The Bright Stuff

Teach your child the real secrets to success in life. There is so much your child will learn at school. But there are other, vital things that are all too frequently absent from a busy school's syllabus, yet which are increasingly recognised as just asessential to your child's future. These secrets of success include qualities such as curiosity, independent thinking, perseverance, determination, individuality and a willingness to weigh up risks and solve problems. In The Bright Stuff, leading child education expert C J Simister takes one secret of success at a time and offers a treasure trove of imaginative, playful and above all fun activities, games and exercises that you can use to preserve, nurture and enhance your child's extraordinary potential, making sure it does not remain untapped. All are designed to fit in with everyday family life, involving little or no preparation. Appealing to a wide range of ages, they are ideal for keeping children amused in spare moments - over a meal, in the car, even when stuck in the queue at the supermarket. And while they are enjoying themselves, your children will be developing crucial qualities such as initiative, alertness and an investigative spirit. They will also be learning to form innovative ideas, to discern sense from nonsense and to use failure as a useful springboard for progress. Table of Contents Introduction •How to stimulate independent thinking. •How to grow a vivid imagination. •How to be alert and observant. •How to kindle a burning curiosity. •How to develop a 'let's find out' approach. •How to encourage originality and creativity. •How to become innovative and inventive. •How to discover the magic of persistence. •How to take the right sort of risk. •How to learn from failure as well as success. •How to sort sense from nonsense. •How to think flexibly. •How to make wise decisions. •How to enjoy solving problems. •How to have 'social savvy'. •How to develop initiative and forward thinking. Background reading