Raising Smart Kids Archives

Focus On Additional Learning That Doesn’t Take Hours

Too often, parents who want to push their children in school will sign them up for additional classes, tutoring, or lessons that take at least an hour to complete. Kids have a lot going on in their heads and lives, and sometimes an hour is just too much. Instead, focus on shorter lessons and games that can help your child to learn more throughout the day.

MindFinity can help to add just a little bit “extra” to their day without overwhelming them. Our games take 5 minutes or less. If your kids want to keep going, which they often do, you can, by learning how to expand the games in dozens of ways. For more information about MindFinity, please click here.

Figure Out What Interests Your Child

Kids who are super smart often have a few areas that they excel in or find more interesting than other areas. Figure out what that is in your child and encourage them to learn as much as they can about it. For example, if your child loves science, encourage reading age-appropriate biographies of famous scientists. But don’t necessarily try to push reading on them. Instead, encourage them to read.

Use Incentives!

Sure, we all want our kids to succeed and push themselves just for the fun of it, but that doesn’t happen. Gifted children are often overlooked when it comes to praise and rewards simply because it is expected of them. Don’t do this! If your child gets a good grade on a project, makes straight A’s, or gets picked to represent the school in a spelling bee, reward them.

It doesn’t always have to be something physical – you can support your child with praise, time spent together, extra rest, or maybe a little freedom.

Know That They Will Struggle – And They’ll Need Help

Gifted kids tend to have areas of school where they struggle. Sometimes it is in art or music, sometimes it will be in sports, and other times it could be a specific academic subject. For example, kids who are smart in every academic area may struggle when it comes to long division. Even though they are struggling, teachers will often overlook their need for extra help because they don’t expect it.

Help your child succeed by not only paying attention and assisting when they struggle but teach them to ask for help when they need it. Gifted kids are sometimes afraid to reveal that they don’t understand something, and eventually that will compound and cause issues.

MindFinity Helps To Encourage Learning In Super Smart Kids

Even if your child is super smart, there is something to be said for allowing them to be a child and not pushing them too far. Even so, you want to nurture their natural curiosity and talent. It’s a very fine line to walk, and we know you may be afraid of gifted child burnout and other horror stories that you’ve heard.

MindFinity helps to encourage polymath thinking and can help to fill in some of the gaps that private schools may have. Your membership includes: unlimited access to the videos from Opher’s Toronto Parent Workshop where he teaches you the award-winning methodology, new games to play with your child released over time in the Games of Genius program, live online events, (membership to the private MindFinity Member Community on Facebook where you can share ideas, get help from certified trainers, and get inspiration from other super parents like you, announcements for upcoming live MindFinity events, and fun challenges.

We also offer the 5 Days of Play to get new members started with the program with the help of certified trainers.

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.