Onegaishimasu Parents,
What an amazing start to our Keiko Martial Arts live and interactive classes! We are having a blast bringing these live classes to you, and it meant so much to see everyone again. We missed you!
Thank you parents for sending us your messages of encouragement, and videos of you and your child training. Parents have been telling us the live online karate classes are turning out to be the best part of their day. WOW!!! Thank You!
Parents, great job with the discipline and structure at home! Every single child was dressed in their gis, ready for class on time, and ready to train. Consistency and punctuality are the trademarks of a highly disciplined person. Way to go!
There’s no doubt our world has been changed forever in many ways as a result of this pandemic, not the least of which is the major shift from “in person” to “online” learning, which literally took place overnight. More on that below but first…
Mom and dad…You already are Superheroes in your child’s life and their number one educator. Now with the recent announcement of an extension to the school closure and the roll out of the Peel school board online learning program, many of you are thrust into the role of home school teacher too! With that role may come uncertainty and confusion in how best to navigate these new and uncharted waters. We are here to help. We may not have all the answers but now more than ever we need that community or village to help raise and educate our children. Let us know if we can help, and maybe put you in touch with resources that can help you navigate these waters.
We have some extraordinary opportunities in this time to really accelerate our child’s learning in many ways….physically, mentally and spiritually. Remember its all about balance.
Today I want to talk about our quantum shift to online learning.
Here’s one major thing I noticed about online learning. Obviously we are using various forms of devices to facilitate this new form of education. But here’s where it gets tricky… Most of us and our children have trained our brains to “shut off” or be very passive in our online experience and when using devices. We are actually being guided through the experience in most cases with little requirement for thought on our part.
We have a wonderful opportunity now to get your child ahead of everyone else by helping train their brains to become an “ACTIVE LEARNER” during the online education experience, and make your jobs as their primary teachers much much easier.
Think about it for a moment. Kids need someone (their teacher)in the regular classroom to guide them through the learning experience, and it turns out they will need one at home to guide them through the online one as well. KIDS CANT DO IT BY THEMSELVES. Only a very very small percentage of kids will be able to self regulate enough to successfully navigate the online learning experience without guidance, the rest if left to go it alone will likely struggle and fail. The majority will only succeed with the help of amazing parents like yourself to guide them.
I never thought I would hear myself saying this but, for once, I believe we may have some good news regarding devices and our children’s pre-exposure to them…..Our children are already preconditioned to be able to focus for extended periods of time on their devices, which under normal circumstances would be a detriment, but in this case will make keeping their attention easy. Almost every child can focus on a device for longer than 30 seconds and in most cases can do it for hours on end..Just ask any parent with a teenager.
We just have to train their brains to make the shift from passive to active learning, and become fully engaged. A great place to start is with anything live and/or interactive. These sorts of activities facilitate that because they get your child to be an active participant turning on more neural receptors in your child’s brain.
Parents…Aside from the academics and the aforementioned shift, here’s the biggest opportunity I feel we have in this whole process. Because we have been given the gift to slow down during this crisis, we are given the unique opportunity to connect with our children and teach them the lessons our grandparents gave us. Those important pearls of wisdom and character passed to us we don’t always have time to do in our busy lives. NOW IS THAT TIME!! DOWNLOAD. Teach your child the soft skills of discipline, Hard Work, Courage and Humility.
I will talk more on that next week along with the topic of domestic engineering!! Remember when your mom or dad taught you to bake bread or how to use a hammer??
What an amazing time for opportunity!!
Have an amazing week! See you in the virtual dojo
Sensei Chris Englund
And your Keiko TEAM
Keiko Karate – “Actually we do make Ninjas and Superheroes here………………we turn kids into Ninjas and we turn their parents into their superheroes
Comments