April Book Review

When I was much younger, years and years before I had children, I worked as a nanny for my two half-sisters. The oldest was four years old and the baby was five months old. The experience had its good and bad points but one thing I learned, which at nineteen I hadn’t really thought about before, was how much goes on in a young child’s brain. How preferences for things are formed and set in stone before a child can even explain those preferences.

My four year old sister, for example, loved to be read to but she didn’t like variations on stories she already knew. There was only ONE Cinderella story and any retelling of the tale was rejected. There was only one correct way to tell the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Bring in a James Marshall version and forget it! My sister wouldn’t have anything to do with it. She seemed almost angry that someone would reorder her universe.

For a long time, I figured this was just a normal phase of childhood, this rigidness. But, as I interacted with other children, especially while earning a degree in early childhood education, I realized that my sister’s distaste for alternate versions of fairytales was simply her taste. She’s not so rigid anymore. Quite the opposite, thank goodness.

Dusty, on the other hand, revels in retellings. She’s probably read ten or fifteen different versions of the big bad wolf – he seems to be quite a popular subject for writers of children’s books these days – and has enjoyed each one.

One of our current favorites is The Big Bad Wolf and Me by Delphine Perret. The book is unusual in many respects: its size and shape (like a large postcard), its design (it reads like a comic strip without the boxes between frames), and the illustrations.



Ms. Perret’s techniques are unique and add to the fun of the book. The book is not just a pleasure to read but to look at as well. It’s drawn using maybe only four colors: line drawings in blue ink for the boy (and the other people), thicker brown pencil for the wolf, gray pencil for the sparse backgrounds and shading, and yellow for the beam of a flashlight. It’s reminiscent of Harold and the Purple Crayon in its simplicity and ability to create a world with the most minimal use of lines and color but it’s not Harold in any other way. The themes are not new ones but Perret’s unique storytelling and illustrations gives them new life.

The story is a simple one: a boy walking home from school discovers what he thinks is a lost homeless dog. A talking dog. He’s actually a down-and-out big bad wolf – THE big bad wolf who is depressed because nobody’s afraid of him anymore. The boy takes him home and hides him from his mom. The wolf (whose name is Bernard) has to learn to be scary again and the boy becomes the teacher. They practice roaring and making scary faces. The biggest difficulty for the wolf is that in order to regain respect, he really should be eating children, which he is not allowed to do. At least not yet. Eventually, the wolf is back in business and manages to scare all the kids in the school yard.

This is Perret’s first book published in the U.S. (she’s had five others published in France, her home) but I hope it’s not the last. There is always room for exciting original books like this one. Occasionally, there really is something new under the sun.

Everyday Mathematics

Scene: Harriet’s car. Harriet and AJ are en route to the local ice rink, as they are at this time every Friday morning.

AJ: You know what I think?

Harriet: What?

AJ: I think that if there’s no end to how big numbers can get, then there’s no end to how small they get either.

Harriet: Interesting theory. Why do you think that?

AJ: Well, because if a number can always have a bigger number, then there should always be a smaller number too. But I can’t figure out zero.

Harriet: (parking in front of the ice rink). There’s another way to think of it. What if you were trying to go somewhere but you could only go halfway at a time?

AJ: Then it would take you two times. You’d go halfway and then you’d go the other half.

Harriet: But what if you could only go half of the distance to the door. Here, I’ll show you what I mean. (They grab their skates and gear and lock the car). We’re going to walk halfway to the door of the skating rink and then stop.

AJ: O.K. (He eyeballs the distance and walks to the halfway point). I’m halfway.

Harriet: Good. Now we’re going to walk halfway between here and the door.

AJ: Oh, I see. And then we’ll go halfway again.

Harriet: That’s right. What’s going to happen?

AJ: We’re never getting to the door. The door is zero!

Harriet: What happens to the distance we walk?

AJ: It gets smaller and smaller to infinity!

[AJ runs into the ice rink and spots his friend D., who is waiting for him inside the glass doors.]

