Did you see this?  In the news this week was a report about the results of the survey about the state of children’s general knowledge?

1 in 5 children aged 6 – 12 years thought Buzz Lightyear was the first man on the moon (Neil Armstrong must be weeping) and one third didn’t know who invented the telephone.

If yours don’t either,  you could at least start by listening to this, the song sung by the mad professors in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  A nifty way to remember the big inventors and a great inspiration to pick yourself up again after some mega-flop.

The bit about the survey that depressed (and didn’t surprise) me was that, of course,  two thirds knew that the disease Cheryl Cole had was malaria and more than half could name the winner of The X Factor, Joe McElderry.  Although there’s nothing desperately wrong with knowing that, it’s still a pity these kids don’t also know about the people who’ve really stamped their mark on our history.

Of course, I’m writing this because we make films that are easy to watch and that teach you something of lasting value.  Joe McElderry is probably going to disappear without trace pretty soon, whereas Louis Pasteur….well, enough said.

You are probably not a maths professor.  I’m not.  Nor an expert in quantum theory. Or differential calculus.  But I like collecting pseudo-brainy-sounding general knowledge stuff in case I ever go on Mastermind/University Challenge (you never know).

‘Pi ‘(or ‘π’ if we are going to be all Greek about this) is a mathematical constant that big brainboxes find really useful for doing their sums. It’s also an ‘irrational number’ – do you love that?  And it’s quite handy to have it stuffed in the back of your mind in case anyone ever calls you stupid.

You can also teach it to your kids when you’re in a traffic jam.

Well, what is Pi?  It’s 3.141592

How are you going to remember that?

‘How I wish I could calculate Pi’.

That’s how.

The letters in each word add up to give you Pi to six decimal places.  Now that’s impressive.

How to remember the speed of light?  Another useful nugglet of info.  That’s coming next.

If your parents are any older than around 65, you’ll have heard them drone on about how poems, learning and reciting them, was part and parcel of their schooldays. (‘Disciplines the mind…’ etc etc)  And they can probably still give you a little burst, too.   Learning a poem is part of what my father calls ‘filling your cupboard’.  That’s the compartment inside you that is stuffed full of images, memories, jokes, stuff you learnt at school, all the wise words anyone ever told you plus a whole lot more you remember from books you’ve read, song lyrics you’ve retained, hymns you’ve sung and so on.  As he says, in the event of being taken hostage, or getting trapped (for a long time) in a lift, or alone down a mine shaft or any situation where you find yourself alone in the dark, not knowing when you’ll get out, having a full ‘cupboard’ is indispensable. (How likely is it that this situation will arise? But never mind. It’s good to be prepared.)

The guy with the REALLY full cupboard has to be Field Marshal Lord Wavell, onetime Viceroy of India.  He had a huge memory for poetry and collected all the poems he knew by heart into an anthology called ‘Other Men’s Flowers’.  Fantastic book.  And when your kid groans at learning a 10-line poem, it’s a concrete example of  just how much the brain can hold on to.

My son’s got to learn a poem.  My view is that he might as well choose one that will add some value to his cupboard.  Poems about nose-picking and pants are out.  Rudyard Kipling’s paternal words of advice to his son in his poem ‘If’ may set the bar pretty high, but it’s one that will give my boy a good reference point for the rest of his life.

Phew!  These holidays are stretching on a bit.  Has the joy of having children home all day worn off for you yet?  By mid-August, most mums who stay at home are running low on ideas of things to do with children that DON’T include Xboxes and PSP games and vegging in front of the TV.  We’ve done:

a drawing game – each think of 10 things to draw and put them in a box, shake it and take turns to try and draw what’s on your bit of paper.  A sort of home-made Pictionary.

we read ‘The Speckled Band’, a terrific, gripping and, most importantly, very short short story by Conan Doyle about Sherlock Holmes and Watson.  We drew a picture of Holmes in a deerstalker and read a quick biography of Sir Arther Conan Doyle.  I never knew he was a doctor – hence Holmes’  ability to infer all kinds of clues from observing things closely.

In the kitchen, while cooking various things, we froze, boiled and simmered ingredients, watching how they turned from liquid into solid and into vapour.  And then, if it was possible, we ate it or drank it.

We watched Zulu and read about Rorke’s Drift in The Dangerous Book for Boys.  Other films we watched included Braveheart (Scottish bid for independence) and The Boy In Striped Pyjamas (the Holocaust).

We did pop-art paintings – Nelson Mandela with a tongue piercing, Gandhi with tattoos.  In dayglo colours.

I think you can pinpoint a lot of excellent stuff on TV if you have a lot of channels.  The Discovery Channel feels like relaxing fun to ten-year olds but is pretty informative too.  Let me know if you’ve got any favourite programmes that are fun and clever.  I’m always interested.

Are you going on a plane this summer with children?  Or any summer for that matter?  Most likely you’ll think …  “money, passport, tickets” …..as you leave the house.  But I’d advise adding “games” to your list of indispensable items.  When Easyjet announce a 4-hour wait in some poxy little airport with overpriced mags and drinks that your children simply MUST have to stay reasonable, you can whip out one of the following:

Bananagrams –  we played this all holiday and it can be played by a family of all ages.  Sort of freeform scrabble but good for vocabulary building and good for competitive children.  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Winning-Moves-BAN001-Bananagrams-Game/dp/1932188126

BrainBox History/Maths/The World etc – the ten-minute memory recall game.  It’s really quite difficult even for adults but mind-broadening, general-knowledge-encouraging fun and good for all ages too.  http://www.brainboxgame.com/

Chess – no explanation needed.  In our recent chess phase (which has sadly now been superceded by PSP’s FIFA 2010 game) we played out one of the chess grandmaster games Karpov v Kasparov from 1984 World Chess Championships.  (It was a very long wait at that particular airport).

