Category: Parenting

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Parenting

How To Increase The Potential In Your Kid

As a parent, it is normal to want to increase the potential in your child. We all want the most for our children and hope that they will become the person who cures cancer, becomes President of the United States, or just goes on to live a successful, happy life – whatever that will mean. Still, it can be easy to sit back and watch other children and think that your child doesn’t have as much potential. These are the conversations we are afraid to have, but we think about them late at night.

So what can you do to increase the potential in your kid? There are a few steps you can take now to increase their potential in the future. Let’s break them down:

Start Teaching Them A New Language

Almost everywhere in the world, children learn a second language other than their native language. Most often, it is English if they don’t speak English already. Other schooling systems start them early because they know that younger children learn languages better than teens or adults. Any language will help them to succeed, but Spanish or Mandarin are the most important languages for employment.

Introduce Them To New Things

The more exposure your child has to new, exciting things, the better they will be prepared for life in general. Introduce your child to different cultures, events, activities, and world. This could mean signing them up for a square dancing class, taking them to an Indian restaurant, or going to a museum. It could also mean buying them books that teach about different cultures that maybe aren’t as accessible.

Your child won’t always like or take interest in these new things, but even if they only do something once, they at least have that knowledge to pull from moving forward.

Make Them Work Hard

As parents, we often want to make our children’s lives easier, but that doesn’t always help them in the long run. Your child has to know how to struggle and then how to come out the other side with the knowledge to tackle similar problems.

Of course, you don’t want your child to go hungry or stress out over things they shouldn’t, but it is okay for a kid to struggle through learning how to ride a bike or have a hard time mastering a skill.

Encourage Emotional Intelligence

The more emotional intelligence your child has, the better off he or she will be in life. You want to teach your child to know about their own emotions and how that translates into other people. For example, if your child is sad about something, allow them to cry. Don’t encourage them to hold it inside. If your child has an opinion, allow them to share it.

The better at explaining their emotions your child is, the more likely it will be that they are successful in working with other people into the future.

Think About How School Serves Your Child

Often, we think that the only way to really determine whether or not a child will be a success is through schooling and grades. To be honest, it is a huge indication if only because good grades can open doors that bad grades cannot. Unfortunately, not all students are served by the modern schooling system. While most parents cannot homeschool their children or even afford private tutors to help them, there are some things that you can do at home to prove to your child that they are capable and foster a love of learning.

One of the ways you can do that is through MindFinity. Instead of rote memorization and boring lessons, MindFinity will have your child moving around,drawing, making music, dancing, and yes, learning. 

For more information about MindFinity, visit this page to discover how we help you to nurture your child’s love of learning.

Focus On Building Up Your Child

It is essential to build up your child and help them to believe in themselves. You can’t do that if you continually compare them to other students and children, as we all grow and bloom at our own speeds.

If your child struggles, find ways to help them.

MindFinity is one way to do that. MindFinity provides parents, grandparents, and caregivers a great tool for younger children and their families to connect with one another, and have fun learning together. It takes just a few minutes every day. For more information, reach out to our team today to get started. 

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Parenting Schooling

So Your Kid Is An Auditory Learner – Now What?

As we have already discussed, there are a few different learning styles and everyone has one learning style that is their strength. For some, it is visual learning and others excel in auditory learning, meaning they operate best when they hear information or examples. While the school system does try to teach all types of learning, auditory learners often do fairly well because of lectures and traditional teaching.

Kids who are auditory learners may even choose to close their eyes and listen to lectures instead of taking notes, though that often doesn’t go over well with their teachers. If your child is struggling in school, it could be that they aren’t getting information in a way that helps them learn. For example, simply copying down notes isn’t going to help kids who are auditory learners.

MindFinity helps you to teach your children and increase their Inventive IQs through various activities that strengthen all of their learning styles. Our games will have your children learning while dancing, singing, cooking, and more. They only take a few minutes every day, but they will quickly become your favorite time with your kids. To learn more, click here.

For now, let’s talk more about your auditory learner and how you can best help them to succeed.

What Is Auditory Learning?

As mentioned, auditory learning means that someone learns best when they listen to directions, facts, or discussions. They prefer to sit in a lecture over reading a textbook. Some auditory learners prefer to listen to teachers, whereas others prefer general conversations in class. These are the students who need to hear directions instead of reading them on a piece of paper.

Of course, these learners can get information in other ways, this is just the best way to reach them.

How Do I Know If My Child Is An Auditory Learner?

Auditory learners can be slightly more difficult to identify than other types because we tend to explain something and visually show it, so we don’t pick up on those children who learn better from hearing things. However, early signs include:

  • Well developed communication skills
  • High-level vocabulary
  • Good imagination and storytelling skills
  • Strong listening skills
  • Not afraid to speak in public
  • Easily distracted by background noises or conversations
  • Talks to oneself out loud when solving problems
  • Reads directions out loud

There are other signs as well, including general interest in music, podcasts, radio, and other forms of “listening” entertainment.

