m_aduhene

Hi all,
a friend of mine recently said that u have to tell your children as
much as possible while they are young as they will then have a
rememberance of it for later life for eg. if u read to them about
florence nightingale then they "put it to the back of their minds",
but something mentioned when they are older will bring it back.

also does it matter how much or little maths you do. we do cooking
and reading the time and obviously money, but i don't really play
maths games or puzzles, will this be a disadvantage?

thanx in advance
blessings
michelle

Schuyler

-------------------------------

a friend of mine recently said that u have to tell your children as
much as possible while they are young as they will then have a
rememberance of it for later life for eg. if u read to them about
florence nightingale then they "put it to the back of their minds",
but something mentioned when they are older will bring it back.
---------------------------
Personally, I remember far more of what I have just learned than the things that my parents talked to me about when I was 2. It is good to talk to your kids about the things that interest them, that interest you. I talk a lot. Simon and Linnaea have a lot of information and conversations that they have both initiated exploration of or that I or David have talked about. I read Simon Peter Pan when he was 3, I haven't heard him reference things from that book since shortly after we read it.

What leapt to my mind when I read your post was the idea that it is important to lay down neural pathways when a child is little. That the first 3 years are crucial for the success of a child in later life. There is a book that I have in my amazon.co.uk back up basket (where I keep things that I want to tip the scales when what I needed didn't get me free shipping) called The Myth of the First Three Years: A New Understanding of Early Brain Development and Lifelong Learning (http://www.jsmf.org/about/j/myth_of_the_first_three_years.htm). The author lays out some of the studies that have been done on learning and examines whether or not humans are that rigid in how they learn, when they learn. Given the blurbs and reviews that I've seen I think he is arguing for a more flexible human brain.

The other story that comes to mind is of John Holt learning to play the cello when he was in his 40s. He wrote a book about it called Never to Late: My Musical Life Story (http://tinyurl.com/558w6k). He uses his own experiences to directly challenge the idea that people are limited by what they learned as children.

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also does it matter how much or little maths you do. we do cooking
and reading the time and obviously money, but i don't really play
maths games or puzzles, will this be a disadvantage?
---------

Math is an integral part of life. It's a way of solving puzzles and puzzles are everywhere. There are great stories about math in the real lives of kids at http://sandradodd.com/math/. It's fun to play math puzzles and games, but I wouldn't do them with the agenda of getting your kids to learn math, I'd do them because they are fun.

Schuyler
www.waynforth.blogspot.com

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Schuyler

-------------------

a friend of mine recently said that u have to tell your children as
much as possible while they are young as they will then have a
rememberance of it for later life for eg. if u read to them about
florence nightingale then they "put it to the back of their minds",
but something mentioned when they are older will bring it back.
----------------

One of the ways that I can enrich their lives, their experiences is by strewing interesting things I find around the house, in places where I know they will see them and if they are interested in them they will use them and if they aren't than I will tuck them away after some point or another and bring them out again at a later date when I think they might be better received.

Sandra has, again, a good series of pages on strewing: http://sandradodd.com/strewing. If you are worried about the content of your lives, it might help if you look to find ways to make your lives fuller and more engaging. Not because the information on Florence Nightengale will add value later on in their lives, but because living a life filled with lovely distractions and engagements is fun and fulfilling and happy making. It adds value now. Linnaea lately has been saying,: "Yesterday is gone and tomorrow isn't here, all we've got is now." Do it for this moment not for some unachieved future moment.

Schuyler
www.waynforth.blogspot.com


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Sandra Dodd

-=-also does it matter how much or little maths you do. we do cooking
and reading the time and obviously money, but i don't really play
maths games or puzzles, will this be a disadvantage?-=-

Disadvantage as compared to what?

An advantage? :-)

Yes, it won't be as advantageous as if you DO play games and work
puzzles.

If you want to make your children's lives full of learning, don't
settle for the minimum. Because connections are made between dice
and Florence Nightingale and war and crops and music, the more swirl
of discussion and information you have in your lives, the better.

-=-a friend of mine recently said that u have to tell your children as

much as possible while they are young as they will then have a
rememberance of it for later life for eg. if u read to them about
florence nightingale then they "put it to the back of their minds",
but something mentioned when they are older will bring it back. -=-

That's not a bad point. I see my kids make connections every day to
what they vaguely remember from earlier years (or what they can still
sing or point to physically, if it's a book or a picture or a set of
cards about history or a puzzle).

These might help:

http://sandradodd.com/nest

http://sandradodd.com/strewing

Sandra

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