**How constant repetition can turn you into a genius**

I was utterly amazed with the latest National Geographic program My Brilliant Brain. It is amazing what our brains are capable of. After watching the program about the girl chess master it seems that we have to somehow transfer the knowledge from our short-term

memory to our long-term memory. In the story when the girl was very young the girl’s father kept showing her different chess moves from the grand masters. This constant repetition instilled her chess knowledge in her long-term memory.

I think the same approach is how we learn reading.

When I was a kid I think the Nuns taught me synthetic phonics at school as that was in vogue at that time. And because we didn’t have as many distractions as the kids of today, we implanted reading in our long-term memory. Therefore it is easier for us to read as we have had lots of practice.

I will admit when I was a kid I loved reading so I was pretty close to being a bookworm. I lived in the library and I had an endless collection of books. But it all started with phonics and once I understood the code to turn the word into a sound I understood, I could read.

Now, my daughter had incredible problems and it was only after I started stressing phonics that she slowly improved.

Every time she asked me to say a word I would break the word down into syllables and phonics. Then I would read the phonic sounds backwards so she could see the different combinations of letters. Now she is okay but it took a lot of effort on my part. So if your kids are having problems get them started on phonics as early as possible and keep reading aloud to your kids.

For more information about reading courses I recommend including a Montessori course see our Teach Reading page.