Week 8
As I stated earlier, a "big development" for Week 8 was Barbara completing Level 3 Sky scanning. Her time on here is still pretty limited, and she gets pretty frustrated with what she sees as "lack of progress". I was able to point out to her, that her "total time investment" was probably only about 22-24 hours, whereas her younger sister has probably completed closer to 40 hours.
Yikes! As I write this, I realize I'm nearing the end of week 9 (sorry Colleen, for not being very consistent with my progress update this week). Susie is working on Level 3 sky scanning. It has become very monotonous for the girls to always start with the game they were weakest on. While I realize they need to do these games when they are most alert, I also do not want them to approach Brainware with a "sense of dread". So, I'm trying to switch it up. One day we start on the hardest game for them (like Sky Scanning).
The next day, I try to start them on a game where they can find a little more success (or where they're a little bit closer to beating a level). Susie is still working on Level 4 Tic Tac Toe, Bear Shuffle, and Crocodile Recollection.
Within the next week, I will be adding in a "light load" of schoolwork, with the goal of being back to "full time", by mid-August. We are homeschoolers, and I will be looking closely for improvements in her schoolwork, as well as looking for creative ways to integrate some additional "cognitive skills training" into her day.
At times she is still so very slow at pulling out or repeating back the information that she just saw on the screen….you'll think she can't remember, but it's as though she's physically having to take a very long journey to the back of her mind to find it, and then bring it back out again.
Barbara is working on level 4 sky scanning and Tic Tac Toe, Level 5 Bear Shuffle and Level 5 Memory mountain. I'm not certain if I mentioned it previously, but I'm using a large 1,000 Base 10 block, (though a good sized pre-schoolers block would work just as well) to demonstrate the rotation of the grid 90 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise. I place my fingers on the block in the position of the x's and then slowly roll the block in the indicated direction….gradually working to where the girls can guess at where my fingers will be when the rotation is completed, then finally taking the block away. It also seems to help to remind the girls that " the center is always the center no matter how it's rotated. With 90 degree rotations, a corner will always end up at the next corner, and the center of a side will always end up at the center of the next side."
My husband commented that Barbara and Susie both seem to have this "button pusher" mentality…like with video games, they hit a number of buttons, until they "accidentally stumble" onto the correct combination to make the character move….but they can't really tell you what they're doing. This has become apparent with some of Barbara's Brainware, especially on Memory Mountain, and rotating the grid. I'm trying to teach her to visualize the movement of one x at a time….but she keeps wanting to hit all three really quick (which causes her to get it wrong most of the time). Almost every time I can get her to slow down and mentally move 1 X at a time she gets the right answer.
It's fascinating to see how their minds are processing.
Guess that's about it….I'll try to get on here early next week to give you a wrap-up of week 9.
Blessings,
Anita
Anita,
You are doing a great job with the girls. If you see the girls randomly hitting/clicking on the buttons then you may need to add incentive to have them try and work it out vs guessing. You are encouraging them which is great. How about a gas card for Barbara if you can catch her really giving it a try for the week. Have you tried the game SET yet? I would look into it when you can for help with visualization/memory.
Keep up the great work. Your girls may need a bit longer than 12 weeks on the program so if their homeschooling workload is too great, lower down the safari to 3x a week or just reduce your time each of the 5 days from 60 to 30 min.
Blessings,
Colleen
Week 9 report:
Just yesterday, I learned something that should be very helpful to anyone using this program. Barbara had been doing most of her work at her laptop in her room. Because her frustration level was getting so high, we decided to try working at the big desktop in the family room (where Susie normally does her Brainware). The combination of good time of day, physical exercise before beginning, the bigger screen on the desktop (which is an old CRT….meaning I can actually touch the screen when we're in practice mode), and some really nice external speakers made a huge difference in the experience. She went from the previous day of not being able to hear or remember 1 or 2 sets of numbers on sky scanning, to being able to get most of the way through practice mode with very little help. Right now she is working on level 4 Sky scanning and Tree tic tac toe. Level 5 Bear Shuffle is still pretty challenging for her. She has completed level 6 rhythm ribbet, and is working on Level 6 in several other games. The change in "venue" was just huge for her on attitude….and I'm working on re-arranging my schedules so that distractions here in the main part of the house will be minimized for her. I should probably also let you know that a week or two ago I was finally able to convince her to resume taking her Cod Liver Oil. She takes one tablespoon of a high quality supplement per day. This was recommended by a Naturopath when we started discussing taking her off the ADD meds. I would say this could definitely be a contributing factor to her improvement.
