Parents often wonder how to raise smart kids who grow up to achieve their dreams. Whether they dream of becoming an astronaut when they grow up or becoming a doctor or a lawyer, most parents hope they will have a smart child who will find success in whatever path they choose.
While there may not be a magic formula for how to raise a smart child, parents do play a key role in their kids’ success. According to research, 50% of intelligence comes from genetics, while the other 50% comes from other factors, including the child’s environment. For the 50% that parents can control, they play a key role in supporting the cognitive development of their child.
This means a parent has more influence in their children’s future than anyone else. While there may not be one way to raising smart kids, there are things you can do as a parent to help raise a smart child. Here are 12 ways on how you can raise smart kids.

1: Read to Them Early and Often
Reading helps young children develop language and listening skills, builds vocabulary, inspires creativity, and improves cognitive skills. The American Academy of Pediatrics, has advised parents to start reading to their children from infancy even before they understand the words. This gives them a head start in developing language skills. Other research demonstrates the connection between reading and intelligence. Reading leads to smarter kids.
While you will read to them when your child is very young, have them read to you as they grow older. This helps them develop a deeper understanding of the language and the story—and it’s a great time to bond. Kids who are read to when young are more likely to develop a lifelong interest in reading, do well in school and succeed in adult life.

2: Talk to Them
Talking to your child develops strong language skills. Also, listen to your child when he’s talking. This reinforces his effort to communicate and develop his facility for language. A study shows that kids who experienced more conversation at home had greater brain activity and verbal ability. Ask questions and wait for responses instead of engaging in a one-way narration.

3: Interact with Them through Play and make Them feel Loved
Scientists have observed that children who were not cuddled, played with and loved have stunted brain growth. They also observed that children who were not held and did not receive attention failed to grow and thrive. On the other hand, many studies have shown that loving, hugging, interacting and playing with your child has a strong effect on developing his intelligence. The loving connection formed between you and your child and your one-on-one interaction with him provide the foundation for his higher thinking skills.

4: Make Time for Unstructured Play
Can playing help your child get smarter in school? Children are naturally curious little explorers. They also learn best through play.
Giving kids unstructured playtime each day supports their cognitive and social and emotional development. Unstructured play is any play activity freely chosen and directed by the child.
The play is child-led, which encourages creativity, imagination and builds problem-solving skills. It also gives them a sense of independence. This playtime session should be free from electronic devices so kids can realize the full potential of unstructured play.

5: Get Them Moving
Is movement a secret to raising smart kids? While we hear a lot about the physical benefits of exercise, there are also emotional and cognitive benefits. Physical exercise increases the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain and builds new brain synapses. It improves memory and cognition, boosts energy levels, improves mood and reduces stress to help children focus better in school. When children get the wiggles out, they are more apt to listen and retain what’s being taught to them in the lesson.
To raise a smart kid, make sure they have plenty of time to exercise.
You can also help your child find extracurricular activities that encourages them to exercise, such as joining a team sport or a martial arts club. Exercising the body is great for the mind!

6: Let them Make Mistakes
When you see your child struggling, do not rescue him too quickly. Let him solve problems on his own so he learns from his experience. Sometimes it’s hard to watch your child struggle but if you always jump in to solve their problems, they will never learn to solve problems themselves.
Research shows that failure is the best teacher when learning how to be smart. Kids learn and grow from their disappointments and mistakes, which leads to successes later in life. If they get into too much trouble, definitely jump in to guide them, but raising a smart child means sometimes letting them make mistakes.

7: Let Them See you do Smart Things
Children learn by modelling adult’s behaviour. If your child sees you engaged in reading books, writing, making music, or doing creative things, he will imitate you, and in the process, make himself smart.

8: Encourage Them to have a “Can Do” attitude
A "can-do" attitude is a positive, proactive mindset where you believe in your ability to tackle challenges, find solutions, and succeed, rather than focusing on obstacles. A “can do” attitude makes a person reliable, resilient, and always ready for a task. It's about having an optimistic outlook, demonstrating resourcefulness, and showing the determination to see things through, even when things get difficult. Encourage your child to have a “can do” attitude even if the task your child is attempting to do is hard. Reward your child and praise him if he is able to do a hard task.

9: Enrol them in Music Lessons
Studies have shown that listening to music is soothing and can boost wellbeing, confidence and belonging. It can also lower stress which is destructive to your child’s brain.
Better than just listening to music, make your child take music lessons. A study has shown that children’s brains develop faster with music training. Taking music lessons or playing a musical instrument could make your child’s mind sharper while boosting memory, attention, motivation and learning. It accelerates brain development particularly in areas such as processing sound, language development, speech perception and reading skills. Some studies have shown it also improves math skills.
In addition to the educational benefits, learning to play an instrument is a great creative outlet for your child.

