07 May, 2009
Posted by: In: Artist|Calculation|Discipline|Memory|Reading|Skill
1) Breastfeed. Studies show that at the age of six children who were breastfed for six months or more score an average of 6 points higher on IQ tests than formula fed children. And breast milk is FREE. Formula costs a family on low income a great deal of money…and it limits your child’s mental capabilities.
2) Talk. From about 26 weeks a foetus can hear in the womb. Studies have also shown that children who were talked to in the womb and as babies have better verbal skills. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is to give your child a running commentary on your activities. “We need to give you a bath now. Let’s take your little pink shirt off. Out come your arms. Now let’s pull it over your head.” I have gotten a few strange looks on the Tube of course, but my daughter’s intelligence is more than worth it.
3) Let them explore. We have all heard the expression…kids will be kids. But often one of a baby’s first words is “No,” because they hear it so often. Clearly some things like sticking things in electrical outlets must be “No,” but other things can be made safe for your child. For instance, our lower kitchen cabinets are always child proof. We keep the plastic ware and canned foods in them. It is a skill that I learned from my great-grandmother. Even as an adult, I fondly remember sitting on her kitchen floor surrounded by cans of food. I would build towers. I would play store. Those cans were wonderful FREE toys…and it allowed me as a child to safely explore the adult world. As parents/carers our job is to create a safe world in which to allow our children to explore…and learn.
4) Test their limits. We never learn what we are capable of accomplishing if we are not allowed to try. It is natural for parents/carers to want to protect their children, but sometimes by watchful waiting we can allow them to develop a sense of accomplishment. My daughter could ‘climb’ the stairs before she walked. We of course had safety gates at the top and the bottom so that she never could attempt this new skill without the watchful eye of an adult, but we often would put her down at the bottom and allow her to crawl them. We were only a step or two behind of course should something go wrong. She has taken that same determination into other tasks as well…tackling the jungle gym at the ripe old age of two.
5) Expand their horizons. In most large UK and US cities there is an abundance of exciting and educational activities for young children. Living in London, we are lucky that our museums are FREE. But even when we lived in the US, we found that by purchasing annual memberships to the local zoos and museums we could provide the relatively cheap entertainment for the whole family. The Los Angeles Zoo for instance offered a family membership for around $50 that admits 2 adults and up to 4 children under 18. Most US attractions have similar offers. If even this paltry amount is too much for your tight budget, we have asked for memberships as gifts from grandparents.
6) Read. You can never begin reading too soon…even before birth your child can hear you. As small babies, brightly coloured cardboard books that they can touch and even chew are wonderful. Older babies and toddlers enjoy books with flaps or texture which they can touch and explore for themselves. My 2 year old loves to ‘read’ her picture books to Mummy now. And don’t forget the value of your child seeing you read. Our daughter often demands her own ‘paper’ on Saturday morning as she eats breakfast and reads along side Daddy. If she sees me reading on the couch, she often brings an arm load of her own books for me to read to her.
7) Listen and learn. Sometimes as parents we forget that our children have a great deal to teach us as well. Their open and loving attitude has much to teach adults, who can so easily get caught up in inconsequential tasks. One of my fondest memories was the sheer joy of jumping in a puddle with my daughter. To enjoy such priceless moments we must take the time to listen to our children with our hearts as well as our ears. We must also free ourselves from fears and convention to realise just how much we have to learn from these little treasures.
Terri O’Neale is the mother of six; ranging in age from 3 to 22. She has been both a working and stay-at-home mother at various times in her life. She was also a single mother for almost five years, before re-marrying the love of her life at the age of forty. Obviously, she has a life-time of training in raising a family on a tight budget. In addition to these real life experiences, she possesses a bachelors degree in health education and a minored in environmental management in her masters programme.
Terri feels strongly that this is one of the most challenging times in history for the family, but she also believes that families with the will and resolve to address the pressing issues of saving money, becoming greener, leading healthier lifestyles and spending more time with one another can endure these challenging times and come out victorious in the end.
