Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Photo Memory Training (part 2)

As Valerie gets older, her memory retention power is also improving. I've now added 2 more objects to her Photo Memory Training.

Looks like she can remember all of them :D

Monday, July 4, 2011

iPad

I don't know how to begin writing about iPad. I never thought we needed this gadget but Ivan has been pestering me to get one. Reason being: Good educational value for Valerie. It wasn't until our recent trip to Redang and we figured we needed something to keep Valerie seated throughout the plane journey that I agreed to look at this gadget.

When we got into the Machines shop and let Valerie played with one of the baby games, we saw how quickly she took on the game. And yes, she knows the one big round button at the side is to switch off whatever she didn't like playing. Same concept as iPhone I guessed.

Needless to say, we bought the iPad and she sat through the journey to Redang blissfully. Ivan has been downloading loads of games / educational apps for her and I'm surprised how fast she's learning from this thing.

I've video captured her on a few apps below. Pretty impressive considering she's only 2 and a half.

Playing Memory Game - 6 cards


Playing Memory Game - but shooing daddy away. Shy, don't want to let daddy see in case she fails.


Memory Game of 10 cards - takes a bit longer but she manage to finish it


Sorting Colour


Cover Orange - how she learns to play Cover Orange really puzzles me. She observes how we played this IQ game and then demands that we show to her step by step. Then she repeats and repeats until she gets it...


Love, Affection and Knowledge

Earlier this year, Heguru founders have mentioned some changes happening in June. One of it is a short talk by the sensei on RB development. I've actually forgotten about it until we were told to stay behind after Valerie's class to listen to a short talk by the founder.

It turned out to be a video clip of Mr Henmi talking to us on 'Love, Affection and Knowledge'. It was in Japanese with English translation. As Valerie was bouncing up and down, I tried to grasp as much as I can what was being shown on the video. Here is a very short summary of what I can remember.

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Love, Affection and Knowledge


Many parents like to emphasise children on education. When a child is forced on knowledge, her heart will be closed. When heart is closed, she will not feel the affection and the brain cannot develope to its fullest potential.

There are 2 aspects of Love

1. Physical Touch - give your child a lot of hugs and cuddles. She will be able to feel your love towards her.

2. Words of Affection - always smile to them, telling them everything is alright.

When Love grows, Affection will grows too. Then the mind will be open to Knowledge

Heguru Founders Were Here

The Heguru founders were here in Malaysia for 2 weeks in March. They came to give parenting talk and conducted a workshop for older children. And mainly to train up the teachers and upgrade their level. I attended the parenting talk. Personally I couldn't understand why I still had to pay RM150 for the talk considering classes were cancelled for that week with no replacement?

The talk was pretty enriching, although the founders could only speak Japanese, there was an English translator. When the talk started we were shown a video of a kid flipping books after books in a bookshop. We're told that she's wave reading, meaning she could finish reading a book in seconds just by flipping through. And that is the goal of right brain training. When a child can wave read, it means the child's right brain is fully developed.

Well, I could hear gasps around the room. Like other mommies, I couldn't help but to think if this is possible? One of the mommy asked Mrs Henmi what is the success rate in Japan. With no hesitation, she said 85%. As with more training, the right brain will open up more and more. When the right brain is developed, the child can perform wave reading. From young up to 12 years, we should focus on developing a lot of method. Above 12 years is to teach how to apply the method.

Before the talk ends, she showed us the '10 Rules of Right Brain Training':
1. Believe - understand information about Right Brain and believe in the child
2. Attend Lesson - open up the Right Brain and listen to lecture
3. Read story book
4. Stay next to student where RB is developed - Theory of talent formation site
5. Do fun and exciting thing - When a child is happy, the RB is open
6. Develope left brain without pushing hard - left brain required to strengthen right brain
7. Self Esteem is developed - do not scold for lack of ability, but for misbehaviour (should start at 2 yrs old), do not scold the child by mentioning name but scold the wrong behaviour
8. Need patience, suffering & worry - state of heart is required for growth, hard to develope RB if spoilt. I think it means we should not spoil our kids here. We should raise kids who are considerate and willing to share (should start 2-3 yrs old)
9. Fully absorb positive comments from parents, teachers and people around - encouragement will tell them to do better next time and have positive thinking, build high self esteem
10. Develope the Heart - RB strongly affected by the heart, hard to develope RB if heart is not good, so should stress on heart education