10: Establish a Good Bedtime Routine
Getting enough sleep plays a significant role in a child’s cognitive development as sleep is a critical time for the body to perform cellular repair, growth, and rejuvenation. Research shows a direct correlation between intelligence and sleep. Children who get the proper amount of sleep perform better on tests. When trying to raise smart and successful kids, it’s important to ensure they are getting the optimal amount of sleep.
The general recommendations typically suggest between 10–13 hours of sleep for preschool-aged kids, 9–12 hours of sleep for primary school children, and 8–10 hours of sleep for secondary school students.

11: Exercise their Brains
Just like how the body benefits from exercise, the brain needs exercise too. To raise a brilliant child, play board games with them.
Games like checkers, chess, and backgammon make kids think and solve problems as they try to win, which builds cognitive abilities. Give your child things like blocks and Legos to tap into their creativity to make new structures. Other activities like puzzles, word searches, brainteasers and riddles are also great ways for a child to exercise their brain.

12: Feed Them Right
Giving the right food to your children is important to making them smart. Giving your child a protein-rich diet (egg, fish, meat) improves his attention, alertness, and thinking. Carbohydrates gives his brain the fuel that is used in thinking. The best carbohydrates are those that come from whole grain and fruits. Processed carbohydrates and sugar have bad effects on attention span, focusing ability, and activity level. Vitamins and minerals are also important. According to a British and Canadian study, feeding your child lots of fatty, sugary and processed foods may lower his IQ, while a diet rich in vitamins and nutrients appears to boost it.

Morinaga Chil-kid
Nutrition is one of the most important factors in making your child smart, along with genetics and brain stimulation. Between the age of 0 to 5 years, your child’s brain grows at the fastest rate ever, reaching 90% of its adult size by the time the child is 5. Giving your child the right nutrition to build his brain is critical at this stage.

Chil-kid Step 3
Chil-kid Step 3 is a science-based, nutrient-dense milk formula that is specially made for children in the 1 to 3 years bracket. Children in this age group require the right nutrients as they experience significant development in physical, cognitive, and social-emotional areas, reaching milestones like walking, talking in short sentences, and showing more independence. By age 3, about 80% of a child's brain has developed, forming the foundation for memory, language, thinking, and reasoning skills, primarily through imitation and interaction.
To support this early stage in a child’s development, Chil-kid Step 3 features carefully-balanced DHA and ARA, Inositol, GOS, and 5 Nucleotides among its 45 nutrients. The DHA and ARA as well as Inositol support brain and vision development, while Galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) which is a prebiotic, supports gut health and strong immunity. There are also Nucleotides, the basic building blocks for new cells and DNA, which support the development of the immune system and intestinal health.
Together, these nutrients in Chil-kid Step 3 form the foundation for immunity, brain eye and gut development in the child.

Chil-kid Step 4
Chil-kid Step 4 is the formula for preschoolers and school-going children in the 3+to 9-years age group. Chil-kid Step 4 is developed based on Chil-kid Step 3 but is further enhanced to meet the evolving needs of growing children. Children in this age group are in their Golden Age of Growth. With their changing nutritional needs that come along as they age, Chil-kid Step 4’s DHA, ARA, Inositol and Choline provide the nutrients to facilitate continued brain connections and growth. The Protein, Calcium, Vitamin D and Phosphorous facilitate muscle and bone mass development as it has been found by the Malaysian Ministry of Health and the South East Asian Nutrition Surveys (SEANUTS) that a large proportion of children in Malaysia have insufficient Calcium and Vitamin D intake. Chil-kid Step 4 addresses this problem with higher Calcium and Vitamin D levels compared to Chil-kid Step 3 . The other nutrients such as GOS and Nucleotides continue to support healthy gut function and digestion and build stronger immunity so that children’s growth and learning trajectory are not interrupted due to falling sick.

Chil-kid Step 3 and Chil-kid Step 4
Both Chil-kid Step 3 and Chil-kid Step 4 are designed to be one continuous journey of growth and development for the child. Both formulas do not contain Sucrose to help reduce sugar intake and are specially formulated with optimized nutrition for Asian children according to their age groups and nutritional needs.

Dissolving easily in warm water, Morinaga Chil-kid, which features a mild vanilla flavour, takes the stress and time out of the preparation. Sometimes children cannot get all the nutrients they need from food alone, particularly if they are picky eaters. Just two to three servings a day of Chil-kid Step 3 or Chil-kid Step 4 alongside meals help your children meet their Recommended Nutrient Intake (RNI). If their diet is lacking in any way, this means they will not be short of any nutrients they may need for their daily development and growth.

Morinaga Chil-kid is the result of over 100 years of child nutrition research by Japanese scientists. The focus is on how nutrition supports immune health, brain health, physical growth and cognitive development. Everything in the formulation is backed by research and all nutrient combinations are tested and refined by the Morinaga R&D Institute in Japan.

Wholly produced from dairy farms to the packaging process in a state-of-the-art plant in the Netherlands, both milk formulas go through rigorous European Union (EU) quality control as well as a double inspection process with samples sent to Japan for a second inspection before they are shipped to Malaysia.