Changing the way we learn
Historically, drilling seems to be the preferred method of education.  Some people think that when a child has enough things burned into their brain, then they are smart.  This is not smart; it is only a database.  An intelligent child is one who can take that information and use it to solve problems. Every year I have parents praise their child to me for what they know, but as a teacher, what I want to see is what they can figure out.  If they can figure things out when I am gone, the child can still learn.

So how do I prepare my child to figure things out?
Knowing how the brain works is probably the best tool to help your child to be successful in school (and it helps at home too!  I'll write more on that later). Think of the brain as a map.  From the time the brain starts forming, new roads are being drawn on their map.  Every new experience builds a new road (called an Axon) or  intersection (called a Dendrite). This road is a path for your child to get from point A to point B (i.e. problem solve) The more roads on your child's map, the easier and faster it is for for them to think. While we can still build new side roadways as an adult, for the most part all our highways are built as a child.

The bottom line:  IF YOU WANT AN INTELLIGENT CHILD YOU NEED TO ARRANGE FOR THEM TO SEE, HEAR, FEEL, TASTE AND SMELL NEW THINGS.

Is Memorization useless?
By no means!  In our map, analogy facts are like people that travel the roads.  Memorization is like building places for theose people to live.  OK, maybe I'm stretching the analogy.  The point is: we do need to have facts in our brain, but without pathways for the information to travel on, it just sits there as useless trivia. 

Anything New Has Value
   Most of the time it doesn't matter what the new experience is.  The brain is quick to take anything new and fit it into the map. An experience in jiggling Jello may just be the insight a child needs to understand fluid dynamics in college. Hearing rain on the roof of the car may help with rhythm or in  pronouncing "T" correctly.  Hearing Armenian spoken by grandparents makes the highway for learning Spanish later on.

Encouraging Specific Skills
If  there are specific skills you value, you can expose your child to new things in that area.  Do you want you child to talk sooner? --Talk to, and around, and with your child often.  Understand music?---Expose them to different rhythms, tempos, and styles of music.  Speak multiple languages? --Take them to international market places or rent cartoons in French.  Learn to read? --Read everything out loud around them (street signs, menus, TV captions)  Be better at math?  --Count everything, do puzzles, and bring math into your everyday life. Thirst for science?  Encourage your child to ask why, how, and when, and point out details.


Editor's Note: If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy: Endangered Minds: Why Our Children Don't Think