PC Child Rearing

[Michael OLeary]

Today's teens can be such pests.

While many people think teens are adorable, clever little creatures, homeowners know them to be destructive, dangerous, loud and annoyingly persistent pests. Teens can cause significant damage now and leave your home vulnerable to hazards later on.

 

[Greymatters]

Hilarious, I should see them about the teen infesting my house...

Most of the issues I see nowadays are not only society, but a lot of parental issues -
Kid's alert to peanuts?  Why teach him to not eat other people's food when you can tell the whole school system to deny every other kid PB&J sandwiches. 
Your kid getting bad grades?  Why teach him to improve himself when you can get the standards lowered so no one ever fails. 
Your kid cant read?  Its obviously not your job to teach them how to read, after all you barely passed high school yourself, right?

And so on...

 

[Michael OLeary]

Your kid getting bad grades?  Why teach him to improve himself when you can get the standards lowered so no one ever fails. 
Your kid cant read?  Its obviously not your job to teach them how to read, after all you barely passed high school yourself, right?

Our (the first wife and I) effective solution was to have no television in the house until our son was ten, and video games and computers didn't arrive until a few years after that.  Books were the personal time activity for all of us.  He's not only very literate, but works in the high tech industry with a computer sciences degree today.

 

[Greymatters]

Our (the first wife and I) effective solution was to have no television in the house until our son was ten, and video games and computers didn't arrive until a few years after that.  Books were the personal time activity for all of us.  He's not only very literate, but works in the high tech industry with a computer sciences degree today.

Sadly, we see too many kids where the parents arent sitting down and reading with them at an early age. 

 

[Hawk]

Too true! My son and I got after a friend raising her granddaughter, recommending, and buying the little one books. Now my littlest buddy is going to be 5 in January. She's just been tested and can read at a grade 2 level. The little one has been read to, and given books since she was old enough to sit down and hear a story. Even when she's doing crafts or playing with her toys, there's a book handy in case she wants to read! TV is for movies suitable for her, and there's no computer in her home.


Hawk

 

[JBoyd]

Sadly, we see too many kids where the parents arent sitting down and reading with them at an early age. 

My wife is reading to my oldest son right now in fact , he has quite the library of books already, I would say close to 200 or so, ranging from Dr. Suess to Golden books and the like

 

[Roy Harding]

My wife is reading to my oldest son right now in fact , he has quite the library of books already, I would say close to 200 or so, ranging from Dr. Suess to Golden books and the like

My kids (and my wife and I) are all voracious readers.  Although we HAD TV, we didn't have cable (which limited the available programs significantly), and although we had computer(s) - it was a recognized fact in our house that reading was a normal, usually preferred activity in the evenings and on lousy days.  We didn't make a big deal about it - but the fact that my wife and I were just as likely to be reading as anything else kind of influenced the boys.

I still HAVE all the old Dr Suess and Golden Books, amongst others.  I still love to read Dr Suess (I don't LIKE green eggs and ham) - the sheer joy of the rhymes and the rhythm of the text have never lost their magic for me (but that's just me).

 

[JBoyd]

I still HAVE all the old Dr Suess and Golden Books, amongst others.  I still love to read Dr Suess (I don't LIKE green eggs and ham) - the sheer joy of the rhymes and the rhythm of the text have never lost their magic for me (but that's just me).

My wife unfortunatly isnt as much as an avid reader as myself, I have my own personal library and a nice collection of rare books (some I have inherited from my father). To date my favorite author is currently Stephen Donaldson, Ron Hubbard, & Eric Nylund. Needless to say I favor Sci-fi/Fantasy althought I read pretty much anything... I also recommend a book called "Waiting For Snow in Havana:Confessions of a Cuban Boy" by Carlos Eire, I wont ruin in but I quite enjoyed it.

As far as Dr. Suess goes, my favorite is "And To Think It Happened On Mulberry Street", by encourging my son's to read I hope to encourage a vivid imagination as well. My oldest has a healthy imagination and it is sure darn cute.

 

[Roy Harding]

As far as fiction goes, I have a special place on my shelf for Robert Heinlein (as do all three of my boys - go figure).  He was a wonderful illustrator of morality - many lessons learned there by me AND my sons.  I will admit to a weakness for Grisham and King.  The remainder of the collection (don't ask me how many - 60 linear feet of 8 foot high shelves (or so it was in our LAST house - I still have to build the built-ins in THIS house), about 2/3s fiction) ranges from the classics to the fantastic (including the authors you mention above).

My non-fiction shelf is eclectic, to say the least.  A large proportion is devoted to woodworking (my chosen second profession), the remainder - no pinning it down.

