The Law of Intensity deals with vividness of learning experience. If I take my child to zoo to learn about animals, he or she will learn more than if I just explain animals. One of my favorite sites for young kids is Switchzoo.com. My younger nieces and nephews are fascinated with animals they are familiar with, but just spillover with excitement as they manipulate animals to make new ones. I think that my daughter and I are really supposed to be a little old for activity, but in all truthfulness we have a great time with it too. There are so many places out there that I neither have time nor money to take my child. The Internet has been especially useful in getting my child to those places. At our fingertips we have Virtual Smithsonian Institute and National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. At GreatPlaces.org we have in living color enjoyed films and photos of Madagascar, Tibet, Amazon and several other far away places. Through gateway of MuseumStuff.com, we have viewed museums all over world including my personal favorite web only exhibits of our National Museum of Air and Space in Washington DC. And let’s not forget brick and mortar library. Before computers library is how my parents took me to far away places. It still works and every library that we have visited recently also has wonderful computer resources as well. So, if you don’t have a computer at home, that is certainly no excuse for not spending some time with your child using this wonderful technology. And I still buy books for presents—wonderful, exciting, colorful books.

What is learned most recently is remembered best is essence of Thorndike’s Law of Recency. And that is why those reviews right before test are so very important. We have also found hundreds of little quizzes on Internet to be helpful in this area, for instance Geography.miningco.com quizzes on U.S. States and rivers and more, Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) writing exercises, and Who Wants to Win $1,000,000 ?—Science Game.

Thorndike’s laws are by no means last word in education of children, and because of that I spend a lot of time at sites such as The Education Place and Education World-- The Educator's Best Friend. These sites and many others like them, including my own website www.YouthPlay.org featuring websites I have used in educating my child, keep us updated on newest and best resources in education and help us in making decisions regarding our children’s education.

We have heard it time and time again—whether we believe it or not. There is just not enough time in school day for your child to learn all things he or she needs to learn. I have found it to be equally case that there is also little time after school for me to dedicate to my child’s learning. It seems after career, housework and business of running a household, time I want to spend with my child is not teaching time but chill out time.

But be that as it may, I have tried hard to make time for teaching as well. And resources on Internet have definitely helped. While I’m doing some of those household duties, I can park my child right in front of that computer at a website that I have reviewed. And then we can get together afterward and talk about site as well as rest of our day. These sites have also helped with budget because free resources are definitely cheaper than a lot of software out there—although I have definitely invested in that for Christmas and birthdays.

If you think that I have developed a computer geek, you are wholly wrong—although I don’t think this would necessarily be a bad thing. This a child who in addition to Honor Roll, is a member of school basketball team, several clubs and organizations, a team leader for Odyssey of Mind competition, first runner-up for her school pageant and a social butterfly.

I truly believe that resources of Internet have helped my daughter to tap into all of her talents.

7. Next we have song time. Get them moving after sitting for some time. You can use songs such as “Head-shoulders-knees and Toes”, “If you’re Happy and you Know it.”

8. Vowel Drill time. I have a vowel poster with words and pictures glued to a big piece of cardboard and I drill vowels. I say sound and word of a vowel and they repeat. Again speed is key. I also use a funny voice and chant vowel sound and word. Make up some silly chant and they will follow, loving it and you!

9. Counting. I count 1 to 10 but it goes like this. I say one, they say two and so on. Do it really fast and they’ll like it.

10. I throw about 25 cards all over room. Today we are doing vowel “a” so cards are all words and photos starting with letter a. Each card has 4 to 5 of same thing so everyone can get one. Then I call out “Ahhh” and then say word apple! They have to find all cards with an apple on it. Once this is done they count cards and tell me how many they have.

11. They sit down and we do a page from their textbook and workbook.

Next is “Good-bye” song and a big “See you next week!”

I change procedure every six classes but color handouts and textbook materials change every class.

Most teachers will not put this kind of power and preparation into their classes and that’s why they’re part of 80% that are just getting by.

Whatever… Here are key ingredients to remember in order to be successful working with kids.

Every activity should have a goal/objective that contains an educational and entertaining element to it.

Time-wasting, meaningless activities are for weak and lazy. If you do this you are just another fly by night foreigner who will be found out and tossed out.

Touch your kids. Shake their hands, give them high fives, tickle gently them and so on. Kids don’t have word power yet and they depend heavily on their feelings to guide them and communicate with others. Playing with them physically will build rapport which is needed to guide them through your lessons. (Some schools have rules against physical contact but it’s mostly for adult students.)

Respect your kids by thanking them in advance for doing activities. Always use “Please”, “Thank you”, “You’re best”, “Good job” and so on.

Praise them every chance you get and build them up honestly.

If you notice some of your activities are bombing during a class drop them, go into your next one (always have one or two back up, sure-fire activities just in case) without missing a beat. Later, figure out why activities were bombing but don’t discard them. Don’t ever blame kids for your difficulties.

Join ETJ online discussion forum for teachers teaching in Japan. http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=ETJ Here you can ponder with others over activities you are trying to fine tune and find other related help.

Each activity should be done in a different part of room. Keep kids moving!

Of course you should always take courses on teaching kids while you’re here and read as many books as you can on subject.

You can find books on teaching Japanese children English at any online bookstore.

In Japan there are 100-yen shops. Back home they’re called dollar shops. Here’s where you can get ideas and great material to create killer activities for little ones. But don’t spend too much. You many want to put 2,000 yen away per month for this stuff (2,000 yen is about US$19).

Use a lot of TPR in your classes with kids and adults. TRP stands for “Total physical Response Teaching.” Check out following links for info on TPR Total Physical Response

Follow my instruction and you will be way ahead of anyone just coming here trying to figure things out alone.

To your ESL teaching success and beyond,

Craig Desorcy

P.S. Want to live and work in Japan? Already in Japan? Want to do really well in Japan as an English teacher even with no experience? Please have a look at my ebook. http://www.teaching-in-japan.com

*********************************************************************** This article is an inserte from an ebook called “The Super teaching in Japan Handbook” Copyright © 2003, Craig Desorcy Reproduction, translation or electronically transmitted of any part of this work beyond that permitted by Section 107 or 108 of 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of copyright owner is against law. ***********************************************************************