Archive for September, 2010

27th

Sep 2010

Job Satisfaction – The Key to Motivating our Children?

One of the things that most of us come across as parents – or teachers – at some stage or another, is finding a way to motivate our children in one particular area or another.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been spending a lot of time meeting and speaking to homeschool families as we have been promoting the benefits of our online subtitled educational videos, as a fun, unique and very effective online education solution.

I have been finding that as I reach the end of each working day that I am feeling so exhilarated, that I have not wanted to stop work. In fact after finishing working 10 hours, I felt so energised that I wanted to keep going for another 10 hours. And all I can put it down to is purely and simply one thing – that wonderful feeling of job satisfaction.

If I am completely honest I have reached a stage in my life where I have a desire to combine running a business, with at the same time doing good for other people, especially helping children. There have been a number of situations during this last week on which I have been able to give away a number of our 12-month Gold Membership subscriptions completely free to some very deserving children and their families. And it has left me feeling rather like Father Christmas. The gratitude, thanks and appreciation that have been expressed by a number of those children and their parents, has been totally overwhelming. In other words I have been experiencing a very strong feeling of job satisfaction.

I have had a few quiet moments to reflect on the difference it has meant to me to experience that job satisfaction, and it has made me realise that in trying to motivate my own children, that if I can introduce them to that same powerful feeling of elation in their own lives, then the motivation might actually follow automatically. (more…)

Tags: homeschool, job satisfaction, motivation, online educational video, teachers, Zane Education
Category: Parenting Tips
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20th

Sep 2010

Questioning standards. Don’t ask me why, ask me why not?

Occasionally I have a deep and meaningful thought (my wife often suggests that miracles do indeed happen … every so often) and it really did get me wondering about what and how we teach our children.

I love to play the guitar and on the anniversary of Jimi Hendrix death this question got me thinking.

Why is Jimi generally held in such high regard (not that I am qualified to ask that question)?

Imagine you teach guitar and a kid walks in that is playing a left-handed guitar upside down. Most guitar players have picked up bad habits that the teacher will want to get rid of and sort out before moving on to bigger and better things. But this was one of the things that Jimi was renown for, and that many will suggest gave him his unique sound. (more…)

Tags: Add new tag, educational standards, homeschool, online educational video, teachers, Zane Education
Category: General Education
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13th

Sep 2010

Learning Using Online Video …or A Spoonful of Sugar..

A spoonful or sugar helps the medicine go down, the medicine go down…and so on. Who remembers that song?

If you do, you don’t need to own up to it …….. because of course it comes from the very popular Mary Poppins movie from years ago, and if you do remember, the chances are that you are nearly as much an antique as me.

Anyway the reason I’m asking is because I meet so many people that have not even considered for one minute using online educational video to help teach their children, and they virtually all have similar questions like “so what’s it like?” or “How effective is it?”.

And I generally start my reply by using that line “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down” …… and here’s why! (more…)

Tags: dyslexia, independent learning skills, online educational video, parenting skills, parents, self esteem, teachers, Zane Education
Category: General Education, HomeSchool Tips, Parenting Tips, Teachers & Schools
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10th

Sep 2010

Maintaining Childrens Attention and Improving Their Reading

I‘ve been reading a lot of questions on several Blogs and Facebook pages recently about maintaining children’s interest and attention while they are doing their schoolwork, whether it be at home, or in the classroom.

At the same time I have been seeing comments about problems parents and teachers are having with children’s lack of interest in reading. So as a parent of 2 children, I’d like to share something with you that has really helped us with our 2 children, in both areas – and at the same time.

