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For the parents who don’t have the time or energy to do everything, it can be difficult to complete all the activities from the right brain education home practice guidelines. If you find yourself in this situation, Ruiko Henmi from Heguru suggest these as the top three activities (in this order) that you should focus on.
1. Reading
Reading to your child is one of the most important activities you can do with your child. As mentioned in 10 Rules for Developing the Right Brain, make sure you read with expression.
How many books a day? If your child enjoys reading together, you should read as much as your child will permit. If not, try to follow these suggested guidelines:
- The Read Aloud Handbook encourages reading three books a day – one new, one old, one favourite.
- Shichida recommends targeting five books a day. Although it is not stated what kind of books, I believe this target refers to picture books.
Why Focus on Reading?
There is plenty of evidence to show that:
- Reading makes children smarter
- Reading helps children to develop emotional intelligence
- The earlier you start, the easier it is
Emotional self-control – delaying gratification and stifling impulsiveness – underlies accomplishment of every sort.
Daniel Goleman
See also: Should I Teach My Baby to Read?
Getting Started
Teach your baby to read with the following resources:
- Doman Reading Flashcards – our free downloadable resource.
- Little Reader – complete flashcard reading program by BrillKids.
2. FlashCards
This is the second most important activity to do at home with your child. The recommendation is:
- 100 to 150 flash cards a day.
- Never repeat the same set twice in a day.
- Split up the session if your child can’t sit still for long enough to get through all the cards in one sitting, e.g. 50 cards in the morning, 50 cards in the afternoon, 50 cards before bedtime.
- Flash each set of cards no more than 4 times.
- Read out the flash cards in your own voice rather than have a recorded voice.
- Flash as quickly as you are able without fumbling.
Although Shichida has always said quantity over quality, Ruiko Henmi believes that the quality of your flash cards is important. Flash cards serves two purposes:
- to activate the right brain.
- to populate the right brain with knowledge (give your child quality information that is correct).
Getting Started
Download our free resources:
3. Memory Activity
Work on memory activities such as linking memory, space memory, or mandala. Whichever activity your child favours, that can be the activity of your focus.
Learn more about Memory Activities
Nice.