My youngest son is a gamer. He will sit in front of a computer, iPad or DSI all day in his pajamas if I let him. He will shift his hours so that he becomes “Nocturnal Man,” capable of staying up until 2 in the morning and sleeping until noon.
His behavior, though, also reminds me of some brilliant programmers that I had the privilege of working with in Silicon Valley years ago, back in the days of the .com bubble.
What’s a mom to do? I say, if you can’t beat them, join them. I asked my son if he would like to make his own computer games and he thought that was a great idea.
As my son works his way through a book to learn to code, I am finding that marking key sections with Post-it® Flags from the World of Color, Rio de Janeiro collection makes it easier to find important information that he needs over and over again.
As school approaches, I thought the findings from Post-it® Brand Back-to-School STEM Research Study were helpful in thinking about supporting kids in STEM learning.
Did you know thatparents with middle and high school-aged students rank math and science as the subjects that will prepare their students the most for the job market – and yet, they are the subjects their students struggle with the most? Although STEM is seen as an important subject, parents admit they aren’t as prepared as they could be to give their kids crucial after-school help. 69% of parents admit they frequently struggle to help their students with STEM-related homework, which as a parent I completely understand! I find that as my kids advance in school, I have more trouble understanding and following along with their STEM-related subjects.
With that said, I have found that in order to help them excel in STEM education, it is most beneficial to recognize each student’s unique learning style. Once you understand their learning style, you can determine if they need to see information, hear information or engage in an activity to help them digest and apply what they are learning.
I really do find that my kids learn differently. My oldest daughter is an artist and a visual learner. She needs to be able to visualize concepts in order to understand them. Algebra, for example, was much easier, when I found her a video that showed how Algebra problems are like balancing weights on a scale.
I found it particularly interesting that the Post-it® Brand Back-to-School STEM Research Study also found that 86% of parents think the best way for their students to learn STEM-subjects is through visual learning, like reading or seeing pictures.
My middle child is finding that color coding works with the Post-it® Brand World of Color, Rio de Janeiro collections in all aspects of her life. The collections of Post-it® Super Sticky Notes, and coordinating Post-it® Flags and Post-it® Tabs, help to keep her more organized and her class schedule is an art work of color coded boxes.
She also uses colorful Post-it® Super Sticky Notes and Post-it® Flags to learn new concepts, like coordinating rowers in a complex pattern of pairs for the warm up using different colored Post-it® Flags from the World of Color Rio de Janeiro collections.
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This is a sponsored post for Post-it Brand from 3M. My opinions, as always, are my own.
BEST #OWNVOICES CHILDREN’S BOOKS: My Favorite Diversity Books for Kids Ages 1-12 is a book that I created to highlight books written by authors who share the same marginalized identity as the characters in their books.
Interesting! I love that you help your son take gaming to the next level. Kids are capable of so much when they follow their passion 🙂
Hi Ann,
I’m hoping he enjoys Python as much as Java!
I love those post-it note tabs! My sister who is in college studying psychology uses them all the time 🙂
Hi MaryAnne,
They are fun, aren’t they? They make studying more fun too!
I’m an entrepreneur myself, focused on e-commerce because this is the next big thing. So I know how important it is for children nowadays to learn coding. I hope they include this as a core subject in schools now.
Hi Joanna,
My kids’ schools are doing that hour of coding which is great and our high school offers several computer programming classes. But our community education program has coding for kids after school that seems to be in high demand. I hired a high school kid to teach my son to learn to program and that worked well for us too!