Categories
Parenting

Benefits Of Exercise For Kids – How It Helps Their Brains

Kids are more sedentary than ever, and it is impacting them at almost all levels. Think about it: kids used to run around and play until the streetlights came on, but they don’t do that anymore. Fewer kids are playing sports. Instead, most kids are sitting on their phones or tablets, playing video games, or dancing on TikTok. So why should you encourage your kids to actually exercise – and even ensure they get at least 30 minutes of exercise a day? Explore some of the benefits of exercise for kids:

Exercise Helps Temper Emotions

Exercise isn’t just about staying physically fit and burning calories. Exercise is imperative to mental health as well. Running around, playing sports, and increasing their heart rate helps children increase the amount of oxygen in their brains. When the brain gets more oxygen, the nerves and neurons develop secure connections. 

When there are secure connections, the brain has a lower risk of learning disabilities and cognitive defects. Your child will also be able to deal with anxiety, depression, and mood swings because they are generating “feel good” chemicals in their brains when they move.

Exercise Increases Attention Span

Physical exercise and movement can also increase your child’s attention span. Part of this is because of club sports or organized team play because they need to learn different skills, movements, plays, and more. 

They also learn how to work at something until they get it right, which is something many children lack in today’s instant gratification world.

Exercise Helps With Memory

Much of the modern school system relies on memorization – and even if there are problems with that, children do need to have strong memories. Some research shows that exercise builds up an area of the brain called the “dentate gyrus” which are cells associated with memory and memory loss. 

When people exercise, they build up these cells and improve short term memory.

Exercise Increases A Child’s Capacity For Learning

Do you feel like your child may have reached a plateau in learning? Exercise can help! Some students have shown that exercise increases a body’s “brain-derived neurotrophic factor” or BDNF. When a child has strong BDNF, it is possible for them to branch out, form connections, and open themselves up to learning new skills.

Creativity And Exercise Are Linked

Many people have noticed that they have creative breakthroughs when they move around and get some exercise. Spending even thirty minutes on a treadmill or going on a run in a local park can help your child to be more creative in the way they think and express themselves. 

Part of this is because of the release of serotonin in the brain, but it is also because repeated activities such as running where they don’t really need to focus on the movement allow their brains to think about other things.

How To Get A Child To Be More Active

Having trouble getting your child to be more active? Here are a few ways to encourage exercise and movement:

  • Go with them! Model the behavior that you’d like to see.
  • Find an activity that they like doing – not everyone loves football or riding a bike.
  • Limit screen time by turning off the WiFi until they fit some movement into their day.
  • Schedule movement into their days and keep it consistent.
  • Don’t overdo it – children who get hurt or forced to do something they don’t like will rebel.
  • Get exercise gear such as running shoes, jump ropes, or basketballs.

Sometimes it will take you a little bit to find the activities that your child loves, but once you find them, encourage them to do it. Even if your kid strikes out every time he’s at-bat, if he loves baseball, encourage him to keep trying and playing.

MindFinity Helps Kids Get Moving

If your child loves to move around and not sit still, it can be hard to get them to learn or do anything supplemental for their education. The good news is that MindFinity can help! Our award-winning program helps your children expand their brains and learn polymath thinking skills while dancing, singing, doing martial arts,  and moving around! For just a few minutes a day, you can move with your child and help them to succeed today and into the future.

MindFinity combines education with exercise in a unique way that actually works. Interested in learning more? To learn more about MindFinity and sign up, click here.

Categories
Schooling

Homeschool vs. Public School vs. Private School: What Is Best?

As a parent, there are a few choices that you will have to make that have a lot of strings attached. One of those is whether to homeschool your child versus public school or even private school. Admittedly, there are benefits to all of these institutions, just like there are some issues with them. 

Homeschooling: Can You Do It?

Homeschooling is an option that is best for parents who don’t work or those who are willing to use “pod education” styles.

Why homeschooling? The main reason parents school this option is because it helps them to completely personalize their lesson plans for the strengths and weaknesses of their child. Parents spend a lot of time with their children, getting to know how they think and bonding with them. Homeschooling allows parents to speed up or slow down lessons to better fit the needs of their children.

The problem? One of the biggest issues with homeschooling is that children don’t get as much social interaction as they would in public school. Yes, they can be in a pod, but most of those children are all from the same or similar backgrounds. 

Public Schooling: Is It Best?

For the most part, public schooling is the default for most parents. This is a free resource that guarantees your child an appropriate education. There are public schools located all over the country with transportation to get there,  making it easy for working parents to ensure their children get what they need.

Why public school? There is something to be said about sending your child to public schools so that they get the socialization they need to thrive. They are exposed to many different types of people, including those who they wouldn’t meet in their daily lives.

The problem? Most public schools teach to the lowest common denominator, not really helping children to succeed or thrive. Those children who are naturally gifted tend to get pushed off to the side with a book or given extra worksheets. Class sizes continue to grow, pushing those children who struggle into “low level” tracks from an early age.

