Here's what brought on one of those comments. Someone was badgering me about Gianna's development, is she learning English, speaking well? I brought up the fact that she is starting to read and write letters. She can read her name and a few short words like cow and cat. We were playing the dot game where you make boxes and then place your initial in a completed box to score a point. I had the pink marker, she had the pencil (so everything written in pencil is Gianna's work). She told me "today, I do it!" meaning that she was going to write her "g's". I thought OK, whatever, but look, she actually wrote some pretty good g's! And then went on to fill in a few m's once she was tired of playing the game and following the rules. Click on the photo if you can't see the detail. One of her teachers said it's too early for this, I shouldn't encourage her. But how can you stop a child that wants to read and write? I don't care how old she is, if she wants to do this on her own free will, then more power to her.
EDIT: I see one or two g's on the lower left hand grid that look too good to be true. Now I remember we drew them together. Still, I think her handwriting surpasses Dan's chicken scratches.
I agree with you, kids should do what they can when they feel confinent enough to do it. I'm not going to hold back Morgan if she's doing something that someone says should be to hard for her. I also don't like the generalizations of peoples ethnic background! But you have to admit we did get a couple of smart kids but I think it's just that- they are smart. Not because they are Asian! Good job Gianna with your letters! Morgan likes writing the letter H. Not sure why.
ReplyDeleteI am half-Japanese. I know this stereotype. "Why don't you know how to do this...I thought YOU were supposed to be good in math."
ReplyDeleteThen because I was top of my class (in a not-so-educationally-stellar school so that didn't mean much), every test, homework assignment that was returned..."Priscilla, what did you get?" "Oh, if you only got an 85, then my grade is okay."
Uhm, I am not your standard to measure yourself by. I am not a model Asian. I am not great in math; I'm good, not great ;-) It is bad when your Trig teacher suprises you with a pop spelling test and you fail. Then slowly and proudly walks the paper to you so everyone can see your grade.
You shouldn't push a child, I didn't push Nathan with reading, he started reading before kindergarten, and now in 5th grade he reads at a 8th grade level. The best thing is to just praise whatever they do, and they will take it from there.
ReplyDeleteI have recently heard a couple of radio programs on child development. They discussed that some European countries don't teach the alphabet or beginning reading till around 7 (IIRC), to make sure the brain has developed enough for written language. I wonder if this is influencing those comments. If she enjoys it and you are not pushing than I say let her do it.
ReplyDeleteTeresa, you are right! They do not begin teaching even the alphabet until age 6, which is when they start kindergarten. Public schools for children under 6 are not allowed to teach anything like numbers, alphabet, reading. They focus on motor skills, social skills, etc. Gianna goes to a private school run by the US consulate, but they are still quite influenced by the German system and teaching philosophies. Another thing Gianna is not supposed to be learning is capital letters. The idea is that most of the written alphabet is lower case, so they should learn that first and not be confused with a whole other set of capital letters. Too late! She's a big fan of capital G.
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