Brainetics has been around a number of years now and has been featured in most countries in the English speaking world in the form of infomercials late at night.
It was developed by a Mike Byster, a former stock broker from Chicago. When he was a boy he found the natural patterns that exist in nature such as the Fibonacci sequence fascinating. Later, he found that he was able to create ways to make complex mathematical sums simple to solve.
At the time when he was a stockbroker, he was invited by a friend into a classroom to teach a group of children. He found he had the natural ability to enthuse them and teach them these amazing mathematical skills. A light bulb clicked in his head and suddenly he saw the potential to market what he had invented as some sort of system. Word spread and he was asked to present his system to other schools. What he developed became known as "Mike's Math." - the forerunner to Brainetics.
Things really started to take off when he was featured on the popular current affairs show in the US - 20/20, where he demonstrated some of his skills and they featured some of the children he has helped. Soon after the show was broadcasted he received letters from people all around the world wanting to know more and where they can purchase the Mike's Math course.
What is the thinking behind Brainetics?
Brainetics has been criticized as a box of parlour tricks for the children of middle class families to show off when their parent's friends come round for drinks. Indeed, the course does include such tricks. One of these tricks is a formula to tell someone the day of the week they were born on, given their date of birth.
However, this is not the essence of Brainetics Mike Byster wants children to appreciate the existence of numbers all around us to excite and inspire them. This makes learning fun and keeps the children engaged.
What Brainetics Isn't
Another misconception is that Brainetics will make your kids who are getting poor grades smarter. This is not the case. It is intended for children who already have mastered basic addition and multiplication and are keen to learn more.
So what's in the box? The course itself is a series of 5 DVDs that comes with the course material, a book for parents and some flashcards. The format of the course is to make your child confident, and then bring in the theory in a fun manner.
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