AJ: Hey, D.! I just ran infinity!

* * * * *

Blazingstar recently left me a link to a contentious debate about the teaching of math in elementary school that is being waged on YouTube. One of the subjects of the debate is Everyday Mathematics, the curriculum that has been adopted by AJ’s school. The first of the videos can be seen here. There is also a series of responses, most of which I’ve had a chance to watch yet. The basic problems the first video has with Everyday Mathematics is that 1) it doesn’t teach the traditional algorithms for mathmatics, 2) it teaches math in a way the parents don’t always understand 3) it forces the students to come up with more than one way to do a problem (which apparently prevents “mastery” that is better acquired through rote memorization) and 4) it relies on calculator use.

Everyday Mathematics’ take on the teaching of curriculum as well as the rebuttals to the video, believe that the problem with teaching rote memorization is that we’re not teaching comprehension but the following of instructions. Everyday Math seeks to teach children how to problem solve. They spend a lot of time on the practical uses of math, having children figure out how to find math problems in everyday life.

I find the debate interesting, because I was one of those kids who balked at rote memorization. I’m still like that. If I didn’t know why I was supposed to memorize something, then I just wouldn’t remember it. AJ is the same way. AJ is, however, quite good at traditional algorithmic-based math. He likes practicing counting by 3s or 5s or 10s. He likes doing pages of problems. And he also craves the sense of mastery that the completion of a task, like the memorization of times tables or finding quick and accurate solutions to a page of problems provides. The big question I have is why does asking “why” and showing “how” necessarily mean that no memorization is happening? Can't they be used in tandem?

I feel like AJ’s current way of learning math is ideal for him. It is “Everyday mathemetics” at its fundamental sense. He thinks about something he notices in the world and we try to figure it out together through numbers. Numbers, to AJ, are yet another way of exploring meaning, the same a language or art or music. He plays in the real world with numbers, but he also likes to play with the numbers themselves to see what they will do. It's like the way he plays with Legos, sometimes building buildings -- a house, the Sears Tower-- sometimes just experimenting to see how he can put them together

After the conversation about infinite smallness, I found myself noticing AJ’s mathematical mind at work on the ice rink. Or rather, what I noticed was that other kids run into each other all the time but AJ almost never does, unless someone gets him from behind, out of his line of vision. Why? Because AJ triangulates with amazing accuracy. I’m sure this is more an issue of his attention than his ability – he doesn’t like to get run into. He’s never been the kind of kid who hurls his body around without fear of the consequences. But it struck me what a complicated skill it is to figure out how you, a moving object, might intersect another moving object, where that intersection is likely to take place, and then adjust your own speed and direction to avoid an intersection. That could easily be another math problem from the everyday, although I’m not sure I’m qualified to do the calculations.

But it is still a mathematical skill, and a much more useful application of math than pretty much anything I remember ever doing in an elementary math class. You do the math, you stay on your feet. You fail the problem, you hit the ice. It’s that simple.

[Crossposted at Spynotes]

March Book Review

My daughter Dusty is a budding artist. I’ll admit the deck has been stacked in her favor since before birth. My parents are both artists as are my sister and brother-in-law. So it’s in the genes. But, I’ve always felt art education as important as the ABCs so there have always been art supplies on hand since she was old enough to hold a crayon and scribble (at 16 months old, but who’s counting?). Once, I bought huge rolls of brown paper which were cut, in four- or five-foot increments, and taped to the floor so she could color and draw and there was room for us to draw as well.

Turns out, Dusty’s got talent and an eye for color. Her drawings are, developmentally, beyond her peers. She’s discovering perspective and point of view.

Recently, we read “The Artsy Smartsy Club” by Daniel Pinkwater. In it, the children create an art club and visit a museum to educate themselves about art and the artists who created the pieces. One museumgoer discusses Vincent Van Gogh with the children and they become acquainted with two of his most famous paintings, “Starry Night” and “Sunflowers.”

