Parents are always under pressure of good parenting. They always have a concern of how to raise smart kids or build brain power in children.
Let’s understand simple ways to boost the child’s brain power and make them smart.
1. Nurture curiosity
Each child is different and so are interests. Some kids like to dance, sing, jump, draw, tell stories, mash up clay or simply play around. It is important to notice the interest of your child and encourage them to explore new ideas, discover, experiment and experience as much as possible. Support your child's hobbies and follow their lead. Teach them new skills and ask the children questions to develop intellectual curiosity.
Each child is different and so are interests. Some kids like to dance, sing, jump, draw, tell stories, mash up clay or simply play around. It is important to notice the interest of your child and encourage them to explore new ideas, discover, experiment and experience as much as possible. Support your child's hobbies and follow their lead. Teach them new skills and ask the children questions to develop intellectual curiosity.
Steps to do:
1. Expose your kid to a new sport or activity that they enjoy. Encourage imaginations. For instance you can ask kid to set up an imaginary business of any product that she would like to trade. Question her further on how she would arrange for funds? What would the office look like? What materials would she need to set up the business? What kind of people would she hire? and so on.
2. For a toddler you can ask her make a tree out of clay and ask her questions about the color of the leaf, or color of the stem, does the tree have any fruits and if yes, which fruit, how does the fruit taste, what is the color of the fruit and many more. Your child would use her imagination to answer. Their answers may not always be right but it is important for the parent to be attentive and listen to their suggestion rather than commenting.
2. Make her observe and connect
The ability to observe and to make connection between separate objects is the sign of intelligence. Parents should use this ability to compare and evaluate a situation using the analytical ability will help the child become more observant and will connect well with other things.
The ability to observe and to make connection between separate objects is the sign of intelligence. Parents should use this ability to compare and evaluate a situation using the analytical ability will help the child become more observant and will connect well with other things.
Steps to do:
You can play games like I-Spy with your children. Ask them to notice, shapes and sizes while you walk or travel. You can also ask them to count the number of red buses that they see on the road. If you are in a queue waiting to buy a movie ticket or for an entry to an amusement park, ask her to see who is first? (Boy or a girl) who is second? Who is last in the queue? Count the number of people standing in the queue and many more questions that you can think of. Waiting would become a pleasure and it would stimulate their brains to think further.
3. Cultivate Emotional Intelligence - Teaching your child how to be compassionate and empathetic is as important as teaching her verbal skills. Kids who are generous and empathetic, are better equipped to learn and face the day.
Steps to do:
Ask your child to teach you how to draw her favorite cartoon character or how to play with the blocks or anything that she enjoys to do. Then ask her who else could learn from her good performance - her younger sibling or a friend. Being able to share her qualities would help become compassionate and empathetic.
4. Play mind gamesPlaying mind games trains the brain to perform mental exercise. Think how battle field tactics were developed from the game of chess.
Steps to do:
Playing games like chess, crosswords, riddles etc exercise the brain and stimulate their neuro cells. Games like Sudoku can be fun and at the same time enhances strategic thinking. Parents can also make jigsaw puzzles at home.
5. Develop the attitude -Think out of the boxWe have all heard this N number of times, but you would wonder how it applies to children. Yes, it is important to teach children to think out of the box to increase this thinking ability and boost their brain power. Children can develop this attitude during their early day's which would be helpful when they grow as adults.
Steps to do:
To develop this attitude, you can use simple techniques like, asking the child to draw anything she likes with a figure (for e.g. square). She can draw a house, or an envelope, a greeting card etc. let her think and you would understand that she has more ideas than you can think off. Expose your child to various settings and experiencing by making changes in your routine to enhance their thinking ability.
6. Cultivate a hobby - Cultivating a hobby will teach your kid responsibility about caring for their collectibles. They also learn to empathize with the cause and effects. They learn to start something and work towards it to bloom.
Steps to do:
Ask your child to collect stamps, buttons, coins for charity, etc. You can then help her make a necklace out of the buttons or stick the coins to make a picture. This act will make them more responsible and teach them to use simple things differently and creatively.
7. Praise honestly - Praise the good efforts of your child but do not dwell on the bad. Praise should be used correctly as too much praise is as damaging as too little.
If parents shrill over little things that the child does, there are chances that the child, may not be too sportive and may get upset or feel panicky if she does not win the contest or if the drawing does not come up really good.
It is important to teach children the importance of winning at the expense of learning or there are chances that they may refuse to participate in any activity that would not offer perfect scores.
Steps to do:
Develop a sense of humor about setbacks and mistakes that happened. You can also deliberately make mistakes by doing something that you are not good at – and then celebrate the effort of at least giving a try.
Though the above mentioned actions may sound very simple but like little drops of water make a mighty ocean, similarly little things will enhance their thinking ability, make them creative and smarter.
