355-362-0700 mega skills ad - uticaod.files.wordpress.com · you experience. sparking the...

Getting What Your Children Need to SucceedConfidence

Motivation

Effort

Responsibility

Initiative

Perseverance

Caring

Teamwork

Common Sense

Problem Solving

Sharing ExperiencesWhen we think about initiative, weoften think about our ancestors,who traveled across oceans andboarded wagons and trains to make lives for themselves in new lands.

Tell about parents and grandparentswho made those voyages, who tookthat kind of initiative. Talk abouttoday’s new immigrants whocontinue to come to America tomake a better life for themselvesand their children.

No matter what generation ofAmericans we are, the immigrantspirit is part of our nature. We arepeople of strong ideas and strongaction. This desire to make thingshappen burns within us and, whenchanneled and focused, it’s apowerful force in education.

Sparking theConversationStart with someexamples of initiative.

Small, everyday ideaswill do. For example, let’s

say it’s a weekend day, andyou ask, “What will we do?Who’s got an idea?” Your childpipes in, “Let’s have a picnic.”

What happens to this or toother ideas that come up athome? Children know they getserious consideration when thefamily decides together, yes, wecan do it because … or no, wecan’t because …. As many times

as it’s reasonable, follow throughon a child’s idea. When the idea

moves into action, the child needs arole to play. If it’s the picnic,there’s food to be bought, made andpacked. Kids need this practice in

order to show their initiative.

Initiative Builder:Newspaper ActivityUse the newspaper to find articlesof people using initiative. What arethey doing? Setting off on a trip toouter space? Designing a new house?Starting a business? There are manyways in which people take action.Talk together about initiative thatgets attention in the newspaper andon television and initiative thatgoes on daily at home. It’s not inthe news, but it is important.

Moving to BiggerQuestions� Can taking initiative too fast get

you into trouble? If so, what kind?

� Can waiting too long to takeaction get you into trouble? If so,what kind?

� Do you get lots of ideas, or doyou wait for the one perfect ideato come along?

There’s a wise saying: “Theperfect is the enemy of good.” So try to recognize the goodwhen you’ve got it.

© Dorothy Rich, 2000The nonprofit Home and School Institute,sponsor of the MegaSkills program, wasfounded by Dr. Dorothy Rich in 1964. Forinformation about bringing MegaSkills booksand programs to your school and communitygroup, contact: The Home and SchoolInstitute, MegaSkills Education Center; 1500 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC20005. Phone: (202) 466-3633. Fax: (202) 833-1400. www.MegaSkillsHSI.org

Building Children’sAchievement for theInformation Age

Dr. Dorothy Rich

MegaSkills®

355-362-0700 Mega Skills Ad 1/25/01 10:51 AM Page 1

Foundation

Sharing Experiences“You dummy!” That’s what kids saidto me when I told them about myfoot getting caught in the spokes ofmy brother’s bike. I was barefoot,the bike hit a bump, my foot wentinto the wheel; it came out with aspoke in it.

Nobody has to remind me again. I wear shoes when I ride a bike.That’s one way to learn. Childrenlike to hear stories like this. And itopens doors to conversations aboutfar more deadly consequences forchildren who today don’t listen tothe warnings about how to be safe… safe from drugs, safe from AIDS,safe from crime. While no one canpromise complete safety, there areprecautions that help.

Sparking the ConversationToday children have to listen andlearn before they experiment. Thereis a lot of information around. Talkto your kids about all those otherkids, the ones who need the lecture.Ask, how can we reach them?Brainstorm ideas. What are thepluses and minuses of each one?Even young children can get intothe habit. For example, ask,

“How can we get Uncle Jim tostop smoking? Any ideas?”

Some ideas will bebetter than others.Those are the onesyou save, and youkeep one handy totry out the next timeyou see Uncle Jim.

Problem-Solving Builder:Newspaper ActivityClip paragraphs from the newspaper.Cut and separate the paragraphs andmix up the pieces. In many ways,writing is like making the pieces ofa puzzle fit together. The puzzlepieces are thoughts. They need toconnect. The challenge is forchildren to work these sentencesback into a logical order.

Moving to Bigger QuestionsTry some of these with your youngproblem solvers.

� To get more kids to say no todrugs, what will it take? How do we keep our friends from being “dummies”?

