I have had issues with the education system in this country and the sheer pace at which it forces children through a fixed curriculum. You put in your child into playschool in this country when he or she is still in diapers, still unable to speak, still to develop their gross motor skills to perfection, forget the fine motor skills. And then, the syllabus. And the speed at which it is rushed through before the child is even able to grasp or comprehend what is being taught to him or her.
But yes, the children cope. Or rather, we force them to cope. My son, as you might know from my blog, is struggling. He has issues with attention, with hyperactivity, and I am fully aware of his issues and working with him.
The entire rush at which we start morphing our children into pressurised little studious robots has always had me wondering if there was an option. If there was a method by which I could take his unique interests and integrate them into his studies, considering he was lagging behind awfully in class, despite the fact that he does, blasphemy, go for tuitions after school, and I sit with him and do his school and tuition homework with him every single day.
My search for options lead me to google baba and to Homeschooling. The premise is interesting. I could draw up age appropriate syllabus according to the class my son is in and work on it with him at home. And I discovered on Wikipedia that it is legal in India.
But do I have the courage to withdraw him from organised school and go through the homeschooling experiment, especially in this competitive world where a piece of paper from an educational institution can make all the difference between a career and stagnation? I dont. Honestly, I dont. So I will opt for the happy compromise of having him go to regular school. And working with him at home with a syllabus more suited to his level of comprehension and understanding and willingness to grasp. Without pressurising him as much as I can manage it.
Research conducted by Raymond S Moore in the 1970s revealed that putting children into the education system too early was detrimental to their self esteem. The resultant book, Better Late than Early has a self explanatory title.
What are the advantages of homeschooling? The child gets one on one attention from the parent or the primary care give who is involved as much emotionally as is mentally in the process of educating the child. The syllabus can be tailored to the individual interest of the child and the parent will move up the syllabus is consonance with the speed with which the child assimilates what is being taught.
A group of parents can get together to form a core homeschooling team with each parent taking on a single subject and preparing lessons accordingly, if parents are able to find likeminded parents who share the desire to homeschool their children.
As to the syllabus, it can be developed through interenet downloaded resources, through books and educational DVDs, and text books meant for the level of class the child would be in should the child be in regular school. The flexibility of homeschooling is that, you can take lessons at your convenience. You can speed up or slow down according to the child's mastery of the subject, and you can devote one on one attention to the child.
There are plenty of parents out here who are homeschooling their children as an option to the standardised Brick in the Wall education system we follow. Their children are as intelligent, informed and capable or even better than those who go to regular school.
But homeschooling is not the rosy picture it seems. For one, the parent must have the ability to teach. And that is a natural ability that makes imparting knowledge interesting and fun for the child. The Good Lord knows I have to work really hard on that part. For another, the parent has to be disciplined enough to ensure that they have their study sessions every day regardless of distractions. For another, there is always the fear that the child is not upto snuff when compared with other children their age. The assumption is that school learning is the norm and is therefore better for the child.
The debate includes whether the child will be deprived of peer socialisation, and fail to develop adequate social skills in such a homeschooling setting. And also, when is the child ready and able to join institutionalised education and will the child then feel a misfit. All these questions still are under debate. But the bottom line is that homeschooling is an idea whose time has come, especially with all the parents out here, dismayed with the sheer insensitivity and overload the education system is putting on our precious little children.
I am going to try it out, in my own form, while staying put in the school. Any resources that would help, would be welcome. And any opinions too!
Would you homeschool your child, if you could?
Notable homeschooled individuals?
Numerous historical and current public figures were home-educated[2][56][57]. Some examples include:
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) the 16th President of the United States, received very little schooling, but was an avid reader and taught himself how to read, write, and do arithmetic.[56][58]
Andrew Wyeth (1917), an American realist painter, was taken out of school at young age because of illness, he then received education on art and other subjects from his parents.[59][56]
Bode Miller (1977), an American alpine skier, was homeschooled by his parents until he was ten. [60]
Che Guevara (1928), left-wing guerrilla leader in Cuba, Africa, and Bolivia, and prison commandant and national bank president in Cuba, born in Argentina, was educated at home, mainly by his mother, until the age of 13.[61]
Ernst Mach, Austria, Physicist. Homeschooled until highschool by his parents.[62]
Erwin Schrödinger, Austria, Nobel Prize-winning physicist. Homeschooled until age 10[63]
Elizabeth II (1926), the queen of the United Kingdom, received early education at home, later she attended lessons in constitutional history at Eton College.[64]
George Washington, United States, First United States President[56]
Rosa Parks, United States, civil rights activist, homeschooled until age 11[65]
Sho Yano, United States, child prodigy
Susan La Flesche Picotte, United States, first American Indian woman physician
Thomas Edison (1847-1931) an American inventor and businessman, was taught reading, writing and arithmetic by his mother. Before that he left school after only three months, as he had trouble following the lessons. Most of his other education he received from reading books on his own.[66]
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) the 28th President of the United States, was home educated by his father because of the Civil War. When he was nineteen he entered the Princeton University.[56]
Resources: http://www.alternativeeducationindia.net/
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
How soon is too soon
(This being India)
The front page of the newspapers today informed me that the draft of the Right to Education Bill has been finalized by the Central Government in India. And the best part about it, our children will start school later. Hallelujah, someone out there has been listening to us, griping and grumbling about how infants were being dragged into the schooling system by unscrupulous elements, at an age when they were still finding the language to inform us that they needed to go to the potty, and more often than not, needed diapering of their yet untrained bottoms before they could be let loose in public situations.
