Before beginning Right Brain Education home practice, it is important to prepare your child. In Shichida’s home practice guide, there are three preparation exercises which are detailed below. I used to skip over them in an effort to “save time” but I have since realised their importance in helping to calm your child, preparing his mind, and reinforcing your connection. For Aristotle, these are synonymous with the warm up exercises before beginning a physical workout. Without them, you risk injury. If you have to skip any part of your home practice, omit any of the other exercises but not your preparation.
Right Brain Home Practice – Preparing Your Child
- Hug and Praise your child
- Relaxation Exercise
- Breathing Exercise
1. Hug and Praise
Use Shichida’s 8 Second Hug or Right Brain Kids’ 5 Second Hug. If you like, you can listen to the TweedleWink “I love you” Song. Another favourite is Barney’s “I love you” song.
Praise your child for a quality you have observed that you would like to encourage. Try Shichida’s 5 Daily Words of Praise. Your child will look forward to home practice everyday just for this part so don’t skip it.
2. Relaxation Exercise
Shichida recommends using energy balls. The following links are to videos showing the Energy Ball Exercise in practice:
Essentially what you are doing is collecting energy from the air around you and condensing it into a small “energy ball” that you will consume.
Aristotle is really into Star Wars, so we also practice drawing on the force around us.
Alternatively, you can do some simple movement or stretching exercises:
- Stretching Exercise 1 – this one’s pretty cool
- Stretching Exercise 2 – this one’s a bit long though…
Other stretches you can do:
- Child’s pose
- Overhead arm stretch
- Neck and shoulder circles
- Cat-cow stretch
- Arm circles
- Straddle stretch
- Out-stretched arms
- Butterfly stretch
3. Breathing Exercise
Teach your child to breathe deeply. Inhale for 5 counts and exhale for 5 counts. You can create fun scenarios:
- pretend you are blowing out candles on a birthday cake
- pretend you are Superman blowing our the fire from a burning building
- pretend you are the big bad wolf in the 3 Little Pigs and you are blowing down the little pigs’ houses
- pretend you are a dragon blowing fire
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