It has come to my attention that I am getting a number of curious visitors to this particular entry. I want to say that I do not advertise this blog, it was set up to keep in touch with far flung family with regards to our homeschooling journey. My regular readers include my children's father, their stepmother, their aunts, uncle, and grandparents. Looking at the traffic on my site, there are 12-19 visits a month to this blog. My family accounts for just about all of that. You'd have to be hunting pretty hard to find this blog in a search engine, it simply doesn't get enough traffic to warrant it. The discussion in the comments up until this "controversy" started, was entirely with family members. I have no intention of making my homeschool blog a private by invitation only blog because frankly, there are family members who would not ask for a permission and I still want them to read here even if they wouldn't feel comfortable asking. I asked KP if I should take down my posts about the work we are doing using The Extra Lesson and offered to do so. However, this is the simplest and most direct way for me to communicate with family regarding our homeschool journey and this kind of therapy is part of what we do. It is important that I share it with my family.
This is the dominance form
How this works...I kinda feel funny explaining this, if you've watched Mystery Men you know when the guy who can bend spoons has them all doing exercises to hone their skills and Roy is balancing a hammer on his head while wearing watermelons on his feet? I kinda think people look at this and think it's equally bizarre. So I'll explain it, but please reserve judgement until you try to DO this exercise.
It's like that with all Extra Lesson work - especially the rod exercises and bean bag exercises. If you don't understand where the difficulty is in coordinating these actions, the level of thought and body awareness necessary to do them without actively thinking - TRY THEM YOURSELF.
Okay, the dominance form....
First YOU draw the dominance form on bristol board or heavy cardstock. It is supposed to be 20x30 inches If I remember correctly. The Extra Lesson specifies that you do it in RED.
You place this form (drawn on a large piece of bristol board) against the wall at floor level (tape it in place) then have the child sit in front of the form close enough that they can reach it with bent legs.
The child draws/traces the form WITH THE BODY PART INDICATED - NOT WITH CRAYONS! working left to right in a sequence (right handed children work with the right and left handed children with the left)
You work up to repeating the sequence with each form 3 times with a settled rest between each time drawing
1. both feet together
2. right foot
3. right foot and hand together
4. right foot, right eye together (cup left eye or close it if possible)
5. right foot, right eye, right hand together
6. both hands held together
7. right hand
8. right hand right eye
9. right eye
10. your choice of body part - we go for laughs - a nose, a tongue, a bum
Don't let the child collapse backwards during the exercise, they can lean back on hands only for things like two feet, or foot and hand, but stop them if they try to lie down, or lean back on elbows.
This is part diagnostic and part curative - it readily shows poor body geography - confusion with directions. It points to memory blocks - difficulty following the motion despite repetition. Doing the exercise helps with body geography by reinforcing their dominant side with the constant repetiton of that side in the exercise, they must cross the midline frequently in executing the motions. They must train their eyes to follow the form with the hand and foot motions which helps with tracking ability. It helps with memory by it's very routine and rhythm.
I'm sure there's a whole lot of anthroposophical information on moving from the physical to the etheric body...but I'm not well read on the subject.
What I know is that Nature Girl rolls her eyes at this exercise but really gets into it. She finds it physically challenging, and really has to think when she working with hand and foot. She's been doing this exercise a few times a week since November and I've seen a huge improvement in that time with this exercise and her ability to track text.
It's like that with all Extra Lesson work - especially the rod exercises and bean bag exercises. If you don't understand where the difficulty is in coordinating these actions, the level of thought and body awareness necessary to do them without actively thinking - TRY THEM YOURSELF.
Okay, the dominance form....
First YOU draw the dominance form on bristol board or heavy cardstock. It is supposed to be 20x30 inches If I remember correctly. The Extra Lesson specifies that you do it in RED.
You place this form (drawn on a large piece of bristol board) against the wall at floor level (tape it in place) then have the child sit in front of the form close enough that they can reach it with bent legs.
The child draws/traces the form WITH THE BODY PART INDICATED - NOT WITH CRAYONS! working left to right in a sequence (right handed children work with the right and left handed children with the left)
You work up to repeating the sequence with each form 3 times with a settled rest between each time drawing
1. both feet together
2. right foot
3. right foot and hand together
4. right foot, right eye together (cup left eye or close it if possible)
5. right foot, right eye, right hand together
6. both hands held together
7. right hand
8. right hand right eye
9. right eye
10. your choice of body part - we go for laughs - a nose, a tongue, a bum
Don't let the child collapse backwards during the exercise, they can lean back on hands only for things like two feet, or foot and hand, but stop them if they try to lie down, or lean back on elbows.
