2/12/2014

Activities That Boost Your Child's Brain Power

By Madeleine Bridgeman


While a healthy diet, plenty of exercise and sleep are important components for ensuring academic and personal success for your child, there are some fun activities that also can boost their brain power. These activities have been shown to improve academic performance as well as helping children focus and think more critically.

Chess is an activity that has been shown to have a positive effect in many areas. Obviously, learning chess will improve one's critical thinking skills, but it actually has been shown to improve verbal skills and mathematical skills. Many schools offer Academic Chess classes after school for a small fee and the instructors quickly teach children all the skills they need to play. This is a great lifelong skill that has been shown to possibly inhibit dementia and diseases such as Alzheimer's.

If you are searching for an easy way to improve brain function while enjoying more time with your children, consider establishing a weekly or bi-monthly game night. There are tons of board games out there to suit a child of any age, and most of them teach highly important skills. For instance, games such as Balderdash, Scrabble and Apples to Apples help improve verbal skills and vocabulary skills. Yahtzee, Pay Day and Monopoly improve math skills as well as teaching strategy. Jigsaw puzzles and games such as Boggle improve spatial reasoning. Of course, another benefit is that someone always wins and someone loses, so your children can develop into good sports or perhaps gracious winners.

You might think of Legos as only a colorful toy, but these plastic blocks are much more than a simple plaything. Children boost their creativity and improve their fine motor skills by playing with Legos. Even problem solving can become easier when you play with Legos. Your community or school might even have low-cost weekly Lego classes where children can work together to build structures and machines, and there are even Lego camps to help fill up those long summer months.

Music education has been shown to be highly connected to academic success, and taking music lessons can help teach children discipline, improve memory and boost self-confidence. If you don't think your child will enjoy a typical band or orchestra instrument, consider taking music lessons at a place such as Los Rios Rock School. Students there can learn acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, ukulele, keyboards, drums and even take vocal lessons. Of course, if your child plays violin, flute, clarinet, cello, saxophone, piano or any other type of instrument, lessons are available for these as well.

This school is different from many types of music schools because the monthly tuition includes an hour-long lesson as well as the experience of being part of an actual rock band. At Los Rios Rock School, students form bands and actually play real concerts at popular venues such as the House of Blues, the Coach House and Stillwater. Students from all over Orange County attend this school, so if you need San Clemente music lessons, Laguna Niguel music lessons or Dana Point music lessons, contact this San Juan Capistrano music school today.




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