All this to say that we have a love of learning - a love we appear to have been successful in passing on to our sons.  Books were the method of choice for us - and at least in the early years there WERE no other methods.  As technology has grown, I've found a wonderful source of information on the internet - one I'd not hesitate to expose my children to, if they were still just growing.  Of course - much as I didn't hand a Penthouse magazine to them when they were six, I'd be careful to guide them toward reputable and "wholesome" sites - as they grow older and more able to differentiate between "knowledge" and "opinion", I'd let them explore further.

What's DANGEROUS is to let youngsters explore without guidance - whether they are exploring books, television programs, the internet, or for that matter, video games.  I'd have no problems exploring a porn site with a 14/15/16 year old - much as I had no problem pointing out the relative merits of Playboy as compared to OTHER less savoury publications that entered our house when they were that age.  It's out there, they need to be equipped to handle it - hiding it from them for their entire lives isn't going to make it go away.

If you can instill a thirst for knowledge and learning in your offspring (and a capacity for critical thinking) - you've equipped them to take on the world.  The methods and means you choose to do this are up to you - but for pity's sake, don't expect the school system to do it - YOU have to.

 

[Hawk]

Ok, my friends, I need some help. As I've said somewhere in these threads, we are caretakers of an apartment building. One of our tenants is a family from mainland China, arrived here last Spring. Their little boy, age 8, is in Grade 3, coping reasonably well with English, can speak it if he wants to, but doesn't read or write well. His older sister is concerned, and I said I'd see what I could find him to read. Any suggestions? I have some Dr Zeus books of my son's I could lend him, but are they appropriate? I want to find something to engage him, without stressing him to the point of putting him off reading. I was thinking of Mulberry Street? and perhaps Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, if I still have it. Need your suggestions.

I'm completely out of the loop - my son is 28!


Hawk

 

[Roy Harding]

Ok, my friends, I need some help. As I've said somewhere in these threads, we are caretakers of an apartment building. One of our tenants is a family from mainland China, arrived here last Spring. Their little boy, age 8, is in Grade 3, coping reasonably well with English, can speak it if he wants to, but doesn't read or write well. His older sister is concerned, and I said I'd see what I could find him to read. Any suggestions? I have some Dr Zeus books of my son's I could lend him, but are they appropriate? I want to find something to engage him, without stressing him to the point of putting him off reading. I was thinking of Mulberry Street? and perhaps Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, if I still have it. Need your suggestions.

I'm completely out of the loop - my son is 28!


Hawk

Try these sites:

http://www.epl.ca/EPLMaster.cfm?id=RECOMMENDEDB0005
http://www.epl.ca/EPLMaster.cfm?id=RECOMMENDEDB0004
http://www.geocities.com/teachingwithheart/srgrade3.html

I zeroed in on the Grade 3 thing - but that could be a red herring.  Find out what interests him (seems to me that dinosaurs are a big thing at that age - although my direct experience was a while ago), then try out different books on him.  From what you said, it's hard to gauge just what his reading level might be (and those reading levels are a GUIDELINE only - my middle guy was reading Grade Seven stuff when he was in Grade Three - the other two fluctuated up and down depending upon how interesting the subject of the book was to them).

If you've got the time, opportunity, and inclination, a trip to the local library and a visit with the librarian can do wonders (perhaps the older sister can do this?)

Good luck - I'd be interested to hear how he progresses.

 

[PMedMoe]

Chronicles of Narnia (may be a bit too "old" for him)
Charlie and The Chocolate Factory (as you suggested)
and here's a link from Chapters.

Also, you can see if his sister can read to him as well.

 

[exgunnertdo]

My son is 7 (grade 2) and has just taken off with reading chapter books    He likes Magic Treehouse (right at his level now), and Dragonslayers' Academy (a bit harder, but he loves it!).  They are both sets of books and are readily available at the library and Chapters.  He also like a set of books called Ghost Hunters (there's only 4 of those, but they're also great).  Junie B Jones is also really popular, but more among the girls, I think.  My son liked it when they were reading it in class (humourous tales of a girl in first grade), but isn't interested in reading it on his own.

Most boys also like non-fiction.  My son brings home a fiction and a non-fiction book from the school library every week. The non-fiction tends to be a big book, full of pictures and short descriptions about stuff (dinosaurs, robots, animals, space, etc) Again, the library would have a ton of those.  They would really appeal to someone who is starting to read, cause you can get a lot from the pictures, and then pick up on short bits of the text.  Fiction books can be frustrating as weaker readers can lose the plot if they miss a few words.

Dr Seuss may be a bit frustrating for someone who is learning English - there's a lot of nonsense words.  I remember talking about Dr Seuss (The Grinch, actually) to a francophone friend, and she just didn't get it! 

