I feel that this post can be very beneficial to all persons who have children, work with children or are involved in government policy. Knowledge is power.
I should be doing my dishes right now but a) this was more fun and b) I wanted to post something before I take off again on another trip.
I read an article in the local news paper a few weeks ago regarding some recent research conducted at the University of Oregon. It was entitled "Brains Explained" and was in the February 27th issue. With my Psychology and research background in tow I eagerly ate up the article that described the ongoing research of children's brains, how they work and what we as adults can do to foster healthy brain growth. The great part about this research is that they received funding to make it into a movie!!!! And no it isn't one of those dry, drool sleep inducing videos you use to dread in school.
The movie can be purchased for a meager $10 or you can watch it online at http://changingbrains.org. Purchasing it supports the program which I think is very important to future research. "Changing Brains" is broken up into 12 segments which are both palatable and well organized. The segments range from "attention" to "emotions and learning" and are anywhere from 4 to 15 minutes. You don't need any lengthy formal education to understand what they are talking about and they give educated advice on what activities you can do with your child as well as what to watch out for. I have a strong aversion to all things in life that feel over bearing or fear based and in my opinion this video is anything but. It's helpful and it isn't trying to sell you any kind of classes or future promotions... The objective is to get valuable information out to those who could use it best to benefit our most precious asset~ the future. I learned a lot from the video and feel that my child will benefit because of it. I was that annoying person who would shake a toy in front of your screaming baby in hopes of "distracting" it... I should have figured it out on my own but it took the video to get through to me. So, sorry to all my friends baby's that I've done that to. Believe me, I stand corrected.
I truly, deeply believe that we as mothers do our very best to provide our children with the best possible environment and upbringing in order to provide them with the means necessary to have a loving, positive, healthy and successful future. Sharing information, taking a nonjudgmental approach when sharing this information and striving to seek out information from credible sources are all part of this process. The more us mommies can stick together and demand a brighter future for our little ones the better!