Ideas build on one another.They have a terrific ability tokeep flowing as long as wekeep drawing from the well.

Getting What Your Children Need to Succeed

Dr. Dorothy Rich

MegaSkills®

Confidence

Motivation

Effort

Responsibility

Initiative

Perseverance

Caring

Teamwork

Common Sense

Problem Solving

Foundation

Sharing Experiences“I just have to have those shoes. Ican’t live without them.” That’s yoursweet child talking. While asking forthese shoes demonstrates yourchild’s motivation, it doesn’t saymuch for common sense.

How do you talk common sense toyour child? One way that doesn’tseem to work well these days is torecall how it was when you were akid. That’s when your parents wentto the store and bought the mostsensibly priced brand, and it allworked out fine.

The pressure on your kids to havewhat their friends have is over-whelming. How can they helppreserve the family budget and getsome common sense at the sametime? Children have this chancewhen they get the opportunity totalk to you, not about the old days,but about today and the pressuresyou experience.

Sparking the ConversationWhat are you as an adult underpressure to do? What do you say toyourself? What advice do your kids

have for you? Can they seesome of the same

pressures they face inthe pressures you

face as anadult?

Encouragethem to

name some ofthe pressures they

have just as youhave named someof yours. Youmay find thatyour children

have some goodadvice for you

and for themselves.

Common Sense Builder:Newspaper ActivityShopping for almost anything is anexperience in reading and commonsense. Read the ads, talk about them,compare costs and value. Hobbiessuch as gardening, painting, sports,etc., all lend themselves to researchand to use common sense daily. Picksomething to shop for in the ads,start clipping and comparing thedifferent prices and differentfeatures. Price alone may not be thebest determiner. You really have touse your common sense.

Moving to Bigger QuestionsTo a great extent, being likeeverybody else is a form of security,and everybody likes to feel secure.Questions like these can help yourchildren get a better sense of thepressures they face:

� Who sets the fashions? Who tellsus what to buy?

� When we hear product claims, arethey always true?

� Can we each remember a timewhen we used our common sense?

� Can we remember a time when wedidn’t do what everybody else did,and it turned out all right? Some-times it can turn out even better.

© Dorothy Rich, 2000The nonprofit Home and School Institute,sponsor of the MegaSkills program, wasfounded by Dr. Dorothy Rich in 1964. Forinformation about bringing MegaSkills booksand programs to your school and communitygroup, contact: The Home and SchoolInstitute, MegaSkillsEducation Center; 1500 Massachusetts Ave., NW,Washington, DC 20005.Phone: (202) 466-3633. Fax: (202) 833-1400.www.MegaSkillsHSI.org

Dr. Dorothy Rich

MegaSkills®

Confidence

Motivation

Effort

Responsibility

Initiative

Perseverance

Caring

Teamwork

Common Sense

Problem Solving

Foundation

Sharing ExperiencesEffort is funny. You’ve probably gotlots of examples of times whenyou’ve made major efforts, andnothing worked out. And then, thereare those times when you madelittle effort. Bang! Big results.

Children have the same experiences.They write a paper, for example, thattakes days and days, and the teachersays, “You should have tried harder.”Then they knock off another paperin ten minutes, and they get an A.

Where’s the justice? Answer: Thereisn’t much, but there is a law ofaverages. That means that when wetry hard, some of the ships willcome in, and some won’t, butchances are, there will always besome ships in port. We have to helpour children know the value of effort.Failure is no crime. Not trying is.

Sparking the ConversationAsk children for their own memoriesof making an effort and not makingan effort. Do they know kids whorespond to low test grades bysaying, “I didn’t study anyway”?

What do your children thinkthat this reaction shows?

Try to remember a time when youmade an all-out effort, maybe towin someone’s affections or to geton a team, and it didn’t work out.Your children will notice that you

are still standing, so making an effort can’t be toodisastrous.

Effort Builder: Newspaper ActivityCheck the want ads. Pick a few totalk about. The job world ischanging. Driving a truck used to bea man’s job. Being a nurse wasalways woman’s work. This activityhelps youngsters start thinking andtalking about what they might liketo do when they are older. Suggestthat youngsters cut out articles andpictures of people doing differentjobs that might be interesting as acareer. Discuss together the plusesand the minuses of each.

