It’s not easy to be parent-teachers in today’s fast-paced, competitive, and technology-driven world, considering the modern ways kids do things, the massive amount of information they have to soak up, and the distractions, challenges and hardships that besiege most families. But thanks to the book "Cooking Up a Creative Genius" by Henry S. Tenedero, us moms and dads can be better mentors to our children, enhance learning, and at the same time, help our brood realize their potential.

This way to knowledge

It all begins with knowing the different learning styles and identifying and appreciating your child’s own, says Tenedero, an experienced educator, speaker and author, with graduate degrees from the Asian Institute of Management and Harvard University. 

He compares the entire educational experience to how we prepare, take and savor our food, believing that “it’s a diner’s world right there inside the home; ergo, it is the diner’s taste that must be met.  If you want your children to eat their steak, better serve it the way they want it.  Sure, it will mean a bit more work for the parent-cook.  But once you see your diners gobbling it up and asking for more, you’ll know that it was worth it.”

Here then are the essentials to becoming better parent-mentors and to bring out the inherent genius in your youngster.

1. Know your child

To have a clearer understanding of your child’s likes and dislikes, Tenedero advocates the Dunn and Dunn Learning Styles Model (of Drs. Kenneth and Rita Dunn), which takes into account an individual’s environmental, emotional, sociological, physiological and psychological preferences. Below are some questions you should ask yourself.

Does your child prefer:
- to learn with or without background music?
- to learn under bright or dim light?
- to study in a warm or cool room temperature?
- to study in a formal or informal design?
A helpful Learning Styles Guide for Parents (in the form of a checklist)  can be found at the end of the book’s first chapter.
      
2. Develop his/her strengths and natural smarts

Tenedero likewise advocates the Multiple Intelligences theory of educational psychologist Dr. Howard Gardner. He firmly believes that each child is unique and that each has genius potential, so his Gardner-based M.I. menu describes the varied intelligences (linguistic, logical-math, musical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalist) and offers ways to further these special abilities.  Parents who have discerned their children’s individual strengths can thus teach them according to these fortes and not to their kids’ weaknesses.

3. Understand the learning process

Knowing how our brain works, how we retain information, and the sensory differences between males and females are just a few of the interesting facts that can affect a parent’s mindset when teaching and helping a child study.  Tenedero also touched on the left-right brain theory/whole brain thinking, incubation, and the link of deep rest to the brain.  The chapter he devotes on the brain, entitled “The Pots & Pans of Teaching” may be short, but it is definitely insightful.

4. Cultivate a constructive environment

Tenedero recommends high confidence diets to children, and he says moms and dads can achieve this by teaching their youngsters:

- to follow rules, routines, and transitions
- to have a positive self-image
- the use of effective communication skills
- the value of holding family meetings and of bonding or spending time together and
- physical relaxation techniques

Parents, he says, should promote a home atmosphere that is learner-oriented.

5. Make time and effort to teach

Education requires hands-on human participation, stresses Tenedero, and cannot be entrusted to technology alone.  It also begins at home, and no amount of technology can substitute for parenting. 

As such, Tenedero says “parents must not look just at the ingredients, or content of education, but also at its very processes:  the meal preparations, recipes, pots and pans, and all aids and tools with which we can help our children attain the fullest realization of their potentials and their dreams.”

6. Keep an open mind and keep learning 

As our world has changed and keeps changing, so have our schools, our students and their learning methods.  Parents should be adaptable and responsive to these reforms and to the needs of their young.  Near the book’s end, Tenedero mentions as well some intriguing truths that many moms and dads probably do not know such as:

- Husbands and wives in the same family learn differently from each other.
- Siblings do not share the same learning styles.
- “LD” does not necessarily mean that the child is LEARNING-disabled; it could mean that the child is TEACHING-disabled.
- Some youngsters cannot work without breaks
- Some youngsters cannot think without moving.
- Some youngsters cannot learn by themselves; others cannot concentrate with an adult nearby.

In closing, Tenedero maintains that what parents do not know [about their children’s learning style strengths] can hurt them and their kids in the long run.  What they do know should be shared with their children and their children’s teachers.

To order Professor Tenedero’s books, send an email to mindfulideas@yahoo.com or call 0927-4559912 or 0920-4469398.