My son started playschool at 1 year nine months. I admitted him late. The term had begun in June. He would have been 1.6 had I started him in as the term started. And of course, out here, there is no concept of admitting a child on the basis of his average age, it’s a wide spectrum that starts from the beginning of the year to the end of said year, which gives children born at the start of the year almost a year’s lead time on the poor critters (like the brat) who have the bad taste to be born at the fag end of the year.
The bill, in its finalized draft state, proposes to fix the minimum age for admission to preschool at 3 years 10 months. The bill prepared by the Human resource Development Ministry says the admission age for Class I should be five years and 10 months before the beginning of the academic year. The brat will be 5 years, 6 months when he gets into Class I. Four months under the cut off date. And he, being wondrously slow as a learner. Any surprises that he is having trouble catching up with the rest of his class.
In Mumbai, though, the age for admission to pre school and pre primary has not been fixed by the state government. What with mamma and toddler classes coming into the picture, I think we’re now rushing off from our maternity leave to get our kids into playgroups and schools, while they’re still suckling at the breast. Okay, I exaggerate a bit. But you get my drift.
Most schools in Mumbai typically admit children between two and two and a half years into their pre school. For Pre Primary, that is Jr Kg, the minimum age needs to be 3 years. For Class I, the current cut off is 5 years. At five years, these kids are writing capitals, lower case, two and three letter words, three word sentences, they know their numbers, the counting, seriation, graphs, ordinal numbers, skip counting till 100, ascending order, descending order, greater than and less than, single digit addition and subtraction already when they move from Jr Kg to Sr Kg, and in senior Kg they will learn multiplication and division.
For the record, the brat just about has got a grip on capital letters, and I do his three letter word revision with capitals. He knows his numbers, but the rest of the stuff is beyond him, and I have not forced him to get into it. He will grasp it, as soon his brain is capable of doing so. And if the rest of the kids in class are doing the portion perfectly, more power to them. They also have an eight to ten month lead over him most of the time.
Also to my delight, comes the sentence, “If any school is found subjecting the parents or children to screening for admission a fine of Rs 25,000 will be imposed. A repeat offence will invite a fine of Rs 50,000. If any school is found guilty of taking capitation, the fine will be upto ten times of what it has charged.”
This spells doom for all the so called “refundable deposits” that most school charge during admissions, which start from the modest Rs 25,000 depending on the school, and go upto a few lakhs for the better schools.
And very interestingly, the days of 50 to 60 students packed three to a bench in the average schools also seems to be done for. Hopefully. The draft has also framed a set of norms for private schools on teachers’ qualifications, student teacher ratio and infrastructural mandatories. Schools without playgrounds, dirty premises, teachers with no proper qualifications (just the proper channels through which they applied for jobs, and worse, underpaid and overworked teachers, and therefore disgruntled and disinterested teachers). They seem to hopefully, among the many factors which will be impacted by this bill, if implemented.
Failure to comply with any of these could lead to a closure of the school. Do we see any harassed parents turning cartwheels on the street?
Of course, this will result in unnecessary confusion and running around to plan babies to meet cut off dates, but it makes infinite sense. And it does give one hope, that maybe, just maybe the education system is slowly and steadily getting rationalized in this country. Now if only someone working on that draft could take a look at the absolutely ridiculous syllabus our children have to suffer through. One brave day I will post a month’s syllabus to give you guys an idea of the utter horror that a four and a half year old has to confront.
The day the syllabus at the pre primary level gets rationalized will be the day I truly will celebrate.
What is the age cut off in your part of the world, folks?
The front page of the newspapers today informed me that the draft of the Right to Education Bill has been finalized by the Central Government in India. And the best part about it, our children will start school later. Hallelujah, someone out there has been listening to us, griping and grumbling about how infants were being dragged into the schooling system by unscrupulous elements, at an age when they were still finding the language to inform us that they needed to go to the potty, and more often than not, needed diapering of their yet untrained bottoms before they could be let loose in public situations.
My son started playschool at 1 year nine months. I admitted him late. The term had begun in June. He would have been 1.6 had I started him in as the term started. And of course, out here, there is no concept of admitting a child on the basis of his average age, it’s a wide spectrum that starts from the beginning of the year to the end of said year, which gives children born at the start of the year almost a year’s lead time on the poor critters (like the brat) who have the bad taste to be born at the fag end of the year.
The bill, in its finalized draft state, proposes to fix the minimum age for admission to preschool at 3 years 10 months. The bill prepared by the Human resource Development Ministry says the admission age for Class I should be five years and 10 months before the beginning of the academic year. The brat will be 5 years, 6 months when he gets into Class I. Four months under the cut off date. And he, being wondrously slow as a learner. Any surprises that he is having trouble catching up with the rest of his class.
In Mumbai, though, the age for admission to pre school and pre primary has not been fixed by the state government. What with mamma and toddler classes coming into the picture, I think we’re now rushing off from our maternity leave to get our kids into playgroups and schools, while they’re still suckling at the breast. Okay, I exaggerate a bit. But you get my drift.
Most schools in Mumbai typically admit children between two and two and a half years into their pre school. For Pre Primary, that is Jr Kg, the minimum age needs to be 3 years. For Class I, the current cut off is 5 years. At five years, these kids are writing capitals, lower case, two and three letter words, three word sentences, they know their numbers, the counting, seriation, graphs, ordinal numbers, skip counting till 100, ascending order, descending order, greater than and less than, single digit addition and subtraction already when they move from Jr Kg to Sr Kg, and in senior Kg they will learn multiplication and division.
