Parenting—Raising Smart Kids

||Learning is a Human Virtue—Curiosity is the Mother of Knowledge.

Our Next Generation || Realizing The Dreams

Life is fun, freedom and adventure – sort of hectic and erratic. That is, until we are bestowed with our first Little One – Every thing in our life changes at that milestone. Forget the fun and freedom, the entire objective of life takes a new meaning. Now, it is about securing the future.

Once settled down with children, the focus shifts to ensuring the success of these little ones. We all want to provide the best to our children. We want them to be healthy, energetic and high achievers – We want them to be recognized as smart, intelligent and gifted – We want them to excel and outshine the rest. We envision Elite Schools lining up and competing among themselves to entice our kid to their campuses.

These are The Wishes and The Dreams of all (almost!) the parents. But, unless you are an experienced parent, you have a daunting task at hand and you will need all the help and advice coming your way from the experienced hands to realize your dreams.

Further, to make your task a bit more complicated, you also have to consider the fact that the task of materializing your dreams is also a tall order and a lot of demand on your children. They will need all the help and support from you to achieve the high objectives that you have set for them.

It is a BIG and challenging undertaking.

But, like with any complex project, the task of raising Smart Kids can be broken down into smaller, simpler and manageable components. The key to success is in recognizing the fact that your job is, in essence, to provide the needed support, clear the obstacles that may come in front of your kids and ensure the right environment for them to bloom. Given the right environment, kids are naturally primed for success.

The kids will achieve success on their own if you just focus on providing them the essential elements and maintaining the right environment needed for them to bloom to their full potential – Just follow and implement our tested and proven guide to raising self-motivated, disciplined and smart kids. It is easy, simple and natural.

And, here is our tested ‘recipe’ to “Raising the Smart Kids” – Primed for Success:

Recognize & Respect:

Recognize the fact that it is your children who are the Real Players here – You are only the facilitator! It is their game – Let them play it. Provide them with all the support – Be a good coach – But, don’t try to play the game for them. Respect them, nourish them and pay heed to their needs.

The need for Nutrition & Energy:

Children’s growing bodies and the process of learning requires an abundance of nutrition and a lot of energy. The Brain itself is a major consumer of energy – it cannot function properly if energy is in short supply.

But, even though the brain is at the top of our physical and command structure, it is at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to the hierarchy of energy demand and consumption. The needs of vital organs and the body itself supersede the needs of the brain – It is nature’s mechanism to ensure survival – And, as a consequence of this natural mechanism, when children don’t get enough nutrition, it is the brain that gets short changed first.

So, when you notice your child cranky, irrational, lacking in attention and unable to focus – recognize that these symptoms may very well be the signs of a brain starving for energy.

Every parent wants to provide the best food to their children. But, most of the times, it translates into munchies and, junkies that are heavy on sugar, sweeteners and other unhealthy substances and are short on nutrition – you can call them Fake Foods. These fake foods are the prime cause of children being lethargic, short on energy, attention span and mental alertness – they may be loaded and bloated with these fake foods, but still starving for nutrition.

To keep them healthy and energized, provide them wholesome and nourishing food. You will be amazed to see them calm and focused again.

Presented below is a ‘Template’ to help you tailor a daily food plan to keep your kids healthy and energized:

Breakfast: Lightly cooked Eggs (Free Range hens) + Milk (from Grass Fed cows or, at least, organic) + a piece of Whole Wheat bread – Will provide protein & sustainable energy.
Snack 1: Fresh seasonal Fruits.
Lunch: Meat & Chicken (Free Range & Grass Fed animals) + Whole Wheat Bread + Fresh Salad and Vegetables.
Snack 2: Nuts & Seeds – Almonds, Walnuts, Raisins, other Nuts & Sunflower Seeds.
Additional quenching: Give a shot to Milk-shake or Smoothies – kids will love it.
Dinner: Should preferably consist of mostly fresh vegetables, legumes, whole grain pastas or rice.
Night Supper: Milk & a banana or chocolate milk will do the job.

