Bloom's Taxonomy: In 1956, Benjamin Bloom headed a group of educational psychologists who developed a classification of levels of intellectual behavior important in learning. During the 1990's a new group of cognitive psychologists, lead by Lorin Anderson (a former student of Bloom's), updated the taxonomy reflecting relevance to 21st century work.
The Pyramid to the left is the updated version.

Typical Students begin their intellectual journey at Level 1.  They cannot climb the intellectual pyramid unless they proceed in order.  Visual Thinkers tend to dance on the top of the pyramid by the time they are four or five years old and do not want to be forced back down!  Well meaning teachers and parents who believe that they need to learn to climb the  pyramid “properly” try to force Visual Thinkers into the same mold.  Suddenly the bright little student becomes a struggling learning who equates "memorizing facts" with eating liver.  They think that memorizing is a waste of their time, energy and attention.  Why would they want to struggle with facts when they could be building, drawing, creating, imagining, inventing and inspecting things that actually matter to them?  Level one can be very fustrating to some of the smartest kids in the class whose minds are wired to start at the top of the pyramid- not the bottom.

To help you understand Bloom's Taxonomy in a practical way I have listed several ways that individuals accomplish each type of intellectual exercise.  Unlike typical elementary school educators I don't start with level one when teaching my students, I try to include at least one activity from each level on a daily basis to exercise each child's mind to the fullest....

 Level 1: Remembering

·         Reciting a Poem
·         Retelling a story
·         Reporting correct information
·         Copying a list
·         Repeating a conversation
·         Recalling a series of events
·         Recording dates and times
·         Memorizing math facts with flash cards or repetition
·         Playing memory games with cards or boardgames
·         Knowing times and dates
·         Learning names of States and Cities
·         Matching faces with names
·         Spelling words correctly
·         Identifying different types of tools
·         Label a diagram or map


Level 2: Understanding

·         Knowing how to find an answer to a problem
·         Defining words
·         Sorting items into categories
·         Explaining how to blend colors
·         Considering the meaning
·         Knowing how to use a tool
·         Following Instructions
·         Knowing if something is true or false
·         Telling a story in one’s own words
·         Discussing a topic
 ·        Comprehending the meaning of a story
·         Describing a person, place or thing
·         Recognizing a person, place or thing
·         Sharing information about a historical event
·         Knowing how something works
·         Studying nature by sketching images of leaves, flowers, seed pods etc...
·         Understanding the reasoning behind the math
·         Classifying items
 

Level 3: Applying

·         Following a recipe
·         Using a map
·         Putting together a puzzle or playing a board game like Monopoly
·         Adding and subtracting with money
·         Writing a report
·         Assembling furniture from a kit
·         Assisting with a project
·         Sewing from a pattern
·         Setting a clock
·         Telling a Story
·         Solving a problem
·         Playing card games like Uno
·         Making a chart
·         Drawing a diagram
·         Preparing for an event
·         Navigating
·         Using a tool
·         Cleaning a room
·         Making change for a dollar
·         Calculating sales tax
·         Avoiding an accident
·         Preparing for something in advance
·         Playing a board game that requires math
·         Setting the temperature on the oven
·         Caring for a pet
·         Measuring liquid
·         Figuring out how long it will take to travel a certain distance
·         Teaching a skill to a younger child
·         Producing products to sell
·         Developing a plan
·         Establishing a goal
·         Sketching an image
 

Level 4: Analyzing

·         Conducting an experiment
·         Comparing the differences
·         Observing similarities
·         Finding problems
·         Sorting items into categories
·         Studying a person, place or thing
·         Exploring a location
·         Collecting and comparing similar items
·         Disassembling and reassembling items
·         Discovering how something works
·         Finding out what something is made of
·         Observing the outcome of an action
·         Researching historic events
·         Listening to speeches by politicians with different view points
·         Asking questions
·         Talking to experts concerning a topic
·         Reading books about a special interest
·         Listing the characteristics
·         Using tools for discovery like microscopes, telescopes and magnifying glasses
·         Playing strategy games like Checkers or Chess
·         Pointing out a potential problem
·         Contrasting two or more choices
·         Naming “pros and cons”
·         Making a selection