For the record, the brat just about has got a grip on capital letters, and I do his three letter word revision with capitals. He knows his numbers, but the rest of the stuff is beyond him, and I have not forced him to get into it. He will grasp it, as soon his brain is capable of doing so. And if the rest of the kids in class are doing the portion perfectly, more power to them. They also have an eight to ten month lead over him most of the time.
Also to my delight, comes the sentence, “If any school is found subjecting the parents or children to screening for admission a fine of Rs 25,000 will be imposed. A repeat offence will invite a fine of Rs 50,000. If any school is found guilty of taking capitation, the fine will be upto ten times of what it has charged.”
This spells doom for all the so called “refundable deposits” that most school charge during admissions, which start from the modest Rs 25,000 depending on the school, and go upto a few lakhs for the better schools.
And very interestingly, the days of 50 to 60 students packed three to a bench in the average schools also seems to be done for. Hopefully. The draft has also framed a set of norms for private schools on teachers’ qualifications, student teacher ratio and infrastructural mandatories. Schools without playgrounds, dirty premises, teachers with no proper qualifications (just the proper channels through which they applied for jobs, and worse, underpaid and overworked teachers, and therefore disgruntled and disinterested teachers). They seem to hopefully, among the many factors which will be impacted by this bill, if implemented.
Failure to comply with any of these could lead to a closure of the school. Do we see any harassed parents turning cartwheels on the street?
Of course, this will result in unnecessary confusion and running around to plan babies to meet cut off dates, but it makes infinite sense. And it does give one hope, that maybe, just maybe the education system is slowly and steadily getting rationalized in this country. Now if only someone working on that draft could take a look at the absolutely ridiculous syllabus our children have to suffer through. One brave day I will post a month’s syllabus to give you guys an idea of the utter horror that a four and a half year old has to confront.
The day the syllabus at the pre primary level gets rationalized will be the day I truly will celebrate.
What is the age cut off in your part of the world, folks?
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
KUMON: How and why it works for us
[Crossposted at My Two Cents]
(Note: I haven't been able to post for this month's theme or for the Kids' Food Festival. Things are sorta crazy at my end, so please bear with me. I read all the posts, but don't get to comment on all of them for the same reason.)
Some time back I wrote a post on how parents sometimes push their kids unnecessarily to achieve academic excellence. In that post, I also mentioned KUMON - a chain of individually owned math and reading learning centers. One reader left a link in the comment section for an article that discusses a few drawbacks of the KUMON way of teaching math. I read that whole article twice - I swear! I agree with parts of it and there are parts (regarding trigonometry and calculus etc.) that we haven't gone through yet so those don't apply to us. Yet. I highly recommend that you read this article if you are thinking about signing up your kid(s) at KUMON. I am not going to discuss the article here. I am merely writing what works for us in the KUMON method. I am not saying it will, or should, work for other parents too. Every kid is different and what works for S might not work even for M, a few years from now. So, please take everything I am going to write with a grain of salt. Research the options out for yourself and then decide.
S started KUMON math program in August 2003, just before she started Kindergarten. I came to know about it through a friend who sent her son to a center for a brief time. S was a quiet kid from the beginning and we thought being good at something, like math, will give her self-esteem a boost. In the long term, we HAVE been proven correct. Also, I had heard that due to various factors, girls here lose interest in math and sience by the time they get to middle school. I was determined to prevent that from happening to my daughter. I wasn't going to let math become a "monster" to be afraid of. So, this is why our KUMON journey started.
Soon after she started, S began struggling with the homeworks. She would do all correctly, but would take 45 minutes or more to complete each homework. We began worrying if we pushed her in it too early because there is no way 45 minutes of homework is going to be good for a 5 year old. Thankfully, the owner of the franchise that S attended agreed with us. She said it should only take a child 5-7 minutes per homework, and no more than 10-12 minutes even if they take too long. So she reduced the number of pages that S was getting per homework. Once the load decreased, S also began taking more interest in doing her homework again. So, it has been this way ever since - we reduce the number of pages in her homework if she starts taking too long to finish and slowly increase it again once she finds a balance.
Another thing we always made sure of was to never push S into finishing a level fast. We let her take her own time and even let her repeat a level if she takes too long in that level's test (the objective is to complete one page in 1-3 minutes). After all, she is the one who will benefit if she masters the concepts at one level before advancing to the next one. Also, having to repeat a level has never been associated with failure in Kay household. It just indicates that some more time is needed to master the concepts. We do, however, try positive reinforcement to keep her motivated. So, every time S completes a level at KUMON, she gets to buy a board game or a book of upto $15 dollars in value. We are very rigid in enforcing the "board game or book" part. No soft toys, no video games or anything of that sort. She really looks forward to these opportunities. She only gets this gift if she has finished the level for good and doesn't have to repeat it. There are no penalties for repeating a level except that she has to wait longer to buy her gift.
Every year, when we mention that S is in the KUMON math program, her teachers ask us the same questions. How do we keep her interested (because it does tend to get repititive)? And since she is clearly ahead of grade level in math, how do we keep her interested in school work? For the first question, our answer is "Because we never gave her an option. KUMON homeworks are not optional, and she knows that. And, since she can herself see the progress she is making, she willingly does it now." As for the second question, we have noticed that the math that she learns at school is usually complementary to the math she does at KUMON. So, since KUMON math program doesn't really have many word-problems, the school curriculum helps her practice that part. KUMON math does not cover money math concepts while her school curriculum did. And, school curriculum also helps her revise the parts that she did long time ago at KUMON and has forgotten by now. For example, when she was doing multiplication in KUMON, her class teacher was still teaching subtraction. That helped because S was beginning to lose subtraction skills for lack of practice. And this year, she finishes her math classwork and then goes ahead and does extra with her teacher's permission. Which, in my opinion, shows a "will to learn" - a very important ingradient of success.
