Parents.
This one is for you. To have a great time with your kids, teaching - AND laughing.
Learning - and smiling.
There is no contradiction.
It is possible, Read Aloud Dad found the ideal tool that transforms learning into FUN FUN FUN!
Forget about batteries.
Forget about portable DVD players and electronic devices.
It is time to introduce your kids to literacy-based fun that runs on some serious brain power.
Let me be clear, reading aloud is the favorite way that I spend time with my kids.
Yet, one cannot deny that variety is the spice of life.
So, I do reading aloud a favor every now and then by trying out new things.
Yep, four days ago the Read Aloud Dad family barely managed to pack our suitcases and fit them into our car ... for a two-day car trip to the coast.
A well-deserved two-week break was ahead of us.
But the two-day car trip was what had me worried.
Two days of "I'm bored. I'm bored" and "When are we going to be there" shouts, coming from the back seat.
Yet, I was prepared.
Read Aloud Dad did not leave anything to chance.
Even the Wizard of Oz would not be able to save me, I knew that before we finished packing.
So - let me tell you about a fantastic discovery that helped me to survive the two-day trip ... Brain Quest Question & Answer card decks.
I discovered the Brain Quest cards by chance in early 2010, when I ordered 3 Early Childhood decks.
Since then .... hush, hush .... I've ordered the rest.
Yes, all the decks for Grades 1-7.
But promise, you won't tell my wife.
I'm "hiding" them on the shelf behind my T-shirts.
Where else?
It’s Smart to Be Fun!
Don't dumb it down. The audience is smart and gets what you are doing
Bruce Paltrow
The three decks I ordered include: Brain Quest for Threes (Ages 3-4), Brain Quest PreSchool (Ages 4-5) and Brain Quest Kindergarten (Ages 5-6).
There is also an earlier version My First Brain Quest (Ages 2-3), but we didn't need it as my kids were already too old for it when I ordered the remaining three Early Childhood decks from Brain Quest.
The author of the Brain Quest cards - Chris Welles Feder - has spent a great part of her life working in the field of education. But you may be interested to know that she had an incredibly famous, larger-than-life father ...
Orson Welles.
Yes, indeed!
Welles Feder traveled the world for Encyclopedia Britannica where she worked as an Encyclopedia Britannica Senior Editor before authoring the Brain Quest series of educational cards.
So no surprise that these card sets will open up a world of information with their fast-paced question-and-answer format.
My kids will love the bright full-color illustrations, the unpredictability of questions and their lively attitude.
Turn the card and you are staring down at a maze question, or alphabet related query or word association problem or a number-based brain-teaser.
The card sets include two large decks in each product, with the question and answer cards hinged together by a plastic bolt, the decks are shrink wrapped inside a flip top box.
If you want further assistance on how to use them, a guide for parents is included.
What in fact you need is to invest your time, to go through the questions together.
This is not a parent replacement, it is a parent involver.
These types of products are the best - those that create the need for parent-child interaction.
These days there is a tendency to look for products that will minimize the need for parent involvement, such as educational DVDs, ebooks that will read themselves aloud, interactive games that automatically teach children, etc.
All these things are fine supplements, but they are not able to replace the parent-child educational relationship, nor should you ever try to.
What we need are products that support this essential relationship that you have with your kid.
Books and literacy tools that expand that relationship you have with your kid, educational products that extend the relationship and help you deepen it.
It's in the Way That You Use It
[I've] looked into true eyes, never like this
Eric Clapton
After my Brain Quest decks arrived last year I was happy, yet still unsure whether they would do the trick for my kids.
[I've] looked into true eyes, never like this
Eric Clapton
After my Brain Quest decks arrived last year I was happy, yet still unsure whether they would do the trick for my kids.
Would my kids see the cards as preachy and booooooring ..... or would they have fun?
I thought to myself - if my little pumpkin boy loves them, they must be OK for the great majority of kids.
My soon-to-be-four son is a curious and intelligent fellow. Since he was a very very small boy, he always despised questions with obvious answers and preachy lessons.
Ask him what color is a lemon - and he will often look you straight in the eye and answer "Black!". And he keeps staring at your face with a dead-pan look, just to see your surprised reaction.
He seems to love the look of confusion that appears on an adult's face when they hear an unexpected answer.
My boy also had a phase when he used to invent madcap names, when someone asked him for his name. "What is your name little boy?", asked a neighbor from the other end of our street four months ago.
"Bimbo" my little pumpkin replied with a straight face.
Yep, he can be a difficult customer sometimes.
Yet - he loves genuine entertainement. And don't forget that learning should be entertainement too.
My boy has got a point, he does not love routine.
Why not spice things up a bit with Bimbo, indeed?
Why do I mention this story?
Because the Brain Quest card decks will help you to break your own routines.
Now that we have moved on to the second set of cards - Brain Quest PreSchool (Ages 4-5) - I am happy to report that both my twins - including my "difficult customer" - loved them from Day 1.
The cards are incredibly long-lasting! We went through the 300 questions in the first deck in several months and then went back and worked through them all again.
The questions are on one side of the card, and the answers are on the next card, so the concept is immediately understandable.
More than a year has passed since we started using them - and we are well into the second (Ages 4-5) deck - I am happy to say that this is an invaluable product!
Why?
Brain Quest is a curriculum-based set of cards that challenges kids on the stuff they need to know, in accordance with their age group.
Moms will be especially happy to hear that these cards that will not make more clutter in your house as each box contains two decks of cards, held together at the bottom with a grommet.They NEVER get separated so they never get lost around the house.
We use the Brain Quest cards during lunchtime or suppertime... we use them in the car on trips ... or any time that we are bored.
They are a sort of privilege for kids, just because their format and design is sooooooo appealing.
My twins take turns in answering the questions and they even swap questions if a question's topic is particularly attractive to one of them.
It is incredible what good presentation can do. It makes all the difference with kids.
This very same "product", packaged in a book format would certainly be seen as "boooooring" after a while - but the card deck format is so easy on the eyes, so inviting and game-like that I never heard my kids say no to a session with the Brain Quest cards.
The creators of the Brain Quest cards had a magic moment of inventiveness - when they decided to create a special character for each of the card sets.
Molly the Mouse is the Master of Ceremonies (MC) for the Brain Quest for Threes (Ages 3-4), while Amanda the Panda is poster-animal for Brain Quest PreSchool (Ages 4-5).
Ryan the Lion is the host of the Brain Quest Kindergarten (Ages 5-6) decks, while Max the Monkey is the main attraction in the Brain Quest for Threes (Ages 3-4).The right time to engage your bright young minds is right now.
If your kids are 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 years old - you will enrich their lives with fabulous interaction based on hundreds and hundreds of questions and answers.
Don't forget, the point is not perfection.
Learning goes on when the answer is right or wrong. The important part is the explanation.
If some of the questions are too hard or too easy for your kids, that is normal.
The point is not for your kids to face all new stuff - or to recapitulate all things they already know.
The point is in the time they spend with you reading the questions and solving them together.
It is in the way that you use it.
Brain Quest card decks are available from bookstores in the US:
Amazon
The Book Depository (free worldwide shipping)
and around the world:
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
Amazon DE
Travelers, it is late.
ReplyDeleteLife's sun is going to set.
During these brief days that you have strength,
be quick and spare no effort of your wings
learning games children is really a good and effective way to teach a kid.i tried it and it works for me.you should also try.
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