I met with Madeleine Shaw of Lunapads yesterday, for lunch and some inspiration. While we were chatting, I mentioned something about my sense of logic, tying it to my right-brain functioning. Madeleine, a very creative person, told me that right brain is actually tied to creativity, not logic, so of course when I got home, I had to look it up.
It turns out that Madeleine was right about being right, leaving me ‘left’ a little confused. Some of the most logical people I know are also some of the most creative, so now I thought perhaps the right brain was tied to both logic and creativity??….definitely worthy of an investigation. What I learned is that:
Right Brain functioning includes creative tasks such as art & music, holistic (big picture) thoughts, imagination, and intuition, while Left Brain functioning is detail oriented and includes language, science and math, logic, and analysis. Also, your right brain controls the left side of your body while your left brain controls your right body.
Of course there are two sides to every brain, and we all use both, but generally we tend more towards one than the other. Education systems certainly favour left-brain activities such as math and science, and are placing less and less emphasis on creativity (example: band and other music programs in the Vancouver School Board are currently at risk). But research has shown that we need to exercise both parts of our brain, and increase the communication path between these two parts.
To be well rounded, we need to strive toward whole brain functioning, which means emphasis on activities that are both right and left brain oriented. So how can we help our kids exercise both sides of their brain muscles?
- Exposure to a variety of physical activities, such as swimming, walking running, or gymnastics
- Listen to or create music with drums or other instruments. Take turns being the leader in a drumming session and have others imitate your drumming pattern
- Do Crafts! Crafts help develop imagination and creativity, while exercising logic at the same time.
- Expose your kids to a variety of materials, colours, textures, and ideas.
- Write or draw with the hand that is not your dominant hand…I’ve always encouraged my son to “switch hands” when he starts doing something with the right (he’s a lefty) but this tells me to LET HIM BE!!
- Let kids tinker. Instead of leading them down a path (“let’s do it this way”), let them figure out their crafts/toys/sports on their own. If they don’t want to follow the instructions during play time, don’t make them.
By the way, I took this cool test at http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/right-brain-v-left-brain/story-e6frf7jo-1111114603615, and the dancer is spinning clockwise, no matter what you say. I could NOT get her to go counter clockwise! Hmm, guess I’m ‘right-brain’ after all. (Note – my husband had her going counter clockwise, then clockwise – I’ll ask the kids what they see when they come home from school – what do you see?)