Bringing home three bags of incredible educational toys the month before Christmas and weeks before Clover's birthday was like living a dream, especially when it didn't cost me a dime. I felt like I was looting. I was blown away by the generosity of LeapFrog; it was like being with my grandmother in her final years when all it took was a lingering glance at a vase or something else in her house for her to immediately say, "Do you want that? Take it! You should take it. I'll get you a bag." Before I'd know it, I'd be leaving my nonnie's house with a bagged up trinket that I didn't even know I wanted. I left the LeapFrog party with three bags of things that not only did I want, but they will make everyone in my house light up. Kevin reacted like the toys were for him, practically jumping up and down, even though he was a little disappointed that I did not come home with a Crammer.
We've always discouraged electronic toys, preferring imagination driven toys over battery powered ones, however, LeapFrog toys have always been an exception. All of their toys - Baby Tad, fridge phonics, the letters drum, multiple Leappads, a phonics radio, the shopping cart (which has kept their interest so much longer than I would have guessed), the letters caterpillar...the list goes on and on - have been well used in our house and I believe they helped Clover read at an early age. We wanted to buy their handheld testing prep device (I forgot the name) early this year for Clover, only to find them discontinued. The Crammer is a much improved version and after waiting months for its release, Kevin was hoping to get one last night, for Clover...I think.
Last night I brought home what I call the Clover birthday package: a Leapster2 and a Star Wars math game and iSpy game; The Rocket Christmas package: a Tag and a book; and for Clover's Christmas: a Didj (which I mistakenly continue to call "didjie"). My cheeks are blushing as I type this, but they also gave me a Farm Animals sounds fridge magnet and a Wordplay Recorder...and (now I am really blushing with embarrassment) an English/Spanish phonics radio that I took for my cleaning lady's toddler, who is surrounded by Spanish, but her mom wants her to learn flawless English.
Dr. Anne Cunningham, a professor of education at UC Berkeley who works with LeapFrog, gave a talk during the event that of course got everyone fired up because every mom has an opinion on education. Dr. Cunningham said that bathing kids in language has a huge impact on their language development - and this doesn't only mean reading to your kids, but talking to them a lot. I remember when Clover and I were out grocery shopping when she was a baby and this man gave me a look like I was completely bizarre for talking to myself. I was talking to Clover and while I knew she didn't understand what I was saying, I was still trying to communicate with her. If only I had the study Dr. Cunningham cited back then to throw in this guy's face.
She also suggested reading to children material that is a level or two above them as a means of challenging them and exposing them to richer language. She said that it is fine when a child, like Clover, prefers reading to themselves at night over having a story read to them, but as the parent, just check in with them by having them read aloud a little bit to make sure their reading skills are progressing. Clover's kindergarten teacher dug into us a little during our last parent-teacher conference because we didn't always read to Clover at night since she'd prefer to read to herself. She still heard reading aloud, either while we read to Rocket or from some stories I'd downloaded or from CDs, all of which Dr. Cunningham said counted as language exposure.
We were lucky with Clover's reading - she practically taught herself, with help from us and from LeapFrog toys (which I would credit even without the loot) - she went into preschool as a two year old knowing all the letters, their sounds and she was beginning to blend. She went into kindergarten fully reading at age four, something we decided not to tell her teacher, figuring she'd find out soon enough on her own - and she did - mainly because we did not want to be one of those parents announcing their child is a genius. That type of parent is abundant in this area and more often than not, they come off as obnoxious. We don't think Clover is a genius, she was merely able to teach herself to read early. What made me feel great was that Dr. Cunningham said that those children who are able to decode quickly are likely to follow a higher trajectory and have been shown to score higher in upper grades. As she said avid "readers trump smart people."
I grew up in a family that didn't much value education, but reading helped free me from that. That, however, is a novel all its own.
Big, big thanks to LeapFrog for the event and the fabulous gifts.
As a teacher, I agree with everything Dr. Cunningham said. When you teach, you KNOW the kids who have been immersed in language of all sorts. You also KNOW the ones who haven't. She's 100% correct that avid/good readers continue on a higher trajectory in the older grades. I see it every day! Those are the kids you see in Foreign Language and high level math in early middle school. Those are the kids who can put together a well thought-out critique to something. You can't go wrong having your child being as fully immersed in language as possible ever.
P.S. I also did the "talk to your baby in the grocery store" thing and got LOTS of funny looks. Not that I care...Maddy's reading beautifully now and my boys are almost there. So take THAT stupid grocery store people! ;)
Posted by: Francesca | November 04, 2008 at 03:32 AM