In my opinion, this is also teaching her a few other things. One - you have to do what you have to do. Meaning, even if you already know multiplication (or any other skill that is currently being taught in class), you have to do it as part of the school curriculum. You CANNOT get out of doing it just because you already know it. Two - never be smug about your math skills because though there are things you are very good at, there are some other skills that you need to work on, just like other kids. (Example - her struggles with money math last year) Three - practice makes perfect. This one she has experienced for herself and now realizes its importance (I hope!)
Almost everyone in our social circle, who has ever sent their kids to KUMON at one time or the other, has mentioned to us how their kids used to get "bored" with math at their school because they were ahead of the rest of their class. Most of them cited "boredom" as a reason for dropping out of the KUMON math program. I don't know why. As I mentioned earlier, it hasn't happened to S. And if it has, she hasn't mentioned to us - which is just as good because we would still have made her do it. "Bored" is a word I don't entertain. No way, no how! I know, I sound like a tyrant. Heck! I am a tyrant when it comes to studies. I know that is THE ONLY TICKET TO SUCCESS my daughters have. S does mention it when KUMON begins to become a burden of sorts. Then we let her take a break for a week or so. Every year, she gets a break form KUMON for one week each in summer and winter. And sometimes an extra week here or there if we feel (or if she says) it is becoming too much for her. That, I guess, prevents it from becoming a huge burden. By now, KUMON is a way of life for her. She remembers to do the homework every day without us having to remind her. I hope this will continue into her middle school and high school years. Because the skills that KUMON is teaching her reach far beyond just success in math. The discipline will definitely help her in other avenues in life. The skill to understand concepts on her own (of course she takes our help when she gest stuck) is going to prove important later in college. The perseverance she is learning in understanding tricky math concepts will pay off later in life.
Coming back to the article - I agree KUMON is not perfect. Nothing is. But we work hard at making it work for us. Like everything else in life. Nothing comes your way custom-made and ready to fit. You have to tuck here, nip there.
The author of the article suggests that parents should do every homework themselves along with the kids. I agree, but not completely. You don't need to do every single homework. You do need to know how to solve those problems and be able to explain to your kid(s) if the need arises. Having solved the problems yourself a few times does come in handy when you have to explain it to someone else.
We had signed S up for KUMON's reading program as well and she attended it for over 3 years. But then we learnt about SCORE's writing program. We liked the program and wanted to try it out. S loved it and even made some remarkable progress in her writing skills. but we had to take her off of the program. There were a few reasons. One - they weren't offering Writing as a stand-alone program. They wanted us to opt for the whole Math-Reading-Writing package. Since we were already very happy with the KUMON math and reading program, we decided not to join SCORE. Two - and this one was a biggie for me, I am not sure if other parents will feel the same way as I do - the SCORE program is COMPLETELY computer based. I mean, even the "writing" that S did was on a computer. Now, call me old-fashioned, but I believe a child should learn how to write well before graduating to typing. And, with all the typing, S was losing her handwriting skills fast. At KUMON, she is required to write everything - math answers as well as answers to the questions in her reading material. I like it that way. As I said - nothing is perfect. You have to work at making things fit you. We tried but we weren't able to compromise on these two issues regarding the SCORE program. I think we might give it another try a few years from now when S is done with KUMON (one can hope, right? :P)
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Desperately Seeking Advice
Hi ladies,
Sorry for not contributing more often, but I am currently going through a divorce and so have been on an emotional roller-coaster over the past few months.. I didn't want to touch on it in my food blog (because my husband is a fan of it), and I don't really want to dwell on it here either, because it's not the reason for my post today, but I thought it was worth mentioning since I'll definitely be posting more about it in the coming months.
Err, see, my son (I call him "Jojo" all the time) just turned 4 in August and until now, still refuses to eat anything but mash even though he has 18 beautiful little teeth!! Anyone has this problem, too? The strange thing about him is that he displays ZERO curiosity about food, and strangely, the only things he deigns to bite are M & Ms and gummy candies (I know I shouldn't be giving him too many of them, but there are days bribing as a last resort gets the better of me, haha)... if anyone has had the same experience as mine with their kids, I'd like to know how they managed to "convert" their kids to solids. :) I don't want to use heavy-handed tactics, but my kid is terribly stubborn and I suspect only reverse psychology will work on him! And he's only 4! Yikes! :)
Thanks in advance for your help!
Hugs!
Err, see, my son (I call him "Jojo" all the time) just turned 4 in August and until now, still refuses to eat anything but mash even though he has 18 beautiful little teeth!! Anyone has this problem, too? The strange thing about him is that he displays ZERO curiosity about food, and strangely, the only things he deigns to bite are M & Ms and gummy candies (I know I shouldn't be giving him too many of them, but there are days bribing as a last resort gets the better of me, haha)... if anyone has had the same experience as mine with their kids, I'd like to know how they managed to "convert" their kids to solids. :) I don't want to use heavy-handed tactics, but my kid is terribly stubborn and I suspect only reverse psychology will work on him! And he's only 4! Yikes! :)
Thanks in advance for your help!
