The exercise is an elementary one but very powerful nonetheless

Wargent talks about getting a brilliant recommendation on positivity from a friend- one which is worth its own weight in gold. Well! The advice is a fairly elementary one; it just talks about keeping fully positive for a period of 7 days without allowing a single negative thought to play with your brain. Of course, humans can’t keep the ever-so-persistent negative thoughts completely at bay and hence the exercise makes a concession- you can feed those thoughts for a period of 30 seconds, but no more at one time in any given case.

Be your own moral guardian

Also, you should dutifully acknowledge a goof up even if you do so on the final day of the exercise (after all, nobody else can find out that you erred). Harsh though it may sound, you would have to begin the whole exercise anew if you figure out that you have concentrated on a negative thought for more than 30 seconds (remember: even 40 seconds is an unpardonable goof up).

Wargent talks about this great advice citing that it can bring miraculous results in terms of sustained positivity. He also suggests that the decision to remain happy or sad is ours at any stage in our lives. You can read the original article here.

Great for parents and kids

I think that Wargent’s advice is a timely reminder of the need to be positive. These are very interesting times materialistically but somehow we are on the wrong slope of harmony. Our stressful lives create frictions of various kinds and often this friction spills into gloom and depression. If parents are not positive, they have a very little chance of keeping their children in high spirits. As an aside, such a state of mind may result in a gloomy home environment which invariably suffocates a child. Thus it is of utmost importance to invest one’s mind in such great exercises. This way, our positive attitude will create a wealthy impact on our young ones too.

I shared this with my kids and we’re currently on our 7-day challenge.  What are your thoughts on this? Have you done something similar before?

Children who are constantly yelled at lose out on their composure, and at any rate, do not turn out more obedient (the reason why they are yelled at in the first place).

Children cannot behave well every given time

In her article Ms Silver points out that parents yell because they have a deep-seated wish to see their children behave well all the time. However, no fairy can grant this wish. Children are children (aka people) and it is only befitting that they do not behave well every given time. Those children who behave disobediently, mischievously or rudely at times have a greater chance of being a dutiful adolescent.

Children are not satanic by nature

Also, yelling only invokes fear. It does nothing to constructively channel the energies of a child. Smart talking rather than yelling brings out the ‘cooperative angel’ from within every child. Children are not satanic by nature; they don’t wake up thinking “well! Let me make it a hell for my parents”. A child needs being trained in the right way. We, as parents, should take the right steps; be firm, authoritative, without raising our decibels.

Every child needs to be guided with a caring hand. Firmness and intensity of voice have no relation whatsoever.

• Sit with your children regularly, find out what is happening in his/her world.
• Find out what are their emotional triggers.
• Discover for what brings out their most creative energies.
• Find out if there is anything you can do to engage them more constructively.

My Take – In Times of Anger

We’ve all had it – a moment where our patience has run out, we’re tired and perhaps frustrated, too. That is the perfect time to disengage and step away. Anything we’d come up with at such a point is likely to be destructive. So it is much better to give ourselves (and your kids) a break, calm down and then deal with the problem. At the very least we should announce to our children that right now we are upset and/or likely to get angry, so they can deal with what we feel better, too.

Studies have shown that the best environment for a child to grow up in does not depend on the parents being authoritarian or completely “soft”. Rather, the key is that the parents are consistent.

If you can do all this, you will find that the amount of yelling you do should drastically reduce, possibly down to zero. For parents who keep yelling – soon your child will learn to tune out from your yelling and you will find yourself at the dry end.

Read the original article here.

What do you do when your patience runs dry?

The study aimed at finding how right channels can have a positive impact on children came up with heartening results. One group of parents was asked to stick to positive child-themed channels like Sesame Street while other group was not provided with any specific instructions. Both parent groups were asked to provide nutritional meals to their children. While healthy eating helped children of both groups, those children who viewed only the right channels showed more improvement. The change found wasn’t big but certainly perceptible.

Benefits for children from low-income groups

Over a short term, parents who hailed from low-income groups found maximum benefits for their children. This is especially relieving as these children are more vulnerable to become both culprits and victims. A point worth noting- Though the parents were not given any clue about the intention of the study, they would have got some hint nonetheless. This might have biased them to some extent thus skewing the results marginally.

Shutting off TV is not the solution

I have long believed that shutting off the television to reduce the bad influence of TV is a repressive technique. Lack of television can inhibit growth in many ways. Ideally, parents must take up the role of watchdogs. They have 2 main duties: The first is to ensure that their children do not watch violent or sexually explicit content. The second is to encourage positive channels like Dora the Explorer and Mister Rogers.

Don’t you feel positive channels can help in the overall development of your child?

