Mind Mapping for Kids

Mind mapping helps generate ideas you never thought you had or were ever capable of coming up with. Certainly not with your everyday mode of linear thinking, that is. This innovative exercise sparks creativity and makes note taking fun and exciting. Mind mapping for kids can involve the use of pictures, colours, and diagrams, which makes it ideal for stirring up their imaginations in ways that conventional learning methods might not be able to.

What is Mind Mapping?

Mind mapping is where you generate ideas around a central topic by means of association. You put the central topic in a circle bang in the middle of a paper or writing board or screen. From there you draw little branches for every idea you can associate with it. You put each of these in their own little circles and give them branches of their own if you can think of any ideas associated with them in turn. 

You can keep this up till you've literally filled up the page and even need to go on to add pages to accommodate the overflow of ideas that can come rushing in. For best results, you better get down on the floor so you can move around and add ideas and associations from any angle you need to. You can give each root a distinct colour to show its association with a thread of the idea.

We're doing this from a kid's point of view, so let's imagine this is a brainstorming session that involves a kid trying to gather ideas about animals. Take a central idea, for instance, animals. It can look like this or not, depending on what your kid can come up with. 

It can go on to include dinosaurs and budgies and connect them all to the central theme of animals. What you have at the end of it all is magnificent proof of what your child's brain is capable of generating when he has learnt the art of mind mapping. To see the difference for yourself, you could ask her to write down a list of animals in linear fashion on a piece of paper before doing it on a mind map. You'll be amazed at the difference in results.

Why Mind Mapping is Useful?

To fully understand the benefits of mind mapping and the way it works, just imagine the difference in your experience when someone gives you spoken directions to a new destination or when they draw it out for you on a piece of paper. Enough said. If you can understand how the brain works in its right brain left brain fashion, you'll begin to see how the right brain responds to creativity and in turn, spurs you on with new ideas and inspiration when suitably stimulated. 

When you present your child with a colourful drawing instead of boring letters to work with, the data appeals to the right side of the brain and stimulates it. When both right side and left side of the brain works in unison you get better and more powerful results than if you were just using one side as is usual with a majority of the population. So if you can introduce mind mapping to your child, you would have given him a wonderful gift that helps him not just with school activities but also life's puzzles that may confront him as he grows older.

Mind mapping is not just for kids; parents can benefit immensely from it too. In fact according to the mind mapping maestro, Tony Buzan, you are never too old to start mapping your life to success and creativity. So, take the word of the master mind mapper and get on the road to inspired ideas.