Take the pointer finger of your right hand and draw a large, imaginary figure eight on it's side on the wall.  Make sure you're crossing over your mid-line, moving your finger way over to the left and then, over to the right.  Do this three times with each hand, and then three times with both hands.  It will help you and your child focus more and remember better what you read.   more »

Paul and Gail dennison have written a small, paperback book, Brain Gym.  In it is an exercise called "gravity glider."  It not only helps with reading comprehension, it's good to do after sitting at the offie all day and before playing in a sports event like baseball or soccer.

Sit on a chair or sofa.  Cross your ankles.  keeping your knees relaxed, bend forward and reach out in front of you with straight arms.  Let your arms glide down toward your feet as you exhale.  Glide arms up as you inhale.  Repeat, moving arms to the left and up, right and up, and then center.  Change your legs and repeat.  For most people, their body feels lighter and more relaxed.

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Another brain gym exercise from Paul and Gail Dennison's book, Brain Gym, is called "Thinking Caps."  It's good to do to help your child (and you) improve attention and listenting.   Gently unroll your ears, three times from top to bottom.  Start at the fold of the ear at the top and gently use your fingers to unroill the fold on both ears at the same time.   more »

You can help your child do better on tests by showing uim or her a brain gym activty called the cross crawl.  It's fun to do it with music in the background for fun.  I've had kids skip to the music.  When the left foot is off the ground, the right hand is in the air.  When the right foot is off the ground, the left hand is on the air.  This takes concentration and practice for some.

This gets both sides of the brain working together and will help you feel more open to learning new things and being relaxed.

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Brain Gym, written by Paul and Gail Dennison, is a small, paperback book loaded with exercises you can do with your child to help the brain function more effectively.  I'll be sharing some of the exercises with you ovr the next few entries.

Brain gym exercises have been developed that help with:

reading skills

writing skills

math skills

thinking skills

self awareness skills

study skills

Successful parenting happens when you can help your child to focus better on school work or tasks and to use both sides of the brain together to improve thinking abilities, which will always help with school work.

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