Teaching My Children to Fish
“How do I attempt to teach my young kids beyond facts!”
- a lot of us are drilling our children with facts ..are we preparing them for the “knowledge economy”?
When I began my journey as a father, I told myself, I must try to give my kids the best start in life and prepare them for the future. I am sure most parents have the same thought as me. However, interestingly, I am sure all of us, “first-time” parent, will start to think: “what is the right thing to do then?”
Well, just like most parents, my wife and I started my kids on books as soon as they hit the ground. We bought picture books when they are just babies, one-sentence book when they are toddler and slightly lengthy book when they are in kindergarten.
We also picked up flash cards to drill them, black and white cards, picture cards, dots cards etc all in the hope of wiring up their small but high potential brain.
My wife and I agreed to keep our kids away from too much television. We read too much of the down-side of television that we feel that can wait. We only selectively let them watch some educational VCDs or TV program. Some of our friends wonder how we can do it. A lot of kids are exposed to TV when their grandparents or parents watch them. Some parents even proudly told me that their children are learning Chinese from watching the Chinese serials every night.
Most educational psychologist believes that television will stifle kid’s creativity. They do not have to imagine or think. A simple way to prove that is comparing them to a story book. The kids will need to imagine the story in their heads through the words while they need not imagine at all when watching a TV program. In addition, we will also reduce the risk of them getting short-sighted. Of course, the argument is that TV may not be the main cause but if I could reduce one of them, wouldn’t that help them reduce the probability.
But, how are we able to “control” or reduce their urge or desire to watch? I believe in a
- a lot of us are drilling our children with facts ..are we preparing them for the “knowledge economy”?
When I began my journey as a father, I told myself, I must try to give my kids the best start in life and prepare them for the future. I am sure most parents have the same thought as me. However, interestingly, I am sure all of us, “first-time” parent, will start to think: “what is the right thing to do then?”
Well, just like most parents, my wife and I started my kids on books as soon as they hit the ground. We bought picture books when they are just babies, one-sentence book when they are toddler and slightly lengthy book when they are in kindergarten.
We also picked up flash cards to drill them, black and white cards, picture cards, dots cards etc all in the hope of wiring up their small but high potential brain.
My wife and I agreed to keep our kids away from too much television. We read too much of the down-side of television that we feel that can wait. We only selectively let them watch some educational VCDs or TV program. Some of our friends wonder how we can do it. A lot of kids are exposed to TV when their grandparents or parents watch them. Some parents even proudly told me that their children are learning Chinese from watching the Chinese serials every night.
Most educational psychologist believes that television will stifle kid’s creativity. They do not have to imagine or think. A simple way to prove that is comparing them to a story book. The kids will need to imagine the story in their heads through the words while they need not imagine at all when watching a TV program. In addition, we will also reduce the risk of them getting short-sighted. Of course, the argument is that TV may not be the main cause but if I could reduce one of them, wouldn’t that help them reduce the probability.
But, how are we able to “control” or reduce their urge or desire to watch? I believe in a