We lived in a pretty fast-paced, multimedia-connected world and sometimes forget how important quality time with loved ones is. So hopefully these might inspire you to bring back family night.

5 Fun Activities For You and Your Family

By Sherri Kruger from ZenFamilyHabits.net

My fondest memories are from those times spent with family. My husband, my sisters, my folks, my in-laws and more recently my kids.

Having fond family memories requires active participation from everyone involved.

Experiences don’t just happen you have to create them.

Here are five fun activities that you can do with your family or use them as inspiration to get you started.

1. Host a theme potluck dinner. Choose a food that is a hit with your family (Thai, Mexican, Chinese, Italian, etc.). Invite your whole family to attend. Ask each of  them to bring a different dish to fit the theme. Experiment with foods you’ve never tried before, you may discover a new family favorite. Have music, drinks and snacks to fit the theme. Set up games that might have originated in or are popular in the region your theme dinner is based on.  There are no rules to how this comes together. Have fun, use your imagination and encourage participation.

2. Host a family games night. Games certainly bring our family together. For as long as I can remember we’ve always played games at Christmas, summer holidays at the lake and most other large family get-togethers. How you do it is up to you.  Have one game for everyone to play like Pictionary, charades or Nintendo Wii. You could also set up a few tables and have different games for people to play and rotate through. You may want to make it interesting and have structured challenges or championships. It’s up to you. Again, have fun with it and make sure there is something for everyone.

3. Scavenger hunt. My husband and I have done a couple of scavenger hunts and they were so much fun. One was a preset list of items to collect from various locations around town. We had to get specific pictures with monuments and people. We also had to collect random items such as coasters, shells and matchbooks. There was a set time limit. We all met up again at the end and compared notes. The other was just the two of us taking photos. I made a list of items to take photos of (water fountain, a bridge, a train etc.) and we spent the evening walking around snapping what we could. After, we went for dinner and looked through some of the photos we took. It was great fun and didn’t cost a whole lot.

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The video is from a TV show in India for kids till the age of 12 and the girl in the video is one of the contestants. She’s got an amazing voice!

The song she’s singing is actually incredibly difficult, even for adults!

Click here to view the embedded video.

But a couple of years ago, something happened to me. I became a dad! My son Hayden is now 2 years old. And my focus shifted a little from personal development to teaching myself to become a better parent.

Hayden, during our family trip to Mexico. At 20 months old.

As I poured myself into books on parenting and early infant development I was struck by just how much material was available on raising kids. But what really impressed me was how far modern research had come. Our schooling systems and methods of parenting have barely caught up.

Did you know…

• all kids are born with amazing genius potential. But they lose this abilities as they get older because our current methods of education underestimate young children and actually starve them of the learning they need.
• all kids are born with high degrees of intuition. But lose these as they get older because parents are not trained in recognizing this ability. This type of training for kids is popular in countries like Japan.
• 2 years olds are capable of reading. 2 month olds are capable of saying simple words like “mommy”. 6 year-olds can run 3 miles in 30 minutes. Our society underestimates the potential of young children. I’ve seen all the above in Philadelphia at the Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential. (more on this later).

Finally, it’s not about pushing kids to excel. Rather it’s about giving kids the support and access to learning opportunities that allow them to harness their natural genius. It’s about understanding that your 2 year old Eas a higher learning capacity than you do. And supporting them in their hunger for knowledge and new experiences.
Education should be fun and exciting. Our modern schools are hopelessly inadequate. When done right, young children LOVE to learn.

With this in mind, I started another blog, called ProjectGiftED where we’ll be bringing you the best in new parenting advice, techniques and methods. This blog will be hosted by Melissa Greczy, one of my partners and someone who is a not only a brilliant parent, but also a highly accomplished entrepreneur and a fellow personal growth junkie.

Check out this video to learn more about how parenting and personal growth go together and the 5 key areas that all parents and families need to focus on in order to raise their kids to their full potential.

Melissa is an amazing mother. One of her kids has even started her own charity (feeding homeless kids in Florida) and the other one is making a breakthrough in music. 

Melissa will be sharing some of her insight on FinerMinds so stay tuned for more on parenting.

