Learn about Money

Martha McCormick on February 20, 2010

I’m STILL learning about money! During the last nine months, I’ve written checks bigger than I thought possible for remodeling my house, putting in a new driveway and front porch. It’s really exciting to be able to do these things, and I expect to enjoy them for many years after they’re done! But I’ve had to revise my whole attitude about money, get some help and limit my spending to things I can pay for in cash. Those were novel ideas even five years ago.

Chrysalis After-School helps girls attain economic independence. Through programs like Bank and Store, outside speakers and Financial Champions, girls learn how to handle money, how to save, use a bank account and use credit wisely. The Veridian Credit Union has gotten high marks from CAS Facilitators for the programs they’ve brought in. Veridian offers multiple workshops tailored to any age group. Topics discussed are:

  • Balancing your Checkbook
  • Student Loans
  • Applying for a Loan
  • Identity Theft
  • Budgeting and Saving
  • Veridian Credit Union Products and Services
  • Establishing and Reestablishing Credit
  • Understanding your Credit Report

The contact for programs in Erica Andersen; her phone number is 515-289-5511.

Ride a Horse

Martha McCormick on February 4, 2010

After reading and re-reading my favorite horse books–Misty of Chincoteague, Black Beauty and My Friend Flicka–I bought a horse when I was in college. Well, actually two horses. The first was a green-broke Arabian gelding named Pegasus. He managed to throw me in the ditch each time I rode him, so I traded Peg for a pony named Butterscotch. At least when he bucked me off, it wasn’t as far to the ground!

Girls often are fascinated with horses; the romance and intrigue is rooted in reality though; studies show that girls’ self esteem is boosted through a relationship with horses. Bonding with a horse can develop trust, respect, affection, empathy, unconditional acceptance, confidence, responsibility, assertiveness, communication skills and self-control. Horse therapy can help young teens deal with substance abuse, eating disorders, attachment and bonding problems, low self esteem, defiance and depression.

The Jester Park Equestrian Center (JPEC) programs help teens build self confidence through horsemanship, horse safety and learning to read a horse’s temperament. The experience helps mold stronger teens who are good team members. JPEC also offers wagon rides, bonfires and teambuilding programs for groups. Email Debby Crowley or call her at 515 999-2818 for more information or to schedule your group for a program. Here’s what some JPEC riders have said:

  • “…learned to let go of my fears”
  • “You have to be patient with some things because I had to be patient with horses.”
  • “…and when I got home I was really tired and smelly but it was fun.”

Other horseback riding opportunities in the area are offered at:

Tie a Knot

Martha McCormick on October 14, 2009

Yesterday I visited the Junior Bridges Chrysalis After-School Group at Southeast Polk Junior High School. It was really fun to see the girls surfing my Web site and then using some of the ideas they found there.

While they were in the computer lab, they asked me about the game, “Human Knots” and I told them I would put the directions up by today, so here they are–

  • Form a circle of 12 or less people; if you want a real challenge, try it with larger groups.
  • Have everyone put their hands into the middle of the circle and grab hold of the hands of 2 other people.
  • Don’t cross your arms; don’t grab 2 hands of the same person; don’t hold hands with the people next to you.
  • Now the group is in a circle holding hands.
  • Find the new circle without letting go of anyone’s hands. I’ve played where there was a “doctor” that helped the group get untangled.

When I was a kid in California, we played this game all the time on our patio, but we called it Scrambled Eggs. Once a kid fell while we were untangling a particularly difficult circle and broke his tooth. We all worked together to get help and get his tooth fixed and we all lived happily ever after.

Map Your Mind

Martha McCormick on September 7, 2009

I’ve filled about one sketchbook each year with notes since I learned to mind map in the early 1990s. Several years before that I had simply stopped taking notes. In those pre-mind map days, I found myself looking at the yellow tablets I’d been writing in and making little sense of the scribbles. Then at a creativity workshop, Rhonda Wiley-Jones introduced me to mind mapping. This process of “visual note taking” has been an indispensable tool for me ever since! I’ve used mind maps for everything from planning major grants to strategic planning and to do lists.

Mind maps and similar concepts have been used for centuries for learning, brainstorming, enhancing memory, and problem solving by educators, engineers, psychologists…But Tony Buzan made them popular. They are used more in Europe than in the US, but I recommend them especially to kinesthetic and visual thinkers.

Mind mapping has many applications for personal and business use. Because ideas are added into the map radially around a central idea or theme without the implicit prioritization that comes from outlining–summarizing, revising and clarifying thoughts and ideas come naturally to the mind mapper.

Mind maps have been useful to me in a number of ways–

The workshops I facilitate on mind mapping and other keys to creativity, are geared to your unique group, and provide background and rationale, group and individual practice time, ideas for tapping into your creativity and FUN!

–Martha McCormick

Break the Ice

Martha McCormick on August 31, 2009

Eric Martin and Beth Mensing are masters at this icebreaker. At Chrysalis After-School Facilitator Training, Beth pulled HANDSHAKES (download it here) out of her fertile mind at a moment’s notice and taught it to the rest of the mentors. It works in any size group and is a great way to get your group to mingle and get to know other people.

