Any age. Any subject. Most important: Enjoy!

It’s amazing what is happening at home. Creating mind maps is becoming a kind of pleasant (and of course useful) pastime for all of us. I’ve probably been a bit boring these last weeks on the subject but now, boomerang is back. Both of my sons have started to create mind maps without me asking.

It’s amazing what is happening at home. Creating mind maps is becoming a kind of pleasant (and of course useful) pastime for all of us. I’ve probably been a bit boring these last weeks on the subject but now, boomerang is back. Both of my sons have started to create mind maps without me asking. Corentin, nearly 5 years old, created his first map last week-end about the family. Without any explanations or recommendations, he put the paper in landscape mode and started in the centre of the page. Then he drew some main branches and added what he does the best, drawings of family members. Here is his mind map:

Corentin - 4 yo - First mind map

A couple of days ago, Baptiste, 7 ½ years old, decided to make a mind map while waiting for a meal at the restaurant. He selected school as the central idea and developed the different activities he was performing there. I gave some explanations and a couple of rules to be respected. He had no difficulties in applying them.  Here is the nice mind map he drew:

Baptiste - 7 yo - First mind map

But my biggest pride of the week-end is obviously the mind map my niece managed to produce. Aglaé, 15 years old, extremely dislikes school. She’s in danger and might not successfully pass through the education system without our help. She was my guest and knowing her affinity for colour pens and drawings, I decided to teach her how to do mind maps. We took an important lesson from the 2nd year program: French grammar. We had a look first at a couple of rules together. She completed some exercises, especially because she wanted to master curved branches. We started the final mind map on an A4 sheet of paper but I quickly saw that she needed more space, more freedom.  We moved to an A3 format, much better. After only two hours of collaborative work, she was able to produce her first mind map. And look at the result!

Aglaé - 15 yo - First mind map

I would never have imagined that a teenager was able to elaborate a state of the art mind map just in a couple of hours. We drew several other mind maps about English tenses and I could really see the pleasure but also the interest and the focus in her eyes. We also looked at the iMindMap application on my laptop. She’s now back at home, where she has installed the free version of the tool. I hope she will continue from now on to create mind maps on paper and on the computer. I will follow-up of course and check whether mind maps could really help her to be able to accept the thousands of hours of school she still have to follow.

It’s amazing what is happening at home. Creating mind maps is becoming a kind of pleasant (and of course useful) pastime for all of us. I’ve probably been a bit boring these last weeks on the subject but now, boomerang is back. Both of my sons have started to create mind maps without me asking.

It’s amazing what is happening at home. Creating mind maps is becoming a kind of pleasant (and of course useful) pastime for all of us. I’ve probably been a bit boring these last weeks on the subject but now, boomerang is back. Both of my sons have started to create mind maps without me asking. Corentin, nearly 5 years old, created his first map last week-end about the family. Without any explanations or recommendations, he put the paper in landscape mode and started in the centre of the page. Then he drew some main branches and added what he does the best, drawings of family members. Here is his mind map:

Corentin - 4 yo - First mind map

A couple of days ago, Baptiste, 7 ½ years old, decided to make a mind map while waiting for a meal at the restaurant. He selected school as the central idea and developed the different activities he was performing there. I gave some explanations and a couple of rules to be respected. He had no difficulties in applying them.  Here is the nice mind map he drew:

Baptiste - 7 yo - First mind map

But my biggest pride of the week-end is obviously the mind map my niece managed to produce. Aglaé, 15 years old, extremely dislikes school. She’s in danger and might not successfully pass through the education system without our help. She was my guest and knowing her affinity for colour pens and drawings, I decided to teach her how to do mind maps. We took an important lesson from the 2nd year program: French grammar. We had a look first at a couple of rules together. She completed some exercises, especially because she wanted to master curved branches. We started the final mind map on an A4 sheet of paper but I quickly saw that she needed more space, more freedom.  We moved to an A3 format, much better. After only two hours of collaborative work, she was able to produce her first mind map. And look at the result!

Aglaé - 15 yo - First mind map

I would never have imagined that a teenager was able to elaborate a state of the art mind map just in a couple of hours. We drew several other mind maps about English tenses and I could really see the pleasure but also the interest and the focus in her eyes. We also looked at the iMindMap application on my laptop. She’s now back at home, where she has installed the free version of the tool. I hope she will continue from now on to create mind maps on paper and on the computer. I will follow-up of course and check whether mind maps could really help her to be able to accept the thousands of hours of school she still have to follow.