Learning to learn
[email protected]
In a message dated 8/6/2002 11:56:44 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:
Marine Biology Field experience. We went out to lunch and he described the
research and experiements they did, all of which were totally beyond me. He
described the graphs they made, etc. which demonstrated math skills that he's
clearly learned by osmosis (which he also knew and found useful this past
week), since he's done virtually NO structured math since he left school
after the third grade.
He enthusiastically talked about all this stuff throughout lunch, and I
finally looked at him and said "You are just so SMART!" He giggled and
smiled. THEN he paid for our lunch using his brand-new debit card, figuring
out how much tip to leave.
My point is...not only do we not have to have all the answers, we can't and
SHOULDN'T. Takes a lot of the fun out of learning if we can answer all the
questions. AND it's important for the kid to have areas where they are the
smarter ones.
Kathryn
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected] writes:
> > To basically become walkingAnd it keeps going. My son Julian, almost 13, just came back from a week at a
> > encyclopedias: like memorizing the state capitals and the imports and
> > exports of all the South American countries. But what's really important
> is
> > learning *how* to find the answer to a question.
> >
>
> I learned this lesson the hard way this week. My ds (5 next month) is
> currently obsessed with dinosaurs and asked me to explain the difference
> between a coelophysis and a corythosauras and did I know what a
> rhamphorhynchus was? No, I sure didn't know but we got out his dinosaur
> books
> and looked it up. I definitely know less about dinosaurs than he does so I
> just need to learn how to help him find his answers and provide resources
> for
> him.
>
Marine Biology Field experience. We went out to lunch and he described the
research and experiements they did, all of which were totally beyond me. He
described the graphs they made, etc. which demonstrated math skills that he's
clearly learned by osmosis (which he also knew and found useful this past
week), since he's done virtually NO structured math since he left school
after the third grade.
He enthusiastically talked about all this stuff throughout lunch, and I
finally looked at him and said "You are just so SMART!" He giggled and
smiled. THEN he paid for our lunch using his brand-new debit card, figuring
out how much tip to leave.
My point is...not only do we not have to have all the answers, we can't and
SHOULDN'T. Takes a lot of the fun out of learning if we can answer all the
questions. AND it's important for the kid to have areas where they are the
smarter ones.
Kathryn
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]