then I remembered, I didn't go to pre-school; non the less prepare for it. And I went to a University and got a degree! {an associates mind you, but still a degree}.
This book is basically summed up on the cover, '[our children] need to play more and memorize less.' Yet it took them 302pages to cover that.
Needless to say, I felt it was a little redundant. It was not something I easily conquered; I had to give it my full attention, and was not easily dropped and picked up, not easy with two boys! {I renewed it at the library over 20 times}
In the end I walked away pretty much the same as if I would have just read the sub-heading [OUR CHILDREN] NEED TO PLAY MORE AND MEMORIZE LESS. Bam! there it is.
However here are some points/facts/tidbits I found interesting:
-from 1980 to 1997 the number of 10-14 year olds who committed suicide increased by 109%
-IQ verses EQ (EQ- emotional intelligence, self-control, zeal and persistence, and the ability to motivate oneself)
-From Neurons to Neighborhoods http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9824&page=R17
-Causal conversations- helps children to think and learn and increase their vocabulary in a playful way.
-A study by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek of children whose parents send them to "academic' preschools versus traditional preschools that emphasize play and discovery found that children in academic preschools had no short-tern, let alone long-term, academic advantages. By the time they were in first grade, the research couldn't distinguish between the intellectual skills of the children who had academic training and those who had none. There was one difference between the two groups, however: Children who had been in the academic environment were more anxious and less creative than the children in the other group.
-Parents easily foster self-confident learners through activities that gently challenge children to reach to the edge of their developmental level, but not beyond.
-In the 1960s, Mark R. Rosenzweig, a professor of psychology at the U of Cal. at Berkley, began to publish findings showing that rats raised in enriched environments had heavier brains and thicker cortexes in certain brain regions than did rats raised alone in a cage. In the 1970s, Pro. William Greenough, of the psychology department at the U of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, continues the study of how different aspects of the rats' environment affect their behavior and brain development.Typically, he would set up three different conditions: One rat living in solitary confinement in a small cage; a rat living in a large cage with several other rats; and a rat living with other rats in a kind of Disneyland, with toys, slides and running wheels... the Disneyland rats had more synapses in their brains... and so they learned to run mazes more quickly and effectively.... Pro. Rosenweig made one more useful observation: The rats that remained in nature had the best brains of all. They were stimulated by the sights, sounds, and smells of the world around them. They met up with termites, spiders, and cats. They socialized in packs, chose their leaders and mates, and dealt with lice and fleas, and probably even frolicked from time to time. In other words, their natural environment was the best thing in the world for their rat brains-even better than the Disneyland the researchers created in the rats' cages.
-Three questions to ask before buying a toy (from: Awakening Children's Minds by Laura Berk)
1. What activities will this toy inspire?
2. What values will the activities teach?
3. What social rules will my children learn to follow?
-Cry it out: Sylvia Bell and Mary Ainsworth, of John Hopkins University in Baltimore, found that babies whose cries got a response more frequently cried less at the end of nine months than those who were responded to less frequently.
{skills children pick up on their own usually without us noticing}
*Imitation- Ages birth-2months: While holding baby on your lap stick out your tongue or open your mouth wide ten times slowly. Wait and see if your baby mimics you. Andrew Meltzoff of the University of Washington discovered newborns- at just two days old- can imitated facial expressions.
*Sense of Physical Self- Ages 12-24months: Be sneaky and surreptitiously place red rouge on your child's nose near a large mirror and observe what happens. Does the child look at it for a long time, try to rub it off, show it to you and smile, or ignore it as if it is no big deal?
*Understanding Another Persons Perspective- Ages 12-24months: See if your baby takes your preferences into consideration. Offer two foods, be ecstatic about one as you eat it and show disgust for the other. Set the foods in front of your baby, wait a few minutes, and then encourage your baby to feed you. Does the baby feed you the food you like?
*Scribble Writing- Ages 15-24months: Provide a pencil without a point and some scratch paper. How does your child react to using a pencil that does not make marks on the paper? What happens when you give your child a tool that does mark the paper?
*Language Rules- Ages 2-3years: Assemble the following pictures: someone doing something active (ex: running); a picture of one object and another of two or more of the same object (ex: one apple and two apples); and a picture in which an activity is being performed on a substance (ex: someone kneading dough). You'll also need a stuffed animal or doll. Tell your child that the animal (giving it a name, ex: Brighty) needs help knowing how to talk. Looking at the running picture say, 'Brighty says, 'the boy is blixing.' How should Brighty say, 'yesterday the boy ____' and leave a blank for the child to verbally fill in. Does the child use past tense? For the single apple picture say, 'Brighty calls this a wug'. Then pull out the plural picture, say, 'What would Brighty say here? Now there are two ___?' Does the child use plural? The kneading bread picture you can ask three questions. Say, 'Brighty says this person is daxing. can you point to where she is daxing?'. Can the child find the verb? Next ask, 'where's the modi?' and see if the child points to the bowl or other object, knowing that you are using a new noun. Or 'where's some roltan?' you can see if the child points to the mushy stuff, recognizing that it doesn't get an article before its name as a mass noun.
*One-to-One and Stable-Order Principles- Ages 2-4yrs: collects objects (about three or four) and ask your child to count them. See if they assign only one number to each item: one-to-one principle. Also listen as your child counts the objects hear whether they use a number list (one, two, three, four, seven) although wrong they may use it in the same order each time, thereby observing the Stable-Order Principle.
*Discovering the Written Word- Ages 2-4years: Take 16 index cards and write a single word or letter or make a design or draw a picture on each. Make four cards of each type. Show the cards one at a time to the child and ask if what they see is writing. Or have the child sort them into cards with writing and cards without. Try this every 3-4 months, keeping the cards away in between. You'll be watching as your child discovers the features that make up writing, a crucial emergent literacy achievement that you might not have noticed at all, as they discover it on their own.
*The False Belief Test- Ages 2-5years: Have an item that is clearly labeled and has a picture of it's contents in it (ie Fruit Loops box, box of pencils, M&Ms...). Show it to your child and an adult. Show them the contents. Have the adult leave. Show the child as you switch out the item inside (ie taking the Fruit Loops out of the box and inserting pencils). Ask the child what the adult will say is in the box when they return. Children 4yrs and older will understand the distinction between their brain and the adults, the theory of mind, while children younger will not (ie a 4-year old will say the adult will still say their are Fruit Loops in the box even though the 4-year old knows there are now pencils, whereas younger children assume the adult knows what they know, the item was switched).
*Conversation Problems- Ages 3-6yrs: Have two sets of identical items set out identically- one set in front of you, the other in front of your child. Once the child agrees that you both have the same number/equal amount of items, manipulate one set (squish yours together or spread them out). Ask if they are the same number/equal amounts. You'll be surprised! Usually 3-5 year olds 'fail' while six year olds 'pass'. Or do the same with equal amounts of liquid in two glasses, then have the child pour one glass into a different shaped glass.
*Counting On- Ages 4-6yrs: See if your child uses 'counting on'. Get five toys and let your child play with them. Then separate them so that they form two distinct sets of three items and two items. Ask your child to first count the three-item set and tell you how many toys there are. Then give your child the two-item set and ask, 'how many are there now?' What does your child do? Does she 'count on'? or start over? If they count on, try again in a month and see if your child has developed this ability- it usually comes around age 5.
{As a somewhat unrelated side note I LOVE this post from a friend of mine about her little boy the same age as Levi!}
Hey! I am glad you commented on my blog so I could find yours. I amhappy it isnt private anymore, so I can stalk you properly :) Those pictures of your leg look so very painful, you are one lucky girl.
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