today. Alfie Kohn continues:

"Policy makers and the general public have paid much less attention to what happens inside classrooms - the particulars of teaching and learning - especially in low-income neighborhoods."

 

Education Week was held just three weeks ago in NSW. We put our best face forward for the general public, and rightly celebrated all the good things about our schools and our teachers. What we didn't hear much of were the inner groans of our teachers, who find it hard to teach the way many would like to, due to the pressure politically to ensure children do well on public testing published for all to see. Every time, bureaucrats and governments groan about "falling standards", we are back on a familiar merry go round.

 

Meanwhile, how are our teachers using their time?

 

In Australia, our teachers are typically buried in paperwork, helping their students prepare for public testing (national and state), ticking boxes, writing reports etc. Where is the time to prepare the lessons they might plan, and the opportunities to form creative young people to become the leaders of tomorrow?

 

As a young teacher, in my first appointment in a difficult community in Western Sydney in the 1970s, this wasn't the case. I found myself with primary school classes of 30-36 students with mixed ability students. No classes were graded. What to do? Thankfully, we were not hounded to teach to the test. So my plan was to work hard to excite my students about learning, to get them to enjoy school and be challenged. Along the way, I still taught them the basic skills for life. Yes, reading, writing, mathematics, knowledge of the world etc.

Above: My first class

But I had a fair degree of autonomy to vary my routine when something exciting happened. These opportunities occurred often in my classrooms with questions and comments like "I don't get it", "Sir, did you know that...", "have you ever seen a Wedge Tailed eagle" and so on. I had the chance to follow some of these interests and questions, and be creative myself. I wrote a book over 30 years ago in which I shared some of my ideas and strategies for making literature and reading exciting. 'Other Worlds, the Endless Possibilities of Reading'. You might still find a copy on Amazon.

 

For example, one day on my way to school, I saw an old 1930s gramophone on the footpath, being tossed out. I asked the owner could I have it, he said yes! I jostled it into the back of my car and took it to school. With the help of another teacher we carried it to my room. I just sat it at the front of the room. As the children arrived, they saw it and questioned, "what's that Sir?" I asked them to tell me.

 

Above: Gramaphone restored

One child finally recognized it; there was one in his grandfather's garage. He went home for lunch and brought back some old 78 Bakelite records. I set aside most of the day to help them find out more about it. We played the records, discussed the differences between the player and the records. We then spent the rest of the day in varied exploration, drawing, writing, researching etc. Sadly, this type of spontaneous activity is hardly possible today. Paperwork, reporting and preparation for public exams take up far too much of teachers' time (not by choice).

 

Finding ways to break this cycle

 

The life of the teacher has been discouraging for quite some time in Australia. Things seem to be getting worse as a direct result of the “reform” and strategies pursued by governments in most countries. Most are promoting getting back to skills, 'the basics', testing students and schools against the standards of other unlike groups. Sadly, such reforms are cheered on by education departments, many parents and journalists.

 

 

It's hard to see how we change things, but we need to look for opportunities. I am so happy that during 'Book Week' in Australia this month, we can return (in a sense) to celebrating and enjoying learning with a creative focus on literature. We can try to recapture the joy, and challenge of education which can occur by reading for pleasure and enjoyment. No test afterwards, just the joy of reading, responding to it, sharing it with friends and so on. 

 

One of our key performance goals in schools, should always be to influence our students to become avid readers. That was something the Scottish system in the 18th and 19th centuries understood. We need to recapture this in Australian schools, and work to enable our students to explore, enjoy and perhaps even write inspired by literature. I'll write a post on our award winning children's books when they are announced next week.

The last word

Alfie Kohn's thoughts helped frame this post. He offered good insights from varied educators and scholars, including Deborah Meier. I'll let this educator and author who founded extraordinary schools in New York and Boston have the last word:

 

"...The very idea of 'school' has radically different meanings for middle-class kids, who are “expected to have opinions,” and poor kids, who are expected to do what they’re told. Schools for the well-off are about inquiry and choices; schools for the poor are about drills and compliance. The two types of institutions barely have any connection to each other".

How can we work to achieve this in our varied countries? I can't say I recognize it in many schools. Do we just keep enduring the stress on skills and testing, or in the interest of our children's education, will we take a stand to see some changes made?

