Did you know...

recent research points to movement as a significant contributor to learning?  It's true!  As our children grow, they experience the different zones of the risk continuum.   It ranges from a zone of complete safety, to the zone of uncertainty, to the extreme danger zone!  We obviously want the zone of uncertainty for our learners to be able to push themselves without much risk and learn from it.  The final call rests with you.  You know your child better than anyone and you must make the decisions of where the zone of uncertainty moves into the extreme danger zone.   

Picture those first trips up and down sliding boards.   The first few times, I bet your hands didn't leave your child--you were supporting them the entire time.  That was the zone of uncertainty at that point in their development.  As they developed, you probably just had a hand on them or stood close by to spot them.  Finally, they were using the slide on their own and you sat under the pavilion at Spring Creek Park sipping an iced tea.  Success!  The zone of uncertainty pays dividends.  Will there be a few pitfalls?  Sure.   But know that you are after the learning aspect.  Help them know when they've gone too far and prompt them by listing possible outcomes if things went wrong.   

So how does this relate to reading?

Readers are risk takers.  If students are comfortable taking risks in movement, they have pretaught themselves (with your supervision) what to do when facing risks with words or books.  If a student was always in the complete safety zone-  never ventured into the zone of uncertainty, they will likely struggle with taking chances with their learning. Rather than trying to decode an unknown word or take the leap into a more difficult book, sadly they might just stop.  Help your children to get out there and find their zone of uncertainty.

Bonus Feature: 

The entire time you were helping them on the slides, you were talking to them.  Free learning!  Language is learning!  Talk to and with children.  The more the better.

Wheels:

Wheels can be one of the best step-by-step zone of uncertainty ladders for development.  Each stage has a little risk but there is the learning that takes place and prepares children for learning in so many ways.

 Think about all the kinesthetic as well as language development opportunities presented by wheels.  You may not realize just how much benefit there is to a scooter session around the driveway does.  Get out there and get moving!