The Family Circle magazine, Sept. 2 issue, has a great "back to school" issue. It covers topics such as Motivation magic, Procrastination, Top principals secrets to help your child achieve, and How Slowing Down Speeds Learning. In the later, Bill Doherty is quoted as saying "After-school activities are usually adult directed. Downtime requires a child to be imaginative, resourceful, and decide for himself what to do. He has the chance to practice social and leadership skills by creating his own games, making up his own rules, and working out his own problems."

The article also talks about kids who are shuttled from activitiy to activity often end up rushing through homework, or staying up late or rising early to finish it. "This routine shortchanges the brain of maintenance time and learning potential. "

The August issue of Child Magazine also has a great article about overscheduling kids, such as enrolling 2 1/2 year olds in French lessons and being told that enrolling as a 5 year old, is too late!

Check out both magazines. Unfortuntately, neither article is available on line.

Posted by Susan at 8/07/2003 08:39:39 AM | Link