I may offer a second post on this in the future.

 

Above: One of my early primary school classes (41 students)

The Slow Death of Creativity and Imagination in our schools - PART 2

A recent media report presented survey results which suggested 60% of parents find it hard to play with their children. Another report indicated parents should spend at least 30 mins a day in directed play with their  toddlers. The media report shared some surprising comments: "I don't have the time." "I don't know how to play with a toddler." And "I hate playing with my toddler".  

I wrote a post in 2020 titled 'The Slow Death of the Imagination in our Schools - Part 1'. It seems like I need to write Part 2. The recent media reports and responses have stunned me into action!

My purpose in writing the post isn't to make parents feel guilty, especially in an age where both parents typically have paid jobs outside the home. Time is sometimes hard to stretch to allow things that might seem less critical (e.g. playing with our children). And of course, a sole parent needs to do the lot! 

I want instead, to remind everyone that creativity is critical for the world! Creative activities are not an optional extra in life. Unfortunately, we live in times where the globe faces numerous challenges. These include climate change, tragic natural events, the loss of far too many animal, insect, plant and marine species etc. On top of this we have seen global conflicts, pandemics and more. Now, I won't depress my readers. But we need to deal with our challenges. And it isn't just knowledge that will help to solve our many global challenges. Creativity is required in concert with knowledge to enable us to sustain our world. 

The problematic factor is that our schools have never had less time for fostering creativity. This is one of our great educational challenges. Teachers live in an age of constant external pressures to help children succeed on tests. The sad part is that the the more we test, the less time we have to teach and encourage creativity and the application of knowledge to the world. The nations that privilege and promote this at EVERY level of education, will be best placed. 

My post is motivated by the release of the latest NAPLAN test results. These once again show that Australia lags well behind nations like Sweden, where higher marks are demonstrated across all social class levels, as well as regional and urban locations. This is important because while politicians don't spend much time comparing public and private education, they should. Why? Because it would shed light on the great challenges for the public education system to teach more than just knowledge for external tests. We need a greater concentration on developing learners who can solve problems and seek creative solutions, not simply achieve high marks on external standardized tests.

Some of the depressing trends we've seen in higher education include:

• Lower entry scores to be educated as a teacher than virtually any other course.
• Large salary gaps between teachers in public and private education. 
• More children in public education from disadvantaged communities including urban and rural schools.
  
• All of the above tend to skew results for children of the privileged who typically attend private or selective schools.
  

Creativity is NOT simply a gift to privileged children

Above: A 'Big' sister reads to Lydia (age 1 day)

Creativity and imagination are available to all children. In fact, all children are born with an innate desire to explore the world. From birth, they receive a vast array of stimuli as they observe and try to make sense of their surroundings. The environment in which they live has a profound impact on them. Children commence life with great potential - notwithstanding genetic variations. But their environment can have negative as well as positive effects on their learning.

The potential impact of poverty and neglect on children's early development, underlines the need to ensure that children entering school are given every opportunity to be stimulated, inspired and have their horizons widened.

Neuroscience research has taught us a number of things about the young brain, including the immense capacity of children to learn, and for their minds to expand when stimulated. But across our school education system in Australia, I still see a dumbing down of the curriculum. State and nationally mandated testing seems increasingly to shape school programs and classroom practices, as well as wider community expectations.

Above: Philosopher Martin Buber

Social Philosopher Martin Buber suggested at an education conference in 1925 that imagination and creativity are not developed over time. His big take home message was that every child is born with a disposition to be creative.

However sadly, parents, teachers and schools can suppress this inbuilt creativity, and drive it from them with banal and repetitive activities.

As teachers and parents we can either "draw out these powers", or stifle them when done badly. What we offer in schools is but "...a selection of the world." In short, each child is born with an innate ability and desire to explore, imagine and create. The parent or teacher who says I have no time for creative work and play, is limiting the child's potential.

For most children, the first few years of life offer ample opportunities to explore, experiment and seek to push beyond their capacity to do most things. Preschool for most children can still offer freedom to explore, find out, imagine and act upon the creative urge they have to know and create. But by Kindergarten they begin to be trained to produce that which is seen as acceptable.

Above: A three year old doing some 'creative' writing

What can we do?