Hugs!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
The race to nowhere
[Posted by Cee Kay. Also posted at my blog My Two Cents]
I just saw a Leap Pad Learning System's commercial on the idiot box that talked about learning skills for pre-school. I went "WTF???" in my mind. Pre-school teaches kids skills necessary for Kindergarten. When did things get so screwed up that babies need to learn skills to get into pre-school? Here, in the US, even pre-school is optional for kids. Parents don't have to send them there if they don't want to. Of course, there are certain skills a child must have before he or she enters kindergarten - like they should know how to read and write the alphabet, count to 20, know how to write their first and last name, know their address and phone number. THAT'S IT!!! It isn't too hard for a child to learn that. And that is exactly what S knew when she entered kindergarten. She is doing great in school despite the fact that she didn't know anything else. In fact, she is among the top five students in her class. And I am being very conservative when I say "top five". She could very well be on the top but we wouldn't know because no ranks are assigned to kids here. And we couldn't care less.
Every year, just before the November Parent-teacher conferences (that's when parents meet their kids' teachers to learn how their kids are performing in school and get the first progress report), and later before the March conferences, S becomes this pensive, stressed-out mass of nerves. She asks us 10 times each day "What will you do if you find out that I am failing? That I am not getting good grades?". And each year my answer is the same - "If you were to get bad grades, it would mean you need more help with your studies and we would help you. We would help you figure out how to improve performance". I don't care about grades at all. Not in elementary school. Later, when grades do matter, I will see to it that she is putting in her 100% in studies and even then if she scores low grades then I'll accept that - however hard that might be for me to do. All I want is for my child to put in her best efforts. I don't want to compare her to others and drive myself nuts trying to see who reads better than her or who swims faster or who is better at math. All I care about is whether or not she is making a sincere effort at whatever she does.
A friend recently mentioned to me that she is thinking of holding her son back from school one year because she thinks he isn't ready for it yet. That, in my opinion, is the smartest, and the toughest, decision to make. Only a parent can know their child's capabilities and if one honestly feels that starting a year later will help their child, I admire their courage. I say "courage" because this friend said she is expecting a lot of resistance from her entire family including her husband. We Indians, for some reason, place so much importance on starting school early. It is beyond MY comprehension. We don't seem to care how much the child understands of what has been taught, yet we are very worried about how early he or she can say the ABCs and recite the nursery rhymes or how far he/she can count.
At the beginning of this rant I was going to add the note that people shouldn't take offence to what I am going to write because I am not judging anyone. But then I realized - Heck yeah! I DO judge people who push their kids too soon too far to acquire skills that they might as easily learn in due course of time without being pressurized. How does it matter if a child can say the ABCs before going to pre-school? He/She is going to learn it there anyway, right? So, why not let the child sit back and enjoy life without any pressures of formal learning? They do a lot of learning while playing anyway. I am not against teaching them the alphabet, colors or the numbers during play. I am against sitting them down to teach these explicitly. I am against teaching them stuff just so they are "one up" against other kids in a gathering. I am dead against formally teaching anything to a child under the age of 3 years. I know this might not have gone well with the way things are done in India and for that reason I am happy that I live in a place where I can practise what I believe.
We started sending S to KUMON just before she started Kindergarten (a little before she turned 5). Even then we worried we might be pushing her too much so we decided to give it a try and stop if we saw any signs that she was being overworked. Fortunately, the owner of the KUMON franchise that S goes to, has the same philosophy regarding teaching kids. In her opinion, learning is only fun if the child doesn't feel overburdened. So, on occasions when we saw S taking a long time in finishing her KUMON homework (more than 15 minutes), she cut back the number of pages that were given to S for homework. She suggested we always make sure that she gets only as much homework as can be completed within 15 minutes. That really helped. S never felt overwhelmed. And we let her take a break from KUMON for one week 2-3 times a year. This ensures that S does her KUMON work willingly without us having to ride her constantly. Every year her teachers ask us if she feels pressured by the extra work. We don't think she does. For one thing, KUMON helps her stay ahead of the rest of her class at school. She was very proud of her math skills in Grade 2 when her classmates dubbed her the "Math Wizard". Small things like that keep her motivated to do the extra work. And we do see it paying off. Last year, by the end of Grade 3, S was already doing Grade 5 math (division and fractions). If all this can be accomplished without pressuring and pushing a child, then I think we are on the right path.
Once when we were at KUMON (S doing her classwork and I waiting outside in waiting room), an Indian lady came in with her 3 year old daughter. She wanted to sign her up for Reading. Professor P, owner of the KUMON franchise, tested that girl to determine the level she would start from and told the parent that she will be starting the child from the level that taught letter recognition. The parent immediately took offence to that and informed Professor P that her daughter already recognized all letters, thankyou. Upon being told that the girl got confused between lower-case p and q, and lower case b and d, the mom was furious. At her daughter! She started scolding her right then and there, demanding to know how she could confuse p with q and b with d when at home she always recognized the letters correctly. Now, I know children do get confused between these letters quite often and I don't think it is a crime punishable by public humiliation. The lady could very well have signed the kid up for the recommended level and if the child indeed was very comfortable with letter recognition, she would have sailed right through that level in no time anyway. That is MY thinking. We never pressured S into completing a level fast. In fact, on occasions we have requested that she be allowed to repeat a level so that her concepts become clearer (when we feel she is still a little hazy on the concepts). On other occasions, Professor P has recommened that we have her repeat a level and we have happily accepted because if S isn't a 100% comfortable with concepts taught at one level then she WILL face difficulties in future levels even if she scores good on the test. We do have a "positive reinforcement policy" under which S gets to buy a new board game or a book if she completes one level at KUMON. We NEVER associate having to repeat a level with failure. As a result, while friends tell me that their kids stopped KUMON after a little while because it became too boring or challenging or whatever, S is well into her 5th year at KUMON and wants to continue. Our original goal in sending her there was two-fold. One, she would gain self-esteem if she found she was better at something than the rest of her peers and two, it would help her in the (waaay) long term with SATs. We were bang on with the first one and seems like we might be correct about the second one too.
