Category: Parenting

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Parenting

So Your Kid Is A Visual Learner – Now What?

There are a few different types of learning styles, and some kids are what we call “visual learners.” This isn’t a good or a bad thing, it is just the way that our brains best process information and catalog it. The school system tries to teach to all of the different learning styles, and many lessons are visual, so your child is off to a good start there. 

Kids who are visual learners tend to be better served by the school system than others, but they may still need some extra support from you. As a parent, you may want to help them connect their natural learning style and strengthen some of their other learning styles. 

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 visual learner.

What Is Visual Learning?

For visual learners, they learn best when they see things. This can look like many different things, including watching videos, seeing demonstrations, or simply watching someone “do” a math problem. These are the students who can watch their teacher do something and they can mimic it back to them – whether it is playing the guitar, solving long division, or performing an experiment.

How Do I Know If My Child Is A Visual Learner?

There are some pretty obvious cues that your child is a visual learner. These can include:

  • Drawing or mapping things out;
  • Taking notes using pictures or diagrams;
  • Learning better when they see a picture or a video;
  • Asking for someone to show them something;
  • Preferring assignments that involve coloring or something visual.

There are some other signs that might symbolize a visual learner:

  • They can draw pictures from memory;
  • They are usually very organized;
  • They have good spatial-awareness;
  • They enjoy drawing; 
  • They often use visual aids to help explain themselves;
  • They choose the more visual approach in projects.

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

If this all sounds like your child, there are a few different things that you can do to help them succeed – and help them when they are struggling to learn a new topic. The first thing is that you can always show them how to do something. Walk them through the steps visually. You can also buy them highlighters and pens in different colors and allow them to take notes how they like to – even if that includes doodling. Color coding is a big part of learning for these kids.

To keep your child on track, write out to do lists and write down instructions, as this will help them to keep everything they need to do straight. 

If they are struggling with topics, these are the students who do much better when they have flashcards to memorize the information. They also do well with learning from YouTube videos, watching other students work, and getting written feedback instead of verbal feedback on what went wrong.

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 a few minutes a day. And you can expand on the games and have your child put their imagination to use. For visual learners, the games can help to quickly spot patterns and increase their Inventive IQs, which will help them to learn better throughout their entire school career.

Interested in learning more? To learn more about MindFinity and sign up for a free trial, click here.

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Parenting

How To Treat Screen Addiction In Kids

Are your kids spending too much time on their screens? Do they spend hours staring at TikTok or watching YouTube videos? It happens to the best of us: we need to get something done on our own and we end up allowing our kids to spend just a little too much time on their screens. 

Getting too much screen time can cause kids to become too sedentary, hurt their sleep at night, and just not allow them to be creative. There are many great reasons why kids should spend some time on screens, but there is just as much reason to keep them on a pretty strict time limit.

Combine Screentime With Offscreen Time

One of the reasons we like MindFinity so much is because it combines online learning with offscreen action. Our lessons require that parents spend a few short minutes learning to play the offline games every day, and then you and your child will be off and doing different activities that build inventive IQ. 

If this sounds interesting to you, click here to learn more. 

You should try to do this with all activities for your child. If they want to watch a YouTube video, make it an educational video that you can follow up with an activity where they can use what they just learned. If they are playing a game like Among Us, combine it with an activity like creating their own spacesuit or building their own coding set.

Set Timers & Limits

Most devices will allow you to set a time limit that will cause the Wi-Fi to turn off if your child spends too much time on their screens. You can set overall limits for the device or time limits on certain apps so that they don’t spend too much time on TikTok, but could instead spend time playing games that encourage learning.

Offer Choices When Applicable

You might have meant well buying your child an e-reader, but you could just be encouraging them to stay on their screens. If your child loves to read, consider getting them some physical books as well as an e-reader. They will be able to choose how they want to read, and sometimes they will choose physical books.

Encourage Your Child To Earn Screentime

Another great option is to have your child “earn” screentime. You can set the terms yourself, but offer a certain amount of time for getting their homework done, playing outside, cleaning their rooms, helping out around the house, and more. Give them some educational time on their screens that is free, but make them earn the time playing games or scrolling through their social media feeds.

Be The Example

Kids mimic the actions that they see, and that includes spending time on screens. Don’t sit on your phone all through dinner if you wouldn’t let your kids do the same. If you ask your kid to get off their phone, don’t sit and scroll Facebook. 

We all have screen addiction problems too, and should probably start finding new activities that we can all do as families.

