How can parents support their children? How should difficulties at school be dealt with?

Every parent wants to provide as much support with school as possible: helping with homework, preparing for exams etc. However, is this enough? How can you make sure this is effective? You have to incorporate a new habit and generally the will, to do so. Do we possess the necessary knowledge? How can it be put into practice?

At the kindergarten I illustrated the following example: “Imagine you buy a brand new washing machine with the newest technology on the market including touch screen. How would you go about using it? Would you read the instruction manual? Or apply the ‘trial and error’ method?” The unanimous response is usually: “I would obviously read the manual. Otherwise I might break something.” I provide further examples of new smartphones, heart rate monitors and similar high-tech appliances. The response remains the same. Then I show the image of a brain on the overhead projector:

My question: “Has anyone read an instruction manual for this?” None of the parents I met at the meetings were able to explain the functions of the right and left side of the brain. No one knew how Information was acquired or processed and retrieved again later.
I explained: “The brain is our learning organ. How are you supposed to help your children learn, when you don't understand how the brain works?” A good teacher needs to be a good student first. Someone who knows how to teach needs to be someone who knows how to learn. The learning experience of a child depends on the parents, the environment and the teacher. After six years of natural learning processes, so called “school learning” replaces the child’s experience. Curiously, there are no courses that thoroughly deal with ‘methods of appropriate learning.’ This should be a required subject for all first graders. The other alternative would be for teacher to become better at ‘teaching’.


Abstract of the book "Unleash the Secret of Education and learn how to raise a happy child" by Hans-Peter Becker.

Why Music Makes us Happy?

Music is universal, is a creation that human beings always produced it. People of all cultures around the world have their own music. Every place on this world, that hosts human beings, hosts their sound as well... The oldest artifacts that show people playing musical instruments are found in Asia and are around four thousand years old. Plato, the Ancient Greek philosopher  said that" If you want to measure the spiritual depth of society, make sure to mark it's music." 

By all accounts there is no single and intercultural universal concept defining what music might be. However, no matter how much music may differ in different parts of the world, it seems that music serves a general common purpose: to bring people together.

But, how music can have such a great impact on our emotions? Why music is a spirit healer?   

Scientists finally seem to have the answer on that, there is a biological explanation for why music has been such a major part of emotional events in cultures around the world since the beginning of human history. 

New study shows that musical thrills stem from the same brain chemistry responsible for the joys of food, sex and other more tangible rewards. "You're following these tunes and anticipating what's going to come next and whether it's going to confirm or surprise you, and all of these little cognitive nuances are what's giving you this amazing pleasure," said Valorie Salimpoor, a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal. "The reinforcement or reward happens almost entirely because of dopamine." 

In the brain, dopamine functions as a neurotransmitter—a chemical released by nerve cells to send signals to other nerve cells. It plays a major role in the brain system that is responsible for reward-motivated behavior. Every type of reward that has been studied increases the level of dopamine in the brain, and a variety of addictive drugs, including stimulants such as cocaine or amphetamine and methamphetamine, act by amplifying the effects of dopamine.

"This basically explains why music has been around for so long " V. Salimpoor added. "The intense pleasure we get from it is actually biologically reinforcing in the brain, and now here's proof for it."

So, now we know why just a good song can either make us want to cry or feel immense joy and happiness!

If you want to learn more interesting facts about music and the brain function, here is a great book that will introduce you to this amazing world... Unleash the Secret of Education and learn how to raise a happy child by Hans Peter Becker.

Sources:

wikipedia.org

news.discovery.com/human/psychology/music-dopamine-happiness-brain-110110.htm

scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=musical-chills-related-to-brain-dop-11-01-09