Moving to Bigger QuestionsTry these for a lively discussion:

� Is there a fear among studentsabout making an effort, a fearthat if you try and lose, it’s worsethan not trying?

� What about expectations? Howrealistic are we about winning andlosing?

Just as we learn in differentways, different kinds of effortare very useful for our well-being.

© Dorothy Rich, 2000The nonprofit Home and School Institute,sponsor of the MegaSkills program, wasfounded by Dr. Dorothy Rich in 1964. Forinformation about bringing MegaSkills booksand programs to your school and communitygroup, contact: The Home and SchoolInstitute, MegaSkills Education Center; 1500 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC20005. Phone: (202) 466.3633. Fax: (202) 833-1400. www.MegaSkillsHSI.org

Dr. Dorothy Rich

MegaSkills®

Confidence

Motivation

Effort

Responsibility

Initiative

Perseverance

Caring

Teamwork

Common Sense

Problem Solving

Foundation

Sharing ExperiencesWe’re worried about our children’smotivation today, maybe more thanever. We see so many kids who saythey are bored. Boredom used to beconsidered a problem foradolescents, but now it’s strikingyounger and younger.

Our children are used to a newsensation every few seconds ontelevision; they are used to flittingfrom one thing to the next at rapidspeed. No wonder they get bored.

Motivation thrives on learningenough about something, over time,to get really interested in it. That’swhy hobbies are so good forchildren and for adults, too. If youhad a hobby as a child, perhapsmaking model airplanes, or evencollecting stamps, tell your kidsabout it. When children have aspecific interest, they seek moreinformation about it; they getinvolved. When they get involved,they get motivated. It’s aremarkable cycle.

Motivation Builder:Newspaper ActivityFind articles that tell of events inforeign countries— “Lance

Armstrong Wins the Tour deFrance”; “PokemonSweeps Japan!”; “ForeignRuler Overthrown.” Canany of these eventshappen here?

Find in the paper asituation that affectsyour area. “ShoppingCenter Adds toTraffic Problem”;“NeighborhoodSchool to Close.”Talk about thesewith children.What’s interesting

about the news? Is it relevant totheir lives? In this way, childrenbecome more interested in what’shappening around them.

Sparking the ConversationLearning is at the heart ofmotivation. We’re always learningbut we’re usually moving too fast torecognize it:

� Think about what you havelearned in the past year, in thepast week, in the last day.

For example, what did you learnabout a certain person, aboutsomething new on the job? Sharethis with your child.

Moving to Bigger Questions� Children may not know the word

motivation, but they recognize itwhen they see it.

� Check with them: What are they encouraged by? What discourages them? Are they more motivated with certain people, certain subjects

© Dorothy Rich, 2000The nonprofit Home and School Institute,sponsor of the MegaSkills program, wasfounded by Dr. Dorothy Rich in 1964. Forinformation about bringing MegaSkills booksand programs to your school and communitygroup, contact: The Home andSchool Institute, MegaSkillsEducation Center; 1500 Massachusetts Ave., NW,Washington, DC 20005. Phone: (202) 466-3633. Fax: (202) 833-1400.www.MegaSkillsHSI.org

There’s been no better wayinvented to encouragechildren’s motivation thanseeing their parents asinterested learners. So what’s the next thing youwant to learn about?

Dr. Dorothy Rich

MegaSkills®

Confidence

Motivation

Effort

Responsibility

Initiative

Perseverance

Caring

Teamwork

Common Sense

Problem Solving

Foundation

Sharing ExperiencesThere is not a living, breathingperson who is confident all thetime. Yet our children can get theidea that everyone else is moreconfident than they are, and thateveryone else, especially a parent,has never been scared or felt thepangs of loss of confidence.

That’s why it is important to shareyour experiences, to come clean, totell your child about a time in yourown childhood when you feltconfident—really able to dosomething. Maybe it was jumpingoff the high diving board orexcelling on the math test.

And what about the time when youfelt not so confident, when you hadtrouble standing up in front of theclass to give a speech, or when yourealized you were short on cash atthe checkout counter. Share as manymemories as you can remember.

Sparking the ConversationFocus on a specific problem. Forexample, “When I first went toschool, I had trouble speaking up inclass. I felt shy. I guess I wasworried that I wouldn’t have theright answer.”