We’ve found that using online video attracts the attention of the child and maintains their interest for longer periods of time, – in fact more than any textbooks we’ve ever used. It makes learning fun and they are more motivated to learn. (more…)

Tags: K12 educational video, maintaining children's attention, parents, reading skills, teachers, video ondemand
Category: Parenting Tips, Reading Literacy
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7th

Sep 2010

Daily Education Question Competition – Scores

The scores for the Daily Educational Question Competition (No. 15) sponsored by Zane Education – the website for online subtitled education videos – is as follows:

Scores for North American Players:

Debbie Nowinski -20 Points
Paige Murray Nace – 25 Points – Todays Winner!!
Ayesha Vassar -16 points
Tanya Wood – 8 Points
Christine Vassar – 2 Points
Sandra Wilson – 6 Points

Scores for U.K. Players :

Paula McKelvey – 9 Points
Lauren Simmonds – 0 Points

Remember the first person to have submitted correct answers totalling 25 points (3 Points for the first correct answer, 2 points for the second, and 1 point for all other correct answers) in either the US and U.K. competitions on the Zane Education Facebook page wins the 12 month Gold Membership subscription (worth $200) and use of over 1,500 educational videos teaching 12 subjects and 200 curriculum topics on-demand with Lesson Plans and Interactive Quizzes and other learning resources on our website at Zane Education . Finally it is important to know that all players that have already won previously are encouraged to keep playing, because we encourage you to then donate your second prize to either a Special Needs family, or a family that may not be so well of and whose children need assistance with their education. Whenever that happens you as the owner are recognised and thanked as the donor on our FaceBook page for your kindness in helping others. And that really is one of the best parts of this whole competition.

Tags: Category: competitions
Comments: Comments Off

6th

Sep 2010

Educating Special Needs Children

As a parent of a 13-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl, I am very careful whenever I use the words special needs in connection with children.

On the one hand I believe that every child is a special needs child, simply because they are all individuals, each with their own special needs. Many of those special needs they have in common with other children – for example the need to be truly loved, cared for and nurtured – while for others their special needs might be more individually specific to them.

On the other hand however, special needs is often a term broadly applied to those either children that are advantaged in some way, while other children are described as being special needs because they are disadvantaged or have difficulties in other ways.

But there is another important reason why I am cautious about using the word special needs. The reason that I am cautious is because virtually every child that I have ever met that does suffer from a difficulty or disadvantage has also been absolutely blessed in another way. It is though they have been provided with something special that the rest of us don’t have, as though to compensate for the areas in which they have problems. And it is simply a matter of taking the time to discover what their special talent or ability is.

Without exception each and every child has their own way in which to receive and process information most effectively, and it is important that we as parents provide for our children a means by which both the child and the parent(s) can discover what that preferred learning style is for each child. From that point we can then take the necessary steps to provide the most effective education for that child by accommodating their preferred and most effective learning style.

And what I find particularly upsetting is that our education system as we know it today – often tries to dictate to a child what that preferred learning style should be. (more…)

Tags: Add new tag, gifted students, K12 educational video, special needs
Category: Special Needs Students
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2nd

Sep 2010

Daily Question Competition – How to Take Part!

Zane Education has a Facebook page and we use it as a place to run our Daily Educational Question Competition which is designed to be fun and educational for parents, teachers and children alike. And you can win some great prizes. The aim of the competition is to help you teach your children or students how to use the Internet to research subjects effectively.

Each day we will pick one question from our online subtitled education videos and interactive quizzes and put it on our Facebook page. The first person with the correct answer wins 3 points, the second receives 2 points, and the third 1 point. The first person to 25 points is the winner.

The prize is a 12-month Gold Membership subscription worth $200 for the ZaneEducation.com website .

After we have a winner we will start each competition again. A tally of those of you submitting a correct answer will be kept here.

If a person wins the competition more than once we allow that prize to be donated to a Special Needs family and this is a great way to help our children experience the joy of giving. We will help you find a recipient if you want some assistance.

NOTE: In order to be fair to all players, we are going to select 2 winners each day…. one from within mainland US and one from everywhere else. If you live outside mainland US, you must start your answer with the name of where you are e.g. Hawaii, UK etc. It is your responsibility to name where you are otherwise we will not know.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO NOW . . .

Go to the Zane Education Facebook page and click on LIKE. This will ensure that each question appears each day on your wall. It will also enable you to submit your answer as a comment under the question on our Facebook page.

ALSO …

In addition to this our other regular monthly competition continues with one member on our Facebook page being selected to win our monthly competition prize.

So watch out for each new question every day and get the children involved as part of their day. Get them to work with you to find the answer on the Internet. You’ll all have fun and learn plenty.