By Liz Jones
Do you think that parents can influence their kid's grades at school?
Some parents leave the "education side" of things to the school. But, when you see your own child struggling, you want to do something and quick. There's nothing harder than being a parent and not being able to help your kids when they need it is there?
We all know the pressure our kids are under to perform, society seems to have gone education crazy. We are embarrassed if our kids are not getting the grades at school. There's so much competition, getting them in the best schools, monitoring the league tables, eventually turns into an obsession. I know people who have uprooted their entire family to move into a "catchment area" of a good school.
Well, listen to this true story- my own son was struggling with school work, he hated it. Homework time was a nightmare in our house, bribes, threats, throwing books across the room, all regular occurrences. He wouldn't read, wouldn't learn his spellings, parent days were embarrassing!
However, after the last parent day I was so shocked at the teacher's comments I took matters into my own hands. I came across an article in the local paper about how a well known supplement can increase concentration levels in kids. I jumped on the internet and ordered a batch quickly. The article told of a study that took a group of school aged kids and gave them this supplement every day for 60 days. They tested them at the beginning of the study and again at the end. The results, ASTOUNDING!!!
But get this, the most improved group of all were the kids who were labeled "slow" or "bit dim". It seems that this "brain food" works best on kids whose concentration levels are low.
Very basically this is how it works, the brain cells are linked by pathways, essential fatty acids strengthen the pathways making them stronger and healthier thus enabling the cells to work together more efficiently.
More importantly our bodies cannot manufacture these acids, we have to obtain them from our diet. Unfortunately a typical western diet contains very little of these acids and it is estimated that the typical American is 95-99% deficient. It may be of little surprise then compared to other cultures we do not do well in intelligence tests.
This marked the beginning of our journey, this was step one! Every day with breakfast my son had an Omega 3 & 6 supplement. We called it "the clever pill".
I explained why we were taking it and that it would help him pay attention in class and concentrate for longer periods. I am convinced that this made a huge difference to his concentration levels.
His teacher reported only a few weeks later that he can stay focused for longer periods now and seems to listen more in class.
The results, well, we thought we had some other kid's report! he jumped 2 whole grades.
About the author : Liz Jones is a qualified trainer and manager in the financial services industry. She is married and has 2 children and lives in England. See her website here: http://www.lazykidsway.com
