“If there is to be power in your learning experiences it must come from tapping the energies and curiosities of your children, freeing them of artificial fragmentations, and unleashing the awesome power of the brain!” — Susan Kovalik

The Brain is a Pattern-Seeking Device

It does not collect information in a logical, sequential manner.

It was designed to make order from chaos.

It attempts to make sense out of the chaos by searching for patterns that create meaning.

The brain sorts through the onslaught of stimuli and organizes the similarities and differences, sounds, sights, information, and language. As it works on this automatic function, it is constantly searching for patterns, and grouping like information together. If information is presented in a pattern, it iseasier for the brain to store and retrieve. Do you remember Humpty Dumpty? Even if you haven’t said it for years, chances are that you do remember it. Rhymes are great patterns for remembering information.

The yearlong learning adventure is a powerful pattern (see Hearts on Fire)

Children remember the things they learn during these years because the brain has an established pattern on which to place the entire year’s information.

“The more powerful a brain, the more complex, finer, and subtle patterns it can detect.” —Leslie Hart, Human Brain and Human Learning

Children who live well-planned, yearlong learning adventures, with significant, meaningful content, learn to detect subtle patterns, and see depth and metaphor within information and experiences. Meaningful and consistent exposure and experiences train their perspective and helps them develop Renaissance minds.