The main point of Chapter Three in Classrooms That Work, is about different strategies to get children to start learning and recognizing letters.
While I was in Texas this past week of school, I sat and watched my two cousins, Harlea (9) and Logan (5) interact. They each had their own hand held "game boy" like toys that had various learning features in them. One neat feature they showed me was that they could write letters to each other. This kind of worked like an email. Harlea, being a 4th grader could write things to Logan such as "Hi" and "What's up?" Logan started kindergarten this year and is not yet able to construct sentences or read. But I found it neat to watch Logan mimic writing what his sister had sent to him. It was a useful tool of learning in the home around family that they thought was a game. At one point while I was in Texas this past week, Harlea and I started writing short notes to each other in cursive. Logan tried to write notes with us, I read him what they said and he would draw scribbles on his piece of paper and tell me what he was saying. It is so important to create situations where children can practice writing and reading outside of school. The toys that these two had actually had fun educational games. Every time I see my now 4 year old nephew Jett, I make sure to sit down and read a book with him. It has become something he looks forward to. His favorite books include ones that have dinosaurs and trucks. I wish I had the video I once had of him"reading" a book to my sister that had been read to him so often he knew how the story went and recognized the words through repeating memory. Jett also plays educational games on his Nintendo DS. I looked up some recommendations for educational games for kids to play. The young generations are wrapped up in technology, so we might as well embrace it. It is important that we do not let the children only play "mindless" games though.
I think you make a great point about how younger children (siblings or not) definitely look to older members of the family for guidance. I have two boys, ages 7 and 4, and I have observed the same exact situations as you. My younger son wants desperately to do everything my older son does. The younger one is showing an interest in reading and writing at a younger age than his older brother did, which I attribute partly to the amount and variety of exposure. Because his older brother writes, my younger son "writes" by trying to copy the letters off of other written documents around him.
ReplyDeleteI love the fact that toys are being geared towards education. I remember growing up there was the Leap Frog electronic toys (I never had one...just remember how cool they were). We've definitely come a long way, in terms of new technology that promotes literacy! When I was homeschooled, we would have "typing class" and would practice on a specific computer program that had games in promote fluent typing skills. I love the idea of using games and technology (especially with my deaf kids who are so visual and hands-on) for educational purposes. Good point!
ReplyDeleteEducationally geared technology is going to make a much larger impact on the emerging readers of today, as opposed to when we were learning to read. To those fortunate enough, children playing on their parent's iPhones can practice literacy skills in the car, at the grocery store, or waiting at the doctors office. A 4 year old girl I babysit has her own "page" of literacy games on her mom's iPhone. However, while seeing how far technology can bring us, we still need to nurture the child's social skills and have educational interactions with them regularly. Also, memorizing and reciting books is a great confidence booster for little ones for when they can actually read what it says.
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