Know That Some Screentime is Okay

You can’t completely pull the screens from your child. Not only will that cause more problems, but it can also be hard on you as well. Sometimes, it is easier to hand your child the phone and get your own work done, and that isn’t going to hurt them.

MindFinity Helps Kids Learn Through Games & Projects

Our award-winning program helps your children expand their brains and learn polymath thinking skills while dancing, singing, doing martial arts, and moving around! You get a new game for each day of the week, which takes a few minutes a day. And you can expand on the games and have your child put their imagination to use and expand on projects that they are already doing. You’ll get some fun ideas as well!

Interested in learning more? To learn more about MindFinity and sign up for a free trial, click here.

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Parenting

Indoor Activities For Kids Of All Ages

As the weather starts to turn colder and kids need to stay inside more, it is time for parents to come up with indoor activities for kids that keep them occupied for more than just a few seconds. It can be difficult to be creative enough to continually come up with new ideas for projects, games, and tasks. 

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! Even better, you’ll be able to expand on them and raise smarter kids! 

If this sounds interesting to you, click here to learn more. 

Here are some more great ideas for indoor activities for kids of all ages that will help them expand their brains, raise their Inventive IQs, and learn polymath thinking:

Marshmallow Buildings Teach Patterns & Shapes

This classic activity requires two supplies: toothpicks and marshmallows of various sizes. Have your children build bridges, skyscrapers, houses, churches, castles, or whatever else they can imagine using different shapes and reinforcements. See who can get their building taller or sturdier.

As they build, children will start to see what shapes make the building sturdier and figure out patterns that prevent the building from twisting and breaking down.

Potato Stamping For An Artistic Outlet

Have a kid that loves to do art projects? Potato stamps are an easy way to fill up some time. Your child will learn about relief prints and how the cuts they make won’t show up on the print, but they also can’t undo the cuts, so they will need to plan each cut before they make it.

To mix things up, provide different color paints, different cutting tools, and even different surfaces to stamp on – newspaper, fabric, construction paper, and even textured surfaces will result in different appearances.

Dance Parties Reign Supreme

We are always a proponent of dance parties because they help get energy out in a short amount of time and in a controlled way. Create a playlist of different types of music – don’t just pick Top 40 pop songs. Look to different genres, eras, cultures, and styles to introduce your kids to something they may never find on their own.

Paper Snowflakes

This one is a little messy, but it is a lot of fun for kids, and probably something you remember doing as a child as well. Get some printer papers (or construction paper) and safety scissors, and have your kids make a bunch of snowflakes. You may have to show them how to fold and cut the snowflakes, and some of the results may not be the best, but they will start to understand the pattern and get some great results.

When they are done, they can decorate them further with markers, crayons, or glitter and hang them around the house.

With all of these activities, there are steps you can take to supplement the work. Have your children read books about a musician, watch a YouTube video about printmaking, and catch some of their own snowflakes on black construction paper, if possible.

While these activities may seem simple, they are fun and can span over a few different age groups. You may even find yourself making a few paper snowflakes along the way.

MindFinity Helps Kids Learn Through Games & Projects

Our award-winning program helps your children expand their brains and learn polymath thinking skills while dancing, singing, doing martial arts, and moving around! You get a new game for each day of the week, which takes a few minutes a day. And you can expand on the games and have your child put their imagination to use and expand on projects that they are already doing. You’ll get some fun ideas as well!

Interested in learning more? To learn more about MindFinity and sign up for a free trial, click here.

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Parenting

9 Tips To Raise A Smart Kid

Want to raise a smart kid? We all do – no one really wants to have a kid that performs below average. In the past, raising a smart kid meant enrolling them in hard-to-get-into preschools and hiring private tutors, but being above average in school isn’t what will give them the edge anymore. 

Instead, there are some little things that you can do on a daily basis to raise kids that are precocious, inventive, and of course smart. Some of the small things you can do include:

Pay Attention When They Fall Behind

Children aren’t going to get every single thing they learn on the first day. They need a support system in place for when things get hard. 

If you think your child has fallen behind, it may benefit them to receive some extra help from you. MindFinity takes only a few minutes every day and can help you connect with your child and discover how they learn best, which can give them an edge in almost every subject.

Have Them Join A Sport

Children who participate in extracurricular activities have incentives to be “smarter” at least on paper. They are more likely to keep their GPAs higher once they get into middle school and high school because they want to be eligible to play those sports.

