Tag: learn

"In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few." ~ Shunryu Suzuki.

There is a concept I learned while my kids were in Montessori education called scaffolding—a technique that is reflected in the goals of learn it, do it and then teach it. In this way, the student comes back to the same material in a natural spiral, each time the student is able to add to their understanding and expertise as they come to achieve some level of mastery when they become proficient enough to teach what they know. Our emotional, and for that matter relational development, shares that same circular spiraling motion; which explains the very common phenomenon of feeling like we are always somehow arriving back where we started.

Every parent wants his or her child to have a successful school year. Here are four lessons you and your spouse can teach your kids at home so they are better prepared for the lessons they learn at school.

1. Teach Your Children to be Organized

When children feel organized, are confident that they know what to do, and have all their needed materials, confidence rises, and so does the quality of their work.

What’s your life long-passion? What’s the ever-present yearning for you or your spouse to fulfill? Many of us have dreams and lifelong desires, but find that time is slipping by and our dreams are becoming more and more allusive.

Here’s the secret: Turn time into a friend rather than an enemy. It is not helpful to catch and hold onto a dream if you are racing against the clock. It’s important to turn time into an ally. Find ways to use the hours of each day as a backdrop against which you can create masterpiece upon masterpiece.

In 1979, comedian Robin Williams launched his now famous and "infamous" stand-up album, Reality What a Concept and took his comedic genius to new heights as he explored the dark corners, pieces, parts and secrets that we have come to know as reality. Today, "reality television" is hardly as startling a concept as it was a decade (or two) ago, but beyond the "dramality" of it all, what can we learn from this genre and more specifically, what can we learn from the couples who have agreed, "for better or for worse," to bare it all for the camera?

1. Get back to basics and reconnect with who you are. Uchenna and Joyce Agu of The Amazing Race explain that, "there is a point where you forget about the cameras; the environment or

None of us would be where we are today in terms of our happiness or success if it weren’t for role models and their examples who’ve guided us and shown us the way. We can’t learn everything through firsthand experience; it takes too long and the pain and sacrifice to learn every lesson would be too great. A wise person learns from other people’s experiences. We call those people "mentors."

For the most part, mentors are people who’ve achieved a bit of success in their own lives. They’ve usually had to overcome certain obstacles or hardships, and it’s because of those hardships—and the fact that they overcame them—that they have something to share and that we want to listen.