 

[Hawk]

That's what I thought about Dr Zeus, but maybe others in that genre - Bernstein Bears, I think I have a couple of them, and that sort. Its hard to remember what mine was reading at that age. He wasn't an early reader (too lazy), but before he hit school, we'd read Jungle book - both volumes, the original Kipling version, and Macbeth from Complete Works, and a book of odd stories about explorers in Canada. I think his first novel-type book They Flew to Fame sparked his interest about that age. The first story is about the Red Baron - and he was off on war history - his passion to this day. I know young Tao likes animals, so I'm going to try and find something about animals, I think, and promise him that once he can read some of the first books.

By about 8 or 9 my son had read all they could offer him in school up to junior high level, by the end of junior high he was reading at a first-year university level. When they had to read books in school, they let him go his own way, and we kept sorting and re-sorting our books to hand to him, and buying him books. He was borrowing war-books from his grandfather, then discussing them with him. So this is a new world for me.

Thanks for your help - I'll keep you posted on how my young buddy does.


Hawk

 

[edgar]

Ok, my friends, I need some help. As I've said somewhere in these threads, we are caretakers of an apartment building. One of our tenants is a family from mainland China, arrived here last Spring. Their little boy, age 8, is in Grade 3, coping reasonably well with English, can speak it if he wants to, but doesn't read or write well. His older sister is concerned, and I said I'd see what I could find him to read. Any suggestions? I have some Dr Zeus books of my son's I could lend him, but are they appropriate? I want to find something to engage him, without stressing him to the point of putting him off reading. I was thinking of Mulberry Street? and perhaps Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, if I still have it. Need your suggestions.

I'm completely out of the loop - my son is 28!


Hawk

Make sure they have a computer, and scour the bargain bins for learning games. If it comes to it, I have an old computer for them and some kids games my kids have played out. There are tons of games like Jumpstart 1st Grade, and Go Diego Go, that are actually fun and teach the language. There are also tons of websites for learning like http://pbskids.org/wordgirl/. I have a filter called Glubble that lets me lock out the bad shit. This means the kids can learn while they think they are playing. This also lets the grownups alone long enough to read their own books, which sets the good example.

I bet the parents will get a lot of good out of the Dick and Jane type books too. My daughter is in French immersion and she is past me already. Supervising her homework is teaching me more French than I got from high school, and I got somebody to talk to with my horrendous saskatchewanian accent.

 

[retiredgrunt45]

You've got it all wrong - you want Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Tweety and Sylvestre, Foghorn Leghorn, Mighty Mouse, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Quick Draw McGraw.  THOSE are REAL cartoons!  (S'all right?, s'all right)

I still watch them on occasion, great entertainment.

 

[Roy Harding]

...
Most boys also like non-fiction.  My son brings home a fiction and a non-fiction book from the school library every week. The non-fiction tends to be a big book, full of pictures and short descriptions about stuff (dinosaurs, robots, animals, space, etc) Again, the library would have a ton of those.  They would really appeal to someone who is starting to read, cause you can get a lot from the pictures, and then pick up on short bits of the text.  Fiction books can be frustrating as weaker readers can lose the plot if they miss a few words.

Dr Seuss may be a bit frustrating for someone who is learning English - there's a lot of nonsense words.  I remember talking about Dr Seuss (The Grinch, actually) to a francophone friend, and she just didn't get it! 

Excellent points.  Thank you for reminding me - how could I forget?  Boys (I restrict my comments to boys, I don't have any daughters) LOVE to know how things work.  Illustrations are wonderful (even for grown-up boys like me).  One of my favourite internet sites (and one I STRONGLY recommend to any parent) is http://www.howstuffworks.com/.  Now THAT's a site guaranteed to grab a boys attention.

By all means, if the little fella' is interested in cars, or boats, or airplanes, or ANYTHING "technical" - there are a wondrous variety of age-appropriate resources out there.

 

[Scratch_043]

Born in '85, and raised like that as well, I think it's the boomers their children who got this life. Anyone, say, born to a Gen X er or later, if I had to put a link to it, is part of this 'new generation' of children.

 

[Roy Harding]

Born in '85, and raised like that as well, I think it's the boomers their children who got this life. Anyone, say, born to a Gen X er or later, if I had to put a link to it, is part of this 'new generation' of children.

Speaking as a "boomer" who raised Gen X children:  MY Gen X'ers are articulate - you can make out their meaning whether they are communicating verbally or textually.  This doesn't seem to be a talent you share.

A sarcastic way of asking - what are you driving at?

 

[mummiebear5]

We raised 3 kids born from 83 - 86 and all were spanked.  Not one of them are maladjusted or in jail.  I pretty much raised all 3 on my own due to military courses, training, missions, etc.. After 18 yrs of doing most on my own with no family in the area I disciplined mine the old fasheioned way and to this way still works.  Like they say "If it aint broke, don't fix it".