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Benjamin Franklin: The Morals of Chess (Explained) Part - 4

Benjamin Franklin:  The Morals of Chess (Explained) Part - 4

Benjamin Franklin's essay, the morals of chess, is still celebrated among the chess lovers. All the four virtues are abided by people to succeed in chess and in life. There is a strong notion that exists among players ‘There are times when a well-placed pawn is more powerful than the king.' So, the placement of the pawn is crucially important to overpower the game. Very similar to life, where trivial circumstances or situations lead you to define the course of your life. In this blog, we would discuss, Benjamin Franklin's fourth and final virtue of chess.

Benjamin Franklin: The Morals of Chess (explained) Part -1

Benjamin Franklin: The Morals of Chess (explained) Part -1

"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing" The American Superhero, Benjamin Franklin was a prominent figure of the early American history. What's incredible about his personality, he wasn't restricted to any particular profession. He played contrasting roles in different phases of his life, he was a leading author, civic activist, political theorist, diplomat and even a postmaster. He believed in an uninterrupted flow of life, just like a river.

How Chess Can Prove to be Great for Family Bonding

How Chess Can Prove to be Great for Family Bonding

We say that 'no matter how far we go, we would always find our way back home'. For an individual, home symbolises family, warmth, love and the sense of togetherness and a child is no exception to that. Though the formation of nuclear families have shrunk the amount of time that a child spends with his/her entire family. The hectic schedule of parents and distance from grandparents have reduced their world to themselves.

The Pursuit of a Better Brain

The Pursuit of a Better Brain

In the critically acclaimed Hollywood movie, “The Pursuit of Happyness” – a biopic on Chris Gardener, the famous investor, inspirational speaker and author - there is a scene where the protagonist solves the Rubik’s Cube during a cab ride.

While sharing a ride with an enterprising stockbroker from a prestigious firm, Chris Gardener (played by veteran actor Will Smith) notices the man struggling with a Rubik’s Cube and offers to solve it. Apparently, Gardener solves the Cube before they reach the destination, impresses the man, lands a position as a trainee in the company and goes on to create history!

“By all means let’s be open-minded. But not so open-minded that our brains drop out.”

 “By all means let’s be open-minded. But not so open-minded that our brains drop out.”

The words of Dr. Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist & author, seems quite applicable in the way our youngest generation is sprouting up. Raised in the lap of technology, Gen Z is all wired up in technology 24/7. The American Academy of Paediatrics reports that on an average, kids spend up to 7 hours a day on some or other random electronic device.  The question is what do they filter and what goes into their brains?

Not just practice, but these activities help in improving your game of Chess

Not just practice, but these activities help in improving your game of Chess

Is your child a passive plodder who needs to be pushed around? Or is he/she a silent observer or perhaps a hyper energy-ball who requires some toning down? At Mind Mentorz we believe that the behavioral patterns of a child are closely associated with his or her mental development. We aim to season and temper the young minds in a magic pot of brain-games, channelizing their energies, creativity, and thought-process in a well-balanced and productive way.

At Mind Mentorz, kids program their own Robots and condition their young minds!

At Mind Mentorz, kids program their own Robots and condition their young minds!

With an impending future where our children will be doing jobs that are ‘not yet invented’, it is essential that we prepare them for a highly competent and hi-tech world where intelligence would rule and machines might dictate. A generation that grew up on life and its circumstances will soon be extinct. We have before us a whole new breed of “tech-lings” who are born into a matrix of coding and programing and being warped in the way they need to grow.  

Did you know that Learning to Code helps in playing Chess?

Did you know that Learning to Code helps in playing Chess?

The way one plays chess always reflects the player’s personality. If something defines his character, then it will also define his way of playing”. The words of Vladimir Kramnik, the Russian chess grandmaster, eloquently sum up the impact of cognitive training. A strategic game like chess not only mirrors the child’s personality but the 'moves' give a peek into the child’s innate character.

You have been wrong about Rubik’s cube all this long!

You have been wrong about Rubik’s cube all this long!

