Last weekend, I met a former colleague and her 8-year-old son.
As soon as we exchanged a few pleasantries, she complained to me
Tell me, is my child too stupid? I don't let him go out to play, I don't let him worry about life, all the time is reserved for him to read and Xi, but this grade always can't go up. How can I get him to open his mind?I took a closer look at her son, who was supposed to be a lively and sunny age, but his face was listless, as if he had no interest in everything around him.
Even when his mother said that to my face, he acted like he didn't hear it.
This reminds me of the experience of Yang Xia, a psychology expert at Peking Union Medical College.
Over the past 30 years, she has treated more than 100,000 troubled children and found that:
The core reason why many children are not able to concentrate, procrastinate unconsciously, have a bad mood, and hate learning and Xi isExercisewithLaborThere is an overabundance of aspects.
Exercise is the best nutrient for brain developmentMs. Yang Xia has trained a graduate student at the University of Chicago.
When it comes to the experience of educating her son, one of the things she values most is taking her children to exercise.
She said that her son was not a genius, on the contrary, when he was a child, he was easily distracted, had poor coordination, and was emotionally sensitive, but she did not let her son attend any extracurricular classes.
Since her son was 4 years old, she insisted on taking him to climb the mountain, slowly extending from 2 hours to 4 hours.
Once, in the process of climbing the mountain, his son saw some stone tablets with engraved words, but he didn't know those words, so he burst out with the idea of learning pinyin and looking up the dictionary.
Even if the old man is noisy watching TV at home, he can concentrate on studying the Xinhua dictionary alone. In just a few months, he learned the entire dictionary.
When my son was in college, they went to the Ring Mont Blanc, one of the top 10 hiking routes in the world, and walked 85 kilometers in six days.
And that year, my son's grades also improved significantly, with a B and a C at the beginning, and finally a full A.
Yang Xia said that in fact, the most important nutrient for the brain is exercise in the first place.
Li Meijin once said that those who are particularly active on the sports field are generally very good at Xi.
Children who exercise a lot will really get smarter.
Just like Zhu Kehang, a student in Zhejiang, when he graduated, he received a full award and direct doctoral offer from 9 world-famous universities such as Harvard and Stanford.
But his parents have never been particularly strict with his Xi, and they have never taken him to a tutorial class.
When others make up lessons, he is playing skating, skateboarding, and playing Rubik's Cube.
On holidays, his parents would take him to the countryside or the mountains to get close to nature.
Seeing that her son's resistance was too poor and he was always sick and asked for leave, his mother took advantage of the weekend to ride with him to his grandmother's house, which took more than 4 hours to go back and forth.
Gradually, the mother said that it was obvious that she could feel that her son had become more focused and more efficient.
In junior high school, other children usually have to finish their homework around 11 p.m., but he can finish it all by 9 p.m.
Why does exercise have such a magical effect?
Why do kids who are crazy and playful get better grades?
John Reddy, a professor of medicine at Harvard, has the answer after years of follow-up and a lot of research:
Exercise can not only exercise and exercise muscles, but also exercise the brain, transform the mind and IQ, and make children smarter and smarter.
Because every nerve cell in the brain is in contact with each other through the "leaves" on the tree-like branches, and exercise can promote the growth of these branches, fundamentally enhancing the function of the brain.
At the same time, the professor also gave three suggestions in his book "Exercise Transforms the Brain", which parents can follow:
Take your child to find a sport they enjoy and stick to it; Constantly enrich the types of exercise and stimulate brain vitality; After exercise, engage in challenging mental activities.So, what kind of sports are suitable for children at what age?Under 2 years oldChildren under the age of 2 have not yet fully developed their cardiopulmonary systems, spine, bones, etc., so they should focus on establishing exercise rules and let children have a cognitive understanding of sports. For example, you can let your child practice more XiRoll over, crawl,Train the mobility of your limbs. 3-6 years old (kindergarten years).
This stage is the first stage for the development of children's coordination, agility and flexibility. Around 3 years old, you can try itRide balance bikes and bikes,This will allow your child's balance and hand-eye coordination to be fully exercised. SomeClimbing sports,And there isSkipping rope and playing footballAnd so on, you can also let your child try it slowly. It is worth noting that children at this age are not suitable for participating in confrontational and very competitive projects. 6-12 years old (elementary school years).
After children enter primary school, they also like jumping and ball games more. Parents can take their children outRunning, or swimmingIt's also a very good choice. You can also add some simple confrontation items to your child, such as:Fencing, taekwondo. Some small weight-bearing strength exercises, such as:Sit-ups, dumbbell exercisesAnd so on can also be tried. Data shows that 10 years old is the peak of children's obesity, and some children are also prone to hormone disorders, so at least 30-60 minutes of exercise time should be ensured every day. 13-18 years old (middle and high school).