 
Level 5: Evaluating

·         Gathering enough information to enable a person to make a decision
·         Contrasting two choices
·         Questioning an expert
·         Examining evidence
·         Accepting or rejecting a theory
·         Carefully considering another person’s performance
·         Reasoning
·         Arguing over a point of view
·         Looking for ways to compromise
·         Attaching value to something or appraising an item
·         Playing mind games like www.DyslexiaGames.com
·         Looking for ways to make something better
·         Troubleshooting a problem
·         Brainstorming solutions
·         Diagnosing a condition
·         Judging between two opposing arguments
·         Considering the impact that one’s actions will have on others
·         Considering the impact that one’s actions will have on the environment
·         Considering the impact that one’s actions will have on a family or community.
·         Interviewing another person
·         Looking at all the options
·         Investigating
·         Defending a point of view
·         Justifying an action
·         Criticizing the way something is being done
·         Testing, grading or assessing someone’s work
·         Persuading others to come into agreement  

  Level 6: Creating

·         Making something new
·         Drawing
·         Designing
·         Inventing
·         Making up a recipe
·         Engineering
·         Sharing a vision
·         Turning a dream or idea into reality
·         Using Imagination
·         Customizing
·         Forming
·         Arranging
·         Modifying
·         Devising
·         Writing a book, story or article
·         Planning
·         Speculating
·         Composing
·         Substituting
·         Adapting
·         Combining
·         Negotiating
·         Facilitating
·         Intervening
·         Compiling
·         Devising
·         Reorganizing
·         Integrating
·         Reinforcing

Is the goal of education to help children to rise to the top of the Intellectual Pyramid?   Why spend six years of your child’s life (starting in 1st grade) focusing on level one when he was happily engaging in level four at age four?

Is your child is already mastering several items on the higher levels of intellectual behavior? But does he seem to be struggling with Level One?  Count your child blessed!  Many of the people who master level one and level two during their school years fail to proceed past level three once they reach adulthood.  If your child is not ready to master level one don’t be afraid to focus on 2-6!  Some of the brightest people throughout history had trouble with level one - but those are the same people who invented calculators, computers and smart phones to take care of ‘remembering” for them.  

Most people forget most of the facts they spend years studying in elementary school anyway.  Focus on your child’s gifts, talents, abilities and interests.  In time he will learn to “remember” any information that he discovers a use for.  Even mathematics and spelling!  When the time comes your brilliant child will master those skills too- but it will be on his timeline, not yours, not the school’s, not even the grandparents' timeline!

When you consider the six levels you will notice that only Level One and Two can be easily taught in a typical classroom.  The higher levels of intellectual behavior mostly occur in the real world, in the home, on vacation, and on the job.  Families who homeschool or unschool  have more freedom to expose younger students to opportunities to apply their intelligence to activities that include applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating. Teachers, Textbooks, Workbooks and Curricula focus on Remembering and Understanding.  There is a lot of pressure on teachers to spend a lot of time preparing students for standardized testing.  Such testing focuses only on the first level “remembering’ and neglects the rest.  An education revolution is needed to correct this- or you can opt out of the system and teach your child at home or in a school that values your child's need to learn through creativity and application.

  