Through Frugal Family articles, blogs, videos and social networking, she helps modern families rediscover some lost art forms such as cooking, sewing, and gardening. The goal is not to go back in time or become fanatical, but to help all families find simple and effective ways that fit into their lifestyle to make moderate changes with huge impacts. For more information, check out her blog http://frugalfam.pnn.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Terri_O’Neale
Meggy can already read at 3 years old.
Rachael Ray Geography Whiz. South Africa, Hawaii, Zimbabwe — you name it, Lilly can find it on the map … and she’s only two years old! Find out how this little geography whiz developed the amazing skill.
29 Mar, 2009
Posted by: In: Concentration|Creativity|Education|Reading
Dear Parent,
It’s time for the next “Turn Your Child Into a Genius” e-zine. I hope you enjoyed the previous one, and that you have tried some of the suggested activities with your children.
Please join TurnYourChildIntoaGenius Yahoo group, and let us know about your experience and results. Introduce yourself and your children, so that all of us can learn from each other and create a support group. This will be a very exclusive club!
(To join, send an email to turnYourChildIntoaGenius-subscribe@yahoogroups.com ).
Today’s topic is Visual Discrimination. Would you like your child to develop phenomenal creativity? Brilliant problem solving skills? A perception for details far superior than you have ever seen? Genius imagination? Here is your chance to help your child develop all these, and improve your own skills in the process! These are fun and enjoyable activities, that require no special equipment, no expense, just a little bit of practice will show huge benefits. As usual, we will talk about different age groups, and age appropriate activities.
The Subconscious Mind: We all use only a small part of our brain. A genius part of our brain, the subconscious mind, is neglected by most of us. Our subconscious mind, which is the seat of our intuition, holds far more information than our conscious mind. It is said to know the answers to all of our problems. It is constantly active, but we have learned to ignore it, therefore we don’t use its enormous capabilities. We have a bank of knowledge in our subconscious mind, that we did not learn how to access. Several techniques were developed in order to tap our subconscious mind, some of them are based on careful observation and development of our visual discrimination.
Young children did not yet learn how to ignore their subconscious mind. Children are easily taught how to access this part of their mind. The following activities will develop the visual discrimination, and get your child into the habit of detailed observation. The advanced activities will prepare your child for the important skills of thinking in pictures, visualization, and visual creative problem solving.
Infants: Very young babies take the first few weeks of their lives to mature the connection between their eyes and their brain. You can help your newborn develop their eye-brain connection and mature their eye focus skill by showing them an image. The trick is to show your newborn an image that is big enough (for example, 10”x8” or bigger) and has bold colors. It can be a simple picture at first, preferably one of a close person, for example Mom or Dad. You hold the picture in front of your baby, and watch the baby’s eyes. Wait until the baby focuses on the picture and hold it there for a second or two. Do this several times a day. You will notice that the baby takes less and less time to focus its eyes on the image. Normal babies may take 6 to 8 weeks to get to the point that they can easily focus on an image and perceive the details, but if you help your baby in this manner, it will speed up the process.
Since ‘Mom knows best’, you will know when your child is ready for the next step. At that time you can start showing a picture of an object and say the name of the object. The child
will develop his vocabulary and visual discrimination. You can show the same image several times in a row, and then switch to a different picture. Do this only when the baby and yourself are in good mood, and turn it into a fun, relaxed and joyful activity. Show your baby lots of love when you are done.
I suggest you prepare a set of pictures ahead of time, probably about 25 pictures. Remember, the pictures should be in bold color, and at least 10”x8”.
Next Step: From there, you can start discussing the pictures with your child. If your baby cannot talk yet, you can advance to a more detailed image, and go from one detail to another, pointing them out. Then you can describe what is happening in the picture, what action is taking place, observe the people or the objects, describe them, paying attention to the smallest details. Next session you can get into finer details. You can do this a few times in a row, but after 3 times, I recommend starting on a new picture.
Please know that your child is learning much faster than you expect. Watch your child, and make sure you are not too slow. You want to avoid boring your young child, or you lose his attention.
