Think back to your high school days. When I remember school, I don’t remember much about studying. What I mostly think of is hanging out with friends. Primping with girlfriends before big parties. Late night gossip at sleepovers with the same girlfriends. What’s really neat about it is that my best friends even today are those same girlfriends. We’ve kept up over the years and are still very, very close. Anyway, I digress. Perhaps that’s fodder for another blog post.
Watching Wheeler this year has reminded me of the less fun part of high school – studying. He’s had a round of tests in the last week or two, and has been really burning the midnight oil. Wheeler is more of an auditory learner than a visual one, so before his elementary and even some middle school tests, he had me quizzing him and helping him memorize facts. Now realistically, I can’t keep doing this forever. He has to figure out a way to learn and remember on his own. I’m not in high school, and I won’t be going off to college with him. But the fact remains, he learns better when he goes over what he needs to know aloud.
He’s tried a couple of study methods this year – some more successful than others. His most recent idea may actually work pretty well. That is, if I can quit laughing about it. The other day, I came home from running errands and found him in the family room reading The Odyssey to Nick and Rosie. They both seemed to be listening raptly. He was also explaining to them who the characters are and how they relate to one another.
Later in the day, he was teaching them Ancient Egyptian History. Now Rosie, the Pharaoh Hound, may have more of an aptitude for ancient Egypt than Nick, but they both seemed pretty interested. It didn’t hurt that he, and as a result they, were snacking at the same time. I’m sure Nick and Rosie were more interested in the finer points of the Pharaohs than in the chips Wheeler was sharing with them - yeah right! At least he was making them offer a down before receiving the very nutritious potato chip snack.
All in all, I don’t think I’ll let him know I see humor in his new study method. Maybe it will help him learn, and the dogs love the attention even without extra snacks!!
6 comments:
That sounds wonderful. My friend takes her theropy dogs to a local library so that the kids with reading problems can practice reading to the dogs. It makes them feel less self conciouse and her dogs love the kids. I think Wheeler is on to something.
I really enjoyed this post for a couple of reasons. First, it's really cool that Wheeler is working out his study issues in such a creative way. The second reason is that I do almost the same thing...I'm a corporate trainer and do lots of in-person public speaking, and if my dogs could talk, they could probably tell you all sorts of things about my industry, and they'd know how to use a wide variety of software! Great post - glad I'm not the only one!
What a great job for the hounds! :-)
Jen
Ick, I don't want to talk about those days!
Limo studies off her dad's laptap.
I think Limo might be part pharoh hound now! She has the same ears!
LOL
Kudos to Wheeler for his creativity! He's onto something when he can 'draw' the audience into his lecture. ;-) Cute pictures...
Glad you guys don't think Wheeler is crazy. Addie, it sounds like he's in good company. Hopefully the new study method worked - we'll see when we find out how he did on his English and Latin tests yesterday and whatever else he has this week. When I asked him how he thought the tests Monday went, his answer was a monosyllabic "fine." What a typical teenager ;-)!
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