Now You are Telling Me I Have a Bunny in my Brain!
In my previous two Brain blog posts (Wait! I Have a Chest of Drawers in My Brain? , Yes There is A Chest of Drawers in Your Brain!), I shared how I use my analogy of a chest of drawers to simplify how our brains work and help children relax and realize THEY are in control of their brain, and therefore, THEY are in control of their learning.
Not long ago over lunch, my dear friend Sayra shared her successful analogy.
Sayra shared how she explained our brain to her son Matthew when he was young and struggling with learning to read. She shared that Matthew is dyslexic and that this analogy helped him relax into learning to read more easily. It helped him feel in control of his reading.
Sayra shared that she made up a story for Matthew about how we all have a tiny bunny inside our brains. This tiny little bunny is our very good friend and helps us with our learning by moving around in the tunnels of information in our brain.
This is the story Sayra’s used to introduce her analogy:
One day when a little boy was playing in the woods, he saw a little, brown cottontail bunny. He watched the bunny as it hopped along the trail. Suddenly the bunny disappeared! He looked and looked but couldn’t find it anywhere.
He went home to tell his mama. His mama had an animal book, so they looked up bunnies in her book. “Bunnies make burrows,” the book said.
The little boy learned a new word – “burrows”. He wondered what burrows were. “Burrows are the homes of bunnies,” his mother read from the book. “Bunnies build nests underground. They sleep in the nests and raise their babies in the nests. They dig many tunnels to connect their nests. They dig at least two doorways. Bunnies are very good at making tunnels and nests.”
The little boy’s mother looked at him with a smile and said, “Son, your brain is sort of like a bunny’s burrow. It has tunnels and nests and, just like the bunny, you make new tunnels and new nests when you learn new information.
As you learn new sounds for letters, learn new words and read stories, you are making familiar places in your brain for those sounds, words and stories.
A bunny making a nest for her babies is just like YOU making “nests” for letter sounds, for words and for stories.
When you practice your letter sounds, your words and read a story over again, you use the very same tunnels to your nests - just like a bunny uses its same tunnels and nests. The tunnels and nests become very familiar as they feel like comfortable places. The tunnels and nests become easy to find.”
His mama encouraged her little boy to pretend he had a smart, little bunny in his brain helping him learn.
The little boy loved bunnies and he loved thinking about the clever, little bunny in his brain helping him learn to read! Soon he loved to read because he practiced each day with his bunny. His mama was so proud of him!
Sayra continued to build her analogy by having Matthew imagine his tiny, smart bunny in his brain helping him learn something new. His bunny was right there with him.
She had Matthew imagine just how clever and helpful his little, learning bunny was and how it knew every single tunnel and every single nest in Matthew’s brain.
She shared with him how reading would become fun and easy because his bunny knew all the familiar tunnels and nests and how to connect all of Matthew’s old learning with his new learning.
They talked about how his little bunny loves him so much and is SO HAPPY to help him, but sometimes his little bunny needs a little help from Matthew.
Sometimes his sweet, little bunny would get over excited or nervous and start to run through the tunnels not knowing which way to go.
Sayra shared with Matthew that he would always know when his bunny was running anxiously through the tunnels because Matthew would feel his bunny’s worry and nervousness. When Matthew felt worried, nervous or like he couldn’t remember what he had learned, that was the time his bunny needed HIS help.
She taught him to sooth his bunny by saying loving words to it when it felt nervous or couldn’t remember. She taught him to pretend he was holding his anxious bunny in his arms while saying encouraging words.
She had Matthew teach his bunny how to slow down, breathe deep and relax and that when Matthew relaxed, his bunny would know exactly which tunnel was the right one to use to get to the right nest. After all, HE had dug all the tunnels and built all the nests. He KNEW where everything was.
Sayra shared that her analogy was extremely helpful for Matthew and that it helped him realize that he was in control of his own learning.
I love Sayra’s analogy! It’s so “kid friendly”. 😊
In my next post, I’ll share how I use it with my students and how I extend it into the science of our brain.
If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.