Monday, June 18, 2012

Swimming in Your Thoughts


Meredith just started swimming with a new swim team. She has always loved swimming, but it really has to be the right environment. For instance, the last team we joined practiced in an enormous indoor swim complex that was exceptionally loud and chaotic, which meant the coaches also yelled a lot. Not good. Then Meredith swam with a summer league where she enjoyed practice at the outdoor pool, but detested the meets which were loud, long, chaotic, unbearably hot...you get the picture.

So, she is so enjoying her new arrangement. There are maybe 10 kids at the most at her practices, swim meets are optional, it is at an outdoor, heated pool, and the coach is a very sweet mannered young woman. I'm shocked that she is actually wanting to practice three times per week because she complained so much in the past about going. Obviously the difference is the sensory environment. The...sensory...environment. Nine times out of ten the sensory environment is what stresses Meredith.

And that brings me to the point of swimming as an attractive sport for people like Meredith--highly visual thinkers who have weaker auditory systems (i.e., Mavericks). Swimming quiets down all the noise so the auditory system isn't working in overdrive. It eliminates visual distractions so the visual system isn't engaged in it's perpetual scanning mode. The elimination of the auditory and visual distractions allows you to enter that state-of-mind where you can freely wander through your thoughts (without being accussed of daydreaming). The physical aspect probably helps in engaging the right brain as well.  You don't usually get too cold or too hot.  Really, it is quite ideal for this breed.

I once was talking to my massage therapist during a massage (why do I always do that?!) and she clearly was a Maverick. She told me that her work place environment is perfect because it is dark, there is soft music, and she is doing something physical--all of which really allowed her mind to wander into places she enjoyed going to. She appeared to be so fullfilled with her work.


So, as always is the case, Merebith is following along with Meredith and has also started back with swimming, but she has her own Olympic sized pool. Guess who her coach is? Michael Phelps! Apparently he struts into practice wearing all eight of his gold medals around his neck.  Merebith loves swimming.

Dogot, meanwhile, has his own smaller pool filled with oil. His favorite thing to do is to lie on his back and spit mouthfuls of the oil up into the air. Can't you just picture it? Of course when he gets out, he is covered in oil. No problem!  He just rolls over to this huge blow-dryer looking machine and when he turns it on, it blows all the oil right off. How convenient!

3 comments:

  1. I've enjoyed getting caught up on your blog. It is so interesting. I just ordered Temple Grandin on Netflix too. I also ordered a multiplication book for visual learners. It has been such a huge help to Rebecca (my fifth grader) who just couldn't seem to get it all remembered. One example from the book is skate times skate equals sticky floor (8x8=64). Of course there is a picture and a story but just saying it once made her visualize skates that look like 8's and a very sticky floor. It seems complicated to me but works for her. Thanks.

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  2. Gaylene,
    I'm so glad you're getting something out of my posts--how funny to connect like this after all these years.

    I'm familiar with what you're talking about it. Those are great. I have a couple of more suggestions for you since you've found success with that.

    www.visualspatial.org/files/mthstrat.pdf presents good math strategies (Linda Silverman is the person who originally coined the term "visual spatial," by the way). She has one strategy for teaching the multiplication tables that I'm anxious to try with my second grader. It shows the whole picture (visual thinkers need context and to see the whole picture). I haven't tried it before.

    Also, I can not recommend enough "Hands-on Equations" for Algebra. I have a link on my blog under Recommended Websites. Algebra is generally the hardest for visual thinkers because it is abstract and sort of like a language. Geometry, on the other hand, is usually the best since it is visual-spatial.

    Anyway, this Hands-On Equations system is so beyond fantastic for someone struggling with Algebra. Or--even to get a child started early on Algebra. No lie, I taught my second grader how to do an equation that is probably on the 8th-grade level in 15 minutes. It is a small investment, but worth every penny for me! Meredith had so much anxiety about Algebra that she was pretty much closed off to learning about it. This system showed her really how simple it can be and at least got rid of the anxiety!

    Enjoy Temple Grandin!

    Ange

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    Replies
    1. I forgot also that people seem to have some success with the "Math Wrap Ups."

      http://www.christianbook.com/wrap-ups-multiplication-math-revised/0943343283/pd/595103?kw=595103&en=froogle&p=1013824&cm_mmc=CBDfeeds-_-froogle-_-books-_-595103

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