I actually pity a child when his/her parents start telling us how they taught their kid X, Y or Z at an early age. Or when they start comparing their kid with other kids "just to see where they are at". I am all for buying age-appropriate learning games for kids. But this commercial about teaching kids skills to get into pre-school got me. And the "Baby Einstein" DVDs get me for the same reason. DVDs and videos for 6 month old babies??? Come on! One friend of mine proudly told me (a few years ago) how her 6 month old was hooked on "Baby Einstein" videos. So much so that he whined and screamed if someone blocked his view while he was watching one. I guess she took it as a sign that he was a genius. I definitely took it as a sign that she needed to use more common sense in her parenting. (Hey Cee Kay! Bitchy much??! :P)
I think this race to get their kids to the top is all in the parents' heads. The kids will take their own time getting where they want to get, if they want it. And staying at the top once they get there is another matter. One can push their kid to the top, but they cannot keep their kid there if the kid him/herself is not motivated. And most kids eventually catch up to grade level learning. One might be able to push a kid to the top at an early age, but we also have to keep asking ourselves two questions.
1. Is it really going to make a difference in their lives 20 years from now? Will learning the alphabet at age 2 help them when they are 20 and in college?
2. Are they having fun (while learning things to "get to the top")? THAT, in my opinion, is the most important question of all. In my opinion, learning that is done while having fun stays with us longer than learning done under compulsion.
Every year, just before the November Parent-teacher conferences (that's when parents meet their kids' teachers to learn how their kids are performing in school and get the first progress report), and later before the March conferences, S becomes this pensive, stressed-out mass of nerves. She asks us 10 times each day "What will you do if you find out that I am failing? That I am not getting good grades?". And each year my answer is the same - "If you were to get bad grades, it would mean you need more help with your studies and we would help you. We would help you figure out how to improve performance". I don't care about grades at all. Not in elementary school. Later, when grades do matter, I will see to it that she is putting in her 100% in studies and even then if she scores low grades then I'll accept that - however hard that might be for me to do. All I want is for my child to put in her best efforts. I don't want to compare her to others and drive myself nuts trying to see who reads better than her or who swims faster or who is better at math. All I care about is whether or not she is making a sincere effort at whatever she does.
A friend recently mentioned to me that she is thinking of holding her son back from school one year because she thinks he isn't ready for it yet. That, in my opinion, is the smartest, and the toughest, decision to make. Only a parent can know their child's capabilities and if one honestly feels that starting a year later will help their child, I admire their courage. I say "courage" because this friend said she is expecting a lot of resistance from her entire family including her husband. We Indians, for some reason, place so much importance on starting school early. It is beyond MY comprehension. We don't seem to care how much the child understands of what has been taught, yet we are very worried about how early he or she can say the ABCs and recite the nursery rhymes or how far he/she can count.
At the beginning of this rant I was going to add the note that people shouldn't take offence to what I am going to write because I am not judging anyone. But then I realized - Heck yeah! I DO judge people who push their kids too soon too far to acquire skills that they might as easily learn in due course of time without being pressurized. How does it matter if a child can say the ABCs before going to pre-school? He/She is going to learn it there anyway, right? So, why not let the child sit back and enjoy life without any pressures of formal learning? They do a lot of learning while playing anyway. I am not against teaching them the alphabet, colors or the numbers during play. I am against sitting them down to teach these explicitly. I am against teaching them stuff just so they are "one up" against other kids in a gathering. I am dead against formally teaching anything to a child under the age of 3 years. I know this might not have gone well with the way things are done in India and for that reason I am happy that I live in a place where I can practise what I believe.
We started sending S to KUMON just before she started Kindergarten (a little before she turned 5). Even then we worried we might be pushing her too much so we decided to give it a try and stop if we saw any signs that she was being overworked. Fortunately, the owner of the KUMON franchise that S goes to, has the same philosophy regarding teaching kids. In her opinion, learning is only fun if the child doesn't feel overburdened. So, on occasions when we saw S taking a long time in finishing her KUMON homework (more than 15 minutes), she cut back the number of pages that were given to S for homework. She suggested we always make sure that she gets only as much homework as can be completed within 15 minutes. That really helped. S never felt overwhelmed. And we let her take a break from KUMON for one week 2-3 times a year. This ensures that S does her KUMON work willingly without us having to ride her constantly. Every year her teachers ask us if she feels pressured by the extra work. We don't think she does. For one thing, KUMON helps her stay ahead of the rest of her class at school. She was very proud of her math skills in Grade 2 when her classmates dubbed her the "Math Wizard". Small things like that keep her motivated to do the extra work. And we do see it paying off. Last year, by the end of Grade 3, S was already doing Grade 5 math (division and fractions). If all this can be accomplished without pressuring and pushing a child, then I think we are on the right path.