How Can I Use This Information To Help My Child Succeed?

If this sounds in any way like your child, you are pretty lucky in that there are some easy ways to help your child succeed. The first is that you need to use your voice when helping them with schoolwork or even just teaching them something about life. 

Children who are auditory learners will benefit from repetition, so repeating information that you need them to know and remember is important. If your school offers it, maybe consider recording lessons so that they can hear them again.

Another way to help your child succeed is to simply have conversations with them about what they are learning. Engage in that conversation, when they hear you say things, they will remember it. Just make sure that what you are saying is accurate.

This may be easier for certain subjects, such as history or science, but consider supplementing with YouTube videos, documentaries, podcasts, and other mediums that they can listen to instead of reading textbooks. You may even consider getting audiobooks for their English classes.

MindFinity Helps Kids Learn Through Gameplay

Our award-winning program helps your children expand their brains and learn polymath thinking skills while dancing, playing music, doing martial arts, and moving around! You get a new game each day of the week, which takes about five minutes a day. And you can expand on the games and have your child put their imagination to use. For auditory learners, many of the basic skills are taught through music and patterns, which they then learn to transfer into visual and kinesthetic disciplines, helping them to develop the skills that they need to thrive.
Interested in learning more? To learn more about MindFinity and sign up for a free trial, click here.

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Parenting

11 Tips To Make Learning Fun For Kids

Let’s face it, learning isn’t always fun for kids. There are things that will be difficult for them, topics they won’t enjoy, and days they just aren’t into it. We all have bad days. It becomes a problem when kids are bored or in a bad mood when it comes to learning on a regular basis. 

So how can you make learning fun for kids? We have some great tips that we’ve found work with just about everyone:

Get More Involved In Their Education

As a parent, getting involved in your child’s education can make all the difference. When they know that you care about what they learn and how they learn, they will start to understand just how important education is. You can also work to make education fun – you can’t always control what teachers do.

One way you can do this is by investing in MindFinity. MindFinity helps to increase Inventive IQ and spark a love for learning through play. 

Use Tactile Materials

Math is one of those subjects that many students find “boring” and struggle with learning. Sometimes, getting out the tactile materials like shaving cream, beans, macaroni, building blocks, or even pizza can help to teach everything from fractions to greater than, less than. 

Even if it makes a little mess, it will be much more fun for your kids.

Play Music Quietly In The Background

Music is an important tool for learning, as it can help children remember everything from the 50 United States in Order to the alphabet. However, not everything can be taught with a song, and the things that can be are usually more “fun.” 

So, play music in the background whenever you can. It can be classical, Top 40, or even Disney favorites.

Use Movement Whenever Possible

Whether it is dancing, running, or just getting up and walking around, movement can help many kids pay attention to lessons and even get more out of them. If you have your child sitting down to read or learn something, and they can’t stay focused, consider having them sit on a swing or get a stationary pedaling machine.

Use “Real World” Examples

While you can’t control the field trips that your child takes, you can use your weekends or nights to help reinforce what your child learns. If they can have a practical example of how what they are learning will help them, they will take a different kind of joy from it.

Show That You Get Bored Too

When you show your child that you get bored sometimes, and you show productive ways to get around it, you can help your child understand that boredom is a part of life and that everything isn’t fun. Remember that your child will model your behavior.

Have Them Become The Teacher

Sometimes you need to switch it up a bit and have them teach you the topic that is boring for them. Even if they don’t completely understand it, they might benefit from talking it out and acting like the teacher for a turn.

Don’t Be Afraid To Bargain

Bargaining isn’t always a bad thing for kids. If you want your kid to learn something that is boring and isn’t always easy to make exciting, bargain with them. Give them five minutes of doing something fun in return for working on something they don’t like. Whether it is watching a short YouTube clip or going outside, bargaining can help you out.

MindFinity Helps Make Learning Fun For Kids

If your child isn’t doing well in school, doesn’t like school, or just seems bored, you can help them. You need to make learning fun for your kids, and that doesn’t have to be something lengthy or complicated. It can be as easy as logging onto MindFinity.

MindFinity can help you by introducing different activities each weekday that will have your child learning, and get your own creative gears moving. For a few minutes every day, you won’t have to plan out the lessons. Instead, they are delivered to your inbox and you can build from there.

For more information about MindFinity, please click here.

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Parenting

Best Educational Apps For Kids

If you are trying to give your child an edge in school (and in life), you may want to supplement what they learn in school. One of the easiest ways to do that is to download some educational apps and let them play them when they are bored. There are a few different apps out there that you should consider.

But if you are looking for a bit more of an offline approach to learning, you may want to consider MindFinity. For just a few short minutes every day, you and your child will do activities offline to help build their Inventive IQ. To learn more, click here. 

