Jump-starting Your Child’s Brain
Teachers use the following activities to bring a learner’s thought up to college level. You can do it now, even if your child is two years old. You will also find that your hyperactive, perhaps destructive child, is better behaved when his/her brain is growing.
Intelligence is measured by how many words you know, because words are ideas. A two-year old child may have a vocabulary of 12 words or 2,000 words, according to Dr. Jean Piaget, who work was foundational to modern child psychology. See http://psychology.about.com/od/historyofpsychology/ig/Pictures-of-Psychologists/Jean-Piaget-Picture.htm or http://psychology.about.com/lr/jean_piaget/10870/2/.
Your child will be smarter and more able to compete in this difficult global economy if you raise him or her to know many words and ideas.
Here are the basic ways teachers teach thinking skills to your child.
1: Recalling information
Every idea or concept—simple or complex—begins with recall of facts.
In order to develop this thinking skill, teachers use activities like the following:
Look at books, tapes, charts, newspapers, magazines, diagrams, records, models, people, films, television, or listen to the radio for ideas.
Then show, explain, locate, demonstrate, recognize, discover, restate, identify, inquire, match, illustrate.
For example: Using a children’s book, look at a page and ask your child to identify small things, such as anything red—or round—or covered with fur, etc.
If your child cannot focus well enough to recall facts, take away the streaming media (gradually) until the attention span is longer. T.V. and other media shorten a person’s ability to focus for long enough to master learning the higher order thinking skills.
Brain pathways must be built by exercising them.
2: Application
Every higher concept must go through steps one and two before going on.
Look at this diary, scrapbook, photograph, collection of objects, stitchery, cartoon, map, mobile, model, sculpture, illustration.
See if you can organize similar objects together, apply a code to the puzzle, construct something like it, sketch it, paint or draw it, solve it, choose something in the kitchen like it, and experiment with it.
For example: Look at this collection of tools, and see if you can circle the ones which belong in our garage.
3: Analysis (taking apart the known)
Make a graph, survey, questionnaire, commercial, report, diagram, or chart.
In order to do that you will have to categorize, take the data apart, sorting and classifying, dissect, analyze, separate, compare, contrast and describe.
For example, in order to create a graph of the side effects suffered by grandfather because of his fourteen different medications, you will have to take each medication separately, listing the side effects by category, then compare side effects by checking off the ones your grandfather has. One young lady recently confronted her grandfather’s doctor with a graph listing the medication names on the top line, the side effects down the left side, and the problems her grandfather suffered in each cell of the spreadsheet. Of twelve medications, grandfather had dizziness, insomnia, constipation, and nausea caused by eight of the medications.
4: Synthesis (putting together the new)
This requires Steps 1, 2, and 3, and then one can…
Consider a story, poem, play, pantomime, news article, cartoon, new game, invention, radio show, product, recipe, magazine, puppet show…
And add to it, create, imagine, combine, plan, suppose, modify, predict, hypothesize, design, invent, explain, infer, improve, compose or originate a product from this.
For example, taking a recipe for pancakes, modify it to make muffins.
5: Evaluation (judging the outcome)
Looking at an editorial, a panel evaluation, court trial, or a self-evaluation survey,
Justify, debate, solve, recommend, judge, criticize, consider, weigh, appraise.
For example, ” Using steps 1-4 and the rubric provided for your teacher for this project, decide what grade you should receive.”
If you will spend twenty minutes a day on one or two of these activities, your child will be able to think far ahead of his or her competition in school and the workplace.
May 15th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Interesting content. Bookmarked for future referrence
May 26th, 2010 at 4:18 am
Oh my goodness! Youre so right! I really dont think anyones put it that way before! You must be an expert on this because you just made it so easy to understand, made me want to learn more about it! Do you, like, study this subject because you seem to be so in tune with the issue? Keep it up, man. Youve got a great mind for it!
May 26th, 2010 at 10:50 am
Thank you for such a fantastic blog. Where else could anyone get that kind of info written in such a perfect way? I have a presentation that I am presently working on, and I have been on the look out for such information.
May 26th, 2010 at 11:42 pm
This is my second visit to this blog. We are starting a new initiative in the same category as this blog. Your blog provided us with valuable information to work on. You have done a admirable job.
May 28th, 2010 at 11:25 am
Thanks for taking the time to chat about this, I feel fervently about this and I benefit from learning about this subject. Please, as you gain information, please add to this blog with more information. I have found it really useful.
May 28th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
I hate to sound like a nitpick, but your grammar is just…deplorable. I want to be interested in this, I really do. But it seems you spent so much time on the design (which, I will say, is amazing) that you forgot that people actually have to read your blog. Clean this up…PLEASE. It could be so much bigger if you just did some work.
May 29th, 2010 at 6:44 am
Several PhD’s, including Dr. M. Clark, once head of the U. Of Colorado at Denver, disagree with your analysis. Too bad. I suppose your piano is better than your grammar, but wonder how you sell lessons with negativity and the grammar problems you exhibit in your comment on Discipline for Adult children, II.
May 29th, 2010 at 6:49 am
The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. If you spend 15 minutes a day on your special project, you’ll be able to get it done.
September 9th, 2010 at 4:51 am
I’ve been visiting your blog for a while now and I always find a gem in your new posts. Thanks for sharing.
September 10th, 2010 at 6:44 am
I just sent this post to a bunch of my friends as I agree with most of what you’re saying here and the way you’ve presented it is awesome.
September 18th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
I just book marked your blog on Digg and StumbleUpon.I enjoy reading your commentaries.
September 20th, 2010 at 12:06 am
Thanks For This Post, was added to my bookmarks.
September 25th, 2010 at 12:04 am
Very neat post.Really thank you! Great.
