Stretch Your Mind
By Amy Barr with The Lukeion Project
The year-round approach works well for some and poorly for others. What’s the secret? Those that successfully “do school” year-round, or nearly so, tend to maintain a limber brain. Those that enjoy the positive results of year-round education habitually incorporate certain non-academic habits in their otherwise academic lifestyle.
Work-Life Balance
This is the minimum addition required to make year-round academics possible, but it is the most overlooked. Nobody, no matter their age, thrives in a situation in which they work all day and some of their evenings as well. A schedule that requires full attention all day followed by hours more work at night is necessary from time to time but never full time. The brain and body require balance, variety, and stretching as new experiences break the monotony of hyper concentration needed to master new concepts. Reserve portions of every day to do different things besides academics. This will sharpen the mind and improve retention. Becoming an excellent student is more than just overloading yourself on academic subjects.
Game-play
Games of all kinds have come to occupy more and more entertainment time in our schedule because there are options for every personality and taste. Games that are especially helpful for keeping your brain limber (neuroplasticity) require logic and reasoning. Excellent game choices require you to play a comparable or slightly superior opponent so that you stand a reasonable chance at both winning and losing on a regular basis. Pick a game that isn’t too repetitive so that you learn to just take shortcuts. A good game requires you to make incremental improvements in your skills as you continue. Chess ticks all these boxes but there are other options available that suit your interest. Avoid over focusing on any game that requires you to work alone. Limit those to occasional interactions.
Exercise
Some of us shape our whole schedule around sports and exercise. Others of us? Not so much. Everyone, regardless of preferences, needs exercise. My favorite type of exercise tends to be working in my garden or taking care of outdoor animals like my chickens or goats. Others consider such things “chores” rather than exercise but no matter. I work myself to the point of exhaustion while enjoying some excellent veggies as a reward. Exercise doesn’t have to be expensive or specialized or even competitive. Pick but don’t omit. Look at your DAILY (not weekly nor even monthly) schedule to add some exercise. I especially recommend doing something outside early in the day and towards sunset for a bonus benefit to your brain and sleep options.
Music
There are few physical activities that are more effective for fostering a limber brain than becoming proficient at a musical instrument or training yourself to use your voice effectively. The tricky bit about learning to play an instrument or singing is that it can take some time, expense, and commitment. Sometimes we are expected to get started on an instrument before we are ready to make that commitment. This can build a mental wall that blocks our success. Timing is everything. Some are asked to start so early they lack the maturity needed to practice. Some are told they can’t learn a new instrument because now they are too old with the assumption that all great musicians started very young (look up Wynton Marsalis if you want a good example). Contrariwise, those that develop a passionate desire to pursue music into adulthood are often discouraged because “becoming a musician won’t make enough money.”
Parents: fostering the love of music in your younger child is like nursing along a tiny ember into a fire. Go easy but be ready to help when interests arise.
Music, especially the ability to create it for oneself, is one of the most satisfying skills one can develop! Obviously buying a grand piano for a disinterested child makes no sense but waiting a few years and trying again with an inexpensive keyboard might make sense. Not everyone is going to become a musician just because they develop a passion for playing drums or flute at age 10. Keep going anyway. Now you have a passionate young musician in your house (maybe it is you) who has developed a special skill to stretch the mind.
Movement
As far back as we can look back into history, human beings have loved to dance. Depending on where your ancestors lived and what they believed, there might have been some social constraints about how, when, and where dance is ok, but all our ancestors – at least in theory – danced every chance they got.
If you randomly gathered 50 teens in a room today (at least modern America) and asked them to dance, you’d likely enjoy limited success at first. Many of us have been robbed of an activity that served as a core behavior to the rest of the human race right up until the last couple of generations.
Adding rhythmic movement to your regular schedule will drastically improve your mood, your ability to learn, and your neuroplasticity. In Harvard’s study of the effects of movement on the human brain, they cite an early look here:
In a small study undertaken in 2012, researchers at North Dakota’s Minot State University found that the Latin-style dance program known as Zumba improves mood and certain cognitive skills, such as visual recognition and decision-making. Other studies show that dance helps reduce stress, increases levels of the feel-good hormone serotonin, and helps develop new neural connections, especially in regions involved in executive function, long-term memory, and spatial recognition.
All work and no play leads to a crunchy, stiff and stuffy brain. Make it limber through balance, music, movement, and games.