When the Baby Can Talk: This becomes very exciting. You take turns with your child, observing an image and describing it. From the very obvious details you can go to the less obvious details, and then you can start imagining and developing a whole story around the picture. You will discover that the more you observe the image, the more details you will notice. This will develop the child’s visual perception and imagination. You can do it for a few minutes a day, or for a longer period of time (in my opinion, you should not take more than 30 minutes), but the longer you do it, the finer the details that you will observe. You can start with a few minutes a day, several times a day, and increase the period of time gradually.
This activity is appropriate for a variety of age groups. It is a great pastime, and it lets you take advantage of wasted time, for example at the doctor’s waiting room or in line at the bank. When you are out of the house, you can observe your environment, and discuss your surroundings. Turn it into a game – take turns describing the subject, or imagining a story. For example, what are these people doing? What kind of family do they have? What kind of a house? How does this person feel right now? (Observe expression on their face).
After a very short period of time of practicing these activities, you will notice the results. You will notice a huge change in you too! Please, let us all know what you are observing.
This gets more and more interesting and beneficial as we progress through the activities.
When you feel that the time is right, you can start practicing your child’s memory. You observe an image for a few minutes, then you take the image away, and try to remember the details. Take turns describing the image, and the person who remembers more details – is the winner. You can prepare ahead of time a few questions about the picture, and ask the questions after the picture was taken away. For example: how many of a certain objects, what color is a certain object, and so forth. Within a short period of time, the child will be able to remember many details, and very fine details, too. You will discover that your own memory is improving too.
Visual memory can be improved indefinitely! I know a boy who, at the young age of 8, played chess without looking at the board (blindfold). He beat his chess teacher in a game, even though the teacher was allowed to look at the board.
For school aged children: All the activities described above, (except for the one for infants) are appropriate for all ages. With school aged children, you can invent some games, or compete with them, and you can vary the games. You can take time looking at an image and describing it in more and more detailed fashion. Then take it away and see who remembers more details. This game trains the perception as well as the memory. Then you can progress to the imagination and creativity stage, when you invent a story around the picture, and try to guess how the people in the picture feel, what brought them to the “present” situation and so forth. (Of course, these are just examples). See if you can write a little story about the picture at hand.
My kudos to you for being a great parent! Next week we will look into some other enjoyable activities that can give your child the edge and turn him into a genius!
If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to email to me at esther@all-gifted-children.com. I promise to answer every e-mail.
Lets change the world by turning our children into geniuses !
Esther Andrews
Dear Parents,
No matter how old your children are, you have an immense power to affect their growth, development and success in life. By actively pursuing activities that contribute to the better development of their brain, you provide them with an advantage over all other kids, and increase their chances to be successful in life. By doing that, you also make sure they will have plenty of experiences of success and achievement, so that they become self confident, positive and optimistic.
There is a lot of talk recently about the “Right Brain/Left Brain” issue. Basically, researchers have found that the human left brain is “responsible” for completely different functions than the right brain. Researchers have concluded that in every person, one of these hemispheres of the brain is dominant. According to this theory, the left brain is the analytical one, responsible for measurement, logic, math, analysis and the right brain is responsible for creativity, art, intuition and the use of words. Some people even claim that men are left brain dominant, while women are usually right brain dominant, and proceed to explain that men think in pictures, while women think in words. No wonder, they claim, there is such a big gap in communication between men and women!
Research has shown that it is very important to increase the communication, or the connection between the 2 hemispheres of the brain. If we do that, we increase the functionality of the brain. This can be done in all ages, and has proven to be beneficial.
Improved balance between the two hemispheres, improves peace of mind, harmony, reading and comprehension, and develops better concentration and focus.
The activities that have been shown to develop and improve the brain hemisphere connectivity are usually the ones that use both sides of the body in concert. The cross pattern we all use while walking or swimming and babies use when they crawl, develops and strengthens the connection between the brain hemispheres. By cross pattern, I mean the movement when we bring the right arm and the left leg forward, and then the left arm and the right leg. It has been shown that some brain injured children who did not crawl, developed severe handicaps, and by practicing the activity of crawling, they have shown surprising improvements.
