Posted on 28 Jan, 2009 -
11 Ways to Improve Your Intelligence and Make Your Kid a Genius
Set Free Your True Intelligence and Make Your Kids Geniuses
11 ways to free the power of your brain and learn to do anything brilliantly
A few months ago I bought a copy of Tony Buzan’s book, Brain Child: How Smart Parents Make Smart Kids.
Why? I guess because, like most parents, I want my children to achieve above-average academically, get great pleasure from their studies as I did, and one day become the Pulitzer, Nobel or even Orange prize-winning geniuses that I never was.
As it happens, while most people send their children to school with a basic knowledge of the alphabet before they start, both of my kids have run screaming from the room as soon as they even detected that look on my face that meant I was thinking about doing some ‘learning’. Perhaps that was why, in fact, I was initially very cynical of a book that I found a bit too happy-clappy, vague yet bushy tailed and woefully misguided in the belief that it is easy to make learning ‘fun’…
As you see, I don’t take failure well! I do, however, eventually come round to seeing the merit in most decent things so I have gathered here for you some of the ideas in the book (and a few other sources) that I thought were very interesting, useful and dare I even say inspiring…
1. Copying is actually one of the best ways to learn anything. Often we are told at school that copying is bad or cheating and of course in some situations this is true. You can’t learn to do your sums, for example, if you merely copy the answers that your maths genius neighbour has written down. If you copy his methods, however, you could be fast-tracking yourself to success. Indeed, this message that it is wrong to copy is one of the least helpful and positively hindering messages we may have got from school.
If you want to help your child or yourself to learn to do something well then one of the best places you can start is by copying people who are good at doing it. I have had a lot of success with helping my eldest learn to draw, for example, by getting her to copy illustrations from her reading books. I also once had a Spanish friend with impeccable English who had taught himself by consciously copying the speech of English people he talked to in bars.
“Copy from the best” says Buzon “and add your own interpretations.”
2. Play Chess. Mind sports are apparently a brilliant way of developing the brain. These include board games, card games, mental skills games and computer games. Draughts and Chess are particularly good and develop many useful skills including analytical thinking, creative thinking, concentration, independence, memory and social skills as well.
3. Learn to draw. By the age of 15, and for the rest of life, 95% of people falsely believe that they are innately incapable of drawing because of the experience they had in art classes at school. But don’t be put off by that failed attempt at drawing a vase, the cutting comments of a friend or that horrible yellow-ochre powder paint that depressed you as soon as you smelt it. Drawing or painting does take practice but all of us can do it if we try. As we saw in Point No. 1., the best place to start is by copying good drawings done by professionals. A great book that I picked up in a charity shop for my daughter is called How to Draw Anything. I notice that you can get it on Amazon for £3.99 and free postage.
4. Try not to restrict the person. As children, we are forever being told what NOT to do. “Don’t touch that!” “Don’t run” “Don’t be naughty!” for example. Or perhaps our parents haven’t had the time to pay sufficient attention to our creative attempts or chatter - or encouraged us enough in our abilities to be brilliant in certain areas of our studies. ("Your sister will be a performer.” and “You are the bookish one.” are words that still ring in my own ears and both, very interestingly, have come true...)
While some amount of discipline is necessary, of course, and parents are only human, many children are closed off from developing creativity or interests at an early age. Some of us still have the opportunity to encourage open-ended learning, exploration and intelligence in all areas in our own children. We ALL still have the opportunity to open up closed doors and boundaries in our own intelligence, skills and interests.
5. It’s never too late to become brilliant at mathematics. As we saw before with drawing, a lot of people wrongly believe that they are genetically not very good at maths. Again, often because of experiences at school. But this is certainly far from the truth.
Playing number games and making yourself work out sums in your head is a great way of freeing up your natural love of and ability to work with numbers. Another very helpful thing you can do for both yourself and your children is to practice estimating as the ability to estimate is a prime skill for good mathematicians. Set yourself or a child tasks such as estimating how many peas are in a cup - or how many bricks make up a wall.
6. Expand your mind by mining for gems in the minds of those around you. We can learn a lot about the world and gain a more intelligent outlook if we encourage the people we know to talk at length about their jobs or specialty interests. If you know a doctor, an amateur poet or a florist, for example, imagine how much you could learn by picking their brains for half an hour. Don’t be afraid to ask them loads of questions and show that you want to hear in depth answers. People are generally very happy to talk about their jobs and interests. Tony Buzon also recommends that one of the best things you can do for your kids is to assemble for them a “Mastermind Group” of experts in different fields who are willing to help them with their studies.
7. Improve your ability to remember things. Your brain deals with so many millions of pieces of information every day that it simply cannot remember all of it. Unless you point out to your brain that a certain piece of information needs to be retained then it will not be moved into the long-term memory.
Whenever you have a piece of information that you would like to remember, make a conscious decision to fix it in your memory. Spend some time thinking of the fact or memory you want to preserve and make a place for it in your brain. Make connections and associations between it and other pieces of permanent knowledge in your brain so that it has a firm place to reside. Reading aloud is also a good way of committing information to the memory. As is writing on yellow paper.
8. The more books you read, the more intelligent you will be! To get the most intelligence-boosting effect from your reading, however, it is important to read different kinds and styles of books that both challenge your mind and expand your knowledge. Books that teach you new fascinating things about the world are also a great way of keeping your love of life alive. Tony Buzon recommends that when helping small children to learn to read, starting with simple words is more effective than starting with letters.
9. Learn a new word every day. Your verbal thinking apparently is directly limited by the size of your vocabulary so the more words you know, the brighter your brain will be. A frightening fact I’ve just read is that some newspapers can practically be read with a vocabulary of around 100 words. These kinds of newspapers, therefore, are not a good place to learn new words. If you’re reading something more challenging, chose a word you didn’t know before and decide to learn it. Alternatively, I have spent many a happy hour searching for useful new words in the dictionary…
10. Look for beauty, wonder and fascination in the world - and encourage your children to do the same. The child that thinks mathematics is like doing amazing magic tricks is more likely to enjoy studying it and exceed. A person who is fascinated in other cultures and languages is more likely to do well at learning a new language. If you are passionate about life then you will be passionate about learning. Make the senses come alive for you and your child. Fill your lives with beauty and share your enthusiasm and passion for the world around you.
11. Eat dark chocolate! And last of all, something that won’t take much effort at all but is great for your brainpower. Eat between 20 and 150g a day to help your blood carry more oxygen to your brain so that you can think quicker for longer. The effect lasts for up to three hours. And yes, the chocolate does need to be dark.
Go geniuses go. Enjoy your brain. Enjoy your lives. And find joy in creativity.
