Smart Learning Newsletter

Helping You Help Your Kids Rewire Their Brain to Reach Their Smart Potential

Dr. MaryJo Wagner, Editor and Publisher
Vol 1. No. 4 July 8, 2010

What's Happening at Smart Kids Smart Parents in July
Note from Dr. MaryJo
Feature Article: Kids' Cereal: Is It Food?
Brain Game™ Tip: Criss-cross Toe Stretch

What's Happening at Smart Kids Smart Parents: July 2010

Complimentary Coaching Calls:

Got parenting questions? ADHD questions? Set up a 30-minute complimentary coaching call with Dr. MaryJo Wagner. Just let me know that you are interested and we'll find a mutually convenient time.

Tuesday TeleTips for July: Always Free. Always recorded. Always an Action Guide. But you do need to sign up

July 13: I'm in the mountains on Vacation! Yippee! (That means no TeleTips on Tuesday.)
July 20: Special 60-minute TeleWebcast on "ADHD: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know."
July 27: Brain Games for ADHD

If there's something you'd like know, let me know and I'll get it into the August Tuesday TeleTips.

Ongoing at Smart Kids Smart Parents

*ADHD: Success Strategies for Your Kids. 6-session audio class with Resource Manual Action Guide. 122 activites, programs, and strategies to help you help your kids manage ADHD and ADHD-like behavior. Imagine the relief you'll feel when you and your kids have ADHD under control. Starting in the summer is the perfect time for putting new habits and learning into place.

Sign up now for your ADHD Success Strategies. Begin your audio class immediately with your instant access and download. No waiting for a specific date and time, hoping it fits into your schedule.

*Brain Games Online Workshop for Smart Parents: 12 session online audio workshops with 12-Chapter Resource Manual, 12 Action Guides, and more. You'll be relieved when your kids can learn anything easily and quickly and stay on track.

Get your Brain Games Online Workshop Today. You'll get everything for Workshop One immediately. Then another workshop every two weeks. Gives you plenty of time to discover and practice the Brain Games.

Coming in the Fall at Smart Kids Smart Parents

*Meetup for Moms in Denver. Watch for more information. It's going to be fun, interactive, and informative

Note from Dr. MaryJo

Hope you had a great 4th of July. Our neighborhood went crazy with fireworks--what fun. (Probably illegal, but I'm not telling!)

In this newsletter, I'm announcing my new, exciting program called Brain Games™.

It's all about using simple movements to rewire your kid's brain and your brain for peak brain functioning. For ADHD, for school, for learning a new sport, lowering stress, and even writing that dreaded report for your boss. Brain Games are easy and quick. They work and they're fun to do.

Be sure to check out the Brain Games Online Workshop for Smart Parents.

This month we're taking a look at motivating kids to eat healthy food starting with choosing a cereal for breakfast that's actually food!

And you're going to discover a Brain Game that you already know how to do--you just didn't know that it also boosts brain power and helps with ADHD. Brain Games aren't just for kids. Brain Games are for you too. So Brain Games make a great family activity.

Enjoy. Let me know what you think. What you'd like to see. Just use the contact form. And tell your friends, other parents, grandparents, your child's teacher, anybody who works and plays with kids to subscribe.

P.S. And while you're at it, check out Smart Kids Smart Parents. Read the whole story about Caleb and me at the grocery store buying cereal. Pretty funny.

Kids Cereal: Is It Food?

Last year our teenage grandson lived with us. He had some adhd behavior, little motivation for school, and lousy grades.

We loved having him with us but what a challenge. Just getting Caleb to eat breakfast at all, much less a healthy one, started out as a struggle. But it was step one toward doing better in school and helping tame the adhd behavior.

We're at the grocery store. He wants Froot Loops for cereal. I say "No, not only are Froot Loops not cereal, they aren't even food."

But by the time the year with his grandparents was up, Caleb was happily eating a low sugar, high protein and fiber, whole grain cereal for breakfast.

In the end, he chose the Kellog's Frosted Mini-Wheats, not me--a cereal with a whopping 74 out of 82 on the Cereal Nutrition Scale versus Kellog's Fruit Loops with a measly score of 38.

So how did I get Caleb to eat a relatively healthy cereal which he chose?

Here's what happened. Told him he'd play better football if he'd eat better. Taught him how to read labels. Made a contest out of it. And declared that sugar-coated cereal would never appear on our shelves. Period!

So to push my limits, Caleb asks about a cereal that is frosted. I repeat the no sugar-coated cereal at our house.

Then he, in typical teenager fashion, goes back to the cereal he chose so he can prove to me that it meets my standards. And he was right! He had found a cereal, despite the frosting, that's low in sugar for packaged cereal and relatively high in protein and fiber.

He won the contest, but I won the goal of getting him to eat a healthy breakfast.

Do whatever you can to get your kids interested in eating well. Teach them to read labels. Make a game out of it.

What they eat affects how well they learn. So a kid who survives on junk food loaded with sugar and fat will struggle more with learning and have more behavioral issues including ADHD-like symptoms.

Maybe your kids don't have ADHD after all and maybe just a change in diet will help with ADHD symptoms. To find out what looks like ADHD and isn't ADHD, I invite you to grab your copy of the FREE "Maybe They Don't have ADHD" inventory and checklist. Discover 12 factors that can contribute to ADHD-like behavior Give it to teachers and parents. Help stop the over-diagnosis of ADHD! No more prescribing stimulant meds for kids who don't really have ADHD at all (Yes, ADHD is real but good chance your kid doesn't have it. And that's good news!)

Brain Games™ Tip: Criss-cross Toes Stretch

You already know how to touch your toes. So do your kids. That's basically what this Brain Game is all about except that you must keep your knees bent slightly.

So begin by crossing your ankles while touching your toes. Now uncross your ankles and cross your arms while touching your toes. Try arms crossed and ankles crossed. Now move feet out about shoulder length apart and touch your toes, alternating left and right arms.

And you already know that this exercise is a good stretching exercise. But it also helps with brain function. Increases focus to help with ADHD. Also lowers stress. Plus kids are crossing the center midline which helps with learning.

That's why it's a Brain Game! Now it's time to do Criss-cross Toe Stretch with your kids.

Looking for more quick Brain Games for ADHD for your kids? For yourself? Check out "Five Brain Games for Taming ADHD"

And that's it for now. Watch for the next "Smart Learning Newsletter" in a couple of weeks and get ready to discover another Brain Game. In the meantime, do several Criss-cross Toes Stretches a couple times a day with your kids.

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Get more ADHD and parenting strategies at http://articlesbymaryjo.com