As parents and teachers we need to work hard at creating learning environments in which children are encouraged to ask "why?', "what if",  "how come" type questions. Parents, should endeavour not to become tired of the toddler asking "why", "what if", "how come" questions. We need to respond to them.

We also need to seek a variety of experiences for our children. As a parent and grandparent I spent as much time as possible with my children (and grandchildren) exploring their world. This included digging in my compost heap, seeking out bugs in our back yard, paddling in estuaries and rock pools, looking at the sky, and reading about the natural wonders of the world. We also read hundreds of books together, drew pictures after key experiences and more.

Teachers also need to look for ways to stimulate the imaginations of the children in our classes. There are many ways to do this, including reading to them and encouraging their responses (in word, drawing, actions...). There are also numerous simple experiences that we can integrate into classroom activities at varied grade levels.

Above: The restored Gramaphone that I still have!

As a young teacher I arrived at school one morning with a 'mystery' object. I found an old 1920s gramaphone on the side of the road. I put it in my car boot (trunk) and took it to school and simply placed it at the front of the classroom. Questions flowed. "What's that?" "Where did you get it?" "My grandma has one of those!" "We've got some old records in our shed, can I go and get them?" The creative activities and knowledge gained from this simply object sustained several days of varied activities and much learning.

In another school we created a number of gardens for flowers and edible plants. While teaching a grade 2/3 composite class we built a brontosaurus (measuring 3 metres by 1 metre) as a garden centrepiece in the school playground. To the joy of the  students, this was featured on the front page of our city newspaper.

Of course, there are subjects in the curriculum that should naturally allow imagination to be developed; including science, art and craft. 

My point in revisiting the previous post with an update, is that I have a sense that we've gone backwards. We cannot afford to allow creativity to be lost in the desire to skill, drill and educate for external exams. Education at all levels is about growing our students in more than just subject knowledge. 

Never allow the 'what if'? question to leave your classroom or home. 

If parents reading this post feel they haven't the time, or they don't know what to do, talk to other parents who do seem to do it, or just give it a go.

Boredom is still good for children!

I've posted on this topic before, but as many children seem to be on holidays around the world right now, I thought I'd repost it in revised form. My title is once again meant to be outrageous, but I also think it's true.

Children still struggle in this digitally over-stimulated age to keep themselves busy without a device in hand or before their eyes. Children and adults alike never seem to stop! Rarely do we daydream, sit quietly on a park bench and stare into space, lie around at home resting on a wet day and so on. Lazing around does not seem easy in our driven lives. Even if there is a moment where we aren't confronting a task, conversation or activity, we reach for a device to help us fill this time with more activity.

Boredom should be less of a problem than at any time in history, because it seems that there are endless things to do and many ways to use our time. And yet children still end up bored. But maybe, our children need to experience boredom without devices being the solution or antidote? In fact, might a device withdrawn period of boredom be good for our children? It might well be that creativity, self-directed learning, and even the ability to stick at a task, are 'arrested' for many of us because we're always stimulated by devices.

What is boredom?

In essence, it is 'unmet arousal'. You are looking for something to do, or an activity to fill a space in your life, but you just can't motivate yourself to do something. Neil Burton suggests that there are many reasons for this:

"These reasons can be internal—often a lack of imagination, motivation, or concentration - or external, such as an absence of environmental stimuli or opportunities. So while you want to do something stimulating, you find yourself unable to do so;  moreover, you are frustrated by the rising awareness of your inability."1

What is significant about boredom is that it's a state that can be acted upon by the bored person. The typical bored child - who we have all experienced - will say, "I'm bored! What can I do?" Or, "Mum can you ... ". Note the onus is being placed on you as the parent to deal with their 'bored state'!

My simple answer to such situations is NOT to try to solve the problem, or simply give in and allow them to retreat to devices and more screen time. During times of boredom your children might just:

• Find some new activities and interests
• Lead them to use their imagination 
• Offer opportunities to be creative
• Assist them to develop mindfulness
• Begin to enjoy the moment and their surroundings

However, you might just need to give them some prompts and help to get them started. Here are a few ideas.

How to respond to "Mum, I'm bored"?

