January 22, 2015 · 12:13 am

Tuition Tips – Brain Food

pacific cruise 2012 074Vitamin C

Now before you go off collecting kindling to burn me for being a witch let’s have a look at how vitamin C can be considered brain food.  The highest concentration of vitamin C in the body is found in the adrenal glands because it is required to make cortisol and adrenalin for conditions of stress.  But the next highest concentration is found in the brain.  Why would the brain require vitamin C?  So the body may produce dopamine, serotonin and melatonin.  Vitamin C helps to keep your sanity as well as your collagen intake.

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January 1, 2015 · 11:55 pm

The Photographer – Callum (Aged 11)

BurglarLate at night as the wind howled, the amateur photographer remained silent in the garden. Even though he was frightened he scraped through the opened window, crept down the dark corridor and found the combination safe where he knew his equipment was being stored. Hastily he considered his options. Last year he practised in the gym and he was strong. He picked up the safe and sprinted with a big grin on his face.

Callum (Aged 11)

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December 18, 2014 · 1:14 am

Tuition Tip – Did You Know…

Tuition Logo…that most learners will forget the last four weeks of learning over the six weeks of Christmas break?  Pretty much everything learned in November is lost by the time they go back to school in January/February.

Six weeks is a long time to have a break from learning and I doubt young minds require so much recovery time.  As I come from a sports training background I know that such a break from training for a sports person would be detrimental to their abilities and performance.  That is why professional sports people do not take a break, they alter how they train.

I have witnessed the downfalls in people achieving weight loss because they cannot gain any momentum on their weight loss program.  There was always something preventing them getting up a full head of steam on their weight loss project; birthdays, work functions, anniversaries, weddings, parties, etc..  It may be the same for our students in the education system.  There appears to be so many things that prevent our students building up momentum in their learning progress; public holidays (about 12 days per year), school holidays (about 12 weeks per year), student free days (at least one after every school break), athletics sports day, swimming day, excursions to …., school camps (1 or 2 weeks per year), …

That is why we run holiday programs for our clients.  To us learning is so important to the development of the child that we give tuition hours away to ensure our students return to school not having forgot what they learned in the last month and a half of school but are advanced on what they know.

OUR 342 HOLIDAY PROGRAM 

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December 16, 2014 · 12:37 am

Tuition Tips – Brain Food With B Vitamins

Empty Gas TankHaving a properly fuelled student goes a long way to producing good academic results.  There are times a student will come to our tuition room tired and unmotivated.   They are slow in movement and slow in thought when the previous week they were lively, animated and full of beans.  How has such a difference come about in such a short time?

My first question to afternoon students is, “When did you last eat?”, whereas my second question is, “When did you last have a drink of water?”  Lack of food (fuel) and lack of hydration are two factors that will bring about that feeling of being tired.  Consuming water and a healthy snack before settling down to working the little grey cells will go a long way to helping a student concentrate during study time.

This week we will look at B vitamins and their role.

The chief function of B Vitamins is to act as spark plugs for the body to assist in converting glucose into energy for fuel.  They are also vitally important for the functioning of a healthy nervous system and in helping to promote relaxation in stressed individuals.   Very few vitamins are found in a packet of potato crisps and a can of coke.   A person will literally obtain more miles out of a banana than soft drinks and chips.

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December 9, 2014 · 4:58 am

Sparrow – Dardo (aged 8)

SparrowOnce there was a bird in the Amazon Forest.  He was a sparrow who had very big wings so he could glide three miles. One day when he was chasing an electric eel he got stuck in an underwater cave and couldn’t breathe until he swam up to the dry land.  He began to explore the amazing cave system but soon he got completely lost and began to cry miserably for help.  A vampire bat flying out of the cave rescued the relieved sparrow.

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December 4, 2014 · 4:00 am

The Very Cheeky Mouse – Jemima (aged 7)

mouseIn the morning the mouse was in a dark, dark forest. She had pretty pink ears and she wore a black t-shirt, a red bow and black and red pants. When she woke up she had cheese for breakfast. After eating she put on her cheeky clothes and went outside and poked her tongue out at the teachers at school. At night she put on her pyjamas and slept in the very, very dark forest.

Jemima (aged 7)

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December 2, 2014 · 1:34 am

Tuition Tips – Brain Food

Diet PlansYour car will not run without fuel and neither will your body, including your brain.  Too often the last decent meal a student has before they attend our Tuition Room after school is breakfast – and it shows.