There are 8 videos altogether. They talk about the concept of infinity, logarithms, Japanese multiplication, and so much more. Let us take up the videos one by one:

1. Minute physics

Nobody will be willing to put a bet that -1 can be the result of the Divergent Series 1+2+4+8+16…..and yet it is proven so by Minute Physics. The video explains how certain problems cannot be easily solved on the whole but by taking its many simplified parts one by one and then adding them, we can solve the complex puzzle relatively easily. Minute Physics has been able to prove the movement of electrons in a quantum field and also been able to detect the exact value of strength of electromagnetic force. This value has been found to be 7.29735256982.10^-3. Well Kudos! What else.

2. Doodling in Math class

This video says how we start doodling when Math classes become boring. However, each time we scribble a star on a sheet, we can take out some time to read the pattern. Doodling while factoring reveals how 5 point stars are the easiest to make. How 2 triangles can make up a 6 pointed star and 2 squares can make an 8 pointed star (2 pentagons a 10 pointed star and so on). In fact, any star with number of points divisible by 2 can be represented effectively by an asterix. And we thought doodling was all about creating useless objects while our mind was pre-engaged elsewhere?

3. How does math guide our ship?

The video talks about how even an imperceptible movement of half a degree could set sailors on a wrong track 5 centuries ago. With the arrival of clocks and sextants, things became easy but the inaccuracies were fully tackled only when John Napier came up with logarithms. His logarithm which used log (1) ≠ 0 was amended by Briggs who suggested about using base 10. Today logarithm uses log₁₀ (1) =0.

4. Math is Awesome and Infinity is bigger than you think

A Mathematics professor from Cambridge teaches in this educative video something that we need to know about listable infinity and real infinity. He starts by saying that infinity is not a number but a concept and it can acquire proportions according to your imagination. Infinity can be represented as integers, whole numbers, fractions, 10^th order decimal points and so much more.

5. Valentine’s Day for math’s nerds

This is a funny video which actually shows through graphs how we close in on bankruptcy as Valentine’s Day keeps closing on us.

6. Japanese multiplication

For many years, this has been the powerful tool used to multiply, divide, add or subtract very big figures. Would you not feel out of your wits if you had been given the task of multiplying 4251 with 567? The video shows how Japanese multiplication can solve the puzzle easily through a few intersecting lines placed vertically and horizontally.

7. Quick Math tricks for filmmakers

This one discusses F shots, Shutter Speed, 180 degree rule and Histograms. Math makes it easier for filmmakers to understand how much light can fit through a lens. It teaches how we can increase light 4 times just by doubling the diameter of the aperture. The Rule of Third is a great example for filmmakers who want to learn where to place an object. By using three vertical and three horizontal lines (intersecting each other), 9 boxes can be attained. An object should ideally be placed in one of the side boxes to get adequate leg and head room. At no rate, should you place the object in the middle box.

The 180 degree rule explains how you should always keep all your cameras on one side of the 180 degree axis (of your set). The video cites the example of a film where this was not followed and thus the two central characters involved in a dialogue gave the impression of looking in the same direction (and not at each other).

8. The utilities problem

Back to the same Cambridge professor and we get a practical explanation of the theory F+V-E=2 where F=faces, V=vertices or corners and E=edges of a three dimensional solid.

Well! As I said in the beginning, Math is awesome – it is hard to debate the sheer brilliance of such videos. If we place our trust in them, they can help us look at the fun side of mathematics.

Which video appealed to you most among them?

Over the course of next week, children were divided into two groups. One group was deprived of sleep by an hour while the other group was asked to sleep for an extra hour. The first scored an average of 54 while the second group averaged out at 47 (despite actually managing only 30 minutes of extra sleep). For such small fluctuations in sleep hours, parents and teachers observed a huge difference in a child’s behavior, mood swings and general agility.

Have you closely examined how an extra sleep-hour helps your child?

Children, in their formative years, are exposed to a lot of trash on television. In fact, the infographic (provided below) claims that each child witnesses two deaths on television each day. By the time a child is 18, he has a 30% extra probability of standing on the wrong side of law. Apart from violent programs, parents curse hundreds of commercials for promoting fast foods and silly habits.

Switch channels rather than shutting TV

This however is only one side of the coin. Parents must wake up to the fact that television can be very educative and aid in overall development of a child. Instead of turning off the television, parents only need to choose the channels wisely. Programs like Mister Rogers and Sesame Street are known for their positive impact on children. Not only do they increase a child’s attentiveness and reading capabilities, they also teach the importance of being responsible, less aggressive and more interactive to children.

Right channels may help in overall development

I feel that our education system does not work enough towards the overall growth of a child. It makes them cram stuffs, score higher percentages in exams but does not do much to prepare them for future. If parents allow children to watch the right channels, children can pick up things that make them future-ready. Such virtues may include but are not restricted to:

• Superior conflict resolution
• Higher interactive and analytical skills
• Successful Anger Management
• Successful discharge of responsibilities
• Placing higher value on achievement

Do you personally shut down the television or switch channels?