At times, you should simply say, "what are you going to do then"? Don't feel that you need to solve the problem. Rather than always trying to solve the problem, it is often best simply to offer some prompts that will direct them towards possibilities. Here are some examples:

1. If it's a fine day, tell them to go outside, lie on their back and look at the sky, and think about 3 things that they might do. If it's bad weather suggest that they look out the window, what do you see? List ten things you can see. Draw one thing. Use one thing as a stimulus for a riddle or poem, "There was a ___  ___ in my yard, I didn't need to look too hard, but try as I might ...".

2. Suggest that they get a box (a shoe box works well) and go and find 5 things they would like to place in it that they could use, or do. This might lead children to put in a favourite toy, a game, crayons, craft materials, a book and so on. Ask them to consider one the thing they could do first. If you have more than one bored child, ask them to compare boxes and come up with a shared activity.

3. Give them a large cardboard box and ask them to consider what they might turn it into. Having a large cardboard box or two in your garage (perhaps in flat pack form) is a great resource. Perhaps a cubby, robot, space vehicle, animal and so on.

4. Suggest that they create a play to prepare and present to the family or some friends. You might help them to come up with some characters and a simple plot. For example, you might have a policeman, a dog, two children, and a school teacher. How can you create a story around these characters that you could present to others?

5. If the weather is fine, suggest that they devise a scavenger hunt, where 'treasure' is collected from the home (with your assistance) and which can then be hidden. The treasure could be edible, or treats of some kind. When the hunt is completed everyone shares the booty.

6. Why not create a family artistic mural, sculpture or map of the local community.

7. Alternatively, plan a photo frenzy (yes, I know a camera is a device, but it's special and only to be used for photos). You could come up with a list of things to photograph in your house and street and give them a time limit to hunt them down, photograph them and return. Give a prize (make it food and ensure it can be shared with everyone) for the most successful scavenger.

8. Or, why don't you suggest they create a board game around a specific theme. A simple game can be made in a race format, and with a dice and simple markers for each player. Use large pieces of cardboard and ask your children to choose their own theme and draw the squares or spaces that you progress through from start to finish (e.g. a car race, race around the world, quest for Mars, climbing Mt Everest etc). The game can have a simple format with spaces marked that can progress or retard the players. For example, in the space race, they could strike a meteor shower that forces them back home, or a time warp that accelerates their ship to another galaxy. Everyone should get to play the games at the end.

Summing Up

Boredom is NOT bad, it can drive children to explore new things, think creatively and move beyond the most common props in life today; screens and devices! Boredom can be used to prompt children to daydream, create, explore, imagine and play. Embrace it as a normal part of life and an opportunity, not just a problem. 

My title was meant to be outrageous, but I've also used it because I think it's also true!

We live in an age where children and adults alike never seem to stop! Rarely do we daydream, sit quietly on a park bench and stare into space, lie around at home resting on a wet day and so on. Lazing around does not seem easy in our driven lives. What's more, if there ever is a moment where we aren't confronting a task, conversation or activity, we reach for a device to help us fill this time with more activity. When there is a free moment, we often look to others or devices, to help us know how to use our time.

In one sense, dealing with bored children should be less of a problem than at any time in history, because it seems that there are endless things to do and many ways to use our time. But maybe, our children need to experience boredom? Might a lack of boredom be bad for our children?

1. Neil Burton (2014), 'The Surprising Benefits of Boredom', Psychology Today'.

Is my Child Gifted? You'll need more than test results to tell.

Imagination & creativity starts early

Spotting whether your child is gifted requires more than success on school tasks. I've written previously about the need to see giftedness as much more than simply intellectual skills and knowledge that can be established with a narrow range of intelligence tests. One person who has stretched our understanding in the area of giftedness is Howard Gardner in his work on Multiple Intelligences. While some gifted children demonstrate exceptional abilities across a wide range of capabilities (e.g. memory, language, mathematics, problem solving etc), others are gifted in narrower and more specific ways (e.g. visual arts, music, leadership, sport etc). In this post I want to focus on how drawing can help us to assess giftedness. If you're interested in more information on supporting gifted children you can read a previous post HERE which covers some common territory, but has additional ideas for older children.
  
How Drawing Can Demonstrate Giftedness?

Evelyne's 'Horse in a T-Shirt'

A few years ago, I observed some children using scribbles as part of an improvised drawing game. One made a squiggle and the others tried to turn it into an animal. The first child turned the scribble into a monster. The squiggler responded, "you can't do a monster, the idea of the game is to draw a real animal, anyone can draw a monster".

