conuly: (ducky)
I feel this is massively unfair, especially to such young children. Why? Because one kid in her class, N, brought in 700 boxtops in the past few months. He has a big family, clearly, but the point is that nobody else could possibly compete with that. If they're going to have a competition with a reward for this, they ought to discount his contribution, or put an individual cap. It's like running a race where your opponent is on steroids.

Of course, 700 boxtops is also shocking because, dude, the only way we were able to bring in our... *thinks a bit* five is because we happened to have some ziploc and hefty bags in the house. We don't eat any of that stuff, and we don't even use disposable menstrual stuff anymore! Oh, wait, for Ana's class birthday party I brought in some disposable plates. So, uh, six boxtops. A whole 60 cents. Yay!

But anyway, not to dis other people's diets, but 700 of these foods in a year? Wow. That's a bit shocking. (Maybe they make a lot of garbage. Maybe he has a lot of sisters - that'd use up Kotex AND Hefty bags every month.)

Well, at any rate, I ask again what I asked way back in the beginning of the year. If you happen to buy this stuff already, and don't have any use for the little clip-off boxtops, I'd be glad to get them for Ana's school. Just save them up and send them to me in one big bunch. Or if you're, like, buying from one of these places online already, that sort of thing.
conuly: Quote from Heroes by Claire - "Maybe being different isn't the end of the world, it's just who I am" (being different)
Ana was doing her TH worksheet. Due to somebody's bad choice, the hardest word (thermometer) was the one without a picture. Seriously? They couldn't've put "thumb" there instead? (I suppose thermometer follows the rules better than thumb with that silent b, but it's long and intimidating.)

Ana diligently divided it up into syllables and sounded it out. THER MO MEEE TER.

Me: Thermometer, honey.
Ana: But why is there a METER in it?
Me: Uh... because it's an unstressed syllable and in English unstressed syllables reduce to a schwa*.
Ana: Oh.

I hope I didn't go too far over her head, but like my mother always says, 10% sticks. (Eventually.)





*Actually, the way I say it, it's more like a schwi. YES THAT'S A REAL WORD.
conuly: Quote from Heroes by Claire - "Maybe being different isn't the end of the world, it's just who I am" (being different)
I made the mistake of reading the comments (some of them, anyway) where I first picked up this link.

Let's just say they were appalling and leave it at that. Two things, though.

1. While the school's actions may not be censorship in the strictest definition, they were acting as an arm of the government to specially restrict where, when, and to whom this one child could share her knowledge. This sends a clear message about Harvey Milk in particular and gay people in general, and let's not talk about what it says about the pursuit of knowledge! (And don't give me that "sex" line. If you think you have to talk about this guy's sex life in order to talk about him, I suggest you get your mind out of the gutter. I know some of our politicians lack any sense of discretion, but seriously, we don't *have* to talk about it.)

2. I am so *sick* of reading about how "OMG, the ACLU only ever attacks Christians and Christian values and hates Christianity and is ebil!!!!!111" Aside from the exceedingly narrow view of who can be Christian, it's just flat-out wrong. Unless of course I'm imagining their defense of....

A Christian prisoner's right to preach (at least twice!)

A Christian church's desire to put their money where their mouth is and uphold their Christian morals by housing the homeless

The right of a Christian man to protest Wal-Mart for "supporting gay lifestyles and marriage". (I don't agree with his statement, but I sure do agree with his right to say it!)

The right of a second-grader to sing a religious song at a school talent show

I'll grant you, most of the ACLU's press releases on their work related to religious freedom is about non-Christians, usually being pressured by Christians. This, however, is not because the ACLU wishes to silence Christians, or because society oppresses Christians so much that very few of them can even make cases. What nerve! It's because Christians are the majority and often casually (and usually unintentionally) do things which harm other's religious rights! Well, of course. It's much easier for the majority to do things which harm the minority than the other way around, how could it be otherwise? Christians certainly aren't being persecuted as a group in the US. What an idea! And attempts to take away the special rights Christians often have really aren't the same as attempts to remove their/your religious freedom. No, really.

