Understanding a restless child

Why is it that children are sometimes restless and at other times are concentrated? Is this because of bodily changes or are there other explanations?
I thought I might look for an answer using Google and found there is a relationship between insulin and restlessness in diabetes, which suggests that restlessness and eating are interconnected, because insulin regulates the intake of sugar in the cells of our bodies. So I searched further including the word "schedule" and got advice over how eating small meals over the day and not eating before sleeping is healthy. The blog with the most common sense I quickly found is here. Making the meal an enjoyable family happening is important but it is easier said than done... Try eating with someone that you're mad at or when you're angry at something. It's not that easy to leave problems behind at the table. In my experience other people can help a lot to change eating habits just by being there and bringing their positive thinking into the equation.
But then, maybe my three-years-old was just being jealous when I tried to teach a neighbour woman some French...

Puzzle sunday (3)

Discovery (from discovery Channel) offers knowledge based puzzles and homework help online. Part of the site is commercial. The homework help is. The CD-ROM to make your own crossword puzzles (for learning words) is too. Some reasoning puzzles are listed in categories under reasoning. There are other categories: lateral thinking, spatial awareness, number and math play. I'm going to give some of the puzzles to my children, I'm sure, if not to adults.
The site is an example for education. Schools need maps of activities at different levels to make it easier for teachers to choose the right exercises for a particular child, taking in account deficits, strengths and special interests.

Icerocket: sexy is less sexy than thinking

According to the icerocket sexy is less sexy in blogs than thinking. The last few months, there are many more blogs with the word "thinking" in it than with the word "sexy". This reminded me an article that I read about how blogs are attractive for brains. After reading this article I thought about brain loneliness... Virtual brain meetings... brain creation meetings... brainy debates about brains...

standard versus brightness

I've been thinking about how to solve the problem that some children start with more comprehension than others but still need to learn how to read and write. How can schools give each child the material that fits it when there are huge differences between children, to start with on text comprehension. There is differentiation on the level of technical reading, but not on the level of comprehension. This would mean the necessity for a complete new line of schoolbooks that are high on comprehension and low on technical reading.
Standard levels may be useful for schools, they may be useless for society. There are complaints at Universities and colleges about the levels dropping. What I observe is that the brightest children drop out and the level at the end of the secondary school is too low in the eyes of the Universities.

new government, knowledge based education

Yesterday in the Netherlands we were presented with the new government. It was a pleasurable surprise to find out that the education department will now be in the hands of not only a scientist, but a critical thinker. A scientist who engages in discussions over intelligent design versus evolution. Although he is an advocate of evolution, he promised it will not affect the freedom of schools, meaning the special schools will not be affected. I am happy that we have a very intelligent minister at this post. This means I hope better policies and a signal that education will be taken seriously. Now is the chance to accomplish what Piaget pleaded for, more use of science and knowledge in education. Let's hope we will see a change in the curricula that takes more into consideration learning styles and more favorable conditions for all children. I hope the emphasis will shift towards learning strategies and problem solving against reproductive skills only.

4 to scaffold you today

1) how to write a science dialogue
2) dark matter exists
3) blogging on blogging
4) without brains?

Puzzle sunday (2)

Today I was strolling in the windy polders. The polders in the Netherlands (picture is an example) are land won over the sea more than a century ago, at the cost of lives. My son believes that the climate will cause the sea level to rise, I am not so sure it will rise more than the 10 to 20 centimeter every ten years or so, the same as always, with fluctuations. The wind is very cold and the sheep are coming towards us, as if they expect something from us. Then one sheep turns around. The other sheep watch her and one after the other turn around and walk away.
It is no weather for sheep in the wet clay, it is time for children to do puzzles: visit Jurassic Park? And to read books, books and books...