It’s not everyday you get the chance to speak with a Guiness Book World Record Holder for memory.

How good is this guy’s memory?

Try this one for size – he memorized 59 decks of cards randomly shuffled together.  Now that’s some serious brain power.

Even more than that it’s some seriously MANAGED brain power and that’s what this interview was about.  I first caught Dave on the “Regis and Kelly Show” and instantly realized this guy had some skills and approaches that would be helpful to a lot of parents and their children.

This was a really fun and interesting interview.

• Dave Farrow
• See Dave on “Regis & Kelly”

You Missed A Show?

Missed a show?  How could you?

Okay, besides you have a family and the show is on early Sunday mornings.

Then here’s your chance to catch up.  I’ll be posting full breakouts of all the shows we did in 2009 but in the meantime check out any of the shows that you might have missed below:

1. Dr. James Gregg – Is Chiropractic Right For Your Family?
2. The Swine Flu & The Vaccine – What’s The Story & Is It Safe?
3. David Kirby – Vaccine Safety & The Impact Of Factory Farming On Our Diets
4. Peter Wright From Wrightslaw.com – Special Ed & Special Ed Law
5. Twitter – Why, How, Should We Care w/ Leslie Poston Co-Author Of “Twitter For Dummies”
6. John Gatto – The American Education System
7. Dr. Arthur Benjamin – Math Magic & Improving Math Education
8. Barbara Coloroso – Fighting Back Against Bullying
9. David Allen – Author Of NY Time Bestseller “Getting Things Done”
10. Dave Farrow – Guinness Book Memory Master Record Holder
11. Kim Stewart – Eating Between The Lines (Coming Soon)
12. Marianne Syzmanski – Toy Tips For Children
13. Carol Kranowitz – The Out of Sync Child & Sensory Integration

Many (and soon) all off these shows can also be downloaded at Itunes in the Podcast section under “My Great Kid”.

Thank you for listening to the show and following this blog and please let us know if there are any topics, or guests, you would like us to speak to in the future.

Getting organized – your life, your kids, your house, your car, your office, your closet – it shouldn’t really be that hard, should it? Afterall, it’s one of the very first things they start trying to teach us, the very first time we walk into school (coats on your hook, bags and shoes in the cubby, etc.). But oy, for some of us getting organized is like trying to run away from your shadow on a sunny day – you can try but it’s going to end with you laying on the grounding, exhausted and conquered by your unseen adversary every time.

So who do you call if you need to get your stuff straight? “Getting Things Done” guru David Allen, of course!

Listen to the interview here

“One of the world’s most influential thinkers on productivity.” – Fast Company

A blurb like this can be intimidating before an interview!

Now it’s important to realize at this point in time in the conversation that I am a life long organization striver.   By that I mean I’ve been striving to get organized since I first learned of the concept and realized it could have some useful purpose in my life.  However, by nature I am a “chaos clutter rider” which means that my organizational life setpoint seem to be set at a level that leaves me most comfortable when surrounded by a variety of my things (in no particular order).

When I was younger I fondly remember the excitement of the first days of school.   For years I would start with my Trapper Keeper (remember those?) squared away and organized.  Folders coded and organized by class.  Paper and pens sometimes even stowed away in their proper spots.  Regardless of the preparation though ……. by the second day of school (no seriously, this isn’t a joke) my system(s) would begin to buckle and by day three, forget about it.

I believe my all time record for sort of holding on to some semblance of order was 5-6 days (semblance of order being defined VERY broadly here).

Which is why I like David Allen and his advice because while he does lay out specific systems …. his overall approach is more assimilating what works for you within in some broad guidelines.  Therefore, if you are a Type A personality (a very close relative comes to mind here but if I say my sister’s name she’ll kill me) his approach works well.  However, if you’re somewhere south of the Type A personality his approaches can also work.

How can you not like an organizational / productivity guru who explains that the reason he came up with his approach wasn’t because he was organized but because he was lazy!

Great conversation, great guy (have to admit I was a bit nervous that he’d be kind of the stern librarian/disciplinarian type), great approach … hope you enjoy.

What organizational approach do you use?

Anything unorthodox that works well for you?

How do you teach your kids this stuff?

David Allen Resources, Tips, Tools

• FREE Articles To Get You Started (really free & real tips and usable advice – you do have to give basic and pretend you’re placing an order)
• Tips and Tool
• David Allen Podcasts
• The Getting Things Done Blog
• Twitter – David Allen
• Who Is David Allen – BNET
• YouTube – How David Allen Gets Things Done (3:23)
• YouTube – Getting Things Done (presentation @ Google) (45:52)

We spoke with Barabara Coloroso about her book “The Bully, The Bullied and the Bystander”.