So, if any of you were interested in spouting that old ACLU canard about how they hate Christianity and traditional values (what is more traditional in this country than the first Amendment, I ask you!), please - educate yourself.
conuly: (Default)
One about choosing a trade instead of years in college - haven't read the whole thing yet.

Read more... )

One about interning at an organic farm

Read more... )

One about the very firstest Jewish American Girl doll ever.


Read more... )

An article on Stapleton, where I live! Evangeline and Ana have really enjoyed seeing all the sailors for Fleet Week, which kinda changes my ambivalence towards the whole occasion (any occasion that requires the use of multiple flyovers while also crowding the Ferry doesn't exactly get the thumbs up from me). Yesterday the boat was a full 15 minutes late, so we took car service home. The nieces called out the window "Hi sailor! Bye sailor!" at all of them passing, and they spent an amusing several minutes singing an impromptu song about the "three sailors" they saw when walking.

Read more... )

One on how proposals to legalize gay marriage in NY (yay) are having trouble finding opposition. Good. I cannot believe the nerve of some groups trying to call themselves "pro-family". Fucking twits.

Read more... )

An article on recent urban planning in NYC. Go look at it, it's got a nifty graphic with a before and after view of a street in Brooklyn

Read more... )
conuly: (Default)
Go Ana!

She's a hero. Today, as she was doing her homework on the porch, our neighbor came over and asked for her help. Her basement tenant had locked himself out, and his windows are tiny. So Ana climbed through, yes, we said, you can step on the bed! and she fetched his keys - and tried to bring them to us, prompting calls of "Just open the door!", which she did, and she SAVED THE WHOLE CREW! Hooray! What a day, when the babies key ran away.

I loathe goody bags, so we did a grab bag first (which the kidlets had apparently never done, though they were de riguer for christmas parties when I was a kid - but maybe it's a Brooklyn thing?) and we also gave some presents For The Whole Class: A set of lacing letters, two sets of alphabet stamps and a stamp pad, a dolphin stamp (because the school animal is the dolphin), several sets of letter stickers, a M&D birthday cake, and some construction paper. And two birthday-themed books. And, incidentally, some snacks, bowls, and cups that we didn't use for Ana's party. Some of them came with those special "box tops for education" on them, so win! Best part is that I can just repeat this present for Evangeline's pre-k and kindergarten birthdays. Go me! No idea what I'll do for Ana for the first grade, though - definitely some books (anybody want to suggest picture books of a more advanced level that talk about birthdays or feature birthdays prominently? Or chapter books suitable for a first grade library?), maybe a few games...? First grade is different. More craft supplies, for sure. (Which reminds me, I want to get some lefty scissors for the school, you know my feelings on that. I need to ask what teachers, aside from grade teachers, use scissors. Like, does the science teacher? The literacy teacher? Are they going to have an art teacher next year?)

To round out my stories, Evangeline was in her own personal horror film recently. She was wearing her clicky-clacky shoes (Ana is the language innovator, "clicky-clackies" for "plastic pretend dress-up shoes" is a term she invented. Evangeline picked speech up much faster, but Ana played with it more. This is an area of degree, of course) when I decided to be a tickle monster. I started to run towards her, but she cried in (mock) horror "I can't run in my c'icky-c'ackies!". I swiftly shifted to the lurching kind of tickle monster and she escaped in safety, closing a door in my face. Tickle monsters, like vampires, can't go where they're not invited, you know.
conuly: (Default)
Some Thoughts on the Lost Art of Reading Aloud

Read more... )

Thriving Norway Provides an Economics Lesson Be sure to read the comments, at least the editor's choice.

Read more... )

Judging Honesty by Words, Not Fidgets

A novel concept, that )

In German Suburb, Life Goes On Without Cars

Some of the comments to this article are absurd. "Oh, it's great so long as you never go a mile from home". Dude? EVANGELINE can walk a mile in under 20 minutes. She can amble it. If you can't manage a mile without a car (and I imagine a bike would be faster than even a quick pace), that's not my problem. "Oh, what about when it's a snowstorm and you have to bike five miles up and down hills to go shopping???" Even with a car, you're telling me you do your shopping (up and down hills!) in snowstorms? Really? When it snows, *I* hunker down in the house and make popcorn and cocoa. I plan my life to do my shopping *before* the snow comes down. I'm just sayin'.


