Daily Musings - page 13

Yayyy! congrats Pixie!
Martha

Thanks Yank...I'm pretty excited!
We cross posted Martha....thank you!!

This message was edited May 24, 2007 9:04 AM

Congrats pixie! What a great Christmas present.

congratulations my dear Pixie.... more to love!!!

Get one of those itty bitty Santa suits. We have a picture of daughter #2 in one when she was about 3 weeks old :-)

Congratulations Pixie!! Your tulips and neighbors tree are also beautiful. I got a DG shirt too!!! Yippie!

Nice pics Victor and Martha! Kassia, are you back from LA?

Harper

Thanks everyone! I'm pretty excited......but the last time I was told it was an Christmas baby, it ended up being a New Year's baby!

I'm a New Years baby.

so you were always the oldest in your class at school!

Congratulations pixie!! What wonderful news!!! :-)

Congrats, Pixie. It should be a very happy Holiday season for you.
Here is a Water Iris, kinda different.
Andy P

Yes, Michaela, I was always the oldest. Funny, by today's standards I was practically a victim of academic neglect. Did not set foot in a classroom until I was four months shy of seven years old!

In some European nations, education (eg reading, writing, 'rithmetic) is delayed until a child is 7. They find that the children are better able to focus, experience greater levels of success, and consequently tend to do better.

This push for 4 years to read seems unnecessary. My poor brother who is partially dyslexic (sp?) didn't learn how to read until high school (and then, he basically taught himself - no special ed or tutoring for working class kids). But now he reads novels, etc. It takes him a bit longer than me to read the same materia, but the delay in learning how to read does not seem to affect the ability to read.

Apparently the "delay" never harmed you! Do you remember reading your first book all by yourself? I do - it was "Curious George" I was seven - and I felt like I had unlocked the secret of the ages. I knew if I could read that book on my own - I would eventually be able to read anything. It was a great feeling of accomplishment :-)

You don't think Victor has been harmed?

But seriously, I don't like the way they push kids either. The expectation here is that kids read in Kindergarten now. Some can, some can't. It's not a race. Nothing sadder than a kid feeling down on him/herself for lack of academic accomplishment at age 5.

I remember being in the "slow" reading group in first grade. People forget about child development and the occassional bad teacher.

This message was edited May 25, 2007 8:51 AM

I had the same problem with my son....his B-day is Oct.28th, the cut off date is Oct. 13th so he was almost 6 when he started kindergarten. Now thats not a bad thing but the kid is exceptionally smart, he was playing cribbage at the age of 4-5. As he progressed in school from year to year he got bored quickly. He got the work done before the rest of the class and then would goof off and dis-rupt the rest of the kids. We were called into the school for this and we told the teachers it was because they were not giving him stuff the would challenge his mind. Once they realized we were right they put him in a higher academic class and no more problems. Well, at least until he got to high school! LOL
Now on the other hand, I have an older son who has M.R. and a seizure disorder. They mainstreamed him into the same school, but wanted to make him take and do things that were "age appropriate".
Well his mentality is about the age of 4, so are we talking his actually age or his mentality?? His actual age is what they were going by. How stupid is that???? It's like telling my 3 yr. old DGD to she's too young for Baby Einstien or Elmo and she must now watch National Geographic or Explorer channel.

True, Dave and pix. Funny thing is - though kids are was ahead of where we were at the lower grades, something goes wrong somewhere along the line and by the time they are graduating HS, they are underachievers. We trail so many countries. One of the problems is with the parents. Seems that parents are overly concerned, to the point of obsession, with doing whatever it takes to have the kid excel in the early grades. By the end of Middle School, when the teenage mentality takes over, the parents just surrender. They don't stay on top of their kids nearly enough, and that includes with schoolwork.

My late start was a disadvantage for a while. It took me a few years to catch up and blossom academically.

I am back Harper!!!! and boy all I want to do is garden... but now I get home and have to play with the boys and also be nice to my mom plus all the other things... so I fell like my life has been taken over!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have never been in kindergarden... went directly to first grade (4 months shy of 7 just like you Victor)... I practiced writing at home with my mom... loved first grade... hated second...
I remember when I read my first book... wow... that was cool.... them I never stopped reading... my mom got us a hard cover collection of Grimms Brothers Fairy Tales and I think I read every single one at least 20 times each!!!! and sometimes she would read to us... when I got to be 11 years old I could pick books to read by myself.... had my own library card (which was a real big deal) when I was 13!!!! so every summer I read books and more books...
I don't remember having problems being on the same levels as other kids...
my mom was a first grade teacher for 30 years... she told me that you can teach a 3 year old how to read, but that doesn't mean it's useful to him at that age... she was/is a piaget freek!!!!

All I want to do is garden too!!! I'm supposed to be doing my work, which is why I'm at the computer, but my urge to garden is drawing me here to DG... I better make up my mind. Get out and garden or turn off the internet.

I don't remember my first book. I remember early books. I think Ant and Bee was my all time favorite early book.

Dr Suess for me. Kassia, Cool Mom! Piaget is awesome!

Victor, Parents giving up to their adolescent kids is a big problem. So is school systems removing parental involvement with the school. They told parents for years to stay out at middle school level because your kid has to behave "older" now. AND middle school kept getting younger (My daughter began 5th grade still 9. 5th is middle school here. It's silly. They are still babies.
Another problem is that school becomes so rote, uninspired & driven to producing test scores that a good, open mind stops having anything to do with school success. They don't nurture the joy of learning enough (These are the people who made Sex Education boring)

My favorite early books are The Pokey Little Puppy and The Saggy Baggy Elephant - Little Golden Books. As an adult (OK, I know but after 50 you get to be an official adult even if you are immature!) I bought both of them for myself. I just looooved that the puppies got to eat strawberry shortcake for dessert.