Rest and Plenty of Sleep:

Right after nutrition comes the need for Rest & Sleep – The growing bodies and brains of children need an ample amount of sleep (8 hours minimum) to process and acquire new knowledge and to function properly. Children’s cranky behavior and tiredness are the indicators that they are not getting enough rest and sleep. Make sure that they enjoy sound sleep and are properly rested.

Reason & Logic:

Children are more reasonable and logical than we the grown-ups give them credit for. They listen to and pay heed to logic and reasoning. Arbitrary demands and commands, on the other hand, only make them confused – and, when they ask for clarifications and explanations, most parent consider it a challenge to their authority! Please recognize that it is a natural human response. No need to get angry at them – they are not trying to be disobedient, they are simply asking for the logic and reasons for the demand.

Whatever you want them to do OR not do, provide them with logical reasons for doing it OR not doing it. Encourage them to freely discuss and debate all the relevant points and issues – show them that you do respect them. Don’t force them, convince them. You will be pleasantly surprised with the result.

So, Do as I Do:

As an extension to the rule of Logic & Reasoning, please realize that Children do mimic their parents. Be a Role Model for them. If you wish them to respect their time and be productive, set an example – Do not expect them to diligently do their home work and study while they observe you lazily wasting your time watching TV! As parents, we do make many adjustments and sacrifices, making our children do the right things by example of our own actions is one of them.

Virtues of Discipline & Time Management:

By Reasoning, Logic and parental examples, children can be made to appreciate the beauty in discipline and order. More than adults, children dislike chaos – It is easy to make them see that discipline is essential to avoiding a state of chaos. They will notice that many amenities and essentials that they love to enjoy will disappear in a state of chaos.

You can help them organize their lives. Time Management is an essential element to incorporate discipline in their lives. Help them organize their weekly and daily schedule – do not just dictate, bring in consensus – incorporate study time along with fun and rest time for them. Involve them in planning and organizing their own lives – But, make them understand that once agreed and accepted, the timetable and the schedule is there to be followed.

The Joys of Responsibility:

Once children recognize that they are being treated with respect, they naturally learn to behave with a sense of responsibility. You can further reinforce their feeling of responsibility by subliminally pointing that they are being treated with all due respect – And, that respect carries with it the burden of responsibilities. They have to recognize that they are going to grow up and have to prepare for it. Make them understand that as a parent it is your responsibility to ensure that they are ready for success in their adult lives – and you take your responsibilities very seriously.

Reward for Discipline and Following their Schedule:

Children need encouragement from parents – reward is a recognition of achievements – It encourages them to perform at their best. Beside praising them for sticking to their own schedule, let them note that their fun-time (and any other treats) is a reward for doing their part of the job well.

And, by all means, Get Involved:

Make yourself a part of your kids’ school work. Make it your job to check on your kids’ home assignments each and every day. Make sure that they are doing their homework diligently. Note if they are facing any difficulty in any subject – help them or seek help for them at the earliest sign of weakness. Do not let them fall behind – class pace is fast and there is hardly any time for kids to catch up.

Be on the radar of your kids’ teachers – Communicate with them regularly. Make them know that you are a “concerned Parent” and are very much involved in your children’s work at school.

And, until children reach high school age, make it a rule to be around your kids when they study and do their homework. Turning the the dining table into a study table is good idea.

Support When They Fall:

We understand that we all stumble and fall from time to time – So do kids. They need all the help, understanding and support from parents when they stumble and fail to achieve. Make them see that falling and failing is a natural process of learning and improving – the important thing is to learn from our mistakes and keep on correcting them as we go forward in life.

Help them face debacles and rise up again – Assure them that your love for them is unconditional and you will always love them.

And, Enjoy the Success of Your Children:

The process of raising Smart Kids is just this simple. There is a lot of fun, excitement and energy in positively getting involved in the lives of your own children. And, to top it off, the reward is immense – You will have the joy of seeing your children developing into intelligent, healthy, responsible and caring human beings. Life is fun. So is raising Smart and Intelligent children – Enjoy it.