Play Games
Encourage your child to play games like Chess. Every game of Chess is different from the previous game. This teaches your child to look at any problem from various angles, and to learn that there can be numerous approaches towards solving a problem. On the other hand, skill games require you to perform the same steps at the exact same time, throwing you into a mental rut and narrowing your approach to problem solving. Thus your brains become naturally more flexible with strategy games.
Games of strategy such as Monopoly, Scrabble, Battleship, etc. encourage thinking and exercise brain cells. Your child's problem solving abilities and critical reasoning skills will get sharpened. Similarly, solving puzzles and quizzes will sharpen your child's brain and will keep him alert. Memory games will, as advertised, improve your child's memory. On the whole, games that require your child to think, will improve his mental skills far more than simple skill games, which focus more on hand-to-eye coordination.
Connect With your Child
Nurture a close and affectionate relationship with your child. Make eye-contact when you are communicating with one another. If you only pretend to listen, your child will realise you are not truly interested and will cause him to shut off. Knowing without a doubt, that his parents love him and respect what he has to say, provides a child with a safety net which allows his mind to focus on other things such as observing and learning. Moreover, if your child shares a strong bond with you and your spouse, he will want to please you. If you demonstrate how important learning and observing new things is important to you, your child will become more interested in learning more in order to please you from a very young age. . Talking about your day and asking him to tell you about his, will make him think more and come up with new observations about an otherwise mundane day, thereby increasing his thinking powers.
Adequate Sleep
It is imperative that your child gets a minimum of eight hours of sleep a day to boost his brain power. After a day of studies, your child needs a good night's sleep to ensure what he has learnt stays rooted in his brains. Extensive research shows that when one sleeps less, their powers of recollection are weakened.
Revision
After school or tuition, your child should make it a point to revise what he has learnt. If he only studies last minute, chances are that he remembers little of what was taught in class. But if he comes home and revises his class work even for a very short time, he will register it and remember it for longer.
Salt
Cutting down salt from your child's food can also speed up your child's powers of recall, especially if your child is overdosing on sodium intake. A teaspoon of salt per day should be all a child needs to take in per day. If your child has more salt than this, you should cut it down. Remember that all tastes are acquired. If you put your child on a low salt diet from the outset, he will stick to eating foods low in salt - at least for a while. And later on, in adult life when he decides he needs to cut back on salt, he will find it easier to do so.
Aluminium
Make sure the water your child is drinking is pure. In India, water needs to be boiled and filtered before it is drunk, so make sure you do so. Drinking water with traces of aluminium can cause the brain to deteriorate over the years. If you live in a country where it is safe to drink tap water, in any case attach a filter to the tap to remove all traces of aluminium. Also, avoid wrapping food in tin foils. It is not bad for health, but it is possible that it causes damage over an extended period of time.
Yoga
Yoga, especially breathing exercises, can make a world of difference to your child's mental and physical well being. Yoga teaches your child techniques to relax and find inner peace and fulfillment which empowers them to face obstacles in life with more ease. It improves flexibility, body strength and coordination and makes one more aware of their body. It calms the mind by relieving all stress, betters concentration power, promotes better memory and makes one more careful of their thoughts, actions and words. Even fifteen minutes of yoga a day should help, so encourage your child to take it up.
