Tag Archives: learning is fun

Young Learners

Posted on April 16, 2010 | 2 Comments

I dreamed of influencing new generations of motivated learners when I wrote “Grandma Says It’s Good to Be Smart.” At book signings as well as readings like those with my grandson’s preschool class, I realize that is beginning to happen. This little girl epitomizes what the book is about. She is joyous; she breathes enthusiasm for learning. When I first saw her, her eyes were sparkling with awe as she gazed at all the mechanical devices and aerial fantasies that decorate Ella’s Deli on East Washington Avenue in Madison. Her mother tells me she was excited to meet a real author AND to have me write her name and my name in her own book. This little girl, and my grandson and his friend as I read to them in Lafayette, Colorado two weeks ago, demonstrate the wonders of early learning. Their curiosity, motivation and awe – for books, the outdoors, meeting people, and exploring the world – delight me.

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Posted in Awesome children, Children's Books, Creative Kids, Cumulative advantage, Early Learning, Excellence in education, Gifted and Talented Children, Grandma Says It's Good to Be Smart, Growing up smart, It's Good to Be Smart, Modeling a love of reading, Passion in teaching and learning, Picture books, Smart is cool, The chance to learn, Young Children

Tagged academically minded, ages 0-7, be smart, caring about ideas, children's picture books, encouraging creativity, grandparent alert, learning is fun, learning through exploration, learning to read, parent alert, pre-k to 2nd grade learners, raising smart children, self-confidence comes with accomplishment, whimsical pictures attract children

Reading to young children

Posted on April 4, 2010 | Leave a comment

I had the opportunity to spend a week with my youngest grandson. At the end of that week, he went back to preschool following his spring break and I read to his class before heading back home. This classroom and a few others now have my book for the children to enjoy at their leisure. Jordan is the little guy to my left in the photo. The children sitting on the letters on the other side of the rug (as directed by their teachers) are creeping in (as can be seen by the partial child to the right).

I’m thrilled that the book is reaching more and more children with the message that it is cool to be smart. This means that they enter the world of learning knowing that curiosity, exploration of ideas, reading, and thinking are all positive traits or skills for them to develop.

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Posted in Children's Books, Core elements of learning and being smart, Early Learning, Excellence in education, Grandma Says It's Good to Be Smart, Growing up smart, Showing versus hiding one's talents, Smart is cool, Teaching smart kids, The chance to learn, Young Children

Tagged academically minded, ages 0-7, be smart, becoming good at something difficult, Buy now, caring about ideas, children's picture books, encouraging creativity, grandparent alert, learning from experience, learning is fun, learning through exploration, learning to read, new book, parent alert, pre-k to 2nd grade learners, raising smart children, reading with your little one, whimsical pictures attract children

Book signing on April 14

Posted on April 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

I’m excited to have the opportunity to read and sign my books at one of the most popular sites that grandparents visit with their young grandchildren in Madison – Ella’s Deli. Please bring your young children or grandchildren to visit with me and get their personalized copy of the book between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m on the 14th.

Go to the following links for more information:

Book Signing with Ellie Schatz – Ella’s Deli and Ice Cream Parlor
Ellie Schatz Book Signing – April 14. Join us on Wednesday, April 14 for a book signing event with children’s author Ellie Schatz…
www.ellas-deli.com/ellieschatz.php

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Posted in Children's Books, Creative Kids, Different Kinds of Smart, Early Learning, Excellence in education, Gifted and Talented Children, Grandma Says It's Good to Be Smart, Growing up smart, It's Good to Be Smart, Smart is cool, Teaching smart kids, The chance to learn, Young Children

Tagged academically minded, ages 0-7, be smart, caring about ideas, children's picture books, encouraging creativity, grandparent alert, learning is fun, learning to read, life-long learning, parent alert, pre-k to 2nd grade learners, raising smart children, reading with your little one, whimsical pictures attract children

Second Printing: Grandmas and Little Kids Love This Book

Posted on February 7, 2010 | Leave a comment

Authoring a book about the importance of early childhood education has not only created many wonderful opportunities for me, it has given me a new career. Copies of “Grandma Says It’s Good to Be Smart“ are now available from the second printing. For those of you in the Madison area, watch for them in more and more boutiques and book stores. For those of you from further away, feel free to introduce me to individuals (grandparents, parents, early childhood education teachers, elementary school teachers, early childhood caregivers, or anyone interested in the education of young children) as well as public venues that you would suggest for distribution. Your continuing notes to me – like this one from a grandma of a one-year old – are heartwarming: “Your book is marvelous. (My son) was very touched to have a copy of your book for his Ellie. You can be sure that I will read it to her often, as will her parents.”

