Sunday, October 3, 2010

Right Brain Success through the Heart

Many parents ask:
What "100% success formula" should I follow when teaching my child Right Brain Education?
Answer 1: There is no formula.

It's true! There really isn't. Your child is a living, breathing, one-of-a-kind divine creation. There is no one like him or her in the whole wide world. You cannot stick him in a box. Every child should learn uniquely, with elements designed with his passions, desires and very specific needs in mind.

Learn the developmental patterns, learn different techniques to teach different academic areas, but then, step back and observe your child: Where is he now, developmentally? What does he need? What does he love?

Answer 2: YOU are the formula. YOU hold the key to your child's success in your hands—when you place relationships before results.

Please, please, please review your motives before you start any early learning program (TweedleWink) or Photographic Memory/Speed Reading program (Wink). Why do you want this for your child? If the answer is to enjoy learning right along with your child—to pull out his innate genius and maximize his potential through love and fun—then, proceed. But if you have an agenda to create a child genius, and that agenda does not include a close, loving bond—then, please stop and take a look at that. This precious being—your child—is in your life for a purpose. To bring joy, to experience joy, to learn, and to teach you.

Love accelerates genius.

This is a great truth and the basis for the success of all of our programs. But, why foster genius? What is the intention that makes this a beautiful, rather than self-serving, endeavor?

The purpose of heightening a child's IQ, which should always be done in tandem with EQ, is to foster a greater awareness and understanding of our world. The more we understand, we more we can see from others' points of view. The more we can see from others' points of view, the greater peace is possible in the world. Intelligence, with compassion and love, also brings inventiveness and ingenuity that can yield the technology needed to heal the world.

You can change the world, one heart at a time.

It's not just a slogan.

Learn the techniques. Learn the philosophy. And then, trust your own right-brain instincts, intuitive creativity, focus on your loving bond with your child and get started.

Answer 3: How you teach is just as important as what you teach, and that is not formulated: it is unique to your own right-brain creativity.

In order to know how, you sort of have to be like a "child-whisperer." You need to experience your child with more than just the five senses. Watch him. Listen to him. Really see how he relates to others and to new information. Feel him. Wonder about why he might be reacting the way he does—ponder that, and then, listen to the answers that come to you. Trust your instincts.

Teach according to the beat of the heart.

This is awkward to relate, but I'd like to share how you can do this when you've opened your own right-brain sensibilities. When I go into alpha wave state in class, I begin to feel a rhythm—an actual beat, or pulsing, in my body. When the class is with one student, I feel it very quickly. When it is with a group of children, it slowly begins to pulse after the team has started to settle in to a lesson and focus together. It's a gentle beat and I will teach according to this rhythm.

This pulsing feels like a heart-to-heart connection—a blending or matching of our heart beats. Sometimes, it is slow. Sometimes, it's incredibly fast and my body has to keep up with the presentation of material, with the quick pace of the child's thirst for knowledge.

This pulsing is something that most teachers just sense, or intuit, without, perhaps, the physical sensation. When people come together, our hearts will either match rhythms and resonate, or not—and that's when people tend to not relate to one another.

So, "feel" your child—through your own special style. Think: "eyes to eyes, heart to heart." And, trust your inner instincts. If your motive is love, then all the guidance you need will follow.

:-)

Thursday, June 3, 2010

TweedleWink Teachers

This post is long overdue.

It is dedicated to our teachers with deep, deep gratitude, love and appreciation.

TweedleWink teachers give this program Light and Life through the love and devotion they have for the children in their classes.

It takes a lot to see each child's most positive state of being—and to hold that image for them consistently.

The teachers I've come to know and am honored to teach with in our classrooms are top notch and genuine. They know how to balance fun and play with the delivery of a quality educational program.

Becoming Childlike

Here is how you know if you are a right brain teacher.
Situation: The children in your class stop listening to your world cultures lesson. Instead, they pretend that they are cowboys and cowgirls, that they are on horses and begin to gallop around the classroom.

If you are a left-brain teacher

...you will be come frustrated because the children are not paying
attention. You will demand that they sit down, sit still, be quiet and listen to the lesson.

If you are a right-brain teacher
...you will gallop, too—joining in the fun of creating a multi-sensorial right brain image—adding content from the day's lesson, whatever it might be.
Are you visiting France in the World Cultures segment? Then you'll gallop around the Eiffel tower, stopping off for a bite of cheese. Saying "Merci" to the French cheesemaker, with a fond "Au revoir!" and then counting from 1-10 in French before galloping off once again.
This level of joyful creativity we cannot train, it has to be there to begin with.

It all begins with Love.

It takes a lot to be a right brain teacher. It takes patience, unconditional love, focus, play, creativity and joy.

Our Wink and TweedleWink classes are weekly one-hour classes. Each class is information-rich.

Teachers take time each week to study the topics to be presented, practicing the languages, games and songs over and over before the new weekly lessons begin.

There's much to study beforehand!

In a TweedleWink class, we feature 8 segments:
  • vision enhancement (photographic intake)
  • vocabulary-builders
  • world cultures (including geography and language)
  • music (including classical music, rhythm, and perfect pitch training with tuning forks)
  • reading (phonics, whole words, love of literature)
  • math (dot recognition, equation play)
  • science
  • art (fine art, cultural arts and crafts)
...all using movement, play, songs and meaningful interaction with the children.

In a Wink class, we feature the 7 steps:
  • Alpha Relaxation
  • Eye Exercises
  • PhotoEyeplay
  • Mental Imaging (3-dimensional, multi-sensorial)
  • Observation Training
  • Memory Linking
  • Photographic Memory and Speed Reading
So, as you can see, it's a lot.

For the teacher, it's not an easy routine—it's a work-out because of everything we cover and all the constant movement! But, for the men and women who have joined our teaching team, it is truly a labor of love.

I really just want to say: God bless you, teachers. You are truly amazing.

Thank you!