Raising Smarter Children

Did you know that doing brain fitness exercises can not only help you raise smarter children, but save billions of dollars in long term health care expenses?

Just 10 hours of brain fitness training showed significant improvement, even after 5 years. Read the rest of this entry »

Is it possible that a talking phonics program can help your non-verbal child with autism, learn to speak? 

As a reading specialist, I’ve been recommending the use of various phonics programs for years.  Some are better than others; the ones which also use speech, and are not ‘game-like’, tend to be more comprehensive, and cover the full spectrum of phonics instruction.

Something I hadn’t considered about a talking phonics program though, is how it might help a non-verbal child, with autism, learn to speak.  Here’s a letter from Caroline Winship, a parent whose barely verbal autistic child, using a talking phonics program with his brother, suddenly began to speak clearly.  What a miracle this is! Read the rest of this entry »

I read a fascinating new article at MSNBC.com today about the amount of time kids spend online.  It said that 16 million kids, ages 2-11, were online in May, 2009.

While I’m online writing this, it did make me wonder – are kids getting smarter spending all that time online, or are they just learning one skill set to the exclusion of others?

Read the rest of this entry »

Dear RaisingSmarterChildren.com Readers,

Today, I feel as if I know each and every one of you personally – and truly want to thank you for all the e-mails and beautiful wedding stories.  One long distance love is printed in the comments below.

Erin and Sean remained together, even though apart for 4 very long years.  Erin was in medical school in Chicago and Sean was getting his Ph.D. in California.  Yet, even through the distance and time, they were so in love.  

You can’t imagine my surprise to open my inbox this past week to literally hundreds of congratulations and love.

Thank you everyone!  Virtual world though it is, it really does feel deeply personal these days.

God Bless,

Pat

       Calling all moms. It’s one of every mother’s proudest days – her daughter’s wedding!  My baby girl, who will always be my baby girl, is the co-founder of this Raising Smarter Children blog, a Pediatrician who loves kids as much as I do, and now – a married woman.

Sometimes I wonder – how hard is it to let go of our kids?

I was one of those moms who raised my kids to be so independent, and thought I’d never feel that empty nest grit in my heart… who knew I’d cry Read the rest of this entry »

Remember the standard fairy tale stories like Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, and Cinderella?

Once you share these with your kids, read more at http://www.RaisingSmarterChildren.com so you have a quick and easy way to teach them good values like how to understand others, or what it means to be misunderstood…here’s how: Read the rest of this entry »

Over this past weekend, I gave my daughter her bridal shower.  We had such a great time, and I’m sure you guessed it – when moms and future mother in laws get together, they just have to ask, “So, when are you planning on starting a family?”  In our case, the bride to be is a Pediatrician, so she’s got her timeline all mapped out!

Her two ‘moms’ really wanted to know when they get to be grandmas for the first time…

All the laughter and fun aside, we even went one step further and asked, “Do you know if there’s any truth to the idea that parents can actually choose the gender of their baby?” Read the rest of this entry »