A child is a curious soul, full of energy, inquisitive and innovative. They have the potential to build an imaginative kingdom around them and bring out their artistic self. The only needful aspect is to give a direction to those art and imagination. They need to have steady and gradual all-round development. We at Mind Mentorz work to put the kids at the forefront and provide them with tools, devices and instruments that harness their mind.

Is it kids to code or coding to kids?

Is it kids to code or coding to kids?

Learning to code for kids is becoming increasingly common these days and one cannot dismiss the fact that it is a fast paced technological world and one needs to make complete use of it, be it to use them for convenience or use it to help kids learn the various skills much needed these days.

A relatively new topic for kids to learn, coding, as many people think, is no rocket science. As against the popular knowledge, young kids have an added advantage. Statistics show that kids learn coding faster, as compared to an adult. One can also view it as another language learnt another type of literacy.

Rubik’s cube – A colorful nourishment for the young mind

Rubik’s cube – A colorful nourishment for the young mind

There is almost no household without this tiny but significant piece of puzzle – The Rubik’s Cube. Most of us just fiddle with it, try and rotate it in all possible directions to get at least on side of the cube to the same color. It is usual to give it up after a few minutes, mostly out of helplessness of not being able to solve it. As per statistics, less than 45% of the people can solve this puzzle. When the founder of this puzzle– Erno Rubik, himself took about a month to solve it, it is definitely not an easy nut to crack.

A Pawn Morphing Into a Queen Is How We Must Excel In Life

A Pawn Morphing Into a Queen Is How We Must Excel In Life

It is a competitive world, yes, and though many may disagree, it is a fact and extremely necessary to keep yourself ahead of the competitors. Though it is definitely hard work which takes someone to their desired goal, a thought ought to be given to the young budding ones in our home and what the future holds for them, what issues would they face? Will the problems be the same as what we are dealing with or will it be different. Nevertheless, there can be no harm in preparing them for whatever comes.

Brain Areas That Chess And Other Mind Games Activate

Brain Areas That Chess And Other Mind Games Activate

Just like our body muscles require a physical workout to stay healthy, even our brain needs some mental exercise to work properly and stay healthy. Some people have a misconception that the learning techniques deployed by the schools are enough and it helps the kid’s brain stay active. But in reality, most of the schools are teaching the children to mug up information instead of understanding the basics of each topic. So can a brain develop by just memorizing things? Definitely not!

Reasons Afterschool Programs Are Beyond Just Leisure Activities and Engagement

Reasons Afterschool Programs Are Beyond Just Leisure Activities and Engagement

With the world becoming more competitive every passing day, school education alone is not enough to prepare the children for tomorrow. Schools do impart knowledge, but they don’t run programs to take care of students who face learning and focus issues. Moreover, school programs are not designed to enhance the children’s soft skills and development of survival skills. The need to thoroughly prepare children for the life’s survival race has given rise to many afterschool programs. Though a lot of parents enroll their kids in multiple afterschool programs to restrict them from wasting their after-school time in unproductive activities, they are not aware of the many benefits that an afterschool program delivers.

Brain Gym: What It Actually Means For Your Mind And Body

Brain Gym: What It Actually Means For Your Mind And Body

To cope up with today’s stressful and highly competitive world, people are planning to prepare their children from the early stages of life. A lot of parents have enrolled their children in yoga classes and several other programs to enhance the physical capability of kids, but there is one mistake that most of them are making. Physical fitness is essential, and it can be attained with the help of a gym, but what about the mental fitness? Isn’t it equally important? The word “fitness” is not limited to just physical health. Both emotional and physical fitness are required in equal proportion to become truly successful in life. Just like a typical gym takes care of the physical fitness of a person, the brain gym takes care of the mental fitness.

How Mind Games Differ From Sports and Activities?

How Mind Games Differ From Sports and Activities?

In today’s competitive world, competition is not restricted to an adult’s work-life alone. Children also are exposed to fierce competition in academics, extra-curricular activities, and other life areas as well. To help the children get on the top of the game, a lot of parents are getting their children enrolled in different sports programs or other recreational programs. But what about nurturing the child’s mental skills in a fun way? Involving your children in sports and other activities do help their body to become active and less vulnerable to diseases, but sports don’t train your children’s mind to act wisely or become an independent thinker.

