Wednesday, March 01, 2006
The Boy Brain
Yaaaaay!!!!!!! I'm psyched that I'm learning how to inspire my 6 year old son to want to read. It's not easy. But I have to say...."A little challenge goes a LOOOONGGG WAY." Moms should work over-time when it comes to figuring out another way to engage boys in learning. Here's what I did today...
I wanted to increase the vocab. piece so I put a chart together and a dictionary for my son. Please know that my son HATES the idea of looking up words...unless there's a catch. So....what do I do? I provide the catch. He had to look up 3 words in the dictionary and initially he whined about it. Now that there's a connection between researching snake terms with a story about "scaring his reading teacher" one could only imagine his exhuberance about finding all of the SSSSS words. This essay took him way over the time I alloted for him. I think I'm getting somewhere. One day at a time....I know.
On another note...If you don't already know, Malcolm Gladwell has entered the blogosphere. Bravo! FINALLY! All good writers need the KOOL-AID! Gladwell is taking his readers' suggestions. I...being one of them, wrote to him stressing that he needs to BLOG. His response was, something to the effect that "I don't have much to blog about." Duh....well, at least he wrote back.
Nevertheless, I thought about Gladwell today while I was "winning" with my son over, and read Gladwell's...Mea Culpa because I've been transfixed with THE BOY BRAIN tonight. As the mom of a boy, Gladwell's leap of faith was ALL ABOUT THE CHALLENGE. It's proof to myself that, boys NEED a hands-on educational challenge. Who will put them up to it? is the question. Here's a portion of Gladwell's reasoning for his blog..."In the past year I have often been asked why I don’t have a blog. My answer was always that I write so much, already, that I don’t have time to write anything else. But, as should be obvious, I’ve now changed my mind. I have come (belatedly) to the conclusion that a blog can be a very valuable supplement to my books and the writing I do for the New Yorker."
A challenge sometimes sparks action.
I wanted to increase the vocab. piece so I put a chart together and a dictionary for my son. Please know that my son HATES the idea of looking up words...unless there's a catch. So....what do I do? I provide the catch. He had to look up 3 words in the dictionary and initially he whined about it. Now that there's a connection between researching snake terms with a story about "scaring his reading teacher" one could only imagine his exhuberance about finding all of the SSSSS words. This essay took him way over the time I alloted for him. I think I'm getting somewhere. One day at a time....I know.
On another note...If you don't already know, Malcolm Gladwell has entered the blogosphere. Bravo! FINALLY! All good writers need the KOOL-AID! Gladwell is taking his readers' suggestions. I...being one of them, wrote to him stressing that he needs to BLOG. His response was, something to the effect that "I don't have much to blog about." Duh....well, at least he wrote back.
Nevertheless, I thought about Gladwell today while I was "winning" with my son over, and read Gladwell's...Mea Culpa because I've been transfixed with THE BOY BRAIN tonight. As the mom of a boy, Gladwell's leap of faith was ALL ABOUT THE CHALLENGE. It's proof to myself that, boys NEED a hands-on educational challenge. Who will put them up to it? is the question. Here's a portion of Gladwell's reasoning for his blog..."In the past year I have often been asked why I don’t have a blog. My answer was always that I write so much, already, that I don’t have time to write anything else. But, as should be obvious, I’ve now changed my mind. I have come (belatedly) to the conclusion that a blog can be a very valuable supplement to my books and the writing I do for the New Yorker."
A challenge sometimes sparks action.
# posted by Mrs.Bowllan @ 5:22 PM 
