Mike Carruthers:
There's
an emphasis to push our children to learn more, faster. But that's
not really how children learn.
Kathy
Hirsh-Pasek :
Children learn through play and discovery they learn by picking
up a block turning the block, feeling the block sometimes mouthing
the block. That's how they learn that it's a solid.
Kathy
Hirsh-Pasek, author of the book, Einstein
Never Used Flash Cards…
It's
through this discovery (and play is the best way to discover)
that our children really learn.
But in
an attempt to make our kids smarter, sooner, we buy toys for
them that supposedly teach.
Many
of those (teaching) toys are toys that give an answer to the
child. And then they either: ding, ding, ding, ding if the child
gets it right or they do something if the child doesn't get
it right. But let's think of the toys that we really remember.
Do you remember the boxes that used to make into taxicabs? Do
you remember the forts you used to build out of the couch? These
are the wonderful memories that build childhood and they involve
a lot of learning. But we tend to forget that and we think oh
my gosh if my child's going to make it into school then I better
start now.
There
is no evidence, says Kathy, that teaching toys make kids any
smarter.
I think
quite often what we're teaching our children with those toys
is to be perfectionists. And I think that the real learning
that happens in childhood is not from being perfect in every
answer but exploring the many different answers or ways you
can get to a right answer.
At somethingyoushouldknow.net
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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