Want to have smart kids? Are your kids battling at school? We have the solution for you at the Bone Diggers' Club

Are your kids not doing as well at school as you would like them to? Are your kids bright, but they seem distracted or lack focus. Or maybe you feel that there really isn't enough fun or creativity in the school environment to keep them stimulated and engaged. You have faith in the teachers - after all they have been doing this stuff for years - but you believe more could be done.

Turning a positive school experience into a negative one

Perhaps there is the spectre of something or someone coming along and upsetting your child's academic journey. A bad experience with a teacher, being bullied on the playground, or being mocked for asking a 'silly' question might throw the proverbial spanner in the works.  Who knows what unexpected circumstances could turn a positive school experience into a negative one.

Lay the groundwork for a wonderful academic career

Perhaps there isn't a problem at all, but you know that your child has the ability to excel and you want something more than what school has to offer that will lay the groundwork for a future career.  

It would be almost irresponsible to allow them to develop an aversion to maths and science

Certainly keeping kids engaged and doing well throughout their school career is going to stand them in good stead in ways completely inestimable. Nowadays, education is at a premium, but is also on a state of flux thanks to disruptive technologies like AI and the internet.

However the core subjects, maths and science are still used as a metric when kids are applying for jobs or college entrance. In this regard it would be almost irresponsible to allow them to develop an aversion for these subject, and yet we allow this to happen all the time. We have a duty to keep them interested, to some degree at least, as the alternative may lead to a less-than-optimal outcome.

Why is grass green?

It was Carl Sagan, the late, great astronomer and educator who pointed out that the Grade 1 kids are born scientists.

Sagan had this to say about the teaching of maths and science in schools, and bear in mind this is from 30 years ago:

“My experience is, you go talk to kindergarten kids or first-grade kids, you find a class full of science enthusiasts. And they ask deep questions. ‘What is a dream, why do we have toes, why is the moon round, what is the birthday of the world, why is grass green?’ These are profound, important questions. They just bubble right out of them. You go talk to 12th grade students and there’s none of that. They’ve become leaden and incurious. Something terrible has happened between kindergarten and 12th grade and it’s not just puberty.”

That other great educator, Sir Ken Robinson, pointed out that:

"If you can light the spark of curiosity in a child, they will learn without any further assistance.”

We don’t even know what the world will look like in 2 years’ time

He also made the point that school was killing creativity. This is a worry. At a time when we don’t even know what the world will look like in 2 years’ time, never mind 5 years, the only thing left to us is to teach kids how to be creative.

Evenings were spent having stories read to us

Talking of lighting the spark of curiosity, both my mother and grandmother filled our house with books. My father in his wisdom refused to buy a television, and so our evenings were spent having stories read to us, and when we were old enough, reading for ourselves. For this I am eternally grateful. I am of the firm opinion that it was these influences that set me on a path which I am following to this day.

Open untold doors and untold opportunities

Would you then agree that it would be hugely beneficial if creativity was kept alive, and that your kids also did well in core subjects like maths and science right through their school career? There is no doubt that good grades in these core subjects will open up untold doors and untold opportunities when it comes time to choose careers and submit applications for college.

Environmental stewardship is becoming increasingly important

Even if your kids don’t go on to do a science or engineering degree, some knowledge of how the world works would indeed be a wonderful thing.

Especially at this time when environmental stewardship is becoming an increasingly important consideration in our day-to-day lives.

How do we keep creativity alive?

So now that we have agreed on the fact that kids need to do well in those critical core subjects, and that creativity needs to be kept alive, the next question is, how do we accomplish this?

A sustained interest in a conceptual domain can help children develop increased knowledge and persistence

A CNN study back in 2017 found that sustained intense interests, particularly in a conceptual domain like dinosaurs, can help children develop increased knowledge and persistence, a better attention span, and deeper information-processing skills.

The article went on to say that "a dino obsession can be a kid’s way of taking in a new subject in a way that feels familiar to them: through the business of having fun. Asking questions, finding answers, and gaining expertise is the learning process in general... exploring a topic and mastering it is beneficial because that’s how we form careers as adults. A kid’s primary occupation is play, so they’re going about their job of playing through the lens of this thing they’re interested in learning about.”

We could invent a Time Machine to transport the kids back in time

A retired Grades 1 to 3 teacher friend told me that the three things that got kids excited in the classroom were Dinosaurs, Space and Transport. The Transport topic was also corroborated in the CNN report. We can’t do very much about Transport, except perhaps to invent a Time Machine to transport the kids back to the Jurassic, but that is another challenge altogether.

A perfect segue to introduce the subject

Space however is a different matter because, according to current theory, an asteroid winging in from the outer reaches of the solar system supposedly killed the dinosaurs, which makes a perfect segue to introduce the subject, and by extension maths and physics.

I looked at those long-chained carbon molecules through new eyes

I remember reading a book by the late great Lyall Watson called Lifetide.

I was 17 at the time, and after devouring that wonderful tome, I was hooked – I decided there and then that I was going to be a biologist. Up until then organic chemistry had seemed impossibly dull, but after discovering that all life was carbon based, I looked at those long-chained carbon molecules through new eyes. Well, as it turns out, I became a geologist, which came with its fair share of palaeontology and geochemistry.

I had to put myself through a crash course

Again, speaking from my own experience, I took a year out to do a Masters degree in engineering geology. It was very mathematical – especially the rock engineering and soil mechanics - and I must confess that, had I applied myself a little more in my school maths class, I might have done a little better. Before the course began I had to put myself through a crash course in the subject 10 years after leaving school.

However, the fact that we are having this conversation is testament to a book written by Dr Watson, and the fact that my mother had made sure that the spark of curiosity had been lit in us. Lifetide was my first conscious epiphany, at a age when I was old enough to recognise it for what it was.

It will provide a much greater range of options

Irrespective of whether your child becomes a scientist, a doctor, an engineer or an artist, having some good numerical abilities can only be a good thing, and will certainly provide a much greater range of options when applying for entrance to any college. 

There will be a bedrock of confidence

I know that you want the best for your child, and if that CNN report is right when it says that Dinosaurs make for smart kids, who are we argue with them? Moreover, when those storms arrive in the classroom, which they undoubtedly will, there will be a bedrock of confidence gained from knowledge acquired and skills learned away from the influences of school. These skills may indeed prove to be the necessary refuge during those stormy days. We shall talk more about those skills below, so let's press on with our adventure.