Make sure you use the guidelines for introductions and have partners introduce each other to the group for some serious, or not so serious, beginning team building. You can tailor the instructions to your theme or audience. I’m using it next month at customer service trainings to focus on how we greet people when they walk in the door.

Play Elbow Tag

Martha McCormick on August 23, 2009

This is another great game for mixing up your group and busting cliques. The action gets so frantic that people don’t pay attention to who they’re grabbing onto. You do have to lay some ground rules to keep the game fair though.

  • Boundaries are really important so the “chasee” has to stay in the vicinity.
  • Some groups may need the rule that they can’t grab onto the pair right next to them.
  • Reserve the right to yell “switch” if your chaser is getting worn out.

Everyone in the group gets a partner and links elbows with her.

One pair volunteers or is chosen to split up. One of these two will be “it” and the other will be chased.

Whenever the chasee links elbows with a pair of players, the person on the opposite end of the pair must break off and becomes the chasee. “It” now starts chasing that person. If the chasee gets tagged, they become it.

Play People to People

Martha McCormick on August 23, 2009

This is a great game for any group of more than about a dozen people. I’ve played it outdoors, in classrooms and auditoriums. If you have an even number of people, just add yourself into the mix.

Pair up participants. Start out being the “caller” unless you have someone with experience who is dying to do it. The caller yells out different body parts, such as hand to hand, knee to knee, foot to foot, head to head.  Or they can holler, “hand to knee” or “elbow to hip”. Participants follow these directions with their partners and touch an elbow to their partner’s hip.

The caller calls out several different arrangements. You can have participants hold each pose throughout or just one at a time. When the caller is ready to mix into the game again, she calls, “people to people” and all participants find a new partner while the caller does her best to grab someone who is now solo.

Whoever doesn’t have a partner becomes the new caller and repeats the process. This is a great game to lead into Elbow Tag.

Explore the Teen Brain

Martha McCormick on August 19, 2009

I became fascinated with brain research more than 20 years ago when science began to really get inside the human brain and explore it. I’ve done my best to keep up over the years as more and more information is added to the body of knowledge. Right now I’m planning a mind mapping workshop; this technique of visual note taking is very helpful for me, as I go through the world as a concrete random thinker.

Instead of driving myself crazy trying to fit into a more sequential world, I’ve learned to build on my strengths and find colleagues who can help me with details and task orientation.  Brain research has helped me grow creatively and professionally. I use research on learning styles and personality types when I do team building and strategic planning. I’ve put together a post with links to a number of inventories besides the one below.

One of my favorite areas is adolescent brain development. Understanding how the young person’s mind is growing and developing helps me understand her mystifying behavior, sometimes. To that purpose, I’ve developed an experiential workshop for teens and adults that explore–

  • Brain development in adolescents
  • Addressing different learning styles in groups
  • Inspiring creativity
  • New approaches to academic gains

Other topics and areas of interest can be included. Schedule one session or more. Please email Martha to schedule the program.

–Martha McCormick

Take a Quiz to Find Your Style

Martha McCormick on August 19, 2009

It’s always interesting to find out more about yourself. I think that’s what life is really about–finding out who we are and then becoming the best of that. So, whether it’s the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or the Chinese Horoscope (I’m a Tiger, rrrawrrr) on your placemat at your favorite ethnic restaurant, it’s fun to look at what it says about you and decide whether it fits or not.

Here are some links to quizzes that can provide some insight to your preferred personality, learning, thinking, relationship styles. Follow the links for free or inexpensive web-based assessment tools–

Some of the above are research sites; some may be more scientific and reliable than others. Please use your best judgement as you explore your inner tiger, boar or rooster!

Upset the Stagecoach

Martha McCormick on August 11, 2009

This is a great game I learned when I first started working in Urban 4-H with Rick Hofmaster. It is hilarious and has a sneaky way of helping people become comfortable speaking in front of a group, even if all they say is “The stagecoach upset!” You can adapt it to holidays or themes like “Santa Claus is Upset,” “The Rocket Crashed,” “The Fruit Basket is Upset.” You get the idea.

  • Players sit in chairs placed randomly around the room. Make sure each person can stand up and run around her chair at the same time everyone else is running around their chairs.
  • Have your group generate a list of stagecoach parts, equipment, and passengers. For Example–Driver, Suitcase, Shotgun, Brake, Horses, Bank roll, Wheels, Whip, Robbers, Bumps in the road, Wheels, Harness, Seat, Luggage
  • Have each player choose an item from the list. The same name may be given to more than one player if the circle is very large.
  • Start out as the storyteller and make up a story about the passengers, parts and equipment.  As the storyteller mentions a part or passenger, the player who represents that part stands quickly, runs around her chair once, and sits down. Make sure to use all the items on the list so people really have to listen and run around their chairs a lot.
  • Each time the storyteller says “The stagecoach upset,” all the players have to change seats and the storyteller tries to get one of the places. The storyteller can actually try to steal a chair any time one is open. This makes the running around the chairs more suspenseful. The player left without a chair continues the story.