Brain Power: Easy Ways to Feed Your Intellectual Hunger
Education is the driving force of modern society and the path of knowledge, that thrill of learning something new, can in and of itself be an exhilarating part of our lives. The benefits of continuing education are wide ranging for the individual and their community by equipping them with better skills, a deeper understanding of themselves, others, and the world around them, and strengthening their own natural talents. Education on a personal level can increase a person’s ability to manage stress, live a healthier life, find creative outlets in new passions and existing talents, and broaden their intellectual horizons. On a professional level, learning new skills can help advance your career, move you to a higher pay grade, help you promote your skills in a new area, or join a new career.
Some studies have shown that over 75% of adults who have engaged in continuing educational activities of some sort felt that it had made a very positive impact on their lives. Such activities can consist of any variety of educational pursuits from taking an art class to completing a course for certification in a new skill set to learning self improvement skills.
The benefits of continuing education can be important to everyone in all walks of life and at any age; however, too many of us are bogged down with long work hours, family obligations, and far too many errands that eat up our day so who has time left over to attend a university to further our own personal or professional education? Fortunately there are lot of simple tips that you can use to help you incorporate educational and intellectual pursuits into your regular schedule without requiring you to commit a full time schedule to your learning goals. In this article we will explore some simple ways that you can expand your intellectual horizons and educate yourselves on a variety of interests.
Ideas of Enhancing Your Educational Repertoire:
Make It a Family Affair:
Turn family game night into an educational free for all by playing games with an educational twist such as Jeopardy or create a fun twist on trivia. Start by dividing your family into two teams, then have everyone research a particular topic for the week and create trivia questions to try and stump the other team with. Assign a point value to each correct answer and the team with the highest points by the end of the night wins. It can be a great way to spend quality family time together while learning something new at the same time.
A Word a Day:
Start off each day by learning a new word. Certain providers such as Google and MSN have start page widgets that you can add to your start up page that features a new word of the day so you can start your day off learning something new. There are also services that will email you a daily word or text a new word complete with definitions right to your text phone for a quick and easy way to expand your vocabulary. You can even find widgets for daily words that can help you build a vocabulary in a foreign language such as French, Irish, German, or Russian.
Learn While You Drive:
While we may not always have time to read up on new and interesting topics, you can make good use of your commute time with audio books. Whether you are stuck in rush hour traffic or just running the kids to school you can make good use of your commute time by listening to a wide range of audio books covering everything from the latest fiction to astronomy to the Bible. Even if you only have a few minutes of drive time a day you can use it to get through a book that you might not have the time for otherwise.
Put Your TV to Work:
Most cable services carry a varied assortment of educational channels and programming including PBS, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, among others and you can take advantage of these educational opportunities to incorporate learning into your day and even find ways to do double duty with the time you spend. For example, if you find yourself using a treadmill or exercise bike devote a certain time frame to working out while watching an educational program that way you can give your brain and your body a workout at the same time.
Find a Community:
The internet makes it easy to connect with communities based on just about any interest or topic that you can think of from philosophy to literature to science and becoming a part of an active community is a great way to learn about a new subject or find the latest news on a favorite topic. Do a quick search for forums and communities that are designed around a theme that you are interested in. Here are a few quick picks.
Science and Philosophy Chat Forums
Society for the Advancement of Micronationalism Forum
Get a Pen Pal:
Having a pen pal is one of the best ways to learn about the culture and customs of another country. Writing to those who are native speakers of a foreign language is also a great way for you to practice or learn new language skills. Having a pen pal and exchanging letters, post cards, etc. can also be a great deal of fun.
More Traditional Education at Home
If you prefer a more traditional style of learning there are several options available including free and low cost classes and workshops that you can take in your local community or online right from the convenience of your computer. You can find courses ranging in everything from art to zoology and everything in between. Here are a handful of ideas:
Artistic Skills-Learning a new skill or enhancing your current talents is a great way to release your creative passions and can be both rewarding and therapeutic. Even if you do not have the time or ability to attend an art school there are still several ways for your to gain an education in the arts and to pursue your interest whether it be as an art connoisseur or an artist yourself. So taking courses in painting, art history, sculpting, or participating in a writing workshop or learning a new musical instrument are all great ideas for indulging your right brain vices.
Here are a few great links to get your started:
This is a great and affordable way to access an art class online at any time right from home so you can easily follow along, pause, and replay sections whenever you need to from your PC or laptop.
Although their complete series of classes is rather pricey, they do offer over a dozen free mini lessons.
Looking for free and easy ways to learn some creative arts? There are actually several channels on YouTube dedicated to arts and crafts such as the painting channel from the company plaidarts. You can watch step by step instructions and best of all it is completely free.
9 Week Introduction to Screen Writing:
A great over view for those interested in writing their first script.
Literary Passions- Ever wish you had learned more about the classics? Want some great points of conversation when discussing your favorite authors or need a refresher in Shakespeare? Taking classes with a literary focus is a great way to improve your own critical reading and analytical skills, to learn more about topics and authors that you are already interested in or expose yourself to knew works that you have not had an opportunity to explore before. There are several excellent books to point you in the right direction and you can easily start or join a local book club to help you explore selected titles in everything ranging from Contemporary Russian Poetry to the tales of Edgar Allan Poe.
If a book club is not quite your thing and you prefer private study, there are some great opportunities online to take literature courses conveniently from home, here are a few suggestions to get you started:
Shakespeare’s Comedies: A free online course from the University of Washington
Shakespeare: Audio lectures of a course on Shakespeare presented by UC at Berkely
Foundations of Western Culture:Homer to Dante A free course from MIT
Academic Interests
Whether you want to expand your knowledge of philosophy to make yourself more well rounded or needed to brush up the history that you seemed to have forgotten, learning does not have to stop when you graduate. There are a wide range of online classes and workshops that present learning opportunities in academic areas such as-
Learning Space from the Open University
Free Courses from the University of Utah
What ever methods you decide to use, make learning a life long endeavor and you will be amazingly surprised at how easily you can find ways to learn new things and improve your existing skills on a regular basis.
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Don’t forget about http://academicearth.org/. Pulls courses from a bunch of universities/colleges and usually includes video/audio, lecture notes, reading lists…basically everything but the actual course credit, hehe.