More than an Education 
My Goals for Teaching and Training My Children

1. Instill love for learning, discovery and exploration.
2. Increase attention span by engaging in interesting activities that take time to accomplish.
3. Give opportunity to learn through creative play.
4. Provide fun educational experiences that spark interest in new subjects.
5. Make the tools for learning and discovery easily accessible.
6. Help the children to learn from mistakes.
7. Help children to discover the lessons of life and science in everyday tasks and events.
8. Help the children to set goals small and large and work toward those goals.
9. Give the children freedom and opportunity to explore their world. 
10. Show them what it means to have a good work ethic, allow them to work, build, create and be helpful with household tasks.
11. Help them to understand that actions have consequences, positive and negative, they will reap what they sow.
12. Teach them to be attentive and precise in communicating with others.
13. Expose them to beautiful literature, art and music.
14. Teach them to listen carefully by giving them opportunity to listen to fascinating subjects using books, audio and mixed medias.
15. Be attentive to each child’s interest and ability in understanding the concepts of reading writing and mathematics; don’t push these abstracts concepts to early if the child is not ready.  But frequently give them the opportunity to see these concepts in action though life, play, example and lessons.
16. Introduce the children to the use of graphs, equations, scenarios, theories, money, time, maps, globe atlases, computers, letters, numbers, and measurements. Do this in interesting ways so that they hardly realize that it’s part of their formal education, but instead that they would embrace these things as part of their personal world of discovery.  Help them to be exited about the tools of discovery.
17. Help them to grasp the basic facts about the history of the World, the history of the United States, the history of Indiana, the history of our family and their own story beginning with life in the womb.
18. Use local resources for hands on education such as the zoo, museums, state parks, grocery stores, libraries, farms and local industries.
19. Allow freedom to get creative with art and music, but also provide challenging directed opportunities for exploring the arts and making their own creation
20. Help the children to develop good character, by teaching moral lessons along side academics. 
21. Help them to learn about interesting people, cultures and traditions.
22. Tell them stories about missionaries, heroes, explorers, inventors, and other people with inspiring life stories.
23. Tell stories well so that they will learn to be good story tellers, listen to their stories.
24. Understand that many of the things the children need to learn will happen naturally by playing freely and by working along side mommy and daddy.  Consider what is best for the child above what is easiest for the parent… (Let Isaac stand out in the snow and mud and watch daddy change the tire.)
25. Teach them to teach themselves.
26. Allow them to excel in their areas of strength, talent and interest.  Help them to overcome weaknesses but invest the most their areas of greatest potential. 
27. Don’t bog them down with too much paperwork at a young age, we are not limited by a classroom.
28. Let them take joy in educational discovery in order that they would love learning for a lifetime.
29. Go on adventures together.
30. Listen carefully to their hearts and minds.

TREASURE EVERY MOMENT!   You are blessed!

I have six girls ages 2-10, and most of the time they adore each other.  They are so close in age that it's easy for them to have a lot in common.  I love the way my older girls watch out for the little ones.  I love the way the little ones want to do all the things the big girls do.  Having a house full of girls is so much fun! 

We love to bring our whole family to the local farmer's market.  That's what we did this morning.  When the children were little I lead them to believe that the the only foods available were the most nutritious ones.  If they were hungry they would simply eat what we gave them.  The first foods were often sweet potatoes, asparagus, avocado, salmon, and brown rice.  They grew up loving these foods.  All of my kids eat their greens, a favorite food is Daddy's stir-fried kale with garlic. 

We also enjoy raising some of our own food. Over the years we have enjoyed having goats for milk, hens and ducks for eggs, and lamb for meat.  We now live on Main Street in a small town, but there is room in our backyard for a small flock of ducks (chickens are illegal) and a couple dairy goats.  We also have a dozen fruit trees, and several berry bushes, grapevines, a veggie garden, and lots of herbs.  My two oldest girls Anna & Estera love doing all the gardening, and much of the cooking- all that at age 9 and 10.  Estera, my Aspie loves studying herbs, plants and herbal remedies, so gardening is a big part of the kid's education. 

The foods we choose and the foods we avoid have an impact on our children's health, mind power and behavior.  When the children are eating fresh whole foods and staying away from junk food they are so much more calm, focused and pleasant.  But when they are given candy, soda, and fast-food it only takes 10 minutes impact their behavior in a negative way. Some grandparents love to give them sugar, and then they wonder why the kids go wild!

Parents have the responsibility of helping their children to make good choices. my goal is to help my children build strong minds, healthy bodies, walk by faith, and learn a gracious way of life.  What is your goal for your family?  How are you doing?  Are you being a good example?  Are you willing to say "no" to somethings and say "yes" to the best?  Are you living what you believe in front of your children?  None of us are perfect, but let's all try to do the best we can in the areas that matter the most. Little eyes are watching.  Little feet are walking behind us.  Little hands are reaching out.