Read more... )

In Schools, Bringing His Novels to His Fans

Read more... )

An article about using up the un-usable (to you!) food in your CSA

One about making your own staples like bread
conuly: Quote from Heroes by Claire - "Maybe being different isn't the end of the world, it's just who I am" (being different)
Taken from ABFH

I find the behavior of the "adults" in this article to be unconscionable, reprehensible, and pretty fucking close to evil.

Pretty recently, when talking to somebody else about the Ann M. Martin book "Inside Out", written a good 20 years ago about a family with an autistic child, I said the bar was set really low. If there's no outright malice in the book (and there isn't, in my recollection), I'm not going to condemn it. Hell, I'm just glad nobody there advocates killing the kid, which is about as bad as things are some days. And with that said, I still am managing to be appalled at the total lack of civility described in the article. I always say not to look at the comments, and today I am following my own advice. I am sure no good can come of it.

I am sorry for the lack of substance to this post. I'm just so... I'm not happy. Sometimes, it's almost enough to make me wish I believed in a god, any god, vengeful or just. I'd feel better knowing that people get what's coming sooner or later.

As long as I'm loosely on the subject, here's a post about biased research regarding autistic children.
conuly: image of a rubber ducky - "Somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you" (ducky predicate)
(I finally set up my wireless again, so I'm totally upstairs while typing. This either rocks or sucks depending on how much computer time you figure I'll have...!)

Their mother hadn't sent Ana's vacation homework up with her, which meant I got stuck with it. That's all right, she just kinda plowed through it. (And yes, I *do* think vacation homework for kindergarten is silly, but I'm told that the other kids in her class have parents who want MORE homework. The mind boggles, let me tell you.)

One of Ana's homeworks (she only has three left for the weekend - the daily "what the weather is" picture, her "my favorite thing I did this week" picture and two sentences, and a math set (they're working with coins) that she didn't want to finish) involved rhyming words. There were four words in each row (in four different rows), three of which rhymed. This was pretty badly done as the non-rhyming word always made a minimal pair with a rhyming word - bug, rug, and rag, for example. It would've been more challenging if they hadn't. But I digress.

The final row had these four words: pin, pen, ten, hen.

Can you see the problem with that? Say the list aloud. If you automatically figure out the problem, gold star! If not, go here. As it happens, I have the pin-pen merger. I think I must have gotten it from my dad, as neither my mother nor sister has it and they used to tease me about it. (Because I didn't get enough of that at school, guys?) I remember sitting in speech (therapy) lessons as a kid, the only year I had actual instruction in those, working it out in my head how weird it was that there was no short-e before n, even when it's written in that way! I literally don't hear it when other people say it unless I'm listening for it, and I feel as though I'm twisting my mouth unnaturally to produce it myself.

So when I saw this I listened with great interest to see what Ana would do.

She carefully read the words (didn't have to sound them out!), and as soon as she got to pin and pen she stopped. Read them again, the whole list. Frowned. Sounded each word out carefully. "Connie, they all rhyme!"

So what do I do? Do I tell her to ignore her instincts and fill out the words that look like they rhyme? That's what she used to do when she was three. Do I let her fill out all of them and look like she didn't get it at all? I compromised by telling her that there's a good reason they put four rhyming words there, telling her to fill them all in, and writing a note to her teacher explaining this. Then, she she was done, I explained the pin-pen merger and talked her through the steps of a simple linguistic survey. We're totally stopping family members to see who has it and who doesn't today!

[Poll #1385210]

This isn't the first time I've had a language quibble with Ana's homework. Once she had to do "initial sounds that match" and one of the examples was a P word with a "pan". Except that I generally say skillet, and she generally says skillet, and when we don't say skillet we say frying pan. But she breezed right through that without a thought, proving that she understands very well how to do worksheets.
conuly: (words)
And they say such silly things. If you want your preferred writing style to be taught, try not to defend it with gems like "You need it to sign your name". Not only is that not true, but it's easily avoidable - people could learn cursive just for namesigning and not for anything else! Alternatively, learning to type isn't something that you can't do after a certain age. Unless your kid has serious motor control issues they can probably wait until they're 10 or 15 to do it, they really *don't* need to learn when they're six... although this article is fascinating, I must admit!

