Kids learn best when they are having fun.  This should come as no surprise to anyone.

When I go into schools with my new program: “Creative Core Curriculum”^TM and we learn through story and song, writing and rapping, music and movement – the kids have no clue that I am just following their curriculum, with a little creative spin.  Why?  Because, unfortunately, students are don’t equate fun and learning.

Time to shift that outdated paradigm. In today’s world, children are experiential learners.  They learn by doing, creating, moving — diving into topics and exploring them, firsthand.  That’s why the worksheet mentality of the 1950’s just doesn’t make sense anymore (if it ever did). And, yet when our school system and government needed to “teach” our children the life or death lesson of staying healthy through flu season, they sent home a one-page flyer with the information.  Handing them a piece of paper and assuming they wouldn’t ball it up, or create a paper airplane or fortuneteller is wishful thinking, at best.

Why not have a little skit at school with one kid sneezing in another’s face and the child that got sneezed on gets just as sick as “Sneezy”? Or what about creating a game on a website where children could go to play a flu game.  If they do the wrong things, their character would get sick.  If they stay healthy, they advance to harder levels – challenging their understanding of the rules to staying well.

When I asked more than 50 students on the playground, none of them had read the information sent home, and most didn’t even remember bringing it home.  That’s when it hit me – we can do better!  We need to do better!  If our educational system doesn’t get it and our government doesn’t get it – let the kids have a chance to get it right.

So, I created “No Flu 4 You!”  — a funny, interactive song that contains the top ten points of staying healthy during flu season.  Put to a fun, boppy beat – the kids couldn’t resist singing and acting out the hysterical lines.

Remember those jingles from your own childhood, well the reason you can still remember those decades later is the power behind rhythm and rhyme.  I have spoken at many national teachers’ conferences (including NAEYC – the National Association for Education of Young Children) about using rhythm and rhyme to ensure messages stick.  And, movement is another critical component.  Most children are kinesthetic learners, meaning that adding movement to any lesson will help it sink in.

Yet, with all we know – we continue to send home one page flyers and expect that our children will get the information by osmosis, simply by holding it in their hands.  “HELLO… not working!”  That’s where we come in, the DreamDog Foundation’s latest program “Kids Empowering Kids!” Just in time for that last blast of February flu season, click here and sing along, pass it on to all the families you know with children.  You just might be the key to keeping them healthy – and we guarantee you’ll have fun singing and rapping with the DreamDog kids!

P.S.  An invitation to all Disruptive Women – we would love for you to join us for future “Kids Empowering Kids!” videos by subscribing to our Facebook fan page.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 12th, 2010 at 8:01 am and is filed under Children. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.