We first came across her in the Costco Connection magazine, believe it or not, and thought she had some good information and good approaches.  Coincidentally enough in the last couple of months we’d had a couple of parents talk to us about bullying problems that their children were having and figured it would be a great topic to dive into a bit.

I have to admit that this is an interview that was a little frustrating for me.  Ms. Coloroso was great and her information is definitely worthwhile but some of her approaches and thinking just conflicts with mine.  Staci on the other hand loved her!

Which is the point of the show and this blog .. to explore new and different thinking and approaches and share information.

I’d be curious as to your feedback on the interview.

• Bully Handout – This handout is great!  I really like the idea of the Bullying Circle and how bullying can be adressed through it.
• Bully Handout For Teens – Similar to above … but for teens.
• The Net Neighborhood – Bullying, it’s not just for the playground any more.
• Extraordinary Evil – Bullying to Hate Crimes To Genocide – Okay, here’s where we started to part ways a bit.  I think our primary difference of opinion comes in the somewhat broader definition and motivation for bullying that Ms. Coloroso uses.  Still, an interesting read though.
• Three Characters and A Tragedy – Interesting
• Teaching Caring & Human Relationships

Bullying is a very serious issue for everyone and perhaps even more so (if that’s possible) for children with special needs.  What are your thoughts? ideas? success stories? approaches?

Any ideas for other resources concerning how to handle bullies?

This week we interviewed Dr. Arthur Benjamin – a Mathematician and Mathemagician. Now normally ….. Math would not be the kind of topic I would want to spend a lot of time talking about. So let me explain why I chose to pick this as a topic and Dr. Benjamin as our expert for the week.

Click here to listen to the interview.

Really, after about the 3rd Grade, Math and I never got along very well. While there were times when it clicked and I would find it really fun and fascinating …. those times were very rare and easily offset by the times I’d have that unpleasant academic drowning feeling. I remember swearing off Math countless times in High School as I brain strained through another seemingly pointless homework assignment or test. My main question most of the time was …. “When the heck (okay, I didn’t always say heck) am I ever going to use this stuff in real life?”. I realized at a pretty young age I wasn’t going to be an engineer or rocket scientist so I figured once you get past the basic math stuff …. why bother?

Besides I had a calculator and computers are all over so anything that I needed to have answered could probably be found somewhere. Unfortunately, my negative experiences with Math at a younger age kind of soured (or actually, it was more like my “math confidence” was smashed) to Math as I got older. Not unlike, I’m sure, a lot of you reading this right now I just figured that I “wasn’t a Math person” and figured life would go on easily enough with that reality.

The problem is of course that Math is everywhere – though it doesn’t always look the same as it did in my post lunch Algebra class. Statistics, probability, percentages and all the stuff we hear about on the news is easy to manipulate precisely because so few people understand or bother to do the Math. Once I had a child I realized that much of this stuff had a much greater importance than I had at first allowed room for years ago. I don’t like being lied to or swayed by the latest report but quickly realized when you start diving into the numbers there’s some Math education that would have been helpful. I couldn’t help but wonder why so much of my Math classes seemed to be focusing on finding “x” in problem, after monotonous problem (screw X – why does he keep getting lost) when if we would have been figuring out real stats and percentages, etc. in a real world context (can anyone same gambling?) it would have probably kept my attention longer.

So anyway, my son started having a bit of trouble with Math and I was having a hard time breaking out all of his test scores / bell curve scoring / standardized testing scores / etc. (hey my kid is 75 percentile – that’s a C, right?)

Even if you’ve sworn off Math and have no interest in EVER having

someone talk Math to you again ….. trust me, you’ll want to watch this video.  IT IS AMAZING….

• Arthur Benjamin does “Mathemagic”

• Arthur Benjamin | Profile
• Arthur Benjamin’s formula for changing math education
• Mathemagics–the art of mental calculation

An Interview with Laura Johnson from the University Of Toledo.

I really don’t like the way that she phrases and refers to some of the topics in this interview HOWEVER, I do think that some of the strategies and insight that she brings to the topic are not only interesting but VERY RELEVANT as a way to educate children.  This is a beautiful example of a teacher that uses visual teaching cues to E-D-U-C-A-T-E a person.

Most importantly it shows that visual thinking is not just a way for “special education” kids to learn but rather a very relevant way of thinking that is present throughout society.  Imagine how much different schools could look if “visual learners” and “visual thinking” were widely recognized as a valid way to learn instead of just a backup method for the “special kids” and “dumb jocks”.

Visual Teaching – Autism and Football?