Intelligence Blake was by far the most intelligent student I’ve ever taught. His reading speed was dazzling. His memory was photographic. His grasp of concepts was both deep and divergent. Not surprisingly, he scored 5s on all his AP exams and was a National Merit scholar with a near-perfect SAT score. And yet, he was by far the most miserable student I’ve ever taught. Everything annoyed him. Everybody frustrated him. All class assignments were deemed “stupid.” Other students’ insights were “a waste of my time.” I watched Blake seethe under the loathsome requirement of sitting through my detestable AP English …
Raising a Reader
3 steps to foster a love of books starting from birth! “What can I do now to prepare my children to succeed in school?” I’m often asked when I speak to MOPS groups. In this age of computerized everything, my low-tech answer raises eyebrows. “Books and reading…followed by more books and more reading…and after that, even more books and even more reading!” is my standard reply. Thanks to Jim Trelease’s Read Aloud Handbook (http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/), Daniel and I became fanatical about Family Reading Time when our kids were just 2 and 4. We quit watching TV and spent 1-2 hours per …
The “Joy” of Parenting in the Friendly Skies
Oh no, I groan inwardly as I slide into my seat on the crowded Southwest Airlines plane. The only remaining isle seat is not just at the very back of the plane. It’s also next to a woman sitting next to her preschool son. Her loud preschool son. This is going to be the longest hour-and-twenty-minutes of my life, I gloomily predict. I am wrong. As time literally flies by, I am first amazed, then awed, and finally deeply moved by the vibrant relationship I witness beside me. After we land, I wrack my brain for a way to tell …
Kids and Technology: The “Guinea Pig” Generation
I should have seen it coming. Almost two decades ago, Daniel and I scrutinized the ten or twelve boxes of cutting-edge “educational software” at CompUSA, finally settling on Reader Rabbit. Back home, we devoted the evening to learning the program, ourselves, so that we could help our daughter with it, during the upcoming weeks and months. We stayed up past midnight, and I’m pretty sure we high-fived each other for being such with-it, tech-savvy, forward-thinking parents. Forty-five minutes. What had taken two college-educated adults hours to figure out together took our 3-year-old less than one hour, all on her own. …
Teamwork – Lessons from a Toddler
While learning to walk, Jonathon had clung happily to our fingers, leaning on us for support. We had held him safely between us. Now that he could walk on his own, however, he wanted nothing to do with either parent. If I carried him, he squirmed to get “down.” Once on terra firma, he scurried away as fast as his wobbly legs would carry him. Terrified for his safety, I dashed after him, clamping my hand around his chubby fist. Then I endured ear-splitting screams of protest as he tried to free himself from my restrictive vice grip. (Oh, and …
No Rescue Needed: Necessary Pain and Disappointment
“But, Mom, this means I can’t go! It’s impossible!” wails Annemarie, tears coursing down her cheeks. Five minutes ago, she was all smiles as we sat at the kitchen table to “crunch numbers” for the school-sponsored 10-day trip to Italy. As we calculated the number of hours she’d have to work to earn enough money to pay for the trip, though, her face fell, her eyes reddened, and she reached for the Kleenex. Pain and disappointment can be effective teachers, I remind myself. Don’t cave. No matter how badly you want to bail her out–for your sake as well as …