When I was in elementary school, the other gifted first grade class learned cursive that year. The rest of us learned in the third grade. I guess they sorta re-learned it? I didn't learn it at all, for various reasons. (A word to the wise? Attempting to bully a child into learning by saying they'll "need to know this next year" and "won't pass if they don't know it" is just not helpful. Especially when it's not true. My seventh grade English teacher should note that by high school (her personal benchmark) all my teachers didn't care and liked stuff typed anyway.)

And then we moved to Staten Island, where I became acquainted with a totally different style of penmanship than the one I'd failed to learn in Brooklyn. I'm not sure if the people using it developed it on their own, or if my school in Brooklyn just taught differently than their schools here, but it was different. No slant, and very round. The general shapes of the letters are the same (I'm having a fun time on Google looking at different examples of cursive script as taught for handwriting in different countries), but they're all round. It's very neat, and it's very careful, and it's a pain in the butt to read because all the letters look alike, like variations on os and as. (Picture that as an Ariel a, thanks.)

I think I could spend all day doing this - but! I just woke up (I had intestinal difficulties and didn't make it to bed until the birds started chirping) and wish to go *do* something today.

If you want, though, I'd appreciate images of your own handwriting (cursive or otherwise) and your handwriting if you were writing for a strict teacher. Just for my own edification. Location, times, etc. are useful.

Oh, also, a random video I found on the subject of overcrowding, from the 50s! It's absolutely fascinating for reasons I can't quite articulate, though surely the fact that "classes in boiler rooms" is a popular (and not altogether non-existent) boogeyman in NYC today helps with that.
conuly: (Default)
In Finland.

Finland, Finland, Finland. Sometimes I think I'd like to move to Finland. The six months of darkness would be more than offset by the fact that they've got a ridiculously high standard of living.

Course, I'd have to learn Finnish, at which point this whole idle notion comes to a screeching halt.
conuly: (Default)
Ana's school is participating in Box Tops for Education.

When we first got the list of eligible products, I glanced down it, realized that nobody in this house uses any of that stuff - not even the Kotex since Jenn and I both switched to reusable products! - and felt an odd mixture of condescension and chagrin over it.

But today I saw that we had indeed bought a single product that has the correct box top. A box of baggies. Yay! (Come to think, I guess Hefty bags apply as well, now that I look at the list in more detail. Whatever.)

So I'm asking, any of you with these box tops and no use for them? If you want to send them our way, it'd be much appreciated. They're only $.10 per top, so only if you collect them is it worth it, I suppose. Alternatively, suggest it to your school. I know it's primarily a way to increase sales and cultivate a sense of brand loyalty among the youngest consumers, but can schools really turn their noses up at any cash right now?

They also seem to have a program where, if you purchase items off the B&N website, you can send some of the money to the school of your choice. We *do* have a membership card....

(If you want Ana's school name, you'd have to contact my sister, [livejournal.com profile] gingembre, about that. Not me for the obvious reason.)
conuly: (Default)
It reveals so much, not just about how she speaks, but about how she *thinks* she speaks.

Like this word: Tiyrd. What is that? Tired, of course. I heard her sound it out - the y is consonantal, the r is... syllabic? Is that the word? Whatever, it's off making its own r sound. Because that's how she says the word, of course. (It's roughly how I say the word too, but I'd never write the y in there, even in a word I'd never seen spelled. Why? Because I know that ys don't just pop up in the middle of words, even if you say them.)

Button becomes btn. But apple becomes apul. Same vowel, but sometimes she writes it and sometimes she doesn't. I'm not sure of the logic. I *think* it has to do with the fact that in button that "u" sound (as she'd write it) is at the end of the vowel, but in apple it's more or less at the beginning, and she's been carefully taught that when she says the sound a consonant makes she shouldn't add a gratuitous "uh" at the end. B makes the b sound, not the BUH sound. (This ended one bit of confusion, but - if I'm right - has clearly started a whole OTHER bit of confusion instead.)