As a parent, we all would you like our children to live a fulfilled, happy life without major regrets. In this context, I have come across an interesting article recently which speaks about the major regrets that dying people generally have. I am pasting link to the original article here- http://www.inspirationandchai.com/Regrets-of-the-Dying.html

Those who have heard the knock of death wish to change so much about their lives if they are given another chance. The article talks about five common regrets of the dying.

• Almost everyone feels that they should have worked less madly and given more time to other meaningful pursuits.
• That they should have given enough time to their friends.
• That they should have allowed themselves more happiness.
• That they should have expressed themselves more freely on many occasions.
• That they should have kept away from the herd mentality (following the traditional norms).

These are all very important insights and we should definitely all take note, so we do not end up with deep regrets when it is time to go.

However, I beg to have a different take on this. I feel that life is a never-before experience. Someone has rightly said “Life is what happens when we are busy making other plans”. After all, we do not have any past lives to refer to. In absence of any rehearsal, we are bound to make mistakes in various events of life. This is why it might not be a great idea to rue our mistakes.

Actually, I have a small theory to why people start regretting a lot of things when death becomes imminent. Death is a bully. We try to live in denial of it before finally accepting it. However, we come across many emotions on the road to acceptance and regret is one such emotion. Here is an interesting thought: If somehow, the verdict of our death is reversed, won’t we keep living merrily the way we have lived thus far?

So, working further upon this theory, let us add a corollary: the beauty of life is that it allows us to make mistakes…correct them… leave them as they are…. move ahead…..stay with them. We can take our pick.

I think that there is limited gain in regretting our past. In fact it might not be too odd to state- If life is an occupation, mistakes are occupational hazards. We are imperfect by our birth and till our death we remain so. Is it a small achievement then that we manage to carve out a ‘whole life’ even with such imperfections?

What do you teach your children about living a fulfilled live?

It shows how physical exercises increase the volume of oxygen reaching our children’s brain and empowers their nerve cells. This way, such exercises make their brain more receptive towards studies. Their memory gets a boost, cognitive thinking patterns improve a lot and mental agility rises a few notches. Various researches prove the positive effect of physical fitness on school children.

Exercises like Resistance Training can enhance degree of concentration in children while aerobics can add to their abilities of multitasking or coordinating. Gymnastics, hiking, swimming and their likes can also increase the power of retention in our kids.

Here is the link to the original article: http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2012/09/28/physical-activity-improves-academic-performance.aspx

Have you noticed a positive impact of regular physical exercise with your kids?

The article talks about how we completely comply with the grammar police. If we use a word wrongly or inaccurately, someone (the grammar police) typically corrects us and we willingly accept the correction and carry on.  However, the same is not true when it comes to math.

That’s because typically nobody acts as the “math police” and corrects math mistakes or even attempts to.  In fact, we even boast publicly about how bad we are at math and how we fumble while adding up grocery items or split restaurant bills.

I personally feel that policing over math is secondary. What is more important is our personal understanding of the problem- one that comes from within. The article suggests that if we split a restaurant bill evenly as opposed to calculating everyone’s exact share, we are doing the wrong thing.

I beg to differ – it is merely a social mechanism that allows us to focus on the company of people rather than micro-management.

We are a well evolved species and if we aim to be good with letters, we should aim the same for numbers too. Mathematics is a crucial part of life that we as adults should continue to master, just as we want our children to.

So perhaps there is a need for a math police, if only to help us raise greater awareness that it is not always in our best interest to take math shortcuts or to publicly state our own ignorance rather than attempting to be accurate.

What are your views?

I forgot

Though this might just be the truth, you have to be doubly careful about it. It is very easy for children to get deviated. When you ask them why they failed to perform a chore- “I forgot” is their stock reply. It may be a smart idea to ask them to finish a work the moment you assign it to them. Sometimes, the work does not require being done immediately. For such chores or errands, you can always have them write down the job (and keep checking daily).

It is his/her turn

This is another racket that children run. To bail themselves out of a situation, they come up with excuses like “Its Anna’s turn to clean the attic” or “I did it the last time, John is supposed to do it this week”. It must be made clear to children that parents are not fools and if they feel that a child should do a work- even if out of turn- there must be a reason behind it.

It is his/her fault

Often children play the blame game to seek exit from a difficult situation. As parents, you should explain them- “Well! Your sibling might have ‘acted’ wrongly but you are the one who ‘reacted’ equally badly. So how are you any better?”

It is important to teach your child that they can always choose their reactions in life; well-judged reactions would make them responsible humans and poor ones would make them weak individuals- a person who always keeps finding an exit route.

Do you have any top excuses that you are dealing with?