Need some tips to help boost the brains of your children before they start school? You have come to the right place. We are all looking to give our kids the edge in making sure that they can get their best grades possible. There are some things we can do to ensure this. Here are some tips:
Back to School Brain Boosters
Get Physical
After your child comes home from school, instead of having them immediately go and work on homework, make sure that have some free time to wind down. That can be running outside or playing on the monkey bars. Exercising is not only healthy for their bodies, but it also can boost their brain power as well. Many studies have shown a link with healthy, exercising and better grades, especially in math. Physical activity helps the brain improve its structure and function. When your body exercises, it helps increase the blood flow to your brain. This will help trigger the release of brain growth factors, endorphins, and neurotransmitters. Exercising will help your child reach their academic potential.
Sleep
Another big brain booster is making sure that your child is getting all the sleep they need. This is to ensure that they are always going down for the night at a decent time so that they can wake up the next morning feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day. It is also through sleep that our brains that reinforce learning are consolidated. It helps us remember important information and helps us increase our learning potential. You can take in a lot more information. So make sure that everyone is getting their Zzzzs.
Food
What you eat also plays a significant role in boosting your brain. Having too much sugar can negatively impact on what you are trying to learn. It sabotages the chemical connections between your brain cells that are needed for memory and learning. Always make sure that your children are eating healthy amounts of Omega-3s. Omega-3s are a miracle nutrient that is vital for brain growth and development. They strengthen these chemical connections and help each brain cell transmit signals to one another. What foods have Omega-3s? Oily fish such as salmon, mackerel and trout have a large abundance of these nutrients. If your children are not huge fans of fish, another excellent food choice that has omega-3s, but is less potent is tofu, walnuts, flaxseed, avocados, and humus. Omega-3 fortified foods include eggs, peanut butter, and milk. It is also important that your child takes a vitamin every day. A multi-vitamin helps contribute to brain function and can also help boost your child’s brain.
Quiet Time
Put the electronics away. Not only are they distracting with all the social media that is out there they also don’t do a good job at committing information to memory. There have been various studies that show that when people write things down physically that it helps commit it to memory a lot better. The movements help encodes a more complex motor memory than if we had typed it on the computer. Even writing it in the air, helps it commit to memory better than typing it out. This may be because writing it out physically takes longer than typing it on the computer, giving the brain, sometimes to process and reinforce the information.
Don’t Get Soft
A big back to school brain booster is making sure that their minds don’t go soft during the summer. A summer is a long time for kids to go without learning anything, and when they get back to school, it can be a hard adjustment. Make sure that instead of watching TV every day that they are also doing some brain thinking activities as well. Take an hour each day to make sure that they are learning new things and keeping up with what they learned the previous school year. There are many printables located online that is easy to access and have each of your kids do. It can be a rule that they have to complete a bit of school work before they play for the day. Also, instituting reading every day helps keep the brain working. Not only will it help develop their reading skills they will learn new things and hopefully develop a love for the written word.
Most importantly, give your kids right spirit. This means making sure that have a realistic sense of hope and optimization. We do this by always giving them positive reinforcement and recognizing their talents. Students that have more hope and optimistic attitudes have reported having higher grades. Always make sure that your kids know that they are loved and that they have a good sense of self. This will not only help them in their academic life but for the rest of their lives.
More Back to School Ideas:
Back to School Brain Boosting Food
Back to School Time Savers for Moms
Getting Organized for Back to School
We have had to have the kids cut back on electronics to get more sleep and study time. They hate it, but it is best for them in the long run.
These are great ideas! I like the quiet time one, too – great for parents AND kids LOL
Getting enough sleep is totally under rated. It is so important.
These are great tips. I did apply some when my daughter was in school….now she is off to college,
All excellent points! I agree with all of them but my favorite 2 points are about a good diet and not letting the brain go soft in the summer!
These are great tips for me my son would start schooling next year so i was preparing him step by step. i love your post.
It’s so important to make sure that your child gets enough sleep during back to school. I enforce a strict bedtime on school nights.