I only know them from the Golden Book version of Go Fish. As in: "Do you have any Saggy Baggy Elephants?"

Sex Ed was never boring for me, no matter how hard they tried to make it that way!

Harper, I guess I don't find that hard to believe! Do you get extra help?

I didn't have it. Learned out behind the garage from friends like nature intended.

My neighbor's barn

Um... I mean with my neighbor's son in their barn. The barn didn't help.

Whew - I was wondering where the barn thing was going! Dr. Seuss and Curious George were among my favorites. Dave, same here - Middle School is fifth grade. Ridiculous.

I was an underachiever in school - except grade six - LOVED science and history that year. Most of the time I was bored senseless.

both my daughters were underachievers in h.s. My DH was soooo distraught. I was never all that concerned. I figured when education becomes important to them, they will start applying themselves. My youngest has just completed her sophomore year of college with the best grades she has ever had . . . All "A"s and "B"s - from profs whose grading is an accurate evaluation of the work. So we are VERY pleased that she can discipline herself to do the work and hand it in on time. Since she has started college two years ago, we have not intervened with homework, etc. at all. DD has had to show the maturity and reliability on her own. :-)

I am a very happy mom.

My father had his allowance tied to his grades, or something similar. Plus he had a bizarre sense of humor and didn't get little kids even a little bit. Anyway, I remember coming home from school with a good grade and him saying 'that's ok, I still love you'. ????!!!!

xxxx, Carrie

I was one of those that got bored. My library card is what saved me. I can't remember not being able to read and I would read all the readers the first day of class and that kinda blew the teacher's minds occasionally. On the other hand, my math skills are very basic. I never could see the patterns which I now know are there. My hubby is an engineer, my son and daughter honor students. I guess they got their math skills from dad.
kids do develop learning skills at different rates. I hate the push to make pre-school and kindergarten "academic". Social skills are the things that they learn at this age, how to interact with their peers. They are still at the age where they benefit by being read to as much or more than being forced to learn to read. Some kids can and some can't do this at this age. It shouldn't be so much pressure on them.
Thus ends my educational rant for today.
Martha

Good rant, Martha! What flavor engineer is hubby??

He's a mechanical Engineer, MIT class of 1980. Currently he works for Pratt and Whitney in Maine designing parts for jet engines. He did the same type of work for General Electric before that. He's also got a mind for trivia that won't quit and has appeared on Jeopardy and Who wants to be a millionaire? He is only Plant Indifferent, however. But I love him anyway!
Martha

Michaela, I wish a lot of parents would think like you... I love to learn ... but I hated HS... oh that was painful...... I loved Law School because I got to go to school at night... the fun thing for me was that when I was on my first year my mom was on her 3rd year... so for 3 years my mom and I went to school at the same time... I never had to buy any books... and it was so powerful to have my mother there... and I got to hang around her friends too... yeah I am weird... I have always had good people around me and they were always way older than me...
but I was not so aware of this hunger for learning until I went back to school in 2002! Nursing school was one of the best things that ever happened to me... I learned my limits... I consider myself an A student (desire to learn, ability to enjoy even boring teachers, very curious mind!!!) but my grades are B... yeah I passed with a B... and I am actually happy about it!

I decided to overcome the fear of math... took a math class - intermediate algebra... and got an A!!!!!! the best thing I did so I can close that chapter in my live and die knowing I am not as bad in Math as I believed before!!!!

now I want to finish the Masters in Nursing and get also a master gardener .... oh yeah,,, from now on I am only going to study what I really LOVE...

Martha how interesting. As you may know I am an EE. How did hubby do on the shows?

Yeah Martha, how did he do?
Victor is Elephant Ears?

Oh, I thought that was Victor's grade average. wouldn't EE be slightly above F?

Yes, Martha, do tell...

It's funny how different people's aptitudes are. Math just makes sense to me. I never really had to 'learn' it. Only missed one question on a math exam in 4 yrs of high school. History, on the other hand, I had to memorize because it was of no interest to me. until years later, that is.

Ouch - thanks gram! I was fortunate enough to do well in all subjects. Scored the exact same on the English & Math parts of both the SAT's and GRE's.

on Jeopardy, he came in second. We still use the giant 32" tv that he won, plus a variety of Jeopardy games, a bunch of starkist stuff and other lovely parting gifts. On Millionaire, he blew the 125,000. question and came away with 32,000. this put a new supporting beam and plaster ceiling in my living room and new front and kitchen doors and repaired the ruined plaster in the kitchen. oh, and new windows in the living room. We had a great time in NYC and I got to be in the 'significant other' seat. It still reruns on tv occasionally. this was while Regis was the host.
They put us up in a hotel and we had a couple of nice dinners on the network. Excellent food in the green room. The lady in the women's dept at my local Macy's still gets a kick out of the fact that I bought the dress i wore from her dept and wore it on tv!
Martha

That is great! Does he (or you) bemoan trying that last question?

He was bummed for a while. we had a great time with the experience and he won some money. not bad. This was several years ago.
Martha

Hey, $32,000 is a nice reward!