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Posted in Children's Books, Early Learning, Gifted and Talented Children, Grandma Says It's Good to Be Smart, Growing up smart, It's Good to Be Smart, Showing versus hiding one's talents, Teaching smart kids, The chance to learn, Young Children

Tagged academically minded, ages 0-7, be smart, caring about ideas, children's picture books, encouraging creativity, good does not equal easy, grandparent alert, learning from experience, learning is fun, learning through exploration, learning to read, life-long learning, parent alert, pre-k to 2nd grade learners, raising smart children, reading with your little one, whimsical pictures attract children

“Outliers” – My Response 2

Posted on February 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

Aside from his epilogue about his mother and grandmother, Gladwell ends his book with the story of Marita and this statement: “To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success… with a society that provides opportunities for all… The world could be so much richer than the world we have settled for. Marita doesn’t need a higher IQ or a mind as quick as [Bill Gates]. All those things would be nice of course. But they miss the point. Marita just needed a chance.”

I agree wholeheartedly that Marita just needed a chance. I’ve spent many years encouraging students to participate in Talent Search, whereby they take out-of-level tests as a means of showing their need for an accelerated curriculum. All of the Talent Search-based programs – nationwide – give children the kind of chance Marita received at her special high school. Just as Kipp promises it will give kids stuck in poverty a chance to get out, WCATY promises the same. We call it cumulative advantage. Going to one program is an advantage that opens doors to another and then another, and so on. And students who have attended WCATY programs on full scholarship have written the exact same message as Gladwell’s in their letters to their sponsors: “thank you for helping me to break the cycle of poverty that has imprisoned my family by giving me a chance.”

I also like Gladwell’s use of the term “academically minded” in his final chapter. I encourage our schools to say a resounding “yes, that’s cool,” to the academically minded, rather than causing children to hide their talents, dumb down, and lower their aspirations.

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Posted in Cumulative advantage, Early Learning, Gifted and Talented Children, Growing up smart, It's Good to Be Smart, Showing versus hiding one's talents, The chance to learn, Young Children

Tagged academically minded, be smart, caring about ideas, encouraging creativity, genius, learning is fun, life-long learning, outliers, raising smart children, self-confidence comes with accomplishment, Termites

Small and Smart

Posted on January 8, 2010 | 1 Comment

Ayana was reading and writing by the time she was four. Her first attempts to put marker to paper involved drawing, but that wasn’t enough. She wanted to create little poems to go with the pictures she had drawn. She says, “I was lucky to have parents who encouraged me to read everything in the house and to write to my heart’s content. Even before I entered school I had a sense of self and a sense of authority. At age five, on a beginning level, I knew I was writing my own book, my own life.

“Home is where I always worked on my inner voice. School did not allow me to go into one subject – my writing – richly. I wanted to dim the noise and concentrate on my real work.”

At age 26, Ayana is weighing her options for a Ph.D. program that will match her interests. She says, “Talent is the currency that we as individuals invest for our future, but first someone must invest in its development. All the affirmations from my childhood encourage me to pass on the message I was given – it is good to show and develop your gifts.”

Smart children are crying out for recognition and support. The following poem is a compilation of comments made by students who were awarded small monetary grants by the Wisconsin Center for Academically Talented Youth (WCATY) to develop dream projects:

Please challenge me,

Save me,

Give me the guts to be me.

Please notice me,

Tolerate me,

Give me gold-plated wings to unfurl

Somewhere out there in the world.

Please welcome me,

Love me,

Give me the way to go forward

And become the me

I want to be.

In summary, there are smart children from all walks of life. Smart children need recognition of their abilities, and home is where they first need it. Early affirmations of talent start building the self-confidence the child will take from childhood into adulthood.

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Posted in Creative Kids, Different Kinds of Smart, Early Learning, Growing up smart, It's Good to Be Smart, Passion for a field of learning, Showing versus hiding one's talents

Tagged be smart, caring about ideas, learning from experience, learning is fun, learning through exploration, life-long learning, LinkedIn, raising smart children, reading with your little one, self-confidence comes with accomplishment

Highest Duty Revisited

Posted on December 24, 2009 | 1 Comment

Now I have read “Highest Duty” by Captain Chesley Sullenberger of the January 15, 2009 Hudson River miraculous plane landing fame. His subtitle gives a clue as to why his book was of interest to me: “My Search for What Really Matters.”

As a pilot, Sullenberger knew that his responsibility to the people on board and the community below really mattered. He was able to act on this belief in a crisis because he had spent a lifetime of learning how to do it. On p. 184 (caption) he writes, “I have a clear recollection that at age five I already knew I was going to spend my life flying airplanes.” His mother and father valued learning and supported his passion to learn starting when he was very young.

What may impress me the most about Sullenberger is his grit – his determination and focus. About the process that took him from being a child with a passion in a specific field to becoming an adult who would make a clear difference by applying all he’d learned in the intervening years, he says (p.138), “I’ve derived great satisfaction from becoming good at something that’s difficult to do well.”

