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Chris Jacob
THE BEST thing you can do for a young child is this:
Give them a giant handful of random change, and an egg carton. Tell them to count it all by first sorting it. Tell them they can sort it however they want - fixed values for each egg depression, by denomination etc, and encourage them to see which sorting methods make totaling it easier. Little kids LOVE money, even just change. What this does for their in-the-head math skills is incredibly good stuff.
Also, this has the added benefit of exposing your precious snowflake to the litany of nasty critters that live on coins, thus boosting their immune system through controlled exposure.
Just like the infomercials about teaching your kid to read at 1 year old. These things terrorize parents into thinking their kid will be stupid if they don't jump on the most recent "teach-your-baby-calculus-in-the-womb-or-he'll-be-homeless" bandwagon.
At the end, just pay attention to your damn kid and they'll be fine.
"Contrary to parents' perceptions that TV viewing is beneficial to their children's brain development, we found no evidence of cognitive benefit from watching TV during the first two years of life,"
I guess I'll have to get a refund for those kids I just adopted. I thought I could have simply ploped the kids down in front of the tv and walked away. That adoption agency has some serious false adverstisement problems.
Well, when you've got laundry to do, dinner to make, or feel tired or sick and no one else is home to watch them, these videos are great. Much better than regular TV shows with crazy commercials and hyper-editing. They aren't a substitute for reading, taking walks or talking- they are safe, convenient distractions to keep the kids from freaking out for 20 minutes.
@speck2001: I also think that's the point of those particular shows, however, parents who use them as an actual substitute for physically teaching their children something is the problem.
@AKAuser: The subliminal messages in the videos that teach babies that human flesh is delicious, and that robots are to always be obeyed are definitely gonna come back to haunt us. I just know it.
My parents read to me as a kid. I was told I insisted because I wanted to incorporate words in my drawings but didn't know how to write at the time. I was never a prodigy, but my parents were diligent about things like language arts.
@Kaiser-Machead: Same here. I started reading quite young and have been a voracious reader ever since. I'm always amazed when people say they've never read a novel, or hate reading. That's like saying you prefer being dumb, from my point of view.
I had a bad feeling about the Baby Einstein vids when I first saw them. Now I gotta go tell my friends that they are making dumb babies. It'll be a bittersweet "I told ya so" moment, to be sure.
03/04/09
Give them a giant handful of random change, and an egg carton. Tell them to count it all by first sorting it. Tell them they can sort it however they want - fixed values for each egg depression, by denomination etc, and encourage them to see which sorting methods make totaling it easier. Little kids LOVE money, even just change. What this does for their in-the-head math skills is incredibly good stuff.
Also, this has the added benefit of exposing your precious snowflake to the litany of nasty critters that live on coins, thus boosting their immune system through controlled exposure.
03/04/09
At the end, just pay attention to your damn kid and they'll be fine.
03/04/09
03/04/09
At the Moonlight Bunny Ranch, but it costs extra.
03/04/09
03/04/09
I guess I'll have to get a refund for those kids I just adopted. I thought I could have simply ploped the kids down in front of the tv and walked away. That adoption agency has some serious false adverstisement problems.
03/04/09
03/04/09
03/04/09
03/04/09
Damn, man, it hurt to write that sentence.
03/04/09
03/04/09
That's how I was raised and I turned out TV.
03/04/09
03/04/09
03/04/09
03/04/09
03/04/09
03/04/09
03/04/09
03/04/09
I had a bad feeling about the Baby Einstein vids when I first saw them. Now I gotta go tell my friends that they are making dumb babies. It'll be a bittersweet "I told ya so" moment, to be sure.