In the mean time, check out ProjectGifted.com for more on  parenting, and raising well rounded, brilliant kids »

If this idea resonates with you or if you’ve got something to say about parenting and personal growth, please drop a comment. We’d love to hear your ideas.

Think for one moment just what your child-self might say to you. Would they be happy? Or would they be sad and neglected?

Well, if your inner child could come out and speak, this is what they might say…

Click here or on the picture above to view this awesome animation »

This animation is by Peter H. Reynolds from FableVision.com, a company that seeks to expand education and help learners reach their full potential. They have some more fun stuff on their website if you want to revisit your childhood. Or better yet, pass it on to your kids. They might get a kick out of it and learn a lot more about themselves and the world.

But for now, my question to you is this:

If your inner child had only 1 sentence to say to you, what would it be?

Their skills seem so far off, so fantastical, that it doesn’t even cross our minds that perhaps we or at least our children’s children can develop similar skills.

This article below makes an interesting point. Centuries ago, the act of reading silently was thought to be a great and immense feat. A near impossible capability. But now it is common place and it is a given that people can read silently.

So perhaps, in a hundred years or so, the tremendous skills savants have will no longer be restricted. Can human ability really improve itself to such high levels?

Savantism And Your Mind’s Singularity

In a fascinating interview available in Scientific America on Savantism (which I found as a newsletter subscriber from KurzweilAI, we are introduced to the mind of the savant.

Daniel Tammet, an author, linguist and a savant, offers explanations on how he thinks. Tammet, for instance, set the European record for reciting the first 22,514 decimal points of Pi.

The key appears to be that savants think on a different dimension, turning numbers into shapes and colors, for instance.

Here’s what Tammet says:

In my mind, numbers and words are far more than squiggles of ink on a page. They have form, color, texture and so on. They come alive to me, which is why as a young child I thought of them as my “friends.” I think this is why my memory is very deep, because the information is not static. I say in my book that I do not crunch numbers (like a computer). Rather, I dance with them.

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Probably not. I’ve always taken the summer break as a given. In high school, I felt it was my God given right.

But now more and more schools and parents are considering year long school. Instead of playing video games and sleeping till 3 PM, perhaps your children could be doing more with their minds.

Studies have shown time and time again that the brain does stagnate without any intellectual stimulation. Children who attend summer school or camps consistently score higher on testing. Isn’t this something we should be worried about?

Give this article a read as it goes through the lives of children who attend year-long schools and the effects it has on them.

Year-Round School? My Kids Love It. Yours Will, Too.

My second-grade daughter went to school the other day and made potions in her Harry Potter class. My son’s class of fourth– and fifth-graders wrote movie scripts, filmed them and learned how to edit them on the computer.

At their Alexandria public school, my kids have learned how to sail, designed entire cities in cardboard, built skyscrapers with toothpicks and marshmallows, performed in a musical and built and set off rockets on the front lawn. They’ve created passports and had them stamped after “visiting” countries around the world. They’ve learned CPR, calligraphy, Japanese, rollerblading and how to make art like Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock. My daughter was in kindergarten when she came home bubbling about Picasso’s Rose period. In Spanish.

My children attend a year-round school. And these are the kinds of hands-on, big-project classes that are taught during “intersessions,” or short breaks throughout the year that take the place of the long, lazy, Huck Finn summers that most Americans have come to think of as an inalienable right of childhood.

Far from grousing about missing out on the months-long summer break that will start in a few weeks, my kids love year-round school. My daughter had no idea that she was learning chemistry when her Harry Potter class made butter beer and chocolate frogs. My son developed a much better grasp of plot and character when he had to create both on film. I love their so-called modified calendar, too. And so, most of all, do the lower-income parents who’ve watched their kids thrive on it.

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Often spirituality gets a bad rep.  The stigma that surrounds it often conjures up images of pagan rituals and wayward heathens.  But this is changing and science has our back.

The study conducted even showed that religion had no real effect on children at all.  But when you really think about it, it all makes sense.  Why wouldn’t encouraging your children to pursue their dreams, get in touch with themselves, and be kind make your kids happier?

If you have any stories about using spirituality as a parenting tool, I’d love to hear more about it.