“Becoming good at something that’s difficult to do well:” that’s my definition of accomplishment and the foundation for building self-confidence and high self-esteem. In terms of smart young children, this means encouraging them to continually take the next steps in learning new skills and knowledge; never letting them rest on their laurels; always providing a stimulating and challenging learning environment. It’s letting them know that it’s good, but not easy, to be smart.

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Posted in Different Kinds of Smart, Early Learning, Gifted and Talented Children, Growing up smart, It's Good to Be Smart, Passion for a field of learning, Young Children

Tagged be smart, becoming good at something difficult, good does not equal easy, learning from experience, learning is fun, learning through exploration, life-long learning, raising smart children, self-confidence comes with accomplishment

The Gift of Learning

Posted on December 14, 2009 | Leave a comment

What better gift to give that special child than the message that learning is cool. Most children really think that naturally as they begin to explore their world by walking, talking, and gaining new skills at a rapid rate as toddlers and preschoolers. A cartoon in the Dec. 14 “The New Yorker” shows two little kids in a sandbox. The older one says to the younger one: “It’s all learning-is-fun and invented spelling, and then–bam!– second grade.”

What’s wrong with second grade? As a teacher, consultant, longtime educational specialist, it is sad to often see fewer smiles and sparkling eyes with each advancing grade of school. Rather than continuing to believe that learning is fun, cool, an ultimate aim, too many children dumb down, hide their talents, and proceed in a lock-step method of learning that doesn’t fit them and holds little appeal. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Miraculously, my children fought the school battle and won – proud of themselves as topnotch learners throughout their k-12, college and graduate school years. I want the same for my grandchildren and yours. I want little children to hear and believe from their first year that learning is exciting, reading introduces you to people, places and things unknown, and asking questions and exploring possible answers is the key to advancement.

I hope “Grandma Says It’s Good to Be Smart” helps many children to firmly believe that second grade and all the grades after that will still be “learning-is-fun” — and that creativity is good too even if not usually when spelling!

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Posted in Children's Books, Creative Kids, Early Learning, Grandma Says It's Good to Be Smart, Growing up smart, Young Children

Tagged ages 0-7, be smart, caring about ideas, encouraging creativity, grandparent alert, learning is fun, learning through exploration, learning to read, life-long learning, LinkedIn, parent alert, pre-k to 2nd grade learners, raising smart children, reading with your little one

Book sale in progress

Posted on December 10, 2009 | Leave a comment

Orders for “Grandma Says It’s Good to Be Smart” are coming in at the post office box on the “Contact Ellie Books” page of this blog. Since Thanksgiving nearly 200 of the 300 copies have sold. Comments have been gratifying. Here’s one: “I wanted to let you know how much I love your book! It’s an absolute delight! You and the illustrator were clearly on the same wavelength. I love the part where grandma says I can be anything I want…and I say I want to be a horse — and you turn the page to see the wonderful trio of horses. Fabulous. And it’s a thrill to see your name on the front cover. Congratulations!”

Here’s another: “The book is wonderful and we can hardly wait to share it with our California grandson and put one on the shelf of our baby Madison grandson. But I need more to share with friends who have curious book-loving youngsters. Thank you for continuing to give to the world of young minds in your very special way. Our whole family is going to LOVE this book!”

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Posted in Children's Books, Different Kinds of Smart, Early Learning, Grandma Says It's Good to Be Smart, Growing up smart, Young Children

Tagged pre-k to 2nd grade learners, learning from experience, caring about ideas, life-long learning, raising smart children, be smart, Buy now, parent alert, grandparent alert, ages 0-3, learning is fun, gifts for the holidays, children's picture books, ages 0-7, LinkedIn

Have a Smart Thanksgiving! Think books.

Posted on November 24, 2009 | Leave a comment

Think smart.

It’s here: Grandma Says It’s Good to Be Smart. Grandmas and grandpas will love the serious message. They will want to share it with their little ones. Written for children ages 3-7, I recommend sharing it from the day a child is born. The children will love the whimsical characters. They will be able to talk animatedly with you about reading, thinking, exploring, using big words, using their imaginations, and all the fun ways they can learn about themselves and the world around them. Using this tool, parents as well as grandparents can plant the seed for years of shared curiosity. It will help children to enter the social community of neighborhood and school with confidence in themselves as learners.

Contact Ellie at Ellie Books today for your copy from a limited first printing. Order information is posted on the Ellie Books page.

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Posted in Children's Books, Early Learning, Gifted and Talented Children, Grandma Says It's Good to Be Smart, Growing up smart, Young Children

Tagged ages 0-3, Buy now, grandparent alert, learning is fun, parent alert

Tag Archives: learning is fun

Young Learners

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Reading to young children

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Book signing on April 14

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Second Printing: Grandmas and Little Kids Love This Book

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“Outliers” – My Response 2

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Small and Smart

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Highest Duty Revisited

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The Gift of Learning

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Book sale in progress

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Have a Smart Thanksgiving! Think books.

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