Tumble on Petros

I announced a while ago on a previous post the revival of this blog, and promised to update you on my technological explorations, successes and failures. I know I have failed to do so lately, but I had a few good reasons for my tardiness. The last period I have been occupied with completing some projects but more importantly, with the birth of our second child our darling Inés. She’s great and the birth was a smooth ride compared to our previous birth.

This post is about development, but not the work related one. It’s about the development that takes place above our little ones’ necks: brain development. Idon’t now about you, but I always need to know the theory behind the things that affect me and therefore I’ve been meaning to learn about how our children grow and how they learn, and what’s the best way to assist them. 

Diego and Inés have ensured that we have plenty of waking time which I’ve been occupying the last couple of days with reading Brain Rules by John J. Medina on the Kindle iPad app. I have been totally mesmerised by it, and in fact I still am, as I’ve plenty of material left to read.

By the way, let me tell you when all this reading is taking place; Diego our older child has unlearned how to sooth himself back to sleep, so we’ve been sitting next to him until he falls into a deep sleep, as otherwise he’ll wake up, feel distressed and call us in a whining, ululating voice. This responsibility has been mainly mine as Elena has Inés to attend to and breastfeed. For the purpose our nightly watching over Diego, an IKEA stool has been installed outside of Diego’s room where I can sit comfortably(ish) while waiting for him to be kindly lifted by Morpheus. Meanwhile, I hold onto the iPad and read.

Once Diego is asleep (how do I know he is, you might ask, well our little one has a characteristic toddler snore) I can return back to bed usually to find Elena breastfeeding Inés and I report to her on my readings. It’s the kind of book that needs to be shared by the parents as it’s their behaviour that affects so much of the child’s development.

The book covers pregnancy, parents’ relationships (a crucial developmental factor, as a child who feels secure will grow to deal better with stress and develop a higher IQ amongst other things), intelligence and morality.

I recommend all parents and parents to be (or people simply curious to understand how our brain develops) to go and read this book. Or read the summaries posted in the website (brainrules.net) or look into a similar source.

Awareness of what’s going makes me feel empowered as a dad.