That is another interesting subject you bring up Krithika. I am interacting with a lot with moms who home school and my husband is for home schooling and I toy with the idea once in a while - but I am not sure if I have the ability to take upon myself the responsibility of shaping my child's future entirely. Anyways, the point I wanted to make here is this - the school system in the US follows something called "no child left behind policy". All the teachers as per this policy are asked to teach in such a way that the slowest student in the class can understand and pass the grade. While this is very commendable, it definetly puts all the kids who are ahead at a disadvantage. So the policy becomes more like "No child left behind but no child gets ahead". Please do not mistake me, I am not speaking about kids at all but the standards practised in schools - so the teachers end up spending time with slower kids and eventually smarter kids get left behind and their needs are nit catered to like the other children's. So to compensate they do have testing and advance placement but then again with this, actual advanced classes are not provided till the kids are in 3rd grade and I feel by then so much of kid's school years is over and learning pattern is set! So in that context the actual learning that happens in school is quite minimal. If you take the ex of my son's room, there are 24 kids/one teacher and 2 hrs of KG - what can he learn in 2 hrs when the teacher is trying hard to cater to individual levels? So learning at home or thru after school programs becomes important. I agree here. Personally, while my parents and hubby's as well did their best and provided more than they could, I feel a lot of potential went unnoticed. I have also met quite a few moms who feel that way. May be that is why I am more conscious of what I do with my kids and I totally understand the situations when my parents raised us and thanks to them, we are in a position far better than they ever were. No discounting that fact by any means. my son's preschool teacher is my sounding board here - the other day she was talking about a child who speaks in Arabic in the class room with just the assumption that everyone else can understand her and is totally oblivious to the fact that everyone else is speaking a different language and there are some pediatricians who do advise to speak in the chosen language of the child to influence speech and learning or to speak in one language to encourage speech - I know vanathi, you can give more inputs here! Obviously, once we grow a little older, we choose the language we want to speak in. My dad was in a travelling job and we always chose to speak the local language just to fit in! So I guess children and language association are much more complex than we may actually know. And finally, today I attended a book hosting (Usborne books) in a friend's house and came upon something called as dual level reading books. These books had text on the top as well as the bottom of the page and we could use only the top for easy and quick reading or read both of them...so the books could be used from babies to probably till they are 6-7 yrs old. I had never come across these kinds of books or may be didn't realise till the lady mentioned to me and thought it was pretty neat.
Yes when children are old enough to want to "fit in " with the world around them then certainly this happens - witness all the kids in the US who start out speaking their mother tongue and by age 7-8 have completely switched to English! I come from an inter-caste family so I became an expert very early on at speaking different dialects/accents with different relatives (even though it was the same language). Even today I can speak Tamil in 4 different ways depending on whom I am talking to - makes for a lot of confusion when I have relatives from both sides in the same room [/quote] Sounds nice - I've never seen these either. V.
For those of us who are looking at more and more books (greedy, I tell you ), here is a link to an online library. If you know more than one language - French, spanish, Persian, Hebrew, Mongolian, the choice is even more. Happy reading.
Rama, Did you buy any Usborne books? Is it true that it can be bought only from a rep? why i ask is A's english class teacher had invited one such rep and we now have a list to order (if we want, that is). I especially liked their book on teaching body changes in girls and boys... something like preparing them for adulthood and also couple of books for babies. I wanted to know if the books are worth the money. Latha
Latha, I think that is how it works - buying only through a rep. I honestly love their books - I don't buy books on impulse. I have a few books on human body and simply adore them. They have introduced new books in math which are awesome I felt - will last 4-5yrs atleast. I also have their books on space and they have some links which are awesome. This year I have gone ahead and bought some science/weather project books - something like science in your kitchen. Quite excited about them. So to answer your question, yes they are - you just need to browse thru well and order.
Latha, I also went to an Usborne book show. I bought only one book but lot of moms liked their books, especially on potty training. They also have a set called 'Your Baby Can Read!' - teaching baby to read through flash cards. I heard rave reviews about that too. Raj
Thanks, Srama, Raj for the reco. The catalogue i received had only christmas books so i'm awaiting the complete one. A already wants something with Fire-engine and that makes noise as well (pretty expensive at 15 pounds)... i am not allowing anymore fire-engines. He has 4 in all sizes already and one particular toy made such an annoying noise, i spent 4 days to pull out that noise-factor:spin. anyways let me not deviate too much from the title... Did I tell you all how glad I was today that A has tore up his baby books! Now I can happily order baby books from Usborne:thumbsup... DH can't deny! Latha