What About Private Schools?

For many people, private schools are completely out of the budget unless they can get scholarships. Private schools have many of the same problems that public schools do, but they just put it in shinier packages. 

One thing to consider is that private schools tend to have smaller class sizes than public schools, but they don’t have “tracks” that most public schools do. Everyone gets to be together in one classroom. Private schools can also be a bit “cliquey” which can be a problem for children who don’t fit into those molds.

Even so, private schools have programs that can be extremely beneficial for students as they age. They also have alumni networks that can help them with college admissions and jobs into the future.

MindFinity Helps Supplement All Of These Schooling Types

As you can see, there are pros and cons to every type of schooling. MindFinity has been developed to help kids from all different educational backgrounds. Ultimately, it will depend on parents to ensure that their children are thriving in whatever school system they are in – plenty of successful people come from all of these backgrounds.

For homeschoolers, it helps to break up the day and presents information in a way that no other program does. Even better, it can help parents get ideas for how to present new and interesting topics.

For public schools, it helps your child learn how to think and learn instead of just dumping information onto them. 

For private school kids, it helps to encourage polymath thinking and can help to fill in some of the gaps that private schools may have. 

For more information about MindFinity, please click here.

At the end of the day, if you are weighing homeschooling vs public schooling vs private school, the decision will have to come down to what works best for you, for your family, and for your children. Sometimes, it is a combination of all three, and other times one track will work. Some students start as homeschooled and then go into public or private schools as they get older. The best thing you can do is pay attention to your child and try to meet his or her needs where they are – and don’t be afraid to try something new if what you were doing isn’t working anymore.

Categories
Parenting

4 Social-Emotional Learning Activities To Do As A Family

An interesting phenomenon that many parents have noticed is that there is a lack of social-emotional learning (SEL) happening in schools today. Children don’t play quite the way they used to in the earlier years of public schooling.

This is interesting, as schools are becoming more and more diverse, so we would expect the opposite to happen. While there are weekly or monthly activities that some guidance departments plan to help encourage students to grow socially and emotionally, they don’t go far enough and they are the first things to be eliminated when there isn’t enough time.

Parents have to take some of this learning into their own hands in order to raise children who are citizens of the world and able to connect to other people. Not only does this help them to succeed in their personal lives, but it can also help them to succeed in school and in their careers. Knowing how to talk to other people is an important part of the growth that we all need. 

So how can you foster social-emotional learning in your family? Here are four different activities to do together:

Give Your Child Responsibilities When You Are Cooking Or Cleaning

Time gets short and we tend to just rush through certain things like cooking dinner or cleaning the house. But what if you make it a family activity? Not only will the work get done better, but you will also be teaching your child responsibility, accountability, and teamwork.

This is an activity that can be scaled for your children’s ages. A seven-year-old may not be able to cut up the vegetables safely, but you can have him put the ends into the compost bin and set the table for dinner. You need to show your children that they are parts of a whole and that the work they do contributes to the overall success of the family.

The same thing can happen when you clean: ask your child to pair socks when you are doing laundry, have them sweep the floors, or get them to clean the dust bunnies out from underneath the sofa. 

You have to make this feel different from doing chores – you need to do it together as a family. Have everyone working in one room, play some music to dance, or just talk to each other. You will quickly see how this can raise the potential of your child in almost all areas of their life.

Journaling Helps To Reinforce Emotional Management

Daily journaling has been touted by everyone from Michelle Obama to John D. Rockefeller as a way to help manage emotions and understand yourself better. How can you make this a family activity? As children age, they may be more likely to take to writing by themselves, but younger children are better at sharing their thoughts and feelings verbally.

A simple way to do this is to use dinner as a time to reflect on the day. You can start by having everyone say their favorite thing about the day and their least favorite thing. When you do this daily, your children will expect it and have something prepared when they sit down to dinner. For older children, you can have prompts written on popsicle sticks and have someone pull one right before dinner.

Perform A Random Act Of Kindness

In today’s world, kindness matters, but it isn’t always the default. When you have some time, do something together that benefits someone else. Go through toys or clothes and donate the ones that no one plays with anymore, get together to rake leaves in a neighbor’s yard, write positive notes in chalk around your neighborhood, or hide face-up pennies all over to give people “good luck.”

Use MindFinity As A Quick Way To Spend Time Together

If you want to know more about your child’s headspace and understand how they think, watching them learn is a privilege and a treat. By taking just a few minutes every day to work with your child, you will be able to see them connect the dots and come to conclusions through activities that you can do together.

MindFinity will have you dancing, drawing, singing, and more with your children. You will see them grow and understand how they work through things that they may not understand, which can help you to support them when they go through emotional or social struggles. 

MindFinity is a great tool for younger children and their families to have fun learning together for just a few minutes every day. For more information, reach out to our team today to get started

These are just a few of the activities that you can do with your family to encourage social-emotional learning. Once you start looking for opportunities to help your child grow in this way, you will easily be able to do it without making it feel like work.