September 25th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
“Hi, i just thought i’d put up and let you know your weblogs layout is actually messed up within the K-Melonbrowser. Anyhow retain up the beneficial function.”
September 28th, 2010 at 1:40 am
I find myself coming to your blog more and more often to the point where my visits are almost daily now!
September 28th, 2010 at 4:45 am
I not long ago came all through your website and happen to be understanding along. I assumed I would personally go away my initial remark. I actually don’t know what to say except that We’ve loved analyzing. Respectable web site. I’m going to preserve going to this weblog genuinely often.
September 28th, 2010 at 8:02 am
Hi Frieda,
It appears you may need some English training…that grammar thing can interfere with your understanding or how others understand you. Best wishes.
September 30th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Dear blues,
You could use some work yourself. Too bad you couldn’t be specific about your complaint.
October 2nd, 2010 at 4:06 am
Great synopsis of commenting and how to very well written and all that link love you just poured out, great post, if this was a forum you would have a sticky on this.
October 3rd, 2010 at 4:25 am
“This is my first post on this internet site and all i can say is thank you for all these useful details! Should you allow, I’d like to use some of your content. I write articles for article directories as my portion time job. I’m willing to refernce your site in these articles. Kindly get back to me through email ASAP. “
October 4th, 2010 at 9:17 am
Hi Mohamed,
You are welcome to use any of my content as long as you give credit with my site reference so others can check my site (and hopefully book) out. blessings!
October 30th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
but I thought you could tell me how to do that!!
October 31st, 2010 at 7:40 am
Hi there, I found your blog via Google while searching for a related topic, your site came up, it looks good.
November 1st, 2010 at 5:00 am
Giving a blog talk to beginner bloggers in the not-too-distant future, I’ll be pointing people in the direction of your efforts. Nicely put together dude.
November 1st, 2010 at 12:20 pm
I’d have to write another book! My book has general teaching techniques which can be used on each section I’ve shared in this post, but beyond that–at this point I’ll need more direction from you as to what your specific challenge is. My book, Stress-free Discipline, can be purchased through borders, Amazon, etc. It does give you a good start.
November 2nd, 2010 at 6:16 am
Great synopsis of commenting and how to very well written and all that link love you just poured out, great post, if this was a forum you would have a sticky on this.
November 3rd, 2010 at 5:24 am
Giving a blog talk to beginner bloggers in the not-too-distant future, I’ll be pointing people in the direction of your efforts. Nicely put together dude.
November 5th, 2010 at 7:55 am
Hello Great Job. I think you made some great points and I am going to do some follow up research on the topic related and learn more.
November 6th, 2010 at 7:55 am
Brilliant post, nicely done. And thanks for mentioning all that info – you have introduced to me to three new blogs and I love them all! Cheers
November 9th, 2010 at 6:35 am
Brilliant and well deserved! Enjoy the moment and the prize!
November 10th, 2010 at 10:01 am
I just couldn,t leave your website before letting you know that we really enjoyed the quality information you offer to your visitors… Will be back soon to check up on new stuff you post!
November 10th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
I have been following your blog for 3 days now and i should say 1 am starting to like your post. and now how do i subscribe to your blog?
December 3rd, 2010 at 4:54 am
Great post, very informative, hopefully it will being some of those lurkers out into the open.
December 4th, 2010 at 4:43 am
You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and some related sub topics and I have found a lot of corresponding views.
December 6th, 2010 at 4:50 am
Giving a blog talk to beginner bloggers in the not-too-distant future, I’ll be pointing people in the direction of your efforts. Nicely put together dude.
December 6th, 2010 at 9:32 am
Thx, but I’m not a dude but a 67-year old dame!
December 17th, 2010 at 3:50 am
I’m sincerely asking. Several of my friends made the career choice to join the plutocracy. As a graduate of an elite educational institution, it’s a choice I had as well, but I decided I wanted to feel I was making a contribution in exchange for the money I made.
December 17th, 2010 at 7:51 am
Asking what?
December 22nd, 2010 at 4:00 am
that will show them!
December 24th, 2010 at 7:30 am
This is the begining of the end of TV as we know it.
December 24th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
I hope so. Massive numbers of studies show a link between childhood TV habits and various dysfunctional activities, such as sex in early adolescence, according to a study by children’s Hospital boston. “The study found that for every hour the youngest group of children (6- to 8-year olds) watched adult-targeted content over the two sample days, their chances of having sex during early adolescence increased by 33 percent.
January 12th, 2011 at 9:30 am
I’ve been visiting your blog for a while now and I always find a gem in your new posts. Thanks for sharing.
February 16th, 2011 at 1:40 am
This is definitely a blog that people need to get behind. The problem is, no one wants to do a great deal of reading and not have something else to stimulate the mind. This is the internet, after all. Maybe if you added a video or two to emphasise your point. Ill stick around, FOR SURE. But, I dont know if others will.
February 17th, 2011 at 7:00 pm
Extremely useful and informative article. I wish i can do all of that in a short period of time. But for sure doing those will produce results. I will try to spread your words through my blog and link it back to you. Thanks a lot for those tips
February 23rd, 2011 at 2:57 am
Thank you also for introducing me to Intelligence on this site. You’re so kind and accommodating.
February 27th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
Couldn’t be written any better. Reading this post reminds me of my old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this article to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!
March 1st, 2011 at 1:33 am
Thank you for the work you have put into this post, it helps clear up some questions I had.
March 5th, 2011 at 3:54 am
Valuable information and excellent design you got here! I would like to thank you for sharing your thoughts and time into the stuff you post!! Thumbs up!
March 19th, 2011 at 6:39 pm
Thank you for sharing the info. I found the details very helpful.