Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Bit Time Videos



I created this fast-paced video for Hunter to go over some of the bits we're learning. I had gotten in the bad habit of allowing him to do the mouse clicking when we watched bit presentations on the computer, which made for quite slow learning, and because of the slow pace he often didn't want to sit for very many of them. In video format, I can show almost 200 bits in under two minutes. Impressive, isn't it? The video was actually originally under two minutes, but then I added applause segments at the end of certain clips and introduction spinning words at the beginning of certain categories (history, art, music, etc.) so it ended up being about four minutes. Once I added the Bible memory reading, it came out to around seven.

But now with these videos he will be able to see many of his bits in a very small amount of time and will not have to be so distracted with the mouse-clicking. With the fast speed, it locks his attention on the screen and keeps him interested - any slower and he would look away very quickly because, little kids learn instantly: they don't need to stare. Hence, if information is presented to them slowly they will quickly decide they don't have time for it and will look away, which is why most people have falsely assumed tiny kids aren't capable of learning. The truth is we've just been too slow for them.

The other benefit of seeing the bits shown so quickly (less than a second each) is that images shown at this speed stimulate the brain to activate the photographic memory or rapid fact absorption, at which tiny kids are experts. Some people call this "right brain learning" but that term is not entirely correct, as both hemispheres of the brain work together and are not as choppy and simplistic as "right = creative, left = logical". But nonetheless, little kids (under six) are experts as this type of rapid, photographic learning, and if utilized enough in the early years they will retain this effortless learning as they get older.

This particular video is quite choppy: it doesn't have all eleven divisions (anatomy, art, biology, general science, geography, history, languages, literature, math, music, scripture) because some of those divisions I am using the actual cards for right now (languages, literature, and biology are excluded from this video). It also has more than one set in some divisions, such as three sets in science and five sets in geography. The geography one is interesting because I am teaching two sets of flags, two sets of outlines, and only one set of locations. This is because last week I taught locations but not flags or outlines, so this week I'm catching up and teaching double of outlines and flags.

This is the first of hopefully many videos to come. I am looking to share these home videos freely on the web for other parents to utilize if they need to. However the up-coming videos will be more organized, with one set in each of the eleven divisions so that it won't be as random as this one. My hope is that it will bless many.

"Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning."
Proverbs 9:9

Hunter is 3 years, 5 months old

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