BRAIN RULES FOR BABY:
HOW TO RAISE A SMART AND
HAPPY CHILD FROM ZERO TO FIVE
by John Medina. Pear Press, 2010
BOOK'S OUTLINE OF FACTS AND IDEAS

BRAIN RULES --- Summarized under five subject headings (unpaged at beginning)

(1) PREGNANCY =

    [1] Babies develop an active mental life in the womb

    [2] Stressed mom, stressed baby

    [3] Eat right, stay fit, get lots of pedicures

(2) RELATIONSHIP =

    [4] Happy marriage, happy baby

    [5] The brain seeks safety above all

    [6] What is obvious to you is obvious to you

(3) SMART BABY =

    [7] The brain cares about survival before learning

    [8] Intelligence is more than IQ

    [9] Face time, not screen time

    [10] Safe baby, smart baby

    [11] Praise effort, not IQ

    [12] Guided play --- Every day

    [13] Emotions, not emoticons

(4) HAPPY BABY =

    [14] Babies are born with their own temperament

    [15] Emotions are just Post-it notes

    [16] Empathy makes good friends

    [17] The brain craves community

    [18] Empathy soothes the nerves

    [19] Labeling emotions calms big feelings

(5) MORAL BABY =

    [20] Babies are born with moral sensibilities

    [21] Discipline + warm heart = moral kid

    [22] Let your "yes" be YES! and your "no" be NO!

INTRODUCTION (1-17)

IDEAS =

    (1) Parenting is about brain development

    (2) The importance of being selective about science

    (3) Why do we need parents, anyway?

    (4) Five inescapable questions

PART 1 --- PREGNANCY (19-54)

IDEAS =

    (1) Four things that improve a baby's brain development

    (2) Electronic gadgets --- Forget 'em

    (3) Is morning sickness a good thing?

    (4) When your baby can hear your voice, sense your touch

    (5) The effects of severe stress on mom and baby

PART 2 --- RELATIONSHIP (55-87)

IDEAS =

    (1) Bundle of joy? "Yes, but ..."

    (2) What happens to marriages in the transition to parenthood

    (3) The four biggest reasons you'll fight

    (4) Guys, get out the vacuum cleaner

    (5) Two steps to a relationship that's good for baby

PART 3 --- SMART BABY: Seeds (89-120)

IDEAS =

    (1) 8,000 neurons per second!

    (2) What's better than IQ

    (3) The brain cannot learn unless it feels safe

    (4) What does "smart" mean?

    (5) Seven types of intelligence

    (6) Every brain is wired differently

PART 4 --- SMART BABY: Soil (121-158)

IDEAS =

    (1) The best kind of playroom

    (2) Talking to your child improves IQ

    (3) How to raise cognition scores by 50%

    (4) TV before age Two

    (5) The harm in hyper-parenting

PART 5 --- HAPPY BABY: Seeds (159-187)

IDEAS =

(1) Could happiness be genetic?

(2) Where emotions happen in the brain

(3) Magical mirror neurons (176-178)

    "Mirror neurons: I feel you!" (176)

(4) Emotions and logic are not as separate as you think

PART 6 --- HAPPY BABY: Soil (189-217)

IDEAS =

    (1) The secret to happiness

    (2) Using empathy to calm your child's nerves

    (3) The one parenting style that works

PART 7 --- MORAL BABY (219-251)

IDEAS =

    (1) Are babies born moral?

    (2) The three-legged stool of discipline

    (3) Kids lie a lot (every two hours, by age 4)

    (4) Explaining your rules

CONCLUSION (253-259)

PRACTICAL TIPS (261-275)

REFERENCES --- Extensive, notated references and illustrations are online at: (276)

www.brainrules.net

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (277)
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