2 Great Books to Read

Hi there!

For my third post, I want to talk about something that inspires me: Books. Being a teacher and a book lover, you will probably see lots of post on books that I liked and on articles on education.

Today, I would like to recommend that EVERY parent, teacher, and any one interested in the education of young children, read the following two books.



1- Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever by Mem Fox

Reading aloud stories and books to your children, students is an amazing thing to do and sooooo very important. It is our job as adults to teach children the joy of reading. It is the best gift we can give the younger generation. I don't want to spoil the book for you, so I will just eagerly say again: Read this book.



(Mem Fox is an amazing children's story book writer from Australia)

2- Einstein Never Used Flash Cards: How our Children REALLY learn- and why they need to play more and memorize less by Kathy Hirsh- Pasek and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff



This one is more for parents. One important message is "Be your child's parents, not your child's teacher" This is important because there a lot of parents now that feel that they have to teach their kids everything about reading and writing and math BEFORE the kids even go to kindergarten!! And this is in part due to all the new products out there like Baby Einstein, Baby Mozart, and similar products.


Children learn better througth MULTI-SENSORY experiences, not by watching a television screen telling them "This is a red circle", "This is a lion", "This is the number 2"


When you are actively engaged playing and talking with your child, they learn a lot more than they ever will by watching a DVD or looking at flash cards.

This book was inspired on another book called "The hurried Child" written in 1980 by David Elkind. (There is a revised version in 2008). Mr. Elkind, back in 1980, had the foresight to see how important childhood is and even more important: play time. He talks about how play time has constantly been taken away in schools and replaced with academics. Did you know that some schools in the United States have ABOLISHED RECESS??? Isn't that crazy???

(I haven't read this book yet, but this is what I know about the book)

On July 27, CBC Radio had an interview with the authors of "Einstein never used flash cards". It is very interesting. I will post the link below. Each episode is about 1 hour long, but well worth the time.

http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/features/hurried-infant/

I hope you enjoy it.

As you can see, I am very passionate about these books. Let me know what you think about it after you read them.

Cheerios,


Paula