For those of you wanting to branch out from the fiction realm, I have been reading a really interesting book called "Einstein Never Used Flashcard...How our Children Really Learn and why they need to play more and memorize less" by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, and a couple other women. They are all involved in Child Development and Behavior and have PhD's of one sort of another, but they have spent their careers analyzing the current trend of pushing children to succeed both academically and extra-curricullar-ly at very early ages. Really interesting reading on how and when our brains really learn things, and they de-bunk a lot of myths such as the Mozart effect by explaining what the research actually found before commercial industry twisted it and ran. They discuss all the things kids learn just by playing and how necessary that is to their development, and the anxiety that comes with trying to push them too fast into structured, "adultified" activities.
Good way to expand your knowledge and understanding on how kids tick as supported by research, and makes you not feel so guilty about kids not being a part of every possible sport, preschool program, and tutoring session being offered. Turns out a loving home and lots of free, imaginative play are actually the keys to a successful, well-rounded, creative, critical thinking adult. Sounds eerily familiar, like many of our general authorities have been telling us this for a long time....
09 December 2010
Murder Mystery
I just finished a book by Simon Brett called Murder in the Museum. I thought it was a well written, well paced murder mystery. A good easy holiday read. It is apparently the fourth in the Feathering Mysteries set that he writes, but he writes a whole lot of others too. It's always fun to find a new-to-me author that has a big selection of books to keep trying.
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