Pancake - the word of much pride - is inevitably "pancaek". She knows about silent e, and wants to cram it in there as soon as possible.

She puts a lot of ds and bs where I'd put ts and ps (and she reverses d and b a lot too, just to add to the fun!) because I guess she hears them as voiced when they're between vowels. I don't, and I don't think I say them that way either, but she does.

Edit: She still gets caught up on words like train and tree, by the way. I noticed it well before she started writing and reading, that she processed those words the way they're said - chrain, chree. But she doesn't know how to *write* the ch sound, and it annoys her. I keep telling her it's a t when you write it, but....
conuly: (Default)
I think this is absurd, especially the *level* of homework (writing a sentence a day, for example), but it's easy enough for her, so I don't say anything.

(I suspect most of the other kids are getting seriously helped. Bad precedent there. But people online have criticized me for my statement that children past, like, the first grade should do the vast majority of their work themselves, mistakes and all. Apparently this view makes me a bad aunt.)

Anyway, sentences. Every day. And I swear, at least once a week her sentence manages to incorporate her marvelous ability to FLIP PANCAKES!

Today it was "Stop flipping the pancakes!" (the word she had to use was "stop").

I took the time to explain to her that when I said "silent E makes A say A" the official term for "A saying A" is long vowel, and told her which were long and which were short. It won't stick, but I'm looking forward to using the shorter phrase. (I also have explained to her that gh in the middle of the word works like a silent E. Silent E she still trips up on, but that one she internalized in less than a day. Weird.)

As for Evangeline, the two of us play games every day at lunch. We'd been doing an endless string of "let's list two things" (or, as I call it, "categories" - Evangeline has finally started saying "atagora" for that!) where we take turns asking how two unrelated things are the same, and how they're different. I make pairs like "tomato" and "apple". She makes pairs like "cloud" and "sink". Oy. I've yet to ask her why a raven is like a writing desk, but you can rest assured that I think it every day!

I got so bored of that that I more or less forced her to try something new - I clear most things off the table (yes, believe it or not, that table is CLEAR when Ana gets home, guys!) and then we take turns adding, subtracting, or just changing one, two, or three things about the setting. This time Evangeline has an easier job than I do - I'll subtly move her tomatoes so they touch instead of being apart, and she'll go and put something on my head while my eyes are closed! Or she'll turn backwards in her seat. My biggest problem is figuring out how to draw the process out somewhat.

And we play "I packed a suitcase", and Evangeline can get up to five or six items before totally losing the thread. That's pretty nifty.
conuly: (Default)
She also brought home the monthly newsletter, which illustrated a few things:

1. Ana is incredibly photogenic.

2. Ana did indeed receive the Dolphin Award (for just generally being a great person and consistently being compassionate and helpful) at assembly last week and not just the attendance award. If they'd bothered to tell us this beforehand, I would have been there. Gah.

3. There is indeed a pajama party at school next week (in two weeks?) as Ana said. We didn't believe her because, again, this is the first official communication about it. Gah again.

4. The person who edits that newsletter is totally incapable of stringing together a coherent sentence. There is never, ever, ever going to be a need to put together seven exclamation points at the end of a sentence! And, for that matter, putting an exclam at the end of every single sentence just makes your work sound weak and childish. Save it for unusual emphasis. And on *that* note, quotation marks do not add emphasis - or, at least, not the kind she thinks. I want to know, if she is "thanking" us for this and that, what she's really doing? Mocking us behind our backs, perhaps? (Yeah, pot, kettle, but my post only reflects badly on me. Her abysmal writing skills reflect badly on the entire school.) And at least twice this person switched topics randomly in the middle of a paragraph! That's not even the half of it....

I suggested to Jenn that next PTA meeting she offer up her, mine, or our mother's services as proofreaders. But in some tactful way, not like I just did.
conuly: (Default)
I told it to Ana when she asked for yet another story about "you when you were a kid", but I don't think she got the point.

My first (and only) experience cheating )
conuly: (Default)
These articles come around periodically, they might as well just reprint the old ones.

Read more... )

It's a pity that the last quote is from a boy who now feels that Latin Grammar == English Grammar.