MindFinity is more impactful than apps because your child isn’t just passively sitting and playing. They are doing activities in the real world, interacting with you and engaging in different types of learning.

Duolingo 

Duolingo is a great app to help your child learn a second (or third) language. There are plenty of options for the language that your child learns – from Spanish to languages that very few people speak. They learn in just fifteen minutes a day. The app works on their reading, speaking, and writing skills all at the same time.

YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids has more content than silly songs and people playing video games. It has a ton of educational content as well. You can create playlists for your kids to watch or set them loose knowing that they won’t come across content they shouldn’t. 

Crossword Puzzles

There are plenty of crossword puzzle apps that are geared toward children. These apps have easier clues that kids will be able to do on their own (with maybe a little bit of help from you). They will still need to know how to spell things and how the words fit together.

Science360

Science360 is a great app that was developed with the National Science Foundation. It is a great tablet-based app that helps breakdown science topics into easily digestible bits of information for children. All of the content is accurate, high-quality, and updated. Kids will be able to explore the world and see how we all fit together.

Think of this app as a more advanced Magic Schoolbus.

Epic!

Epic! Is a great app for kids who love to read. It is an app that has over 30,000 children’s books that they can read, listen to, and explore. There are even some activity books hidden in the library, so your kid will feel like they are getting screen time but they aren’t getting too much.

This app is really easy to use and there is always new content.

Stack the States 2

One of the places where the school system fails kids the most is in geography. This is a fun game that teaches your kids to recognize the shape of the states that make up the United States. It also teaches general information about the states. Kids then have to stack the states (like the name suggests) so that they don’t fall over, helping them to learn spatial skills.

Swift Playgrounds

Swift Playgrounds is a great app for kids to learn about coding languages. They can “create” their own playground and learn about coding through puzzles, targeted lessons, and absolutely gorgeous images. 

Use MindFinity To Help Your Child Learn

Interested in supplementing your child’s education? MindFinity works with you and your child to foster a love for learning through play. This proven method builds up polymath thinking skills by playing games that build Inventive IQ. It will help them not only in school, but throughout their lives.

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. 

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Parenting

Things To Do When Your Kids Are Bored – 7 New Suggestions

“I’m bored.” It is one of those sentences that parents dread hearing because there is only so much that we can suggest before we toss the phone or tablet in their direction and entertain them that way. By the time our kids are 8 or 9, we’ve gone through all of the “creative” solutions to the boredom. They know our tricks and we have to get smarter.

If you need ideas for fun, project-based learning activities, consider investing in MindFinity. We will have your child learning through different activities and projects. With MindFinity, you won’t have to plan out quite so many activities, as we do that work for you!

If this sounds interesting to you, click here to learn more. Here are some great ideas that you may not have considered:

Have Them Write Their Own Play or Musical

If your child is complaining about being bored, suggest they write their own play or musical. Play them the cast recording of a musical you approve of and use that as their inspiration. They will need to come up with words, movement, and transitions. If they get really into it, they might even make their own scenery and costumes!

Practice A New Sport

Introduce your child to a sport that they may not have heard about before – like curling, rugby or lacrosse – and have them practice it. Don’t have the right gear? Tell them to use their creativity to make their own!

Painting Rocks

All over the country, people are painting “kindness rocks” and hiding them in plain sight for other people to find. Grab some rocks from your yard, wash them off, and have your children paint whatever they want on them. Just make sure to only use paint and not to glue anything on them, just in case they end up staying in nature.

Once they are painted (and sealed!), take a walk and hide them in public areas where others will find them.

Create Stories

Want to get in on the fun? Walk around your house and find some random objects and have your kids work those objects into a story. The more random the objects are, the more creative your children will have to be.

Make Domino Lines

It’s an activity that has been lost to time, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t bring it back. Get some dominoes and see who can make the most intricate maze that they will then push over. This teaches your children about spatial awareness and can cure boredom for hours.

Make A Music Video

Does your child have a favorite song? If so, challenge them to create a music video to that song. They will have to come up with the storyline, get dressed, and shoot the video. You can even have them use video editing software if you have it.

Write A Letter

Is there someone in your child’s life that would love to receive a letter from them? A grandparent? A great aunt? If so, have your child write them even a short letter and create their own stationery for it. They can even design the outside of the letter!

Use MindFinity To Help Them Stay Active & Creative

Kids who are more creative rarely get bored (even though it does happen sometimes!)

MindFinity will have you dancing, drawing, singing, and more with your children all while learning these skills and building Inventive IQ. You can watch them progress systematically, and understand how they work through things that they may not understand to better support them when they have trouble in school.

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. 

If you want your child to have fun in school and take advantage of all the opportunities they are given, MindFinity is a great place to start.