Once when we were at KUMON (S doing her classwork and I waiting outside in waiting room), an Indian lady came in with her 3 year old daughter. She wanted to sign her up for Reading. Professor P, owner of the KUMON franchise, tested that girl to determine the level she would start from and told the parent that she will be starting the child from the level that taught letter recognition. The parent immediately took offence to that and informed Professor P that her daughter already recognized all letters, thankyou. Upon being told that the girl got confused between lower-case p and q, and lower case b and d, the mom was furious. At her daughter! She started scolding her right then and there, demanding to know how she could confuse p with q and b with d when at home she always recognized the letters correctly. Now, I know children do get confused between these letters quite often and I don't think it is a crime punishable by public humiliation. The lady could very well have signed the kid up for the recommended level and if the child indeed was very comfortable with letter recognition, she would have sailed right through that level in no time anyway. That is MY thinking. We never pressured S into completing a level fast. In fact, on occasions we have requested that she be allowed to repeat a level so that her concepts become clearer (when we feel she is still a little hazy on the concepts). On other occasions, Professor P has recommened that we have her repeat a level and we have happily accepted because if S isn't a 100% comfortable with concepts taught at one level then she WILL face difficulties in future levels even if she scores good on the test. We do have a "positive reinforcement policy" under which S gets to buy a new board game or a book if she completes one level at KUMON. We NEVER associate having to repeat a level with failure. As a result, while friends tell me that their kids stopped KUMON after a little while because it became too boring or challenging or whatever, S is well into her 5th year at KUMON and wants to continue. Our original goal in sending her there was two-fold. One, she would gain self-esteem if she found she was better at something than the rest of her peers and two, it would help her in the (waaay) long term with SATs. We were bang on with the first one and seems like we might be correct about the second one too.
I actually pity a child when his/her parents start telling us how they taught their kid X, Y or Z at an early age. Or when they start comparing their kid with other kids "just to see where they are at". I am all for buying age-appropriate learning games for kids. But this commercial about teaching kids skills to get into pre-school got me. And the "Baby Einstein" DVDs get me for the same reason. DVDs and videos for 6 month old babies??? Come on! One friend of mine proudly told me (a few years ago) how her 6 month old was hooked on "Baby Einstein" videos. So much so that he whined and screamed if someone blocked his view while he was watching one. I guess she took it as a sign that he was a genius. I definitely took it as a sign that she needed to use more common sense in her parenting. (Hey Cee Kay! Bitchy much??! :P)
I think this race to get their kids to the top is all in the parents' heads. The kids will take their own time getting where they want to get, if they want it. And staying at the top once they get there is another matter. One can push their kid to the top, but they cannot keep their kid there if the kid him/herself is not motivated. And most kids eventually catch up to grade level learning. One might be able to push a kid to the top at an early age, but we also have to keep asking ourselves two questions.
1. Is it really going to make a difference in their lives 20 years from now? Will learning the alphabet at age 2 help them when they are 20 and in college?
2. Are they having fun (while learning things to "get to the top")? THAT, in my opinion, is the most important question of all. In my opinion, learning that is done while having fun stays with us longer than learning done under compulsion.
Note: A few comments on this post at my personal blog have prompted me to start another post about KUMON, its drawbacks and why it still works for us. I realized some parents might appreciate information on this topic from someone who has already had some KUMON experience. I hope to be able to put that post up soon.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Picking a Role Model
Asha’s Daughter Trisha is a budding doctor. At 16 she is all decided and confident about her future. She is a bright student and often wins accolades and recently had her picture in the local papers for being the youngest scholar in High School. She could well be the role model for our kids.
I had requested Asha to do a post on Trisha at DMC and I thought why not we come up with some questions we could ask Asha and Trisha to clear our doubts and to know what it takes to be a STAR.
Congratulations Trisha.
What I would like to know :
A peek into Trisha’s daily routine
Why she decided to be a doctor and how does she prepare her self ?
What is her study routine ?
It seems a good SAT score and GPA is not enough to get into a good school. What more is needed ?
A couple of months ago I heard on NPR that High School kids stress out a lot, what with SAT, voluntary work, AP classes etc. How does Trisha cope with it ? What does she do to relax ?
If possible a bit of explanation on what is AP, how do you take such Advanced classes etc. ?What are her hobbies ?
What is your question Moms ? Asha, I hope its ok for you and Trisha to come up with answers to our questions.
Most of the Moms in this group have small kids. But some of you have middle school-ers at home, right ? Rads…Saheli…anyone ? It would be great if you could do similar posts on your kids in middle/high school. It would help not only the members but also others visiting our Club
I had requested Asha to do a post on Trisha at DMC and I thought why not we come up with some questions we could ask Asha and Trisha to clear our doubts and to know what it takes to be a STAR.
Congratulations Trisha.
What I would like to know :
A peek into Trisha’s daily routine
Why she decided to be a doctor and how does she prepare her self ?
What is her study routine ?
It seems a good SAT score and GPA is not enough to get into a good school. What more is needed ?
A couple of months ago I heard on NPR that High School kids stress out a lot, what with SAT, voluntary work, AP classes etc. How does Trisha cope with it ? What does she do to relax ?
If possible a bit of explanation on what is AP, how do you take such Advanced classes etc. ?What are her hobbies ?
What is your question Moms ? Asha, I hope its ok for you and Trisha to come up with answers to our questions.
Most of the Moms in this group have small kids. But some of you have middle school-ers at home, right ? Rads…Saheli…anyone ? It would be great if you could do similar posts on your kids in middle/high school. It would help not only the members but also others visiting our Club
Friday, April 27, 2007
Educating a 2.5 yr old...
Hi all,
Its really interesting to read all the posts..this site is just wonderful.
Wanted to post something on "what to teach my 2.5 yr old" ? By this I mean, is it the right time to introduce alphabets? or numbers? or rhymes are enough for this age? etc etc.
By the way, all the tips from the "desimomz " are great..
Education system in Holland is pretty different. They aim to bring up the child in a very normal balanced pace. They also allow the child to be the judge of their actions from a very young age.