OH MY GOD.

Sep. 25th, 2008 12:51 pm
conuly: (Default)
Listen to this. You have to. This is important.

A few weeks ago, while taking out books from the library, Evangeline lamented the fact that we couldn't take out *all* the books she wanted. And I told her that as soon as she could write her name, when she was three, we'd get her her very own library card instead of making her share with her sister. (Instead, they can both share with *me*, right? Right?)

And I figured that we wouldn't make a big deal about it, and that when she actually turns three in a month we'd put in a little bit of serious effort, and by 3.5 she'd be able to scrawl something approximately like her name, right? So over the past few weeks I've mentioned it maybe, like, five times and shown her how to write her name, with the reminder that writing her name = getting a library card. No pressure though because she's not even three yet, there's no *rush*. If she brought it up, I'd help her - but she never did.

Today, I felt a bit out of it, so I mostly sat and read while Evangeline worked with playdough and then took out some crayons and paper to draw. And as I was sitting in the opposite corner of the room reading, Evangeline suddenly interrupted her chatter to say "And when I write my name, I can get a library card, right?"

Well, I know a cue when I hear one, so I said "That's right, sweetie" and went over to help her write her name.

Except she'd already written it. An E, a V, and a line that was clearly the start of her A. With suitable spaces between the letters, and very neat. I wasn't sure she'd done it herself until I asked her to finish up the A and she carefully made another E for me (A and E do sound alike, that's not a worry). EVE. (For sure I'm not trying to teach her Evangeline...!)

SHE WROTE HER OWN NAME DOWN. WITHOUT SEEING IT TO COPY OR HAVING ME RECITE THE LETTERS OR HOLD HER HAND. I DID NOT EVEN KNOW UNTIL IT WAS OVER WITH.

This is big. It was legible, even. I wasn't looking at this and trying to guess what she meant. I knew what she meant, because I could read it.

What the hell are we going to do with this child? She isn't even three yet!
conuly: (Default)
Games for Learning
Games for Reading
Games with Books

My goodness, the woman could be my mother's twin.

But there's some good ideas in these books, even if my mother was doing it all on her own and going uphill both ways in the snow to do so too! (That's nothing. *HER* mother spontaneously re-invented Montessori philosophy back in the 50s...!)

So yes, be sure to get yourself a copy.
conuly: (Default)
EEP!

I'm going to hang out after a very short time and see if I can get her New Friend's phone number, maybe they can visit sometime after school or on weekends (Not With Me, thank you very much!) if they're close enough.

They might not be. Even though the school is really close to us, that's because it was in an older, existing school building. It's really supposed to take overflow from another school that's two busses away - that's where Ana's friend Meghan lives, close to Snug Harbor. It's not supposed to take overflow from our own local school, which is why we have now two public elementary schools not 10 minutes apart walking.

Ten minutes - not *five* minutes apart walking at an adult's pace!
conuly: (Default)
Public schools open tomorrow, and Catholic schools open on Thursday.

[Poll #1251915]
conuly: (Default)
Not quoting any of them here.

One thing that really got me, as in it actually upsets me, is looking at picture books and seeing a review that the person in question didn't like it because although they found the book cute, funny, well-written, nicely illustrated, or this and that, they didn't like it because it's not up to their educational standards.

They say something along the lines of how books for their kids all have to have some sort of redeeming value - if they don't actively teach new vocabulary then they have to have a moral, if they don't teach geography than there should be some math in there.

I have two things to say here.

The first is that these people are often blind to the literacy-building potential of the books they're criticizing - they don't see the repetition, the clever wordplay, the onomatopoeia as helping language skills, which is entirely to their loss. (And they never, *ever* see use of non-standard language as a good thing, but that's beside the point.)

The second, more important point is this:

I don't think these people really enjoy reading.

Certainly, they can't see any point in reading for its own sake if they feel they have to choose books based on their dubious educational value.

Oh, I'm not saying that you shouldn't read books that have some form of lesson, or that it shouldn't be a factor in which books you pick out from the library. I just don't think it should be the defining factor.