This helps children start talkingabout their own experiences

with confidence—whenthey have it and whenthey don’t. We learned thatmy older daughter, a whiz

in her classes, washaving troublemaking friends atschool. And ouryounger daughterwas spending so

much time withfriends, that

she wasfindingtoo little

time for her work. It gave us all achance to give each other a pep talk.

Confidence Builder:Newspaper ActivityChildren who balk at math in class areoften youngsters who figure out batting averages in their spare time.Some even understand the financial pages.

Capitalize on these interests. Tryquestions such as these: Which teamhas won the most games thisseason? Who are the high scorers?How much higher are they than theothers? Use the newspaper to getthe answers.

Moving to Bigger QuestionsTry these bigger questions inconversations with your children:

� What makes people scared?

� Does what we say to each othermake a difference in our self-confidence?

� What kind of praise do we like toreceive?

� How can we help each other feelmore confident?

© Dorothy Rich, 2000The nonprofit Home and School Institute,sponsor of the MegaSkills program, wasfounded by Dr. Dorothy Rich in 1964. Forinformation about bringing MegaSkills booksand programs to your school and communitygroup, contact: The Home and SchoolInstitute, MegaSkills Education Center; 1500 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC20005. Phone: (202) 466-3633. Fax: (202) 833-1400.www.MegaSkillsHSI.org

Dr. Dorothy Rich

MegaSkills®

Confidence

Motivation

Effort

Responsibility

Initiative

Perseverance

Caring

Teamwork

Common Sense

Problem Solving

Foundation

Sharing ExperiencesIt seems that everybody’s talkingabout teamwork. We see articlesabout it in the sports pages and thebusiness pages. It’s the key tosuccess. Some folks call it the mostdesired MegaSkill today.

Many of our children know what itmeans to be part of a sports team.But they often don’t know what itmeans to be a team player at workand in the family.

That’s why it is so important toshare your experiences aboutteamwork on the job and at home,too. Not all your memories will bewonderful. You may recall, forexample, the times on the job whenyour boss or your fellow workersdidn’t pull their load of the job,instead pushing work off on you.

And you may recall the times whenit was as if you’d won the WorldSeries, as a team. Share as manyexperiences as you can for as longas the children will listen.

Sparking the ConversationYou may find it helpful to focus ona specific situation. For example, ifyou’ve gone through a moverecently, your family knows the needfor teamwork.

When a household moves (no matterhow small it is), it’s a lot better wheneveryone pitches in. Talk about whateveryone had to do. If you’rethinking about a move, anddreading it (who doesn’t?), nowis a good time to think aloudabout what everyone will have todo to make it work well. It might

just nudge your childrenenough to start throwingaway some of the junk that’spiling up in their rooms.

Teamwork Builder:Newspaper ActivitySave a few newspaper TV guides sothat they can be cut apart … andput back together. The challenge isto read and construct your own guideof favorite TV shows for at least twodays. Do this together as a family.Talk about and compare the choices.What shows would you run if youmanaged a TV station … and why?

Moving to Bigger Questions� When do we like working

with others?

� When do we need to work alone?

� What jobs do we do at home asmembers of a team. What jobsshould we turn into teamwork jobs?

If any one member of the family isstill doing all or almost all of anyone job, (for example, Mom cooking),then teamwork is the right MegaSkillat the right time for your home.

Dr. Dorothy Rich

MegaSkills®

Confidence

Motivation

Effort

Responsibility

Initiative

Perseverance

Caring

Teamwork

Common Sense

Problem Solving

Foundation

Sharing Our ExperiencesWho among us hasn’t had daydreamsthat go something like this: You’replaying the piano on a concertstage. All eyes are upon you,admiring you. Guess what you forgotto do? The answer: practice.

You’re standing at a podium, beforea crowd of thousands, about tomake the most important speech ofthe decade. Guess what you forgotdo? The answer: write it.

Sparking the ConversationFocus on a dream that you like tosee happen. Tell your children aboutit. For example, a parent might sitdown to a banquet every night (allright, once a week) without havingto pay for it, shop for it or cook it.A child might come home with anall-A’s report card without havingread the books, written the papersor studied for the tests. How wewish these dreams could come true,just like that. But reality is different.