Because I am a hopeless nerd (or a librarian wanna be), I went looking for copies of the paintings for us to look at as we read (and it will not surprise you to learn that we had books in the house with those paintings – in Dusty’s room, no less!). We talked a bit about Van Gogh but I couldn’t let it rest.

I went to the library soon after and found a couple of books to further our impromptu study of Van Gogh, the Impressionists, and art in general. Here’s what I found:

The Starry Night by Neil Waldman is about a young boy (Bernard) in New York City who meets a painter named Vincent. Vincent has just arrived in New York and is looking for things to paint. Bernard gives him a tour of his favorite places – Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, etc. “Vincent’s” paintings grace the pages. Only the painting themselves are in color. The rest of the book is done in brown ink on brown paper. They go to MOMA and find a painting that looks just like the ones Vincent’s already painted. As soon as Bernard asks whether this is one of his, Vincent disappears. Bernard decides to try his hand at painting. He’s been officially inspired. The story is simple but effective. It helps lay the groundwork for an appreciation of art. The endpapers of the book showcase the work of school children: their renditions of “Starry Night.”

No One Saw – Ordinary Things Through the Eyes of an Artist by Bob Raczka is a bit more elementary in nature. Truly an basic introduction to art and artists and while good for the beginner, may be a little light for the more advanced art appreciater in your family. Each page presents a painting by a famous artist, one that represents the kind of work they are most known for. To the side, in one sentence, is a statement about what this painter does best. “No one saw flowers like Georgia O’Keefe” by a painting of lilies. “No one saw mothers like Mary Cassatt.” 16 artists are represented. 16 different styles ranging from Van Gogh to Grant Wood to Andy Warhol. Biographical notes for each artist are appended.

This book is a nice one to have in a classroom. It might work well as an introduction for an art lesson but it doesn’t offer much beyond that. If you have a young art lover at home, especially a fairly precocious one with a long attention span, I’d recommend a larger coffee-table type book that covers a range of artists within a particular style that offers more paintings by each artist with more biographical information. I’d also recommend a book that includes more than just paintings.

Picture This! Activities and Adventures in Impressionism by Joyce Raimondo hits closer to what I was looking for for Dusty. This is a particularly good book for homeschoolers and parents who want to present “art lessons” in a more structured format. There is some discussion about Impressionism – what it is and how it was received during its heyday. There is discussion about color, color wheels, experimentation, and observation of nature.

Paintings by Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro and Cassatt are used as a jumping-off point for further study. Study this painting. What do you see? Can you tell what time of day it is? What season is it? How can you tell? Is the wind is blowing? From what direction? What techniques does the artist use to show this? Now, paint your own favorite outdoor place.

There are step-by-step instructions for making “art inspired by Monet,” as well as using different methods and materials to do things like watercolor, tissue paper, pastels, plastic foam painting, plaster gauze, printing with sponges. You can even try your hand at pointillism using q-tips or experimenting with facial expressions and movement. There’s a lot to this slender book and it’s my favorite “how to” art book so far. It’s not too advanced for a kid like Dusty nor is it too basic. I may end up buying it so we can have it as a reference.

All that being said, Dusty still tends to do her own thing. These books are more used for general inspiration and reference. They’re good to just have around the house. Like a box of band aids, you never know when you’re going to need one so it’s important to stock up.

Books, books, books

One of the greatest challenges I've encountered as a parent of an early reader is trying to find appropriate books. The ones that appeal to him topically are often too easy. The ones that are at the right level are often too far beyond him subject-wise. Just because he's reading at a level of older children doesn't mean he wants to read about them. He's still five. The resident book reviewer here at AJ's Clubhouse, Freshhell, and I have been trying to come up with a list of our favorite books for early readers under age 9. They could be read alone books, or read together books. We're working on our lists separately but will edit them together for a joint entry at some point in the future. We'd like your input: what are your favorite books to read to your kids? What were your favorite books when you were a kid? What are your favorite kid-friendly books to read right now? Which ones have the best staying power? When is it important to have just the right book at the right moment? What are your favorites to read aloud?

