BEST! Kickoff, Cache

Harder to do than it looks!

Toilet paper races?

Mentoring and Leadership Event A Huge Success

After months of planning and organizing, 20 amazing youth were matched with a specially-chosen mentor.

Over 12 months ago, the planning began for the development and execution of a community-based mentoring and leadership program for the youth of Cache. The hard work and commitment to our youth was rewarded on Tuesday evening, August 21st at the BEST! (Building Extraordinary Success Today) Mentor Match Event. Twenty  5th-8th grade youth who were selected to participate in BEST! met with their chosen mentors for the first time.

Donors, their mentees and their families, mentors, school administrators, and other supporters of the program came together and enjoyed a great dinner. In addition, mentors and mentees participated in several fun leadership, team building, and get acquainted activities. Participants in this program will meet regularly with their mentors and participate as a group in leadership and enrichment activities.

Rhonda Clemmer, program coordinator, shared that one in three youth grow up without a mentor and BEST! is designed to do its part to change that statistic for the better. She also stated that she likes to call the mentors "nurturers of possibilities" because she believes the mentors can plan an instrumental role in their success as they navigate the next 5-10 years.

In personal conversation, Clemmer added that the games included an egg toss, toilet paper games and signs. The signs had activities and mentors and mentees had to sign if they had ever performed one of the acts, e.g., toilet papering a house or tree, making a prank phone call, etc. Mentees learned they had much in common. 

Thanks to Rhonda Clemmer for the photos and press release.

Applause for Cache's BEST!

Game Playing III

Research shows that certain games, such as Freeze Tag and Simon Says, require executive function. Read on.

Tara Parker-Pope on living well.

The Well Column August 23, 2012, 12:02 am 

Simon Says Don’t Use Flashcards

By TARA PARKER-POPE

Ben Wiseman

Parents who want to stimulate their children’s brain development often focus on things like early reading, flashcards and language tapes. But a growing body of research suggests that playing certain kinds of childhood games may be the best way to increase a child’s ability to do well in school. Variations on games like Freeze Tag and Simon Says require relatively high levels of executive function, testing a child’s ability to pay attention, remember rules and exhibit self-control — qualities that also predict academic success.

“Play is one of the most cognitively stimulating things a child can do,” says Megan McClelland, an early-childhood-development researcher at Oregon State University who has led much of the research.

James Provost

The key to games education is to start with a simple game and add increasingly complicated rules. For instance, Oregon researchers have developed a game called Head-to-Toes, which they use to assess preschool children’s development. Initially, the child copies the teacher’s movements, touching her head or toes. But later, the child is expected to do the opposite, touching her toes when the teacher touches her head.

While the game may sound simple, it actually requires a high level of cognitive function for a preschooler, including focus and attention, working memory to remember rules, mental flexibility (to do the opposite) and self-control.

“We tend to equate learning with the content of learning, with what information children have, rather than the how of learning,” says Ellen Galinsky, a child-development researcher and author of “Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs.” “But focusing on the how of learning, on executive functions, gives you the skills to learn new information, which is why they tend to be so predictive of long-term success.”

Research shows that children who develop focus and self-control early in life have better academic achievement in the long term. One study of 814 children between ages 3 and 6 shows that children who do well in Simon Says-like games do better in math and reading. A smaller study of 65 preschool children found that those who started the school year with low levels of self-control showed improvement after playing games in class, including a version of Red Light, Green Light.

An Oregon State study reported on 430 children who were followed from preschool until age 25. The study, published online earlier this month in Early Childhood Research Quarterly, looked at several factors, including early reading and math skills, along with other cognitive skills, to see which were ultimately most influential in college success. It turns out that a child’s ability at age 4 to pay attention and complete a task, the very skills learned in game play, were the greatest predictors of whether he or she finished college by age 25.

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This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: September 2, 2012

The credit for an illustration on Aug. 26 with an article accompanying the Well column was omitted. It was by James Provost.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/simon-says-dont-use-flashcards/?_php=true&_type=blogs&ref=health&_r=0 

Ret. 3-10-14

Game Playing II

Although the second part of this article on games also addresses preschoolers, think about its basics with older children. We all want youths, future workforce, to be both free thinkers and team players, don't we?

Remember as the article mentions that some games, even for very young children, are based upon luck while others involve strategy. 

Mentors should consider appropriate types of games in working with children with particular learning styles or disabilities.

The Importance of Playing Games with Your Preschooler
continued from Family Education

Being a graceful loser

No Fair! I Never Win!

Should you let your preschooler win some games? That is, should you throw the game, take a dive, shave points, or lose on purpose?

Well, you might argue that intentionally losing a game patronizes your child. Rather than giving him a false sense of confidence, you should play as well as you can and let the chips fall where they may. If your child loses, so be it. After all, your preschooler needs to get to know both sides of competitive etiquette: how to lose gracefully as well as how to win without rubbing it in.