The inability to concentrate, feeling listless, unenthusiastic and headaches are all signs of insufficient nutrient intake.  The body begins to slow down by mid-afternoon after a day of high activity and very little nutritious food.

The best way to maintain high-energy output is to ensure a nutritious breakfast, a healthy lunch and perhaps morning and afternoon tea.  A healthy round of vegemite sandwiches with a glass of water or milk will ensure the B Vitamins for energy production are in the body to spur the brain into motion

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November 26, 2014 · 12:16 am

Tuition Tips – Difficulties With The Eyes

Eye TrackingThe Eyes Have It When 5 + 1 = 5

Some students are behind at school through no fault of their own.  They look at the work and do not understand what is going on.  They ask themselves “Why am I the only person in this class who doesn’t get this?”  Eventually they begin to believe “I must be a real dummy I just don’t understand why I keep getting this wrong!”  Their self-confidence disintegrates and at times their behaviour will follow.  After all “What is the point of turning up every day if I can’t learn this?”

What is happening with this student?  What would happen if you saw the number zero as a one?  For one thing sometimes five plus one will equal six and other times it will equal five.  When you are in primary school and just learning about numbers and maths things will become confusing almost incomprehensible.  You won’t understand why sometimes ten is ten and sometimes it is eleven. Everything will become an exercise in guess work for you.  These students will also have trouble seeing decimal points and fractions are just another language when your eyes skip over the line between the numerator and denominator.

That’s just maths.  When they read “was” can become “saw” and whole lines are skipped because the eyes didn’t see the line to read it. By the time they are Year 7 their reading comprehension is extremely low and there are gaps in their mathematics understanding because fractions and decimals don’t exist.

Eye Tracking issues occur when the two eyes do not move smoothly and accurately across a line or from word to word.  The student will often lose their place while reading, skip lines, misread short words as in “was” and “saw” and cut off the beginnings and endings of words.

Eye tracking issues are usually corrected by visiting a Behavioural Optometrist who tests for the condition and prescribes glasses that are worn until the condition is corrected.  Normal optometrists do not usually check or test for this condition so if your student has glasses and their school work has not improved it may be time to visit the specialist.

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November 20, 2014 · 3:08 am

Christmas Day – Jack (aged 10)

ChristmasOne snowy Christmas morning at her uncle’s farm a young girl called Karen felt magic in the air as she watched her cousins opening their presents.  The adopted ten-year-old girl had never before spent Christmas with a family of her own because her parents were killed in a warzone and her uncle and aunt didn’t even know she existed until two months before.  All Christmas day, Karen hoped that someone would remember to give her a gift but all she really wanted to do was spend the day with her new family.  After lunch her uncle and aunt asked her to go outside where she saw a pink and yellow float arrive and a beautiful pony trotted out. “Happy Christmas Karen,” exclaimed her uncle and aunt.

by Jacko

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November 17, 2014 · 9:38 pm

Tuition Tip – Student Burnout

A sports coach knows the signs when he sees them – decreased ability to concentrate, confusion, decreased motivation, increased irritability, grumbling, quarrelsomeness, over sensitivity to criticism, anxiety, depression.

A good coach will recognises the signs of over-training and give his athlete a break before burn-out sets in. A great coach will not let these signs develop because he knows how to pace his athlete to bring them to their peak without demoralising them.

Burn-out can occur in any one of any profession and of any age, children included. Many parents do not realise they may be setting their child up for burn-out later in the year because they, as their child’s coach, have not planned their activities so that their academic athlete may peak at the appropriate times (exams).

It is with the best intentions that many parents will fill almost every minute of their little one’s waking hours with sport, training for sport and transport to and from sport. I am amazed at how many children are undertaking more than one sport a school term. If you are a parent who is building a champion please remember three things.

  1. Training and playing sport is very tiring. That is why great coaches do not over-load their prized athletes. They allow down time for recovery and for their protégés to spend time doing non-competitive recreational activities.
  2. A tired student will find it difficult to concentrate in class.
  3. In today’s world a person has a much better chance of achieving a high income with good grades than becoming a highly paid athlete.

If the situation has developed where a student may require extra tuition to assist with their education then a choice has to be made with a view to prioritising. It may be necessary to drop another activity for a while as the student regains their academic confidence. It is best to not load up an already over-loaded timetable.

As for being a great coach and preparing for the next season we will be running a pre-school program in January to ease our students back into their academic year.  Contact us for more details.

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