I will give you an example. Couple of weeks ago I went to register my son in a Dutch school. ( "A" will be going to school from sept 2008). While I was there, a senior teacher was showing me around the school and said that "this school is based on a system of education that allows students (4 yr olds) to "choose" whether he/she wants to do homework or not!"
Its a pity that I dont have a picture of my facial expression on hearing this!!!
;-)
For me this is absurd...SURELY my Indian upbringing makes me think like this. Times have changed..I agree, but still its very difficult to imagine a 4-yr old WANTING to do homework!
On the other hand, last time I visited India, found my friends daughter (5 yr old) carrying a school bag which weighed 2 kilos atleast, with books, note books, cursive writing workbooks etc etc..Here in Holland my 8 yr old niece goes to school still without books. Inspite of that, she reads/write fluent Dutch and quite good english.
I personally believe that no education system can be BAD..all have their good points and bad. The confusion arises when a person brought up in a certain system faces the other.
On one hand, "A" being treated like a kid, not being burdened with kilos of books makes me very happy. On the other hand, "A" not being able to cursive write at the age of 5 might disappoint me...
On a lighter note: Good that we cant see the future...because "A" with his DANGLA(dutch+ bangla) language is influencing me so much that I am afraid I might need to go back to school again.......
If only I could put the two education systems (dutch and indian) in a jar, shake it and use the final product .....
cheers,
DR
Its really interesting to read all the posts..this site is just wonderful.
Wanted to post something on "what to teach my 2.5 yr old" ? By this I mean, is it the right time to introduce alphabets? or numbers? or rhymes are enough for this age? etc etc.
By the way, all the tips from the "desimomz " are great..
Education system in Holland is pretty different. They aim to bring up the child in a very normal balanced pace. They also allow the child to be the judge of their actions from a very young age.
I will give you an example. Couple of weeks ago I went to register my son in a Dutch school. ( "A" will be going to school from sept 2008). While I was there, a senior teacher was showing me around the school and said that "this school is based on a system of education that allows students (4 yr olds) to "choose" whether he/she wants to do homework or not!"
Its a pity that I dont have a picture of my facial expression on hearing this!!!
;-)
For me this is absurd...SURELY my Indian upbringing makes me think like this. Times have changed..I agree, but still its very difficult to imagine a 4-yr old WANTING to do homework!
On the other hand, last time I visited India, found my friends daughter (5 yr old) carrying a school bag which weighed 2 kilos atleast, with books, note books, cursive writing workbooks etc etc..Here in Holland my 8 yr old niece goes to school still without books. Inspite of that, she reads/write fluent Dutch and quite good english.
I personally believe that no education system can be BAD..all have their good points and bad. The confusion arises when a person brought up in a certain system faces the other.
On one hand, "A" being treated like a kid, not being burdened with kilos of books makes me very happy. On the other hand, "A" not being able to cursive write at the age of 5 might disappoint me...
On a lighter note: Good that we cant see the future...because "A" with his DANGLA(dutch+ bangla) language is influencing me so much that I am afraid I might need to go back to school again.......
If only I could put the two education systems (dutch and indian) in a jar, shake it and use the final product .....
cheers,
DR
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Learning Activities
(posted by ramya of www.ramyascuisine.wordpress.com)
I want to know how u plan Ur 2yr old daily activities and learning.Any suggestions that u can give me.As for me i make her do the ABC's in starfall.com in which they spell and teach.First i used to do her this but within 2 days she learned it.She is doing this from past 2-3 months.Now i just sit beside her and she does everything except some which r difficult for her.I observed she is thinking and using common sense and brain.I don't want to believe this but i am observing this.Ya.......she really figured out what to do and how to do.Yuppy............i gave her a kiss.I was awestruck by this performance.But i make sure she is not over obssesive regarding this daily i allow her to do for 1/2 hr.I don't like watching tv's also alot,but sometimes they don't listen.I make her draw something she is intrested or hear the Rhymes,dance or whatever she want.She loves playing in our balcony,if its sunny i allow her to go out.Before sleeping i read her a story.I have 2-3 books i repeat them,now-a-days i stopped but i like reading to her.once we move i will again start the routine.She even brings a book of her choice to me.Even in the morning she likes to hear about pooh and pigglet.I appreciate any suggestions so i can improve.Hear i miss my parents if they r around they used to tell lot of stories.My dad had a daily routine with her when we were in india.She used to llaugh laugh and sleep.Even i do the same but anyhow i too miss them.
I want to know how u plan Ur 2yr old daily activities and learning.Any suggestions that u can give me.As for me i make her do the ABC's in starfall.com in which they spell and teach.First i used to do her this but within 2 days she learned it.She is doing this from past 2-3 months.Now i just sit beside her and she does everything except some which r difficult for her.I observed she is thinking and using common sense and brain.I don't want to believe this but i am observing this.Ya.......she really figured out what to do and how to do.Yuppy............i gave her a kiss.I was awestruck by this performance.But i make sure she is not over obssesive regarding this daily i allow her to do for 1/2 hr.I don't like watching tv's also alot,but sometimes they don't listen.I make her draw something she is intrested or hear the Rhymes,dance or whatever she want.She loves playing in our balcony,if its sunny i allow her to go out.Before sleeping i read her a story.I have 2-3 books i repeat them,now-a-days i stopped but i like reading to her.once we move i will again start the routine.She even brings a book of her choice to me.Even in the morning she likes to hear about pooh and pigglet.I appreciate any suggestions so i can improve.Hear i miss my parents if they r around they used to tell lot of stories.My dad had a daily routine with her when we were in india.She used to llaugh laugh and sleep.Even i do the same but anyhow i too miss them.
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