Talk together about how to realizeyour dreams. Who can help withthat banquet? What books and

papers need to be read and doneto get those good grades?

To have that banquet, to get those grades, takes time, effort andperseverance—stickingat something until it is accomplished.

Perseverance Builder:Newspaper ActivityGood writing needs ideas that areunited, combined and tied togetherto make a logical whole. Find wordsin big-size letters in the newspaper.Cut them out. The goal is tocombine these words into logicalsentences. Let’s say you choose thewords “toys,” “trip,” “sunny,”“teachers.” You might come up withthis: “On sunny days, teachers oftenlet their classes take toys with themon school trips.” Even when theideas defeat logic, putting themtogether provides good mentalexercise, gives everyone lots oflaughs and teaches perseverance.

Moving to BiggerQuestions� Is the journey to a goal really the

best part, or is the best partfinally getting there?

� Is stubbornness always a badthing? Can it be good sometimes?

� How do we force ourselves to dothings that we don’t want to do?

Dr. Dorothy Rich

MegaSkills®

Confidence

Motivation

Effort

Responsibility

Initiative

Perseverance

Caring

Teamwork

Common Sense

Problem Solving

Foundation

Sharing ExperiencesIt’s easy to see the headlines in thenewspaper and hear them on tele-vision and get the idea that peoplejust don’t care for each other anymore.

Yet, all of us who are out here in theworld know that there are both veryharsh and very soft, caring eventshappening every day. The soft onesjust don’t make the headlines.

That’s why I never tire of tellingabout the leaders in the MegaSkillsworkshop program, many of whomare volunteering to help fellowteachers and parents. If I read thenews as a barometer of how peoplereally fell about each other, I wouldhave never predicted this outpouringof help and, yes, love. Becausethese stories of caring don’t makethe news, it’s all the more importantfor us to make sure children knowthat caring exists and to haveexamples of caring, not grizzlyheadlines, as models for their actions.

Sparking the Conversation In your own experience, you seecaring … the boss who boosts your

confidence; the neighbor whowatches out for your child; the

teacher who sends home anote telling you what yourchild has done right.

Caring Builder: Newspaper Activity Using the newspaper, ask studentsto identify people in newspaperarticles who show caring and thosewho do not. Examples are featureson folks who manage to save a childfrom a burning house and otherswho get into traffic accidents by notpaying attention to their driving.Collect newspapers over a few daysto have a number of caringexamples to share.

Moving to BiggerQuestions� Does caring for others and giving

to others do anything special for the carer? For the giver?

� What does it mean to act selfishly? Who is an unselfish person that you know?

There is a saying that themore we give, the more weget back. How have youexperienced the pleasures ofgiving? How have your children?Talk about the special returnsthat come from giving.

Dr. Dorothy Rich

MegaSkills®

Confidence

Motivation

Effort

Responsibility

Initiative

Perseverance

Caring

Teamwork

Common Sense

Problem Solving

Foundation

Sharing Our ExperiencesWhen our lives become complicated,and life is coming at us too fast,self-discipline and focus are morenecessary and important than ever.

Some of the obstacles standing inthe way of focus are so obvious thatthey get overlooked. For example,it’s hard to get organized in themidst of stress and disorganization.Focus demands that children andadults get enough sleep and food. Itdemands a level of structure in ourhomes and classrooms, so that we,can focus our minds. Our childrenneed to be able to control theirimpulses and to see the adults aroundthem controlling theirs. Our childrenneed to become what psychologistscall self-regulating. This gives themthe ability to be calm enough to beattentive and focused.

Sparking the ConversationTalk about your goals and how youwork to meet them. Talk aboutthose you have accomplished andthose you continue to work on. Ask children for their goals—

big and small.

Focus Builder: Newspaper ActivityUse those glamorous, colorfuladvertisements to illustrate the ideaof main point, or “thesis.” Ask thefollowing: What’s the main idea inthis ad? What is it trying topersuade us to do? A strong,handsome man drinking a certainsoft drink in a fancy car with abeautiful girl at his side is telling ussomething about that soft drink.

Moving to Bigger Questions� What do I want to accomplish?

– Finding a goal– Selecting an objective– Moving into action

� What do I have to do?� What do I have going for me?� What do I do to get there?

