STRESS REDUCTION TIPS
Take a time-out. ...
Eat well-balanced meals. ...
Get enough sleep. ...
Exercise daily...
Take deep breaths...
Count to 10 slowly...
Maintain a positive attitude...
rate professors who make learning fun significantly
higher than others (American School of Laughter
Yoga, Using laughter to increase student motivation.
pdf by www.ascis.org).
for Parents:
One of the papers published by Dr. Michael G. Lo-
vern, Assistant Professor in Education Department,
stresses that parents may employ laughter as a study
strategy when assisting children with homework, and
in doing so, positively affect the healthy maintenance
of parent/child relationships. The use of humor in this
situation not only benefits the studying child, but it
may be good for the parent as well. After a long day
at work, many parents are simply too tired to come
home to a sixth grade history lesson. In this case,
the use of humor can diffuse frustrations that might
surface. Such one-on-one time is very fulfilling for
children and often ends with smiles and a real sense
of accomplishment (Nelson, 1989). Parents can use
a wide variety of creatively humorous approaches,
including rhymes, chants, riddles, jokes, anecdotes,
games and even self-effacing commentary, to make
valuable connections and enhance learning. Lovern
in his paper explains this through a beautiful exam-
ple. Say, for instance, a child is sitting at the kitchen
table staring haplessly at page after page of her six-
th grade social studies book. Her father is helping
her study in preparation for a test on the origins of
civilization in Southwest Asia and the Ancient Bab-
ylonian Empire. They are discussing the material and
are reading about people of the region and places
such as Sumer, Tigris, Euphrates, Mesopotamia, Ha-
mmurabi, and ziggurats, among other things. These
are new words/concepts for the child, and Dad can-
not remember when he last studied about them. This
could easily be a recipe for frustration and could cau-
se considerable exhaustion and impatience on both
their parts. As they discuss the meaning of each term
or concept, Dad decides to share with her a few silly
statements and rhymes. Here are a couple of exam-
ples: In order to reinforce an understanding of the
Euphrates and Tigris Rivers and the location of Me-
sopotamia, he says:
“You afraid o’ these tigers? They make a mess of
potamia!”
In order to draw a mental picture of a ziggurat, he
says:
“If the top is flat and the bottom is fat, there’s a really
good chance it’s a ziggurat!”
These silly statements and rhymes, in and of themsel-
ves, might seem senseless or distracting, but when
combined with the basic knowledge derived from the
textbook, they may introduce laughter and enjoyment,
not to mention effectiveness to the learning process.
Conclusion
It is well said “laughter is contagious and is the shor-
test distance between two people.” You can live your
life healthily if you “laugh out loud.” In this way, pa-
rents and teachers can promote fun interaction, build
great trust, promote their thinking and creative skills,
and boost confidence among children and students
42 | ZEALOUSNESS MAGAZINE | Winter / Spring 2017