Set Expectations That Are High

As soon as your child starts going to school, you want to let them know that your expectations are high. They need to do their work to the best of their ability and everything should be checked. This doesn’t mean that mistakes cannot be made, but expect the best.

Teach Social Skills

Book smarts only go so far, they can’t replace social skills. Teach your child how to take responsibility for their actions, share, work on a team, and resolve problems. This will help them to be well rounded in their intelligence.

Ensure They Don’t Get Tracked Too Low

Once your child hits a certain grade in school, they will be put into a “track.” You want to ensure that they aren’t comfortable in their track unless they are in the highest track the school offers. Public schools typically offer three or four different tracks for students of different abilities. 

If your child is placed in a track that is too easy for them, or even at their level, they may get lazy and won’t excel.

Read A Lot

One of the best things that you can do with your child is read to them for at least 15 minutes every day. It doesn’t have to be Russian literature or Shakespeare. The love of reading is created at a young age and they will learn so much from books. 

Model What You Want To See

Your child will look to you for how to be and act within the world. If you want them to be smart, you need to be smart yourself. This means you read books, learn new things, watch interesting movies, and continually make lifelong education a part of your daily routine. 

Start Teaching Them Early

While it is important to allow your kid to be a kid, you can start teaching them the basics of reading and math at an early age. You can buy toys that will teach them the basics of pattern recognition, letter recognition, counting, and colors, which will give them a boost when they start school.

Do Not Be A Helicopter Parent

We live in a world where you need to be extra protective of your children, but try to let them go out on their own as much as possible. You want your child to develop resourcefulness and independence as well as intelligence.

Use MindFinity To Help Them Get Ahead (And Stay Ahead)

Children who can spot patterns and quickly make connections, use analogy and can apply thinking algorithms, learn faster.  

Those who build these specialized skills will likely enjoy school more than their peers. This is because when you teach through play, you are taking away a ton of the pressure that they feel. By taking just a few minutes every day to play MindFinity games with your child, you can make school easier for your child, and learning, faster.

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. 

Categories
Parenting Schooling

Develop Pattern Recognition Skills

Patterns are fundamental in nature. They surround us, whether in books, sports, games, music, or otherwise. That’s why developing strong pattern recognition skills at a young age is crucial in preparing the mind to be more active and more powerful.
MindFinity focuses on the development of four key components of polymath thinking; pattern recognition, pattern design, analogy, and real-time composition.

At its core, pattern recognition is the process of training ourselves to spot trends. As we age and gain critical thinking skills, pattern recognition skills can help us to make decisions, and eventually our brains naturally recognize patterns and learn from them. This allows us to sort objects and situations in the mind and determine the next steps we should take.

For example, we use pattern recognition when we drive. We are aware of traffic patterns and how they play into the rules of the road. We know (or at least we should know) the first person who goes at a four-way stop, that yellow lights will always turn red, and how to use a roundabout. Even if we drive on roads that we have never been on before, we can still safely navigate by relying on our knowledge of traffic patterns.

Without these abilities, it would be impossible for us to get from place to place. Patterns allow us to get through life and understand the things that we encounter. We are able to make educated choices.

In the same way, our understanding of patterns can help us navigate unfamiliar territory. MindFinity’s method of knowledge transfer trains your child to take the patterns they learn in one field into new subjects in order to accelerate learning. By placing an emphasis on play and exploration, MindFinity’s games speed learning through analogy. How can swimming be like painting? How can Karate translate into music? This sort of knowledge transfer is just one of the skills that MindFinity’s games will help your child learn. Go to our Getting Started Facebook member community to learn more.

What Are Pattern Recognition Skills?

Pattern recognition is the ability to recognize emotional, intellectual, and physical patterns, and articulate how they connect. Of course, this is helpful in many different subject areas, particularly as children are learning.

Pattern recognition can be used to classify data, predict the future, problem solve, and more. Nearly everything we do on a daily basis revolves around patterns in some way, from the things we do when we wake up in the morning, to the way we get work done, to the ways we settle down at night.

Types of Pattern Recognition Skills

Throughout everything we do, there are patterns. There are different types of pattern recognition skills.

Patterns in Art: The ability to explain differences and similarities is at the heart of any practice of pattern recognition. Children will likely have the easiest time spotting patterns in art. At MindFinity, one of our earliest games asks kids to notice and begin to articulate the difference between a triangle and a square. We then ask our kids to fill the shapes with two colors, then redraw the shapes and swap the colors. This helps children understand visually how to recognize and design their own patterns. You can spot this one easily as they grow, because you will see them drawing lines or circles on paper.