He then drew another squiggle. The next child turned it into a horse which in her words was "a horse with a T-Shirt on" (see opposite). He replied, "but you can't have a horse with a T-shirt on, because they don't wear T-shirts". She replied "well this one does and that's the type of horse I drew with your squiggle".

Let me stress that all three children mentioned in the above example, are gifted in different ways, but two were demonstrating their giftedness in this activity. While drawing can be a way to assess giftedness, it isn't the only way that different children, or even the same child on different occasions, can show their giftedness. But we can learn much from children's drawings (especially the child under five) that can be a pointer to giftedness?

Ten Things Drawing Can Teach us About Giftedness

Evelyne's drawing and some of the other drawings shared in this post can help us to identify giftedness. What might drawings help us to see?

1. They can show the ability to take a simple task and use it in a novel way, or for different purposes. Evie's drawing shows a preparedness to think outside the box.

2. They also help us to see if a child is able to see the unusual, think in novel ways, and observe possibilities that others don't. The camel drawing below from a three year-old shows this (note its shadow on the ground).

Sketch of 'A Camel & Its Reflection' (Lydia aged 3yrs)

3. It can also demonstrate the willingness of the child to experiment and take risks. These characteristics are evident in many gifted people, e.g. entrepreneurs need these qualities.

4. At the most fundamental level, they can demonstrate the ability to create something original. Not simply a drawing like all other drawings by children of the same age, but something different. For example, ask a 6 years-old to draw a house and you will usually see a hipped roof with chimney, two windows and a central single door.

Above: Child drawing of house (courtesy of 'Childhood Architecture')

5. Drawings can also demonstrate the ability to think abstractly, metaphorically and insightfully, as the child uses drawing to explore thoughts and ideas. Evie's drawing of the T-Shirt wearing horse shows this.

6. As well, drawings can show that a child can generate many solutions and possibilities for the simplest and banal tasks.

7. They can also demonstrate a preparedness to question assumed knowledge or ways of doing things.

Here a 6 yr old positions the pterodactyl above its prey (see the creature in the bottom left-hand corner).

8. Drawings also offer a window into a more mature (and unusual sense of humour), and a different perspective and view of the world. Their orientation will be unlike that of the average person. The drawing above illustrates just such a different perspective.

9. Drawing can also show a depth of knowledge about a topic that is often required to create a special image. For example, awareness of the anatomical make-up of an animal, or the details of mechanical device can be seen in images that the child generates. As well use of shading to show multiple dimensions, clever use of light and shade and so on, show knowledge of image and design.

10. Finally, drawing can also show how the child's mind leads them to see different things and pay attention to the novel and unusual that is then reflected in their drawings. The drawing below by a four year-old shows an image he drew after an outing to an aquarium. He created it as if it was viewed from the perspective of the fish. How did it see his granddad looking at it through the glass? That's his Grandad in the middle.

Jacob (4 years) draws Grandad from the unusual vantage point of the fish inside the aquarium looking out

Summing Up

All children are capable of demonstrating rich imagination and creativity, but some children demonstrate levels of creativity, insight, imagination and knowledge in drawing that suggest giftedness, beyond the typical and normal. Drawing can help us to look for this and encourage it. I have many other posts that will help you to see some of the ways that you can encourage bright and gifted children. You can read another one of them HERE.

Above: Creating a 'fairy' garden

Growing Children's Imagination & Creativity

Above: Relaxing in her cardboard cubby (Lydia age 4)

Children begin very early in life to imaginatively recreate story, experiences, life situations and ideas deep within. The human capacity to tell and recreate story is strong and is seen very early in life. This should not surprise us because imagination, creativity and story telling is basic to life, and together, distinguish us from all other creatures.

My youngest granddaughter Lydia has been fascinated by story since her first year of life. As a three year old she would use objects of every kind to create stories. Two lettuce leaves became two butterflies, the central characters in her mealtime story. Not all of her stories are retellings of known stories, in fact many are original innovative stories that she crafts using stimuli in her environment. Story for Lydia can also be stimulated by television (e.g. 'Everything's Rosie', 'Charlie and Lola', 'In the Night Garden'), books and all of life's everyday experiences.