The strength of focus as a MegaSkillis that it connects so well tomeeting goals. Goal setting has theremarkable ability to keep our mindsand our thinking centered.

© Dorothy Rich, 2000The nonprofit Home and School Institute,sponsor of the MegaSkills program, wasfounded by Dr. Dorothy Rich in 1964. Forinformation about bringing MegaSkills booksand programs to your school and community

group, contact: The Home and SchoolInstitute, MegaSkills EducationCenter; 1500 Massachusetts Ave.,NW, Washington, DC 20005.

Phone: (202) 466-3633. Fax: (202) 833-1400.www.MegaSkillsHSI.org

Dr. Dorothy Rich

MegaSkills®

Confidence

Motivation

Effort

Responsibility

Initiative

Perseverance

Caring

Teamwork

Common Sense

Problem Solving

Foundation

Sharing Our ExperiencesIn the past, we never really had tothink about our responsibility forthe environment. We knew thatlitterbugs got fined, but that wasabout all.

Times have changed. One of the bigdifferences is that we know a lotmore than we used to. We knowabout dangers, acid rain, detergentsthat don’t biodegrade and plasticcups that will live forever.

We need this information and needto share it with our children. This isnot to frighten them, but to buildtheir awareness of what each of uscan do to help. Check with yourlibrary and with environmentalorganizations directly to find outwhat you can do.

Sparking the ConversationAsk your children for their ideas onhow they can help right around yourhome: for example, recyclingnewspapers, moving lamps (awayfrom air conditioners), keeping therefrigerator door closed more thanopen, using the back of sheets ofpaper to get more mileage fromevery sheet.

Children make excellent nags to keepparents responsible. For example,they can remind you not to keep the

car motor idling, and to start thebarbecue with paper and sticksrather than lighter fluid.

Because of increased awarenessin the classroom about theenvironment, your children mayknow more than you do.

Responsibility Builder:Newspaper ActivityAsk children for ideas about

activities they’d like to do duringtheir holidays from school. Childrencan cut out articles from the

newspapers and write notes,suggesting their ideas. Use largesheets of paper, leaving plenty ofblank space for each day. Talk aboutwhat everyone wants to do. Makeplans not just for outings, but forhome projects, too. As children getideas, they pencil them in. Keepthese realistic, at no or low cost!This gives children practice inresponsibility and in doingindependent research. Share theseideas to see which ones are workable.

Moving to Bigger QuestionsBecause your children may have ahead start in their knowledge aboutthe environment, let them teach youand lead you in answering questionslike these:

� Can people get sick from pollution? What kinds of illnesses do they get?

� When businesses move to recyclable packaging, how can welet them know we approve?

� How can we make more people aware of their responsibility in taking care of the environment?

The strength of focus as a MegaSkillis that it connects so well to meetinggoals. Goal setting has the remarkableability to keep our minds and ourthinking centered.

© Dorothy Rich, 2000The nonprofit Home and School Institute,sponsor of the MegaSkills program, wasfounded by Dr. Dorothy Rich in 1964. Forinformation about bringing MegaSkills booksand programs to your school and communitygroup, contact: The Homeand School Institute,MegaSkills Education Center; 1500 Massachusetts Ave.,NW, Washington, DC 20005.Phone: (202) 466-3633. Fax: (202) 833-1400.www.MegaSkillsHSI.org

Building Children’s Achievement For the Information Age

Dr. Dorothy Rich

MegaSkills®

Confidence

Motivation

Effort

Responsibility

Initiative

Perseverance

Caring

Teamwork

Common Sense

Problem Solving

Foundation

355-362-0700 mega skills ad - uticaod.files.wordpress.com · you experience. sparking the...

Documents

sparking smiles at christmas...fall 2013 sparking smiles at...

legos sparking innovation !!

sparking metacognition: contextualizing reading strategies

an activity guide for sparking your “aha moments” · an...

sparking the future

0700,diagnosticul sarcinii

music sparking memories

sparking the conversation (pdf)

sparking innovation through empathic design

striking chords & sparking change

sparking your creative juices 2013

sparking inclusive dialog

#startathon2.0 - sparking human connections

ampco non sparking tools

sparking collaboration through creative play

sparking brand reappraisal

sparking digital to human connections

sparking an energetic revolution

sparking change - autonomy

sparking and leading innovation