After entering puberty, children's bone mass and muscle content will also surge, and by the age of 17, it is basically close to the adult level, and at this stage, children's explosiveness, speed, and endurance are growing rapidly. Basketball, football, volleyball, tennis, etcand other sports can be freely chosen, mainly depending on what the child likes. Parents can follow the laws of children's growth and development, and bring their children to different kinds of sports, so that children can feel the joy of sports. 
The process of doing houseworkIt's also the process that shapes the brain
Teacher Yang Xia found in the children's consultation clinic that many children hardly do any housework.
Some are still feeding at the age of 6, and they can't tie their shoes at the age of 8, so they have to be picked up everywhere.
And such children will also have various problems in their studies, such as not being able to concentrate in class, it is very difficult to write homework, and some often lose their mistakes and cannot control their behavior.
Teacher Yang Xia said that her son began to be responsible for household chores such as sweeping, mopping and washing dishes at the age of 5.
When I was older, I had to cook breakfast for the whole family, which not only practiced good cooking skills, but also gave my brain an opportunity to exercise.
Child psychologist Jean Piaget has studied,Children's development is first developed through movements, and the more hands-on children are, the more complete their brain development will be.
In order to test the growth of cranial nerves, scientists have done experiments with baby monkeys
The movement of the five fingers has a corresponding command area in the brain. If one of the fingers is not used for a long time, the corresponding command area in the brain will slowly disappear.
This also confirms:Brain nerves need more external stimulation to keep growing.
If a child does not have the opportunity to get hands-on, intelligence-related functions such as memory, judgment, analysis, and thinking will become worse and worse.
Nobel Laureate in Physics Steven Chu once said:
"It's hard to imagine that children who can only study, and can't even fry eggs or boil eggs, will know how to do experiments. ”He has three brothers, all of whom have obtained doctorates, and his mother has instilled in them a "sense of housework" since childhood.
Mom demanded that they all learn to cook, do laundry, and clean up the house, and the meals that Steven Chu brought to school were all made by himself.
Children do housework, on the surface it seems to be "hands-on", but in fact they are "using their brains".
Brain science research has found that the strength of human manual ability is closely related to the development of the prefrontal lobe.
Because of the lack of housework exercises, the development of the prefrontal lobe of the brain is becoming more and more delayed.
The functions of the prefrontal lobe include memory, judgment, analysis, thinking, and operation, and are important brain regions closely related to intelligence.
The blue part is the prefrontal lobe of the brain) As the educationalist Sukhomlinsky emphasizes, labor plays an extremely important role in intellectual education, and the wisdom of the child is on the tip of his hand.
Even small things like washing dishes and tidying up desks are shaping children's brains and making them smarter and smarter.
The people** have also recommended the age comparison table for children to do housework, and parents can refer to the implementation.
Children who "move" from an early ageIt's easier to be happy when you grow upPrincipal Tang Jiangpeng once pointed out the common problems of today's children: poor physical fitness and weak self-care ability.
He strongly advises parents to do two things with their children: exercise and housework. Let children exercise from an early age, and tidy things up from kindergarten.
However, in the concept of many parents, sports and Xi are conflicting, doing housework will delay children's precious time, and only grades and scores are really meaningful.
But they ignore that sports and housework have a subtle impact on a child's life.
I have a colleague who has been promoted from an ordinary employee to a director of the company in less than two years.
He has never been late for work once, and he comes to work every day with a smile on his face, and he looks very energetic.
The tasks assigned by the leader can always be completed within the specified date without delay.
He also pays special attention to detail, and even if it is a subheading, he will constantly overturn and rethink until he is satisfied.
His initiative, sense of responsibility, and dedication to his work impressed his colleagues, and he was quickly appreciated by his boss.
Everyone asked him, how did you manage to be so motivated and self-disciplined?
He said that he had already developed a Xi to it.
His life has always been very regular, he likes sports since he was a child, even if he is working, he will insist on taking 30 minutes of exercise every day, running, playing ball, and going to climb mountains and swim when he has more time.
He also has a hobby of cooking, and he said that he especially likes to study all kinds of food, which he used to make for his parents, but now he makes it for his wife and children, and he enjoys this feeling.
You see, sports and housework are never wasted time.
While shaping a child's brain, they can also make children develop the Xi of independence, focus, perseverance, and self-discipline day after day.
And these good Xi can just "add bricks" to the child's future.
As evidenced by the Harvard "Grant Study":
Success and happiness often come from the small, seemingly inconspicuous "trifles" that you did in childhood.
They not only exercise children's Xi and instincts, but also subtly stimulate children's enthusiasm for embracing life.
Children will eventually leave us and go out into society, creating their own lives with their own minds and hands.
Only by giving children a healthy body, the ability to survive, and an upward attitude can they withstand the wind and rain on the road of life and the changes in their future lives.
So, don't let your child sit and study all day long, and take your child to move together!