This is part diagnostic and part curative - it readily shows poor body geography - confusion with directions. It points to memory blocks - difficulty following the motion despite repetition. Doing the exercise helps with body geography by reinforcing their dominant side with the constant repetiton of that side in the exercise, they must cross the midline frequently in executing the motions. They must train their eyes to follow the form with the hand and foot motions which helps with tracking ability. It helps with memory by it's very routine and rhythm.
I'm sure there's a whole lot of anthroposophical information on moving from the physical to the etheric body...but I'm not well read on the subject.
What I know is that Nature Girl rolls her eyes at this exercise but really gets into it. She finds it physically challenging, and really has to think when she working with hand and foot. She's been doing this exercise a few times a week since November and I've seen a huge improvement in that time with this exercise and her ability to track text.
12 comments:
I understand the reason behind the exercise, but I don't think I grasped what she is doing in the exercise? Is she following a drawing you have made or it she drawing the same form over and over again using different body parts or covering different body parts. I am lost, I think.
Emily talks to me a lot about crossover work and how important that it. I know that it's hard and I'm pretty hopeless at it but I think I sort of understand what this is trying to do. It has to do with brain elasticity and retraining the brain so that the two hemispheres communicate better in very short.
Sorry, I still wasn't clear - YOU draw the form on the bristol board then the child traces your drawing with body parts NOT with a crayon.
When you give the verbal instruction right foor right hand the child will do it in a way that makes sense to them - when we started Nature Girl traced with her foot and then followed with her hand. Now she places her foot on the form and her hand on her foot and does them together. When you do it diagnostically don't correct anything the child does - except to keep them upright. Once you are using it regularly make sure they work from left to right, make sure they pause with hands in lap for a moment before doing the form a 2nd or third time.
OOOH ... so you TRACE with the body part ... I was doing it in the air and falling over onto the slate floor ... ouch! ... and wishing I were as flexible as Nature Girl is.
Okay, so I wouldn't give instructions as to how to go about it, just to let the child complete it however they can, using the parameters of not lying down or letting the elbows and body fall backward.
Is that right?
This sounds like something I will have to try several times before presenting it to my child.
Now when you call out eye, I am assuming she doesn't try to touch the board with her eye? Or does she?
How interesting. thank you for sharing all these exercises with us. It is very valuable to me.
At first she did try to get as close as possible and trace with her eye , but you can't do that once you coordinate hand, eye, and foot - you just can't also put your nose against the paper, so eventually she figured out watching from a distance. One of the things that happens as they work with the form is figuring out the ease that comes with economy of motion. Swinging your head around with the form isn't as efficient as tracking with your eyes, so they start tracking. But you don't tell them to stay still, it will come to them. They need to come to it.
Great!! I think I finally understand this exercise!
I am very sorry to say that your chart is not one of the most beautiful examples. The main idea of the exercise is that the child moves the limbs in all directions possible, representing the threedimensional directions of space. One goes from left to right, from right to left, diagonally up and down to left and right, and there are two loops, one up and one down. The movements are stimulating the super sensible currents that are active in building up the body of the child. The child will learn to direct its will forces into the bodily movement system. The limbs will teach the eye how to translate the threedimensional movements into a twodimensional suface, as in reading and writing.
The carts must be drawn as perfect as possible. The loops on your have seem to be just a down or up sliding connection to the next form in straight lines. Children always become subconsciously aware of the accurate or inaccurate ways adults work. They will imitate these habits and imprint that into their subconcious will.
A close look at the illustraions in the Extra Lesson book will give you the recommended shape.
That's too bad, an extra lesson teacher from the college in Toronto did the form for me.
Please look it up in the book.
Greetings Joep
I must wade in here, just having heard about this blog, and clarify a point: Mud Mama was not quite accurate when she stated that she got this form from an Extra Lesson teacher. She got it from a person who was in the early stages of training to become an Extra Lesson teacher. I know, because I am the one who first brought this information to Mud Mama. In Oct. 08 I did an assessment on “Nature Girl”, then did one lesson with her which included this “snail trail”, which, by the way, is not a diagnostic tool, but an exercise. At the time I did not realize how inaccurate my interpretation of the original drawing as given in The Extra Lesson, was. Of course I have learned a lot since then, and have great respect for the work of Audrey McAllen and of Joep Eikenboom.
While I know that Mud Mama had the best intentions for her child and other parents at heart when she shared this exercise, I also realize, as I continue to learn, that in order to use this material in the best interests of the child, we need to understand it on a deep level. I would encourage anyone who feels that their child needs remedial work, to seek out a trained “Extra Lesson” teacher in your area and have a proper consultation.
KP
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