Welcome to Boldschoolers!
Sometimes I get asked about developing a superpower of focus with a very young learner. I think for our youngest learners even 2 minutes is a long time. I read an interview recently with a renowned meditator who was asked how long he can focus in meditation and his response was … about 7 seconds. What we’re after here is raising our awareness so we know where our minds are. If your little one focuses for a few seconds…great…start there. If they focus for a bit longer and then start to ask unrelated questions, it’s fine. We might say something like…I see your mind came up with an important question. Let’s pause our timer so I can answer it. Then answer the question and ask…are you ready to start training your superpower again? It’s all upbeat and positive. We want to build the awareness without kids feeling wrong or inadequate. Superpower time is kid controlled. We aren’t managing them. They are in the driver’s seat, choosing the learning, choosing the time, choosing the experience.
Maybe the superpower time is 10 seconds or 30 seconds…whatever it is, celebrate it. Our minds are constantly shifting to this or that. They are made to do that to keep us alive. It’s a feature, not a flaw. We simply gently bring the mind back to where we want it to be. The key is to be aware of where our mind is at any given time. That’s how we stay present. The rest is a choice. In the book and online course, you’ll learn some mindfulness practices that research has shown to build attention and focus. Even little ones can do these exercises. We do exercise to keep our bodies in shape and we can also do exercise to keep our brains in shape.
Here are some additional tips to help kids become aware of their mind’s focus.
Building Awareness of HOW they are learning is far more important than any bit of content.
- Encourage your kids to sink into quiet moments. If they accompany you on errands around town, or are waiting somewhere, for example, leave the technology at home. Kids can sit quietly, look out the window, chat with you, focus on their breath or use their imagination. Kids can go out into nature to sit, climb, relax or explore. Raise the baseline for boredom, the easier it will be for kids to focus and the quicker they will meet their goals.
- Who owns your child’s mind? Do they wield control over their own mind or does it belong to the phone, the television, or the video game? Can your child be content without any outside stimulation? Carve out quiet spaces for creativity, problem solving and emotional regulation.
- Raise your child’s awareness to sequential, mono-tasking. Switching between tasks (task-switching) leads to a deterioration of attention. When we focus on task A and then move to task B, a little bit of our attention is left at task A. We do this repeatedly and our ability to attend decreases dramatically, the quality of our work declines and our kids can’t focus very well. Attention is a limited resource. Help kids learn how and where to apply it. Doing one thing for an extended time period (deep work) leads to a quality of mind and a quality of performance. Do one thing…finish it…then move on to something else.
Don’t waste your dopamine on meaningless distractions, but instead save it for deep learning.
Happy Boldschooling!
