Recently we have a friend whose baby boy was born on 010111. Wow, what a good date, the baby’s birthday will always be a public holiday 😉
 
This also means this boy will be the eldest in the class when he starts school, compared the the kids who were born in September, he is almost 9 months older, so logically he will be the smartest in class as mentally and physically he is much developed, compared to the kids who were born in year end.
 
Interested in this issue and coincidently, i came across some articles about brain development. Babies are born with 100 Billions BRAIN CELLS WAITING TO BE CONNECTED. Not all are connected at birth. As a child learns, his/her brain cells will make connections inside the brain.
 
If the brain cells are not connected, they are not helping in learning, so the more the better, the faster, the better. Gangliosides, the brain nutrient will be able to help to promite this brain development.
 
So the explanation for why the elder boys usually are the smarter group in class is that their brain is more developed, i.e. more brain cells connected. So how Benjamin catch up? He is a September boy :-p
 
Provide him more Gangliosides 😉 Some might think this sounds kiasu but actually it is not, being left behind in class is really not a good experience, not able to catch up in class is not the most critical part but developing lack of confidence in class is the worst jmpact.
 
Check this out, this article
(http://www.extension.purdue.edu/providerparent/Child%20Growth-Development/BrainDev.htm) which shares some info about experience and rain development. Ben said, “Nenek (his babysitter) is Indian, daddy is Chinese, mummy is Burmese and Ben Ben is English”, I have never told him the relationship of language and ethnic. By the way, one of my 2011 resolutions is to teach Ben more Chinese language :-p