The cardboard cubby above was created to her specifications from a box that our new washing machine came in. "I'll have the door here", "the window there". "Can I have a chimney please", and a "one on the roof". "A skylight I asked?". "Yes, of course!"

Imaginative play and storytelling are essential parts of learning. In previous posts I've called this re-creation (i.e. the reconstruction, presentation or retelling of a story in new ways), but it takes many forms.

Above: The fully furnished cubby

Story in its own right is critical to learning, communication and well-being. This is something that I've written about many times (for example HERE & HERE). For children, the re-creation or reliving of a story is a critical part of their growing knowledge of narrative as well as a way to gain knowledge.

Young children often quite naturally use imaginative storytelling to support and play with known stories or varied life situations and experiences:

Above: Beans become tusks for the walrus!

• Changing rhymes and songs, e.g. 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' to 'Baa Baa White Sheep' as Lydia does often.
  Acting out 'Little Red Riding Hood' with the resources of the dress-up box and some friends.
• Dramatizing a well-known children's song from television or CD or a children's picture book.
• Using art or drawing to imagine a story character, mythical creature or story setting. 
• Using Lego (or other toys, props and objects) to re-imagine story alone or with others.
• Creating something new that grows out of an experience of story. 

 Here are a few examples of how this can be encouraged at varied ages.

Examples of Imaginative Re-creation by Age Group

a) Toddlers (1-3 years)

• Being encouraged to be a wild thing as the story 'Where the Wild Things Are' reaches the critical moment when Max declares 'Let the wild rumpus start'.
• Finger Plays and rhymes ('This Little Piggy', 'Incy Wincy', 'Round and Round the Garden') 
• Retelling Thomas the Tank Engine stories using the various engines that feature in the story.
• Using dolls or soft toys to act out domestic scenarios.
  Using dress-up clothes in association with well-known stories.
• Creating a story using toy soldiers, Polly Pocket toys, magnetic boards with characters, fuzzy felt and so on.
• Joining in the television dramatization of a well-known story on a program like 'Playschool'. 

b) Early years (4-6 years)

• Many of the better story apps for iPad or android devices are an innovative way for multiple re-created experiences of stories (see my recent post on this HERE).
• Drawing maps, key characters (dragons, people) or scenes.
• Acting out stories with a group of children or with adult family members.
• Creating an adapted text to re-create part of a story (e.g. poetry, a character interview, telling the story from a different point of view).
• Using puppets to re-create a story.
• Using modelling clay or craft materials to create characters to re-create and retell a story.

Creating knights for storytelling

c) Later childhood (7-12 years)

• More elaborate dramatization, with involvement in making props and costumes.
• Simple animations using one of the programs readily available (see my previous post on animation HERE). 
• Using materials like Lego to re-imagine a well-known story.
• Creating a board game that recreates the plot or a specific part of a story (as Sam did).
• Creating a complex map or plot summary as a device for others to use.
• Create a script to be acted for a specific part of a story.
• Write a newspaper report based on an event within a story.
• Use a variety of written genres to create a new text ('The Jolly Postman' and 'The Jolly Pocket Postman' are published examples of this).

These are just some of the ways that storytelling and imaginative re-creation can stimulate learning and language.

Why We Need to Bore Our Kids

My title is meant to be outrageous, but I've also used it because I think it's also true!

We live in an age where children and adults alike never seem to stop! Rarely do we daydream, sit quietly on a park bench and stare into space, lie around at home resting on a wet day and so on. Lazing around does not seem easy in our driven lives. What's more, if there ever is a moment where we aren't confronting a task, conversation or activity, we reach for a device to help us fill this time with more activity. When there is a free moment, we often look to others or devices, to help us know how to use our time.

In one sense, dealing with bored children should be less of a problem than at any time in history, because it seems that there are endless things to do and many ways to use our time. But maybe, our children need to experience boredom? Might a lack of boredom be bad for our children?

What is boredom?

