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Oct. 30th, 2007 09:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moominmollyA neat article on parents who encourage their kids to learn lots, early. Let's hear it for just hanging the fuck out.
Yesterday, she helped me pick out birthday cards for her cousin Christopher, who's almost a month older than she is. But then she suggested a better way to wish him a happy birthday: "Send a email Kissafer? Send Kissafer birthday a email Kissafer?" Dude, I know she likes typing on the computer, but I didn't know she knew what email did.
Also, when I asked her in the parking lot of the store what she wanted to do when she get home, she told me "Natalie read in couch? Natalie read and snuggle in Mommy and Natalie's couch?" READ AND SNUGGLE. Yes, little girl, we can go home and read and snuggle in our couch.
Yesterday, she helped me pick out birthday cards for her cousin Christopher, who's almost a month older than she is. But then she suggested a better way to wish him a happy birthday: "Send a email Kissafer? Send Kissafer birthday a email Kissafer?" Dude, I know she likes typing on the computer, but I didn't know she knew what email did.
Also, when I asked her in the parking lot of the store what she wanted to do when she get home, she told me "Natalie read in couch? Natalie read and snuggle in Mommy and Natalie's couch?" READ AND SNUGGLE. Yes, little girl, we can go home and read and snuggle in our couch.
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Date: 2007-10-31 03:39 am (UTC)* In general, kids who learn to read at age 6 or so will develop a longer-lasting interest in reading than those who are pushed to do it earlier (note: not self-directed kids)
* Self-directed creative play is good for kids
* Baby Einstein videos kinda suck as academic tools (we knew this)
* The single best predictor of academic success seems to be a big vocabulary; the single best way to have a big vocabulary is to have educated, affluent parents (this part is depressing)
* Kids whose cortex development peaks later wind up being smarter (this part is fascinating)
* A gung-ho early-childhood-intellectuals school that had *great* and *genuine* success with brain-damaged kids doesn't have any evidence to back up the assertion that their method also helps regular kids
* Parents can be pushy and misguided without seeming creepy, though it certainly doesn't hurt.
I don't think the article itself is specifically down on flashcards, either as a learning tool later in life or as a toy in youth -- it's more down on the kind of forced mindless/uninteresting memorization that comes from USING flashcards to, say, drill your toddlers on classic works of visual art. Flashcards the way you and