Boggle – my children have now cottoned on to the fact that this is actually more work than it feels when you are having fun shaking the Boggle box.  But still, it’s good for the first few games and you can always revisit it later.  You’ll need to add paper and pencil to your list of indispensable airport items for this one.

Here’s my list of things to listen to in the car, whizzing along the motorway, stuck in a traffic jam or just waiting for the lights to change.  All of them are cunningly disguised as fun and entertaining while being packed with learning and knowledge.  As I said once before, the car is your best learning tool – for you and the kids.

• Horrible Histories – audio CDs are fantastic for in-car family laughs on long journeys.  Very good are Measly Middle Ages, Rotten Romans, Vicious Vikings.  Excellent BBC production values and very funny sound effects.

• Beethoven’s Wig – another good one for long car journeys.  This company takes the most famous bits of classic music and sets them to ridiculous lyrics so that Beethoven’s 5^th, for example, starts with ‘Beethoven’s wig is very big…..’ you have to listen to get the idea, I think.  Funny and clever.   Now my children (12 and 10) can sing along to just about any classical ‘hit’ on the radio.

•  I like the Naxos Junior Classics CDs   I hate to admit it but to be honest, the books of  these great works of literature can be a bit long and boring but the Greek Legends are great and King Arthur is very good too.  Only really suitable for children 12 and up but interesting for the driver as well.

I’ll post up some TV and book favourites shortly that combine entertainment with interesting and useful knowledge.

Bonne route!

We’ve heard it before in parenting classes.  Not “I am so proud of you” but rather, “You should be so proud of YOURSELF”.  That’s the way to do it, apparently.  To encourage children to value their own achievements instead of seeking validation from others.  I like it.  If you’re not already subscribed to blogmeister sans pareil Seth Godin then I recommend you sign up now.  His recent post spoke about how validation is overrated.  Don’t wait for the praise of others to see the merit in what you’ve done/made/achieved/written/sewn/baked etc.  See it yourself!  This is good for adults and great for kids who can set the template at a young age.  It breeds an independent mind and, if you’re doing it right, a good instinct for self-appraisal.  I am starting now.

Going on holiday anywhere nice?  Anywhere foreign?  Hey!  That’s a great opportunity to get into languages – for you, or your kids.  Nothing too demanding  – they’ve just finished school and exams – but at least teach them the compliment of trying to speak to someone in their own language, no matter how awkward they feel.  And teach them a couple of super-useful phrases.  And I mean stuff like ‘Good morning’, ‘thank you’, ‘have you got any orange juice?’ and ‘that’s a nice shirt you’re wearing’.  People underestimate the goodwill this unlocks when speaking to foreigners.  It shows respect, warmth, willingness and a wonderful enthusiasm for the culture you are visiting.

My technique is to get a list of some of the most common words (I like this Spanish list http://wordsgalore.com/wordsgalore/languages/spanish/spanish1000.html ) and pick out twenty to remember.  Or be simple and memorise five phrases from a phrase book.  Doing this will give your children a great sense of achievement and probably draw looks of admiration from others around them.   It doesn’t take long and it opens up a positive attitude to learning languages.

Oh yes, and you can’t go wrong with downloading a couple of songs:  Girls Aloud ‘Je ne parle pas Français’ or French classic ‘A La Claire Fontaine’ or the Spanish Gipsy King’s hit, ‘Volare’.  Gets the ‘rrrr’s’ rolling!

We watched the Clint Eastwood film ‘Invictus’ the other evening.  Have you seen it? It’s a good, thought-provoking film and an interesting one to watch with children (over 11).

What’s the title?  It’s a Victorian poem by William Henley, written when he was in hospital, aged 25, having his leg amputated.  The last two lines are what stick in the mind

 “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”

Nelson Mandela had Henley’s poem written on a scrap of paper in his prison cell.  If you ever wanted to give kids a shining example of someone who was the master, and not the victim, of his own fate, Nelson Mandela has got to be up at the top.  No blaming others, no time wasted on revenge. Unlike most of us, he put those feelings aside.

This sense of self-determination reminds me of a parenting course I took once.  Apparently the well-meant “Well done! I am so proud of you”  – something I say all the time – should be  “Well done! You must be so proud of yourself “. 

Empowering, no?

Do you remember the pictures hanging on your bedroom wall in your childhood?  Depending on your age and sex, it could have been Donny Osmond,  Farrah Fawcett, even that poster of the girl in a tennis dress scratching her bum .  Pity.  Because there’s no doubt that the image you spend a lot of your childhood staring at, trying to go to sleep, or sent to your room for bad behaviour or just lying around doing nothing (before the age of computers in bedrooms) will be indelibly printed on your cervical cortex.  And what if it had been a work of art?  The Last Supper, for example?  Or Caravaggio’s ‘Supper at Emmaus’?  Or a poster of the world’s greatest scientists? Fantastic information printed on your brain for a lifetime – and with no effort!  So get yourself down to  http://www.schofieldandsims.co.uk/ and look at their ‘Famous People’ posters or http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/ and check out the posters in their shop.  That empty wall space in your kid’s bedroom could be a springboard into learning something interesting – without trying.