It actually reminds me of a comment I got in the 8th grade. (That was with the English teacher who thought her interpretation of Julius Caesar was the only possible one, and didn't even realize "it was his destiny" was intended as a joke.)

I read all the time. She knew I read all the time. The whole class knew I read all the time. The whole *school* must have known, because random strangers sure kept asking me why I read all the time! I was easily identified by my nose in a book at all times.

If it weren't for my reluctance to do any work, I would clearly have had some of the best grades in her class. I certainly did well enough on the tests, with no effort or preparation whatsoever.

One day I'm entering or leaving class, and she noticed the book I was reading. Sixth Grade Secrets. I really liked that book. Still do, in fact. I mean, it's Louis Sacher, people!

And she stopped me and asked me why I was reading a book that was "too easy" for me.

I was confused and upset by the question then, but it took me a while to figure out why. Now I know, though.

I remember my IEP. By the 4th grade - four years before this incident - I tested as having a college reading level. While I doubt the woman knew exactly how well I read, she must have surely had some clue. It wasn't exactly a secret. And yet, she thought that I should treat reading as... as some kind of race, trying to improve myself. It wasn't enough to read well, or to enjoy reading. No, I had to read progressively harder books, simply because they're, what, difficult?

How stupid. How pointlessly, utterly absurd to say to a child!

This is why many children don't enjoy reading. It's not something they're naturally good at, they don't get that much practice at it either, and when they do read it's treated as a chore, something to do for its redeeming social value, not something to do because it's fun. Heaven forbid you buy a book for your child simply because you enjoy it - no, it has to do double duty and teach him something or it should just stay right there on the shelf!

And there's nothing wrong with learning from books. I read to learn easily as much as I read just for fun. It's just that, especially with children, the emphasis really ought to be on the fact that books are entertaining. Who cares if they educate? Your kids can spend their whole lives being educated, but that's not exactly going to make a lifelong reader out of them.

Now, I'm certain that the books these well-meaning adults ultimately choose for their children are also fun to read. At least I hope so. But I'm still irked at the suggestion that their priorities are superior because they only pick educational books for their kids. That's not a way to approach reading. Not a way to live your life. Just... not.
conuly: (Default)
About a man who is selectively unable to read the word "California", and why.

But while googling it, I came across a story about a retired teacher who didn't learn to read until after he retired.

Listen to this:

"What I did was I created an oral and visual environment. There wasn't the written word in there. I always had two or three teacher's assistants in each class to do board work or read the bulletin," said Corcoran.

Assuming he was actually good at what he was doing, this sounds wonderful. Finding a way to work around his own disability, and, incidentally, providing a good environment for students he had who might have trouble reading (or who simply learn better not reading - many people don't find the written word the best way to learn something).
conuly: (Default)
Like Sweden, they start school later than we do, and like Sweden, they do better on international tests.

I'm not surprised. There's no profit in pushing a kid who really isn't ready to learn to read, or to add, or to tie their shoes - and even if they're ready early, and they do these things early, so what? Nobody can tell when they're grown anyway.

It just seems so weird to me. When children are babies, we understand that some of them walk early, and some talk early, and it doesn't matter. The average age for starting to walk spans nine months - which doesn't sound like a lot, until you realize that the late-end-of-average walkers are twice the age of the early-end-of-average walkers! And we get that development isn't steady. Heck, there's an oft-repeated expression about it - early walker, late talker. (Or the other way around). People say it because it's true.

So what happens when a kid turns five (or six, or three, or whenever that magic age is) that makes us think that they'll suddenly need help, and gain the magic ability to learn on schedule? Often, nowadays, it sounds like on an accelerated schedule.

I don't get it. I just don't.
conuly: (Default)
Jenn's post is here.

I hope it goes well - she has a tendency to freeze up when she thinks things aren't totally easy. Also, she likes to play "the silly game" - it's the only way to get her to participate at all sometimes, but it can be a little frustrating!

Well, she did well on the practice test, and was surprised at the end to realize that it was both fun and really easy (at first, she refused to even look at the questions, and would pick an answer at random and *then* try to figure out why it was right, rather than picking the right one to start), so this should go well. I tell you, it's very hard to encourage a child to do well, and to emphasize that she must not be silly while simultaneously trying to convince her that it's really unimportant and not a big deal at all. Party line around here has been "You're going to have a lot of fun this weekend, right?" and similar. One can only hope the results are accurate, anyway.

