From: gpalo@digi.lonestar.org (Gerry Palo)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Re: BABIES AND READING/TV
Date: 12 Jan 93 17:30:59 GMT
Organization: DSC Communications Corp, Plano, TX

In article <9301111638.AA02032@cairo.kodak.com> mbb@keps.com (Maureen Busch)
writes in part:
:
>
>Alexander, he didn't have much of a vocabulary.  Let me tell you that just
>talking to him and pointing out objects (flower, tree, etc.) paid off because
>he went through a language explosion at about 22 months.  He was adding new
>words to his vocabulary daily.  As for books, he finally got interested around
>2.5 or 3, and then he became *very* interested in hearing books and such.
>By 5 he was trying to figure out this reading thing for himself.  He isn't the
>most advanced reader in his class, but he certainly is enjoying it and is 
>getting better at it all the time.
>
>My advice would be not to worry about it right now.  Have books around, and
>try occasionally to get him to sit with you for a few minutes to look at the
>pictures.  He will probably get more interested as time goes on.
>

Just to second Maureen that you needn't be concerned about reading
at such an early age.  Each of our three children developed or is
developing differently in this respect, and we don't teach early
reading at all.  They really do develop all over the map, in 
different order, in different ways, and in sometimes radically
different times.  Not to worry.

Our first, Caitlin now seven, was interested in books early on, and
we did a lot of paging through and pointing to the pictures and naming
things.  We are "Waldorf" parents and do not teach early reading. However
she did like to have books read to her and we did that a lot.  At the
age of 6 1/2 she started showing the physical and emotional signs of
school readiness, and my wife started teaching her her letters, by
telling a story  about some object or character and drawing a picture
with coloroed chalk in which the object or character is shaped like or 
has in it the shape of the letter.  She did some reading that summer
before school started, but not a whole lot.

She started at a non-Waldorf school this fall, with only that much 
background in reading, and she is thriving, even though many of the
kids in her class were far in advance of her, having been taught to
read in kindergarten or before.  And she loves reading, can't get enough
of it.  We still read to her and plan to continue to read to our kids
every day for years to come.  Caitlin also has a vivid imagination,
and especially likes to make things.  My wife taught her needlework
and knitting from the earliest stages and she is quite skilled now.

Our second child, David, now 3 1/2 showed little interested in books.  He
was naturally more mechanically interested (through no special encourage-
ment from us).  But in the last six months he has become more and more
interested in being read to.  He also notices relationships and simi-
larities and form more readily than Caitlin.  He learned to talk later
than Caitlin, but his mind is penetratingly sharp.  He also has a
vivid imagination in a special way.  He loves to have me make up stories
about animals etc., but when I do he takes over and changes them, 
making up his own.  You can see his inner eyes scanning the horizon
and picking up details.  We just started sending him to a Waldorf 
preschool (which we also did for Caitlin), where, again, they emphasize
the imaginative, artistic aspects in the early years, leaving reading 
until after the change of teeth - i.e. first grade).

Our third, Nathan, 1 1/2, is somewhere in between, but more like Caitlin, 
as he loves to have books read to him, i.e. pointing to things and naming
them.  He has a growing vocabulary at this age and gets very excited
when he sees something (his favorite: tiger) in a book and can name it.
At this age, David was basically not talking at all.

My wife will teach the boys to knit at the proper time too (I guess I
am going to have to learn as well).  This is also a Waldorf technique,
for both boys and girls.  We also do water color painting on wet white
paper on Saturdays.  We tell a story about the seasons and colors and
then each of us paints a picture accordingly.  My wife is pretty good
and I am not, but you can really see the imaginative power of Caitlin
and especially David, even though he sometimes keeps on going too long
and gets it a little muddy.  But before that happens he does some 
astonishing things.  I mention this because these kinds of activities
stress the imagination rather than the more abstract activity of reading,
which becomes more important at a later age.

I should add that we do not have a television set.  My wife and I agreed
to sell our set 30 days after she became pregnant with our first child.
We did this and haven't looked back.  Our children do not go to movies
and we ask their friends' parents to please have them do other things
than watch TV or videos when they come over.  Caitlin sees some videos
in school, but we can't do much about that.  The main thing is that our
house has an atmosphere that lends itself much more to imagination and
activity, and we don't have that hypnotic demon buzzing in our environment.
Lest I bring down flames for this radical position, there is more to it
than I put down here. But one thing is certain, we do not feel deprived
or left out because of it, and Caitlin has not had any problems at all,
and neither feels unfairly denied nor under any peer pressure from other
kids.  She knows she will be allowed to see her first movie when she turns
nine (actually she did sneak in 101 Dalmations at one point. No big deal).


Gerry Palo (73237.2006@compuserve.com)
Newsgroups: misc.kids