If you have any thoughts on any of these questions or if you have some related questions of your own, please comment below or email me at harri3tspyATgmailDOTcom. And thanks for helping us!

Fun with Reading

Recently I was asked about resources to help a bright girl who has shown no interest in wanting to read. Her school thinks she’s learning disabled but those of us who know her better think it’s more of a combination of character traits. She’s extremely energetic and physical and doesn’t like to sit still to read when she could be building something or making something or moving. She adores being read to and seems to crave the physical contact being read to implies. We think she might be afraid that if she learns to read that she’ll lose her lap time. And then there’s her older sister who is “The Reader.” She read early and reads often. If the reluctant reader sees a picture of anyone reading, she always says it looks just like her sister. We think she may not want to compete on her older sister’s turf.

And so I’ve been thinking about things that made reading fun for AJ when he was starting out. I came up with a few resources, but mostly what we had fun with was making up games to play with words. As AJ’s reading has advanced, he still likes to play games with words. He loves to do Mad-Libs. He loves jokes and wordplay. And I love that he’s learned to enjoy language as much as I do.

THINGS TO WATCH

• Scholastic DVDs with accompanying books. These videos are fantastically done and they are very faithful to the books and their artwork. Most if not all of them have a “Read Along” feature that allows you to put closed captions on so you can read as you listen. We own about 10 or 12 of them and have had many more out of the library. We love them all.

• Videos of Between the Lions

• Sesame Street videos

• Electric Company videos

THINGS TO PLAY ON THE COMPUTER

We haven’t found too many computer games that are terribly good at inspiring new readers.

• Reader Rabbit is often recommended but we found it kind of lackluster. It’s too teachy and not fun enough.

• The Dr. Seuss computer games (there are several, all good)

• Arthur computer games. AJ liked the way you could click on things and surprising things could happen. There are read to me and read it myself modes.

THINGS TO PLAY WITH MOM AND DAD

Read aloud a familiar book while changing some of the words and see if she can catch you. It works best if you change the word to something really silly. We started off with changing rhyming words to something that didn't rhyme, so it was fairly obvious, but then we'd substitute other rhyming words.

Read aloud together and alternate words or lines. You can do this with any book, but try You Read to Me and I'll Read to You (there are also one or two sequels). It has stories that are written out for two people alternating with cute pictures. Andy really liked them. And they're designed for early readers.

Have her tell stories and write them down and read them back to her.

Have her write the grocery list and/or give her the grocery list and have her find things at the store.

Make an Alphabet Tree based on Leo Lionni's book of the same name. Make a paper tree and cut out one leaf for each letter of the alphabet and write the letters on them. You could also do a few extras of common letters. Hang it where it is easily reached and put blue poster putty on the back of the leaves so they can be easily moved around. Have her put them together and try to pronounce it -- it doesn't matter if it's a real word. Sometimes sillier is better. Or have her make crazy letter formations and you try to pronounce it. This same game would work with those foam letters that stick to the walls of the bathtub.

Using giant floor mat ABCs or large letters written on paper on the floor or on driveway in sidewalk chalk, shout out words and have her run and jump on the first/last letter of the word (whatever you ask for).

That’s our list. How about you? Do you have any ideas for things that make reading fun?

February Book Review

Dusty loves projects. Particularly those of her own design made with all her assorted art supplies and other found objects. She’ll make Valentine’s out of season with construction paper, scissors, stickers and bugleweed flowers. She’ll make caterpillars from fuzzy balls, feathers and double-sided tape. Dusty also loves nature and has an inquisitive mind: What’s the sun made of? Could you ever fly there? What makes snow? If it’s too cold, can you just buy a new thermometer? Why does water turn into ice? What happens if you mix all the colors together? Once they’re mixed, can you un-mix them?

Recently, I found a couple nature and science project books to capture her enthusiasm. Not only are they full of things to do, and present new concepts to her, they give us excuses to do things together, as if we need the excuse. There are probably hundreds of books like these around, filled with similar projects, but the ones mentioned below are the two we’ve been working from lately.

