That's the message. Don't spend time teaching your kids how to read, get them that Leapfrog learning system and let it do that for you. Don't spend any time with them unless you absolutely have to; plop their little fannies in front of the TV and pop in videos. As long as the DVD players is working you shouldn't have to spend any time at all with them.
Don't read them a bedtime story, get them those teddy bears that will tell them a story. They probably won't be close to you as they grow up, but hey, it's not like you know them anyway.
When my grandkids were unable to read you could read for a short time to them but they would soon get tired of that. As soon as they began to read that was it, they were not interested in having someone read to them. I remember it was the same with my kids. If you think of it, having someone read to you is pretty boring. It is, however, cute when they do it in the movies.
There's a difference between reading to your kids and reading with your kids. Reading to people so you can hear your own voice, is boring to others. Teaching kids what the color red is and what an apple looks like and what the word looks like is something else altogether.
My granddaughter teaches kindergarten, which is a totally different thing than when we went. They get into what we used to learn as first graders. But she still gets the occasional kid who isn't potty trained, let alone have any structured learning. It's a shame, but some kids do need LeapFrog because their guardians aren't teaching them anything before they start school.
If you talk on your cellphone on the way to work, use a computer all day, text on your phone all the way home, eat dinner for 10 minutes and then lock yourself away and play video games, you probably don't see anything wrong in having your kid follow in your footsteps.
It's no wonder some of the kids have the "A.D.D" or "A.D.H.D." But I have seen the medicine work...on my nephew..who is 12 now. If he doesn't take his medicine...he is bouncing off the wall !!! I also think that if his little butt had been spanked when it needed it...and he had more guidance and structure...and wasn't trying to get the attention all the time....he wouldn't need that medicine. There wasn't any ADD or ADHD when I was a kid in grade school...but there also wasn't 30 kids in my class either.... I am so thankful for the wonderful teachers I had. We got one on one with the teacher...every day...and had to read out loud...every day. And we used phonics !!
Actually the ADD/ADHD stuff occurs within a child's first year---it's all connected to the development of the brain stem---the child must have the nurturing/attention that this specific child "needs" in order for the brain stem to develop normally---when that child's needs aren't met then the child is constantly seeking nurturing/attention, etc....
One of my favorite things in the world is to be read to. . . . .STILL. This summer my daughter and I were sitting on the deck and she was reading. So I asked her to read to me. It was wonderful. Totally soothing and relaxing. I never wanted her to stop. It's so sad that the young ones today may never know how wonderful that sort of companionship can be. We had a grade school teacher that read to us for 30 minutes every day after lunch. She would make us lay our heads down on our desks and she would read to us from the Nany Drew mysteries, the Sugar Creek Gang series, and the Hardy boys. I don't think there was a kid in that class that didn't look forward to that 30 minutes.
toomnyexes--couldn't disagree with you more. ADD/ADHD does exist and has nothing to do with parenting. I hate it when anyone says that! I guess you can say it "pisses me off." I will say that you must have very good parenting skills to help your ADD/ADHD child cope with all they have to go through in their school years but your skills as a parent did not cause your child to have ADHD. and Sweet48 I am not sure where you got that information but I have done research on ADD/ADHD and have never read that. Yes, it is a brain dysfunction but never heard of it being the brain stem or caused by unmet "needs" of a child. I have 3 grandchildren and they were all raised the same way. Given the same attention when they were little except maybe the middle one. Guess what? He is the one that is not ADD/ADHD. I believe that ADHD is inherited.
Michbilly, do agree that parents should spend more time with their children although I do like that advertisement that shows the Grandmother reading a book to her grandchildren even if she is miles away.
I find it really bad that people have kids and then won't take care of them. They aren't miniture adults and need more than most adults do. I know people who won't discipline their brats and then wonder what happened when the kid ends up in the penal system.
We always read to our kids and helped them read to us. They are grateful today as it has helped them with education and everything else later in life.
My parents did not read to us and I was never a reader through most of my life. When I had to travel a lot for my last couple of jobs, I started reading on the planes. Now that I'm retired and have a lot more free time I read a lot. I bought an Amazon Kindle digital book, and I read it every single day. I have a TV in my room and used to watch TV at night, now I read instead. I have the Kindle with everyplace I go, and if I don't have to drive, I read.
The other day we were driving over to the Wal-mart (about 20 miles away) and we had NPR on the radio. They were discussing a book that sounded really interesting to me so I powered on the Kindle, used it on the Internet (it's on the Sprint 4G network, and usage is free) I got to Amazon and looked up the book. Then when I found it I downloaded a sample chapter and started reading it. The whole process took abour 30 seconds. I liked the book, and when I got to the end of my free chapter, I just had to click on a button to 'buy the book' and within another minute, the rest of the book was downloaded to my Kindle.
Anyway, if you are interested in more about Kindle, check out the 'Kindle by Amazon' group here on eons.
Michibilly says, That's the message. Don't spend time teaching your kids how to read, get them that Leapfrog learning system and let it do that for you. Don't spend any time with them unless you absolutely have to; plop their little fannies in front of the TV and pop in videos.
Where'd you ever get that idea?? The message is: "Spend MORE time with your kids. Here are some tools to help you teach your kids to learn!" No one says that Leapfrog, DVD's, and Kindle and such are meant for the children to use alone in their room while mom's lolling on the couch, watching soap-operas, and stuffing bon-bons down like there's no tomorrow. You take them in the car with you. Use them as a change from the usual bed-time story, any time you interact with your child, you can play a learning game with them. Play leapfrog with them. Watch videos with them. (and a big bowl of pop-corn!) What kind of a Parent would even think about leaving their child alone with a video?? That's like saying if you buy your kid a book, then you don't have to read to them. Or buying them toys means you don't have to play with them. Or buying them a car means you don't have to help them learn to drive.