In essence, it is 'unmet arousal'. You are looking for something to do, or an activity to fill a space in your life, but you just can't motivate yourself to do something. Neil Burton suggests that there are many reasons for this:

"These reasons can be internal—often a lack of imagination, motivation, or concentration - or external, such as an absence of environmental stimuli or opportunities. So while you want to do something stimulating, you find yourself unable to do so;  moreover, you are frustrated by the rising awareness of your inability."1

What is significant about boredom is that it's a state that can be acted upon by the bored person. The typical bored child - who we have all experienced - will say, "I'm bored! What can I do?" Or, "Mum can you ... ". Note the onus is being placed on you as the parent to deal with their 'bored state'!

My simple answer to such situations is NOT to try to solve the problem, or simply give in and allow them to retreat to devices and more screen time. During times of boredom your children might just:

• Find some new activities and interests
• Lead them to use their imagination 
• Offer opportunities to be creative
• Assist them to develop mindfulness
• Begin to enjoy the moment and their surroundings

However, you might just need to give them some prompts and help to get them started. Here are a few ideas.

How to respond to "Mum, I'm bored"?

At times, you should simply say, "what are you going to do then"? Don't feel that you need to solve the problem. Rather than always trying to solve the problem, it is often best simply to offer some prompts that will direct them towards possibilities. Here are some examples:

1. If it's a fine day, tell them to go outside, lie on their back and look at the sky, and think about 3 things that they might do. If it's bad weather suggest that they look out the window, what do you see? List ten things you can see. Draw one thing. Use one thing as a stimulus for a riddle or poem, "There was a ___  ___ in my yard, I didn't need to look too hard, but try as I might ...".

2. Suggest that they get a box (a shoe box works well) and go and find 5 things they would like to place in it that they could use, or do. This might lead children to put in a favourite toy, a game, crayons, craft materials, a book and so on. Ask them to consider one the thing they could do first. If you have more than one bored child, ask them to compare boxes and come up with a shared activity.

3. Give them a large cardboard box and ask them to consider what they might turn it into. Having a large cardboard box or two in your garage (perhaps in flat pack form) is a great resource. Perhaps a cubby, robot, space vehicle, animal and so on.

4. Suggest that they create a play to prepare and present to the family or some friends. You might help them to come up with some characters and a simple plot. For example, you might have a policeman, a dog, two children, and a school teacher. How can you create a story around these characters that you could present to others?

5. If the weather is fine, suggest that they devise a scavenger hunt, where 'treasure' is collected from the home (with your assistance) and which can then be hidden. The treasure could be edible, or treats of some kind. When the hunt is completed everyone shares the booty.

6. Why not create a family artistic mural, sculpture or map of the local community.

7. Alternatively, plan a photo frenzy (yes, I know a camera is a device, but it's special and only to be used for photos). You could come up with a list of things to photograph in your house and street and give them a time limit to hunt them down, photograph them and return. Give a prize (make it food and ensure it can be shared with everyone) for the most successful scavenger.

8. Or, why don't you suggest they create a board game around a specific theme. A simple game can be made in a race format, and with a dice and simple markers for each player. Use large pieces of cardboard and ask your children to choose their own theme and draw the squares or spaces that you progress through from start to finish (e.g. a car race, race around the world, quest for Mars, climbing Mt Everest etc). The game can have a simple format with spaces marked that can progress or retard the players. For example, in the space race, they could strike a meteor shower that forces them back home, or a time warp that accelerates their ship to another galaxy. Everyone should get to play the games at the end.

Summing Up

Boredom is NOT bad, it can drive children to explore new things, think creatively and move beyond the most common props in life today; screens and devices! Boredom can be used to prompt children to daydream, create, explore, imagine and play. Embrace it as a normal part of life and an opportunity, not just a problem. 

1. Neil Burton (2014), 'The Surprising Benefits of Boredom', Psychology Today'.

5 Ways to Make Homework Exciting

Far too often homework is assigned by teachers to satisfy parents who somehow believe that if their child doesn't do extra work at home that they will fall behind. As well, homework set by schools can often be the same as work set at school. There is little point in either of these practices. I've written previously about what's wrong with the way many schools do homework (HERE).

Instead, of making homework such a ritual and repetitive waste of time why not assign homework as a way for children to learn new things, develop unique knowledge and experience and to grow in confidence as learners.

Here are 5 Words that can shape exciting homework: 

Above: Sam goes fishing!