Interestingly, both books are listed as appropriate for ages 9 through 12 but Dusty, a kindergartener, has thoroughly enjoyed both. She has probably spent less time actually reading the text than looking at the pictures and figuring out if we have all the ingredients necessary to perform the experiments. Do we have straws? Check. Paper cups? Check. Baking soda? Check. Then let’s begin!

The Kids’ Science Book – Creative Experience for Hands-On Fun by Nancy White (Williamson Publishing, 1995) was a great introduction to science experimentation and the scientific method. Its large format and page design allows for easy-to-follow and understand projects. The book is divided by basic science concepts: light and shadow, air, water, plants, etc. There are sidebars for further study aimed at older kids (or young precocious ones) such as making predictions and drawing conclusions, facts about each concept under investigation and information about the particular scientific specialty, and history lessons (inventors and discoverers) with titles like “Tools & Techniques,” “In Focus,” and “Science Talk”.

The illustrations are simple black and white drawings that don’t distract from the text and or clutter up what could have been, in the wrong hands, a messy collection of too much information. The prose is direct and to the point. It’s neither above the head of its audience nor does it talk down to them. A sample of subjects covered include the refraction of light and making rainbows, shadow puppets, water pressure experiments, and making marbleized paper (oil and water).

The thing I like best about this book, especially considering the suggested age range, is that the experiments themselves can be understood and enjoyed by any elementary school-aged child. There is enough here to launch anyone’s interest in a particular area of scientific study without going overboard. Older children dying to know more about a concept can read the sidebars (and move on to other books on the subject).

Dusty and I did one that involved freezing water. We poured an equal amount of water into two paper cups. In one, we added a teaspoon of salt to one cup and put them in the freezer. I asked her to guess which one she thought would freeze first. We then checked back at intervals (we did not proceed very scientifically; we didn’t check back at specific times) and noted what we observed: the plain water froze quicker. In fact, even after a couple days, the cup with salt water never froze at all. We talked about why salt and salt-containing chemicals are used to melt ice and snow from sidewalks and roads. We didn’t get into too much more detail but it was there if we’d needed it. This book is one you can come back to over and over for years and learn something new every time.

We also made a volcano. We made salt dough for the outside of the plastic bottle and then added water, dish liquid, red food coloring, baking soda and vinegar. While the “explosion” wasn’t quite as climactic as we’d hoped (we’re going to have to play around with the ratios of baking soda and vinegar given in the recipe), we still had fun. We left the dough volcano outside because Dusty always likes to “see what happens” when things are left to benign neglect.

The second book, Nature Crafts for Kids - 50 Fantastic Things to Make with Mother Nature by Gwen Diehn and Terry Krautwurst (Altamont Press, Inc., 1992) was just as fun but very different in look and feel.

The book’s sections are divided by season. Each section includes a number of projects which are specific to what’s found in nature (flowers, critters, snow, etc) during a particular season as well as groupings of the same basic concepts (rain/water, sun/heat, wind) that exist during each one.

The layout is clear and colorful, with step-by-step instructions, illustrated with photographs that show certain critical steps along the way. The “ingredients” for each project are clearly listed at the top of the page. The projects include birdbaths, pinch pots with clay, wild flower candles, wreaths, and bird food. They run from the simple and easy to accomplish (bark rubbings) to the more elaborate that require a bit more planning (sand painting and sun dials) with ingredients not necessarily found in the average household.

Dusty and I haven’t done much with this book yet (it’s winter and things of most interest to her involve spring and summer activities) but we’ve enjoyed looking at it and planning future activities. It might be a book I eventually buy so we’ve got the leisure of time to do as many as we want. I have a feeling some, like making sun prints, will be done over and over.

Smarts

Po Bronson’s article in the February 19th issue of New York Magazine hit home for me. The article, How Not To Talk to Your Kids is about gifted kids who are afraid to fail and as a result often don’t try things they don’t know they’ll be good at that.