Susie is still working on level 3 sky scanning and level 4 tree tic tac toe and Bear Shuffle. Just as when we were working level 2 sky scanning, some days it seems like she's getting better, some days she can't remember but a couple of the four numbers, no matter how many times I repeat them. I'm seriously considering starting her on the Cod Liver Oil as well. She has beaten level 5 on 1 or two of the games that are easiest for her (one of them was Jungle Labyrinth, the other may have been Whispering Waterfall or Turtle Recall).
They both seem to succumb to negative self-talk pretty quickly. When they do finally beat a level, and I kind of cheer them on and say something like "See, I knew you could do it!", it's like they don't always recognize that they are making progress.
Colleen ~ Yes, I have borrowed the game SET from a friend of mine whose children are also going through some cognitive skills training. I have used it some with Susie, I need to get busy with Barbara. I am thinking this might be a good thing to do with her on "workdays" when she can't handle the stress of brainware, but should be able to handle a "card game". Our schoolweek (for the younger two), will be 4 days of academics, the 5th day being educational games, mad libs, etc. I will plan on including a couple of rounds of "SET" into the schedule that day.
Thanks for all your help, and blessings to everyone else who is on this journey and following our progress..
Anita
Anita,
It is recommended to use headphones with the program. Have you used headphones since the start at all?
Colleen
Colleen,
In the beginning we used some that were not working that well… then I did pick up some inexpensive ones that Susie used for a while, but then seemed to not want to use them. Barbara got some really nice ones that she paid a good bit for to listen to music through her computer. She used them with her laptop on the sky scanning, but for some reason, the sound quality was still a good deal better on my desktop speakers, than what she was getting with her headphones. I may try letting them use the better headphones with the desktop. I think the bigger monitor does help with the visual aspects of the game.
Week 10 report ~
The girls were very consistent last week. Barbara's work schedule was a bit more conducive to completing Brainware on a daily basis. We're relying on the headphones more, and it does seem to make a difference. The larger monitor is easier for her to work at. The biggest improvement was beating level 4 tic tac toe. She is still working on level 4 sky scanning, and level 5 bear shuffle is very difficult for her has well. She has completed level 6 in a couple of games. Differences in academics will be difficult to see, unless/until she begins some college work. It is very interesting to note, that she now has chosen to attempt her Bible studies using KJV….something that she would not likely have done in the past (those who are familiar with the various versions of the Bible, will know that this is a much more challenging read, than some of the more modern versions).
Susie is still having a very hard time recalling the 4 numbers for Sky scanning level 3. Headphones or not, she just really struggles with this. The visual skills necessary to find the numbers in the large field also seem to be very weak. She is improving on the level 4 tic tac toe….she can actually remember which grid to play on when it is her turn, but she is still learning how to "see" the computers moves, and where she has to go to block them. She is improving on Bear Shuffle level 4….while I still have to help with figuring out the new arrangement of cards after moves, she does manage to get them placed in numeric order. She has completed level 5 in a couple of games. In working on one of the "arrow games" that requires you to rotate the arrow 90 degrees clockwise, it's been fascinating to me to see her able to do this in her head! While she's not fast enough to get them all within the time limit, she is progressing. As we've started schoolwork, I have seen some improvements in thought process (in areas like math, and recognizing parts of speech in sentences). When she makes a mistake in spelling, if I can point her to a word that she previously got right with the same pattern, she can now see where her mistake is, and fix it herself. (example: for the word could, she wrote cloud. When I told her it followed the same pattern as would~that she'd written earlier, she was able to look at would and fix her cloud to read could). This is a really big deal, as she's recognizing patterns, something that I don't think she would have been able to do last year.
I guess that about covers it for this week!
Anita