IMAGINE

EXPLORE

DESCRIBE

DRAW

MAKE

Each of the above key words can offer gateways to learning. These simple words open up possibilities to expand learning, while words like copy, memorize, drill, and practice tend to reflect practices that often limit options. Of course, the latter are still ways that we can learn, memorization, some drill etc., have a place in school learning. But at the end of a full day at school, they should not be the key focus of homework. Instead, as a parent I'd suggest that you offer options for your children that will open their world to discovery, new things and different ways to reflect on their learning. In my view, learning at home should expand upon what happens at school, not simply mimic or copy it.

Some simple ideas to illustrate

1. Imagine

Above: A cubby made from a box

Ideas to encourage imagination will vary depending on age and your child's interests. Here's a simple idea for a 6-year-old. Ask your children (alone or with other siblings) to make a cave using blankets (call it a cubby or a cabin if you like), a dining room table and some cushions. Allow them to 'furnish' the cave with some special things. Perhaps some books, a torch, paper, a game and so on. Ask them to imagine that they are in this cave deep in a forest overnight and cannot get home till the next day. Ask them to sit in their cave and write down:

• Where it is located and how they might have got there?
• How they will get food for night?
• How could they find a water source?
• What will they eat?
• Will they need any protection?
• How might they get back home?

Get them to draw the site where their cave is located to illustrate their answers to the above questions. There are of course numerous variations on this idea.

2. Explore

Ask your child or children to choose a piece of ground that is roughly 6 square metres in area (3 x 2 metres) in their back yard or a nearby park.

Have them observe this area. Ask them to:

• Draw the space.
• Identify and label living and inanimate objects that are located on the ground. If possible give them some small hand tools to dig a few test holes (give them some simple specifications, e.g. no hole bigger than a breakfast bowl).
• With permission allow them to select 3 plant samples. Draw them. Smell them. Touch them and describe them using single words.
• Ask them to record any living things.
• Draw what they find and label them.

3. Describe

In keeping with the above backyard theme, why not ask your child or children to take part in the Aussie Backyard Bird Count (if you are from another country you may be able to do something like this in your own country). This is occurring from 23-29 October in Australia, and is part of National Bird week. In essence it asks people to observe for 20 minutes per day in their own back yard, or somewhere in the wider community. There is an app that you can download that makes it very simple. The hope is to we will learn about the bird life using this community based sampling method. It will also raise awareness of our wildlife and encourage a love of birds.

This is designed to be a 20-minute task each day for 7 days, that you would perhaps need to help them with to start. This would work well for children aged 4-6 with some assistance and perhaps independently for children aged 7+. Of course, you could do your own version of this.

4. Draw

Drawing is a wonderful way for children to express their imaginations, or to simply try to represent the world in a different way. While in much of our life we use words to describe what we see, to reflect on our experiences, share some aspect of learning, record the events of our life and so on, drawing can easily substitute for words or be used in association with words. The drawing below is one of my favourite drawings from one of my grandchildren. I was visiting the Aquarium in Sydney with him aged 4 years. When we got home he drew this picture. When I asked him to describe what he had drawn he pointed out how this was a drawing that showed how the fish might have seen us as they looked out through the glass. To draw this, he needed to imagine what it would look like from the vantage point of the fish! The drawing shows how the fish saw me as we wandered around the aquarium. What I love about this drawing is that it offers an insight into how his young mind was working. It also shows something of how he was reflecting on his experience, that he was thinking 3 dimensionally, and may well have been empathizing with the fish in the aquarium.

Above: A Drawing by a 4 year old who is taking the perspective of an aquarium fish

5. Make

Above: Using modelling clay to make real & imaginary animals

The possibilities for letting children make things are endless. I'd suggest allowing them to use craft, paper cutting, 3 dimensional objects like lego etc, to express a response to a story, a topic of interest etc. Whatever this might be, the child has the chance to represent something in 2 or 3 dimensions. This offer a different way for children to reflect on their learning, whether it is a creative  response to literature, or a way to represent some aspect of a topic they are studying at school. As with drawing, making things, like drawing, allows child to explore varied aspects of the topic and perhaps to see it in different ways when words are not the only option (whether spoken or written).

Above: Using a different way to show the sea creatures observed

Above: A game that Sam made that follows a story sequence

Other related posts

Other posts that address creativity, imagination and play (HERE)

A post on 29 children's books that feature birds (HERE)