The only thing about this test is she's missing her gymnastics class. From how Jenn has described it, it's not a competitive, olympic-style gymnastics class, more like a circus style gymnastics class. Ana refuses to tell me what she does there (on the grounds that it's her class, not mine!), but she's clearly having a lot of fun. Apparently, her teacher thinks she's really strong (well, we knew that) and pretty gifted in that way (we knew that too) and that Jenn should look into private lessons when she gets older, though her talent will keep, of course.

Edit: Apparently, she came out from the test all bouncy and bubbly, which is a good sign, and she said that the questions were easy, which is a *really* good sign. She was a little disappointed that she missed gymnastics, and a little disappointed that she'd been told by the 'teacher' that she'd play some games, but that's not what happened, it didn't seem like games to her.
conuly: (Default)
Was fine most of the day, just coughing, got a sore throat midway through - and then, bam - I stand up and find myself very dizzy. Both lightheaded and spinny dizzy. Very scary when you have a good 45 minutes before your ride shows up, and you're watching her kid (so you can't go home early), and it's pouring rain and you're not dressed for it at all (because you have a ride!).

It's a sinus thing, I know it. I used to feel this way all the time in high school, which explains some of my poor performance. It's weird, though, because recently I also felt another thing I haven't felt in a few years - random anxiety out of nowhere. It took me ages to work out that it was internal instead of external! I would drive myself into a dithering panic over why I felt so anxious and stressed, and make real problems for myself that way, which only, of course, made it worse. But I've worked it out - it's seasonal. Once I worked that out, I was able to ignore it, which made it mostly go away as far as I'm concerned, so it really surprised me when it happened again a few days ago.

Anyway, as it happened, another kid we love and adore (I'll call him P because I'm about to say something marginally sensitive about him) showed up with both his parents, so I had help watching the three I was watching, which was great.

The other parents and I got to talking about school, and their kid. He's turning five this month, and he's in pre-k, and he's struggling. Well, I have some idea why, and I think they know too if they look - he's a little immature. (Well, of course he is, he's four, but I mean he's a little immature compared to most kids his age I know.)

In which I learn to shut up about things when people don't want to talk about them )

At any rate, I can't convince them I'm right, even though I do think they're coming at this from the wrong angle. I can only sit and hope everything turns out all right in 13 years, and not bring it up again unless they do more than bring it up, but ask me for my opinion. I might make it a "not to be spoken of" topic with them. I hate doing that, I do, but you know I tend to go on and on!
conuly: (Default)
This isn't the first time lately that Evangeline has surprised me like this, it's just the most recent.

Ana is ostensibly eating breakfast, Evangeline is playing with paper and a crayon, and I'm checking the weather forecast.

And Evangeline suddenly turns around and goes "Connie! Yook! UH AY!" (Connie, look, an a! It's very hard to write that one out so you understand what she said and what she meant, isn't it?)

And you know, it was an A?

We're not really working on this sort of thing with her, or we weren't until she started showing a real interest and knowledge of letters anyway. Just little things like, if I'm asking Ana (who just now caught on to this concept, and still has to go through the entire alphabet to figure out the answer) what goes "after E" or "after p", she'll call out the answer first. Or telling me that apple is the word that starts with A.

Too scary, really.
conuly: (Default)
One on amazing options for new uses of asphalt to make energy. MUST READ.

People keep saying it, and it's true. The future will belong to the people (that is, the nations and regions) that jump on these new energy sources now instead of later. You can count on it. If there is a future, that is. If there isn't, the future will belong to the cockroaches, as always.

A post on two people finding the middle and falling in love when they had had totally incompatible religious views.

A NYTimes blog post on the stupidity of air travel regulations

Read more... )

One on cooking and heat - more interesting than I just summed up

Read more... )

An article on (too?) early education

Read more... )

Profile

conuly: (Default)
conuly

June 2025

S M T W T F S
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18192021
22232425262728
2930     

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 15th, 2025 11:24 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios