Your mind is amongst the most powerful resources you have, and there’s nothing like a jack of all trades. Dabbling into a little bit of this, and a little bit of that can even shape you into a more flexible person. Knowing this, it’s important for children to be taught lifelong learning skills in preparation for their future. This way, they can learn to do anything – fast.

Furthermore, lifelong learning can help your child develop a positive outlook on life – helping them build confidence and make amazing self-improvements. In times of unanticipated change, such as a job loss or technological advances, the cards will always be in the favor of a lifelong learner.

This is not to be underestimated: 88% of Americans have pursued learning about an interest to make their life fuller. Even more, our brains love it! Everytime we learn something new, our brain chemistry changes – stimulating our neurons to create new connections. The more comfortably we know something, the easier it is for our brain to do the task. By introducing lifelong learning to your child, you can prepare them for a bright future.

On the other hand, it’s also important to teach your child the benefits of failure. For example, ask them to try completing a difficult task without any assistance or instruction. According to Singapore’s National Institute of Education, people who try to solve math problems alone don’t come up with the right answer. However, the process generates ideas about the nature of potential solutions. This leads to a better ability to solve similar problems in the future.

With that being said, here’s how your child – and you – can learn any skill fast. Set a goal, then break it down. After this, use the D.I.S.S. Method. The “D” is for ‘Deconstruction,’ i.e., “How can I break down what I need to know?” The “I” is for ‘Selection,’ i.e., “Which steps should I focus on first in order to get the ideal outcome?” The first “S” is for ‘Sequencing,’ i.e., “In what order will it be easiest to learn these steps?” The last “S” is for ‘Stakes,’ i.e., “What are the consequences if I am not able to complete my task?” Finally, practice this method while visualizing success.

87% of learners feel their new skills make them more well-rounded and capable. Perhaps this is why 73% of American adults consider themselves to be lifelong learners. Teaching your child lifelong learning skills in their early years will set them up for an easier future. For a far more specific breakdown on lifelong learning, read more below.

Source: Fast Online Masters

It may not feel like it right now, but there is so much fun waiting for you just around the corner.  There are so many things a kid can do when he or she is bored.  You just need a few ideas.  Creativity often works that way. Often, you first need to get the creative juices flowing and soon you’ll be coming up with ideas of your own.

Here are a few brainstorming ideas we came up.  Start by thinking about them.  Then perhaps share them with your friends and see what they thing.

Pick out a couple and ask your parents if you need help to get the fun rolling.   As mentioned, this list may help you think about fun ideas of your own.

Create a Treasure Hunt!

You can go online and read about the different ways that you can arrange the hunt. The best way to get all your friends together and ask a parent to hide the treasure. It could be a batch of cookies or a gift certificate for a pizza or each child could bring one small toy to make up the treasure. Or you could be the treasure master, stashing the prize and making up clues that you hide in advance.

Clues could be something like “Look for the tree with the home-made swing,” or “Find the big grey rock and take three steps south.” Each clue leads to another clue and at the very end, the treasure. Maybe each of your friends could pick a day and hold their own treasure hunt. The hunts can be as long or as short as you want.  This is something you could also do as a family together, outside or in the house.

Have a Box Sculpture Contest!

This is easy.  Just ask your parents to get empty boxes from a grocery or chain store. Make sure you have a lot of them in a lot of different sizes. Then you need strong tape, glue and markers to decorate what you make. You could even decide on a theme, like box spaceships, box forts or box cars.  You can also get creative and spruce up your sculptures with items egg cartons, ribbons and show boxes.

Make Colorful Wall Montage

When was the last time you colored with crayons?  I doubt your parents won’t let you color on your wall, but there are tons of free coloring pages online you can print and color.  Choose from all sorts of drawings and cover one of your bedroom walls with your own colorful creations. It will be like a wall mural but made up of individual pictures.  There are hundred’s of options online of things to color.

Learn How to Fly a Kite!

Kites are relatively cheap to buy, but many kids prefer to learn about kites online and make their own. This activity requires you to follow the weather and look for good places to catch the wind, usually a park or a hill. This takes those reflexes that help you play video games and uses them in the real world. And it’s fun.

Explore Your Local World!

Get a guide book or go online to find out what you can do in your home town! What is the oldest building in your city? Where was the first school built? Was anyone famous born in your town? Is there a museum you can tour? What about a pond where you can sail a boat? Or simply go to your local park and lay in the grass with a friend looking for images in the clouds.

Put on a Kids Clothing Swap!

Ask your parents what they think about this. It would be a good way to clean out closets as well as encourage everyone to recycle. Just make sure that all clothes are clean and mended when they are brought to the swap.

No matter where you live, you can enjoy a whole world of adventure. All you need to do is use your imagination.

Flat on the grass, face to the sky, you’ve probably gazed up and picked out shapes in the clouds: dogs, trees, ice cream cones and almost anything else. Or you’ve looked up at the moon and seen a face.

The ability to do this isn’t a sign that you’re seeing things; it tells you that your brain is performing a job that is not only normal, it may have helped keep early human beings alive.

The ability for the brain to see familiar shapes in random things is called pareidolia. No, the clouds aren’t really shaped like lions or two birds kissing. That’s simply your brain trying to make sense of shapes that have no sense.