This sounded familiar. Also familiar: Bronson blames the parents. Parents are praising their children too much and about the wrong things.

The article recommends some advice that appears in many articles and tomes about childrearing: praise the action, not the child. Don’t say, “You’re so smart,” but “You did a great job figuring out that hard math problem.” This should encourage further action – it rewards the action rather than the person.

Despite my knee-jerk crankiness about articles that blame the parents (it’s just too easy; our inherent uncertainty and guilt makes us willing targets), this rings true for me. I’ve had innumerable conversations with fellow academics about how we all feel like frauds, how people have always told us we’re smart and how we all feel like it was some big mistake, that people just haven’t seen what we’re really like and that someday we will be revealed and humiliated. This is exactly why my dissertation is still not finished: I am terrified to turn it in. Because once I turn it in, it will exist only on its own merits, not on the promise of my intelligence. I am afraid that the answer will be, “What were you thinking? I thought you were smarter/better than this!” The fact that this exact thing has happened to several people of my acquaintance, several people whom I’ve always considered “smart,” has not helped me feel better about it.

Perhaps AJ’s fear of failure is genetic, at least in part. Or perhaps he’s caught it from me. Some of AJ’s fear is, I think, due to temperament. He wants to be in control. And who can’t identify with that? One of the reasons I think it is about temperament for AJ is that his avoidance of new things extends to foods. If he hasn’t tried it before, he doesn’t want to try it now. I assume he’ll grow out of this eventually. Boy cannot live on hot dogs alone. And as long as his pediatrician says he’s okay, I’m okay with his eating habits.

As a parent, I try hard to praise AJ’s actions not his intelligence, to encourage him to try new things. But what do you do when other people call him smart? His preschool teacher who used to come up to me when I’d pick him up and tell me what amazing things he did that day that she’d never seen a kid that age do before? The friend we met in the library who talks about how smart he is to others in front of AJ as if he isn’t there, as if he isn’t listening to every word? Or even his grandmother, who says it almost every time she sees him? How do you handle that? We’re not guiltless either. We slip sometimes. Maybe we shouldn’t have played into his incessant demands for quizzes and grades.

I was stunned the first time AJ asked for a grade. “How do you know about grades?” I asked. “I’ve seen you grading your papers,” AJ replied. And my stickers say “A+.” The stickers did – amongst the “Good job”s and the “”Nice work!”s there were some “A+”s. How could a three year old be worried about grades?

We played along for a while, but were uncomfortable with it. But we also thought it was kind of cute and funny. Lately we’ve been trying to wean him off of it. It’s hard going.

I’m also a little afraid that AJ is coming to associate “smart” with “more work.” Sometimes it looks like more of a burden. I remember that feeling from when I was a kid. I loved my “special” classes designed to develop my skills and my creativity, but I had twice as much homework as my classmates. AJ’s teacher keeps asking him to do extra reading to her in class, but he won’t because no one else does. Part of it is because he doesn’t want to look different. But part of it is also that he doesn’t think it’s fair.

And then there’s the fear that it’s not okay to try something and fail. Nobody likes to fail, of course, but it’s a skill to be learned like any other. How do we teach our kids to fail gracefully? We can tell them that trying is what matters, but how can we convince them that failing honestly is a virtue not a vice? Such a statement doesn’t carry weight in a world of stickers and chore charts and grades and performance evaluations.

So what do you tell your kid when he comes home from kindergarten wondering why he’s the only one in his class reading chapter books by himself? I usually just tell AJ that he learned to read at a younger age than most kids and that he’s had more practice. It kind of begs the question, but it usually satisfies. AJ loves to read, but he doesn’t enjoy the difference. He desperately wants his best friend to read too. He reads her stories. She likes that. He wants to help her with her words, but she doesn’t like it when he tries. But the day she reads her first book, besides her parents, there’s no one who will be more excited than AJ. Because it means he will have company.