Patterns In Math: Of course, most people think about the patterns we approach from a mathematical perspective. Solving mathematical problems, spending money, and determining budgets all require a nuanced capacity to recognize and explain patterns.

Patterns in Music: Music is composed of repeated patterns and those who recognize these patterns tend to be better at playing and composing music. This is because once we learn the components of music we can imitate the patterns we hear and teach ourselves to play.

Patterns in Language: At developmental ages, children learn language largely through imitation. In this way, children learn manners and the means by which to behave. While English is a difficult language to learn, there are patterns in it. Every language bears traceable patterns that help us to remember when and how to formulate ideas. These things can seem obvious to those that know the rules – when to add a feminine ending in Spanish, when to add an -es to make something plural in English, or when to put an accent over a letter in German – but for children who are acquiring language, it can be difficult to articulate these patterns. However, by reinforcing the skill of imitation and by giving children the tools to recognize patterns of grammar, they can take on new languages faster..

Patterns in Emotion: Children need to be able to learn what types of statements make people upset, what happens when they do something wrong, and how to protect themselves against emotions. For example, they need to learn that if they misbehave in the classroom during the day, they may face a punishment (some might not get to eat dessert that night). Or they may learn that if they are mean to a child on the playground other children might not want to play with them. Once they begin to recognize these patterns, they can navigate life while instructing themselves and become successful.

MindFinity prepares your child to utilize the recognize the patterns in each of these domains and to utilize them as polymath thinkers, able to competently use the strength of their artistic talents in math and vice versa. As automation and AI forever alter the world’s job market, the acquired skill of polymath thinking will prepare your child to become an innovator. Click here to get started playing games.

Why Is Pattern Recognition Important?

Pattern recognition skills build on your child’s thinking process and strengthens their ability to understand shapes, sequences, and systems. Having these skills means that young students can grow and focus their imagination into the development of innovative ways of thinking.

Pattern design, analogy, and real-time composition are all essential skills needed for polymath thinking too – all of which your child will acquire through our program as they move patterns from one discipline to another.

One of the reasons that computers have started to take jobs away from people is because computers are about to use pattern recognition to automate simple repeated tasks. However, computers can only imitate existing patterns, it is difficult for them to discover new one.

When it comes to spotting patterns in emotional responses, unique situations, and in newer areas, computers haven’t had the time or ability to collect data that allows them to predict. The jobs of the future will be for those who are able to utilize polymath thinking to creatively design new patterns.

Pattern recognition is so important for children because it helps with:

  • Recognizing and classifying concepts
  • Identifying solutions to problems
  • Developing autonomy in the thinking process
  • Working with Other People to find creative solutions.

How Does MindFinity Help With Pattern Recognition?

To develop pattern recognition skills, it is crucial to introduce new concepts a little at a time and then expand on them. The micro-games on MindFinity start out very simple, but become increasingly more complex. We start with patterns of two, and then three. Once we master the various permutations, and learn to move them more rapidly across disciplines, we then begin to combine them in more challenging ways.

Being able to recognize patterns, redesign them, and apply them to new fields is at the heart of this practice. In as little as five minutes, your child will be able to translate an arrangement of shapes into a musical sequence. After a few weeks, they’ll know how to translate this same sequence into karate, cooking, dancing and more. The best part is that this is all achieved through play.

MindFinity’s games are designed to make learning a joy by giving parents a methodology that only requires 5 minutes of play every day. MindFinity asks you and your family to access polymath thinking on a daily basis in order to prepare your child to cultivate multi-talent acquisition. This skill prepares the mind to see similarities across disciplines and recognize how the mathematical possibilities can lead to creativity. As your child develops his or her Inventive IQ, the ability to recognize similar patterns across a variety of disciplines becomes second nature. This ability will be vital as tomorrow’s job market increasingly gives way to automation and AI. Instead of worrying if your child is being prepared for the future, give them the tools to become the innovator of tomorrow.

MindFinity also connects you with a community of like-minded parents who are giving their children an edge in the future. Our member community serves as an invaluable resource to see how other families have adopted this award-winning methodology. Eventually, you’ll be able to create your own games and share them, seeing how other families are playing.

With short practices every day, your child can expand their way of thinking and grow into the creative problem solver they were meant to be.