“Spirituality, Not Religion, Makes Kids Happy”

The link between spirituality and happiness is pretty well-established for teens and adults. More spirituality brings more happiness. Now a study has reached into the younger set, finding the same link in “tweens” and in kids in middle childhood.

Specifically, the study shows that children who feel that their lives have meaning and value and who develop deep, quality relationships — both measures of spirituality, the researchers claim — are happier.

Personal aspects of spirituality (meaning and value in one’s own life) and communal aspects (quality and depth of inter-personal relationships) were both strong predictors of children’s happiness, said study leader Mark Holder from the University of British Columbia in Canada and his colleagues Ben Coleman and Judi Wallace.

Click here to find out more about this study »

Remember last week when we spoke about Burt Goldman, The American Monk? Burt has created a program, My Inner Magic, which nourishes creativity in children, helping them tap into their full potential.

My Inner Magic, nourishes the development of creativity in children, and ensures that they can realize their full potential. According to a shocking Harvard study: 98% of children between Age 4 and Age 20 will lose the capabilities for genius that they were naturally born with. A further Harvard study revealed that nearly every child is born with genius capabilities, but after age 20, only a mere 2% retain their talents. This rapid decline in genius capabilities is not genetic, but comes down to nurture. Burt says that the mass education system is partly to blame for not nourishing the minds of our children in such a way that harnesses their full potential.

But could the trend be changing? We dug up an article this week, about an Elementary school in the US who is using meditation techniques to help boost concentration, productivity, and creativity in children. The program utilizes mindfulness techniques, wedged between reading and spelling tests, to slow down children’s breathing and helps boost concentration levels. In the exercise, the sound of a Tibetan bowl is used, to help induce a state of relaxation and focus. Teachers and students alike reported boosts in concentration and their happiness level rose dramatically.

Unfortunately, while such techniques may be trialled in a few classrooms now, it’s unlikely that the mainstream education system will catch on any time soon. My Inner Magic works off similar principles, to accelerate your child’s learning, improve concentration, and nourish creativity. We recommend My Inner Magic because it is a proven program that can fill the void that the mainstream education system has left in your child’s education. No child of yours or your loved ones should lose their genius capabilities. We certainly wouldn’t want our children to miss out.

Check out My Inner Magic.

Check out the blog post on The New York Times.

Scientific America magazine talks about a study that shows that it’s more important to teach your kids the importance of hard work as a means for academic success than it is to tell them that they are bright and talented. Apparently kids who are told that they are smart, often look down on hard work and tend to give up when the going gets tough.

This article might go against your beliefs on parenting. Read it with an open mind.

The Secret to Raising Smart Kids

Hint: Don’t tell your kids that they are. More than three decades of research shows that a focus on effort—not on intelligence or ability—is key to success in school and in life

By Carol S. Dweck

A brilliant student, Jonathan sailed through grade school. He completed his assignments easily and routinely earned As. Jonathan puzzled over why some of his classmates struggled, and his parents told him he had a special gift. In the seventh grade, however, Jonathan suddenly lost interest in school, refusing to do homework or study for tests. As a consequence, his grades plummeted. His parents tried to boost their son’s confidence by assuring him that he was very smart. But their attempts failed to motivate Jonathan (who is a composite drawn from several children). Schoolwork, their son maintained, was boring and pointless.

Our society worships talent, and many people assume that possessing superior intelligence or ability—along with confidence in that ability—is a recipe for success. In fact, however, more than 30 years of scientific investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unwilling to remedy their shortcomings.

The result plays out in children like Jonathan, who coast through the early grades under the dangerous notion that no-effort academic achievement defines them as smart or gifted. Such children hold an implicit belief that intelligence is innate and fixed, making striving to learn seem far less important than being (or looking) smart. This belief also makes them see challenges, mistakes and even the need to exert effort as threats to their ego rather than as opportunities to improve. And it causes them to lose confidence and motivation when the work is no longer easy for them.

Praising children’s innate abilities, as Jonathan’s parents did, reinforces this mind-set, which can also prevent young athletes or people in the workforce and even marriages from living up to their potential. On the other hand, our studies show that teaching people to have a “growth mind-set,” which encourages a focus on effort rather than on intelligence or talent, helps make them into high achievers in school and in life.

» Read More on Scientific America