People who study pareidolia have different ideas on why this is an important skill for our brains to perform.

One theory goes back to when humans lived in the wild. With all the dangers that can lurk in forests and jungles, the ability to spot danger—or safety—can be the difference between life and death. A human who can more quickly spot a predator can get a heads start on running away.

Another theory is found in the eyes of babies. With all the new shapes in the world, babies are instinctively drawn to faces. They will stare at a face for longer and more intently than any other thing in their new lives.

Some researchers say that babies can recognize familiar faces just weeks after being born.

Pareidolia is part of this learning process, because the brain, experts think, looks for faces. It looks for faces in stains on a wall, in clouds, in leaves –in almost anything.

In many famous instances, people have seen the faces of familiar people in food, like the almost infamous example of the image of Mother Theresa found on a cinnamon roll. Abraham Lincoln and George Washington have both been spotted in chicken nuggets. Kate Middleton’s face was seen on a jelly bean. These are all examples of pareidolia, seeing something –or someone—familiar in a totally unrelated object.

Counsellors sometimes use pareidolia to get insight into the minds of clients. This is done using a Rorschach Test.

This test uses totally random ink blotches. Psychologist believe that when clients look at the blotches, the thoughts on their mind will be revealed in what the client says they see in the blotches. If that theory is correct, then perhaps clouds are nature’s Rorschach test.

Next time you are staring at wall paper or embers in a fire or clouds in the sky and suddenly see a face, remember: There is nothing wrong with you. Your brain is doing one of the many extraordinary tasks it is wired to do: use pareidolia to help make sense of the world.

Children today are not as fascinated by things we older generations once enjoyed so much. Back when we were kids, we loved drawing with color pencils and crayons. Coloring books were common and we would also scribble or color anywhere we could express our imagination. But all is not lost!

Today, free coloring pages for kids make it easy for anyone of any age to find printable drawings of anything imaginable. It’s true children today are not as fascinated by things older generations once enjoyed so much. It’s unfortunate that many kids now don’t find coloring books enjoyable.

There are some good reasons for this—and yes, I am talking about the internet, smartphones, and tablets. These fantastic inventions have robbed today’s kids of some of the simple pleasures in life. They are often more interested in playing video games on a computer or smartphone, instead of drawing or coloring something using markers or crayons.

However, just because kids like their smartphones and tablets doesn’t mean they wouldn’t love to draw or color. They simply need to be introduced to how fun it can be. For example, if you likes coloring animals, there are hundreds of animal coloring pages to choose from. It may be on a long car trip or at home when parents want to limit screen time. Instead of just saying “no more time on the computer”, why not provide them a fun activity as an alternative?

Online Coloring Pages

Thanks to the internet, children today have a whole new world to explore that will evoke their passion for coloring and drawing. This is something kids a generation ago were not able to experience. Professional artists are now drawing and coloring cartoons, animals, game characters, animations, and much more using highly-sophisticated computer software.

These artists also are sharing their creations on websites for everyone to enjoy. The tools and formats used by them are only available for adults with full-fledged careers. But, there are ‘kids versions’ for these tools, and children can use them to draw and color objects.

When searching for tech-free fun things to do for kids to reduce screen time, there are plenty of websites for kids to draw online with and easy-to-follow instructions to animate their drawings. Simply Google “online coloring pages” and you’ll find websites that are designed for kids to color digitally on the screen. Still, these interactive coloring pages where kids can create using the site’s tools are not the same as finding an image and printing it to color with real crayons.

Coloring Page Communities

Whether the artwork is online for virtual coloring using software or you access printable drawings, many of these coloring pages are created by the artistic community. It’s a way for them to share their art and provide fun for kids without having to publish a coloring book. The great thing about this is that parents and teachers only need to print the specific drawings that kids want to color. It’s a great way for them to explore their artist skills and decide if they some day want to join the artistic community as they grow older.

Simply introducing all the coloring page ideas of what to color could inspire someone to try coloring. Discover drawings such as Athletes, Birds, Cars, Color by number, Dinosaurs, Disney, Educational, Flags of countries and LEGO. Or try Motorcycles, My Little Pony, Princesses, Spider-Man, Star Wars, Superman, Vegetables and Winnie the Pooh. The sky is the limit for what kids can color.

Coloring as also been known to be very therapeutic for adults to help with anxiety or stress. Or just to have fun doing something they haven’t experienced since childhood. There are printable drawings available that have been created just for adults or teens. These coloring pages require a finer attention to detail. What a great reactivity to do together as a family.

Inspiring Artistic Creativity

While old-school coloring books may be a thing of the past for most children of our generation, they are one of the best ways to inspire kids and reignite their inner passion for drawing and coloring.

Introducing kids to free coloring pages can have a profound effect on children to encourage them in highlighting their creative side. It may inspire them create their own drawings to color.

It will allow them the freedom to make mistakes and improve their motor skills, thanks to the ability to reprint images and color them a second time. And it’s super easy pin their creations on a fridge without having to rip each page out of a coloring book.

Author Bio

Paul B. Wright has over five years of experience in the field of drawing. He specializes in drawing coloring pages that are printable for kids. It’s is Paul’s desire that children of all ages will will discover and grow in their true creative talents.

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