Four Ways You Can Make Coding Interactive For Kids

Four Ways You Can Make Coding Interactive For Kids

Let’s accept this – coding is tough and involves complex concepts. Coding is something we as adults sometimes find daunting, tending to give up learning once in a while. Now imagine what kids would have to go through when they have to sit in front of their computers, tackling something that is way beyond their age, comprehension levels, attention span and mindsets.

However, tons of kids out there enjoy coding. This is mainly because the way they are introduced by their parents, teachers or afterschool programs instructors. Though coding for kids revolves around a fairly similar approach – logics, tools, programming languages, basic algorithms, functions and more – what actually kids learn and the fun they have learning depends on how they perceive coding. And that entirely depends on us. So, if you intend to introduce coding to your kids and sustain their interests for long, here’s how you can do it.

A Glimpse Into the Competitive Learning Environment that We Foster at Mind Mentorz

A Glimpse Into the Competitive Learning Environment that We Foster at Mind Mentorz

Extra-curricular activities – We have been told since time immemorial that it is essential to participate in activities that are separate from our day to day actions.

Let’s take a second to figure out exactly why this is so important. Besides the overused terms such as personality development and forming of a well-rounded individual, we tend to ignore the main purpose of these activities that is to build and improve cognitive function. It is scientifically proven that beginning to work on these skills at an early age helps not only academically but also allows the mind to think differently and perform tasks with more efficiency.

How In-person Classes at Mind Mentorz Help Develop Your Kids' Cognitive Skills?

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There are classes and then there are classes that are fun and interactive. Mind Mentorz belongs to the latter class of afterschool programs. The fundamentals of an afterschool institute is the same - a safe and secure premises, essential equipments, mentors and coaches. But where we differ is the way we approach our programs.

Here, we believe in collective evolution and all of us develop new skills, learn things, interpret, apply and have fun doing them. One of our major elements we consider as our primal success is the fact that kids love coming back to our classes every week. We have heard personally that they wait to get to classes and participate in our sessions. That is by far the biggest compliment we have ever received.

But how do we do this? How can you make learning fun and still substantially develop kids' cognitive skills? Well, here's how!

 

The Atmosphere

At Mind Mentorz, we foster an atmosphere that kids love. Such an atmosphere sustains interests in kids and help them be at their best phases of creativity, imagination, competitive levels and more. We add interesting and unique ways to keep our programs and classes fun and interactive so there is active participation and involvement from every kid in the program.

We also leave space for healthy competition in our programs so kids can realize at a very young age that it is important to know where they stand in comparison to others and how they can bring in their unique identity, perspective and thoughts in their work to stand out. Once we set the stage for competition, we see kids going an extra mile in bettering themselves and even helping other kids in the process.

 

Room for Creativity and Imagination

One of the major things that differentiates kids from us is their ability to be creative and imaginative. Logic to them is ancillary and the focus is more on believing their thoughts are true. Innate features like these are what would lay foundations for discoveries and make the world a better place. When kids come up with something unthinkable, we don't buzzkill by proving them wrong. We let them explore the possibilities and nurture their creativity to make their visions true.

Our robotics and coding classes help achieve this substantially. When they can say they can come up with an idea to remind them to wear white canvas shoes on Thursdays or just pack their homework notebooks, we let them venture into their ideas. At the root of the most offbeat ideas lie solutions.

 

Communication

If the imagination of one kid is so contagious and exciting, visualize a place of 20 to 30 kids envisioning things together! This is the collective growth we are talking about. When kids talk, they don't just talk about cartoons or games. They talk about their moves in chess, the duration within which they solved the Rubik's cube or an interesting project they are working on. When conversations are about ideas, progress and thoughts, how cannot there be space for mental evolution?

Well, these are just a few of the ways we stand out. We have our excellent coaches and mentors, who become kids when they are around with them. We also have a tailored program structure designed to make them learn newer life skills. If you're keen on taking a personal look on how we take our classes, arrange for a free class today!