Open your child’s mind. Success will follow.

Real-life does not come with an instruction manual. As parents and teachers, our job is to prepare our children for real life. To give them the ability to think through and to solve problems that do not have straight answers. For that, we must teach our children to look at a problem from different sides, much like playing with a Rubik's cube.

The building blocks of a child's development are formed very early. Providing a rich, stimulating environment during the early years can immensely change the outcome for your child. A child is born with more than enough brain cells to be successful. More than 100 billion! It is not the number of brain cells that determines usable intelligence; it is the number of connections that are made between those brain cells. And these connections are formed by different experiences and thoughts that you give to your child. Be it games, visits, conversations, experiences, activities, loving attention, or books.

Teach your child the Sherlock Holmes style.

"When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." That famous line used by Sherlock Holmes explains how he unerringly arrived at the correct conclusion to catch the real culprit every time. Sherlock famously used what is called the power of deduction. Deduction is a way of understanding something or arriving at a conclusion based on evidence. Simplistically put, if you know something to be true, then based on that, you can arrive at the following conclusion. For example, Spiders have 8 legs. A tarantula is a spider. So, tarantula must have 8 legs.

As your child grows up, he or she will be required to use this skill extensively not only in academics in areas such as math or even competitive exams, which are full of deductive questions but also in real life, to make decisions, whether personal or professional. However, using this mental skill need not be about heavy studies. Playing games of the deduction is a great mental exercise. And at the same time great fun. After all, which kid does not like to play detective?

Given below is a fun exercise that has been inspired by Sherlock Holmes. As the child eliminates the options that are not possible, he/she will arrive at the last possible option! You can devise any number of fun games, riddles, and puzzles and play with your child. Once deduction comes easy to them, cracking academic questions will become that much of a cakewalk.

By Shubhada Dayal Basuray, Founder, Brainologi