But then, you want your child to enjoy playing games. And if he loses all the time, chances are that rather than being motivated to try harder and win next time, he will lose interest in the game altogether. So if you want to maintain your preschooler's interest in games, he's going to have to win at least close to half the times he plays.

Of course, this still doesn't mean you necessarily have to throw a game. You can still take a hard line, refusing to take a dive to let your child win. But if you do, then you should probably confine your game-playing with him to games that are ruled strictly by luck or chance, games that involve little or no skill—in other words, games that your preschooler has an even chance to win. Most games for preschoolers—Chutes and Ladders, Hi-Ho Cherry-O, Candyland, and so on—are in fact ruled strictly by chance.

On the other hand, many card games appropriate for preschoolers-Concentration, Crazy Eights, even Go Fish—do involve at least an element of skill. In such games, you will (probably) be a superior player. If you still insist on playing your best and trying to win games that involve more skill and sophistication, then consider giving yourself some kind of a handicap. In Concentration, for instance, you might start your child out with six or eight pairs of cards before you lay out the rest on the floor. Trial and error will help you come up with an appropriate handicap: one that adds suspense (regarding who will win) to the game.

Certainly your child needs to learn to lose gracefully. After all, other preschoolers are not likely to let him win when they play with him. So before he begins playing games with other children, your preschooler needs to understand that every child wants to win the game, but that only one can win.
But at the same time, the lessons of game playing should not revolve exclusively around losing gracefully. Winning a game, especially beating you (who are so much bigger and stronger and smarter, etc.), will give your preschooler great joy and an enormous boost of confidence. It also gives you an opportunity to model grace in defeat (if you can manage to do so).


http://life.familyeducation.com/play/toddler/53823.html#ixzz2oPyTX6Sf
Ret. 12-23-13

Game Playing I

Cindi Hemm, retired elementary principal, author, and education consultant, emphasizes the importance of children’s playing games.  This past year a visit to a CEO about allowing his employees to mentor elicited the question, “What will they do?” “Play games,” one of the responses, resulted in a negative look as if playing games were a waste of time.  Not so!

We should also not presume that all youths, especially older ones, have learned to play and enjoy games since childhood. In addition, mentors as well as family members need to mix some fun into all interactions with youths.

Why should we teach children and older youths to play and enjoy games? 

Although the two-part article below focus upon preschooler game playing and Cindi’s advice comes from her own children as well as elementary age, as mentors we must understand that people of all ages can benefit from playing games. Think of the multiple benefits of the elderly playing games with young people, too!

Briefly consider some general benefits of playing games at all ages:

·         Winning and losing with grace

·         Rules

·         Resilience

·         Focus

·         Honesty, fairness, integrity…

·         Luck

·         Strategy

·         Social skills

·         Math skills

·         Team work

·         Hand-to-eye coordination

The Importance of Playing Games with Your Preschoolers
from Family Education


Building skills while playing games


Three is the perfect age to begin playing board games and card games with your child--especially if you like these kinds of games, too. Board and card games help teach your child about aspiration, success, and disappointment. She'll gain experience with both winning and losing--and learn that no matter what the result, the next time she tries she'll begin again with a clean slate. Games also give you the opportunity to teach your preschooler about rules, about integrity and honesty, and about luck. Games also can help increase your child's ability to focus her attention. Playing board or card games also is a very social occasion. Game playing enables and encourages your preschoolers to practice important social skills that she will need to play well with other children.


Nearly all games, for example, involve taking turns, sharing dice or a spinner, waiting for your turn, patience, and learning how to be a good sport. (When you play games with your child, try to emphasize the fun of game as much as possible, rather than focusing on "who's winning.")


Besides helping to acquaint your child with "life lessons" and to practice valuable social skills, most good children's games also afford preschoolers the opportunity to sharpen certain academic skills. Most board games for preschoolers involve matching suits or numbers (Concentration, Go Fish, Old Maid, and Crazy Eights) or comparing numbers (War). Games like picture lotto can help expand your preschooler's vocabulary and give her practice at analyzing and matching pictures.


In introducing board and card games to your preschooler, choose the simplest ones first. If your child has to master a complicated set of rules before even playing the game, she—or you—will soon lose patience with it. Games that involve moving pieces around a board in a race to the finish, spinning a spinner or throwing dice, and counting up as high as six provide the perfect introduction to board games. Some classics include:


Candyland

Chutes and Ladders
 
Uncle Wiggly

Sorry
 
Hi-Ho Cherry-O

Trouble


Similarly, when you deal the cards to your child, start with simple games that involve matching pictures rather than skipping straight to Contract Bridge or even Hearts.

Q-tip

Picture lotto is a terrific game for three-year-olds. After your child has mastered simple matching skills, invent some variations. Divide the cards evenly and take turns being the "caller." The caller turns one card over and announces what card she has: "I have a bird. Does anyone have a bird on their board?" This allows your preschooler to practice her new vocabulary.

http://life.familyeducation.com/play/toddler/53823.html   Ret. 12-24-13