If you have a very young baby, and you want to help it develop strength in both sides of the brain, you can massage both feet or both hands, for a few minutes, several times every day. When you gently massage your baby’s feet, and stimulate both feet at the same time, and then each foot – one after the other, and watch your baby’s face, you will notice that your baby enjoys this activity very much. It is not necessarily a calming activity, because massaging the baby’s feet is actually stimulating.
I recommend doing this a few minutes every day, before or after changing the baby’s diapers. This activity also forces you to take a few minutes a day to look into your baby’s eyes, smile to the baby, and massage its feet and hands. You will notice that it
strengthens the bond you are creating with your baby, and this is a priceless bonus.
Another activity that has been proven to greatly contribute to higher intelligence as well as better health is swimming. This activity can be done at any age, and if you swim with your baby or your child, it will contribute to your health too. If you have a baby, find a “water babies” affiliate in your area. If you have an older child, there are many ways to involve them in swimming. Encourage them to participate on a swim team, or to get involved with a school swimming activity. Practicing every day will improve their health tremendously.
Very young babies enjoy being in the water, kicking their legs and use their arms for swimming. Many YMCA centers have baby swimming classes. If you have a swimming pool at home, or you belong to a club, you can take your baby with you into the water, and hold it in the water. However, make sure that the water they swim in is warm. Babies need a higher temperature than adults need. Also make sure the water is clean. The quality of water is important to children of all ages, and I have to remind you to watch your child at any time when they are in the water, to prevent drowning. Please use caution.
Be aware, that very young babies have a very heavy head compared to their body, and they cannot by themselves keep their head above water. So make sure that your baby is supported at all times.
Another activity that improves the brain connectivity and balance is crawling. If your baby is still young, and does not crawl yet, swimming is preferred. You can also team up with a friend or a partner, and “imitate” crawling movement holding the baby’s arms and legs, in cross pattern. You stand on one side of the baby, while the baby is laying on its tummy, and the partner on the other side. You hold a hand and a foot, and so does the partner. Then while you bring the arm forward, the partner brings the leg forward, and visa versa, creating a rhythm. Do it just for a few minutes, while having fun. You can repeat it several times a day.
For all children who know how to crawl, make sure your child has room and opportunity to crawl. You might have to clean the floors, and make sure that the floor is free of little objects your child can choke on, but encourage the child to crawl as much as possible.
For older children, chasing each other while crawling can be a fun and crazy game. You can get on your hands and knees too, it will do you good! If you have several children, encourage them to play “catch” while crawling. This is good exercise, and it contributes to their intelligence.
Walking and running are natural activities, that utilize the cross pattern, and are great at balancing right and left hemispheres of the brain.
As we know, most people have a dominant hand. Some people are right handed, and some people are left handed. Statistically, most people are right handed, but there are many left handed people. In the past, (a few generations ago), it was common practice to force children to use their right hand for writing, tie their left arm behind their back, if they attempted to use it for writing. Children were punished for using their left hand for writing, cutting with scissors, playing ball etc.
For school age children, an exercise has been shown to create wonders: practice writing using your weak hand. If you are left handed, practice writing with your right hand, and if you are right handed, practice writing with your left hand. This can feel very awkward at first, and takes some practice. So I recommend turning it into a game. Do it with your child, take turns and compete. The one who writes clearer, or faster, wins. For example, every word earns a number of points, and whoever earns most points gets am award. Invent some games, and turn it into a fun activity.
Only a few minutes of practice a day, will make a big difference. And remember – by doing this you are giving your child an advantage many other children do not have.
Another activity that is amazingly productive for your child: drumming. I know, this is not for everybody. If you cannot stand the noise, maybe it is not the right activity for you. However, when your child learns how to drum, he is using both hands in turn, and is also learning a pattern. It will be a lot of fun to play a game, in which one of you invents a pattern and “drums” it (you don’t need a drum for this) and the other(s) have to recognize the pattern and imitate it. You can provide an award, and use it as an incentive. The pattern can become more and more complicated as you get better at this game. This game strengthens your child audio memory, improves the brain connectivity and improves pattern recognition.
My kudos to you for being a great parent! Next week we will look into some other enjoyable activities that can give your child the edge and turn him into a genius!
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