George Tiller Is Dead

Shot this morning.

Homeschooling Still on the Rise

In USA Today:

As of spring 2007, an estimated 1.5 million, or 2.9% of all school-age children in the USA, were home-schooled, up from 1.7% in 1999.

And this is interesting:

6.8% of college-educated parents home-school, up from 4.9% in 1999.

And this:

The new figures come from the U.S. Department of Education, which found that 36% of parents said their most important reason for home schooling was to provide "religious or moral instruction"; 21% cited concerns about school environment. Only 17% cited "dissatisfaction with academic instruction."

You can lump me in with that 17%, though I sympathize with the majority reason as well.

Via Gifted Exchange.

Bringing Out the Best in Any Toddler

Note: I have an old blog elsewhere that I'm planning to delete. It only has a few posts, but some of them are worth saving by posting here. This is a post from that old blog.

I found Paula Spencer's "Is Your Child Gifted?" while reading Help! My Kids Are Smarter Than Me! Contrary to what the title might suggest, it is not an article about how to identify a gifted child. In fact, it assures parents that their children probably aren't gifted:

"Gifted" has become one of the most tossed-about words in the parenting lexicon. Unfortunately -- sorry, but let's get this out of the way right up front -- it's also one of the most misused. The vast majority of children are not gifted. Only 2 to 5 percent of kids fit the bill, by various estimates. Of those, only one in 100 is considered highly gifted. Prodigies (those wunderkinds who read at 2 and go to college at 10) are rarer still -- like one to two in a million.

The real premise of the article is this:

Whether young children are truly advanced or happily average (where they have lots of company), in the early years they need pretty much the same things.

Of course, as always the devil is in the details, and the pertinent detail in this case is the phrase "pretty much." (I created this blog due to the needs and challenges that arise outside the realm of "pretty much.") However, the domain of "pretty much," those areas where advanced and average kids need the same things, is very large indeed, and for that, the article provides great reminders.

...all babies, toddlers, and preschoolers will thrive as long as they are:

• Provided a predictable life with a reasonably ordered environment
• Held and touched often
• Talked to (or sung to) often
• Read to frequently
• Exposed to interesting experiences
• Given many opportunities to learn through play.

Sure, those are things we all know, but it can be helpful to have certain things repeated in print. Ordered environment, huh? Hmmmm, maybe I'd better tidy up the living room.

There are also some good ideas:

Make Question Books. Scatter three or four notebooks around the house. If your child asks a question you either don't know the answer to or are too busy to answer, say, "Let's write it down." Later, you can explore the question together -- find a book, go online, visit the library or a museum.

Read the rest of it. You might also want to check out the original blog post where I found the article for a pointer to Dr. Sears endorsement of gifted preschool homeschooling.

On the Subject of Subjects

Subject of email advertisement received this morning:

How to Get the Smoothest Legs in the World

First, be the only person to read this email...

Best Books for Babies -- Children Under One

I have strong opinions about children's books, even babies' and toddlers' books. Sure, you read everywhere that it doesn't matter what you read to a baby or toddler as long as you read. That's true to a point. But if you're already planning to buy books, why not buy good books? Why settle for often insipid impulse buys when you could select books that go toward the development of literary and aesthetic taste? And when not focusing on those qualities, why not provide information about the real world? A person could argue that all books provide real world information to some extent, but I would counter that some do it far more effectively than others.

Note that for this age, I always buy the board book format if it is available. A baby can turn the pages of a board book, and picking the sturdier format allows the books to be played with. You'll end up with chewed corners, but that's no big deal and a small price to pay for having books become your child's favorite playthings. Many of these books are available under Amazon's 4-for-3 promotions, so it's a good idea to buy strategically in groups of four for the best discount.

With all of that said, these are my favorites for the zero to twelve months crowd, organized by author or type:

Byron Barton: Barton's books are particularly good for this age group because the illustrations are bold and precise, perfect for the youngest eyes, and the writing is terse and clear, making it easier to decode the language. There are lots of brightly-colored books out there with simple pictures and text, but Barton's books are, in my opinion, the most refined of this type. Of Barton's books, these are my favorites:

My Car: If you buy one Barton book, let it be this one.
Machines at Work: If you buy two, let the other one be this one.

All of his vehicle books are excellent.
Trucks
Planes
Trains
Boats

Barton's renditions of these classic tales are the best available for this age group.
The Little Red Hen
The Three Bears

Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs: Your child will like dinosaurs. It is some sort of child law. This book is excellent because it introduces dinosaurs using activities and feelings familiar to the youngest child.

Margaret Wise Brown: Brown is something like the uncontested queen of prose for the youngest child. Her writing for this audience has no parallel. If you are only getting a few books for your baby, go with some of hers and some of Barton's.

Big Red Barn: If I could have only one board book in the house, this would be it. The text is perfect, and the illustrations are friendly and engaging. Plus, this book introduces a great number of animals in a story, rather than picture and label, format.
Goodnight Moon: Almost goes without saying. This classic is a must for any home library.
My World: Some of the reviewers on Amazon knock this book, but it looks like most of them are either not clicking into the intended rhythm of the language or introducing it to older children. This was one of my son's favorite books, and he had plenty to choose from.

She has other good titles, but they'll show up in a future list for best books for one to two year olds.

Touch and Feel Books: Babies like to touch, and these books focus on tactile stimulation.

Pat the Bunny: This one is a classic for good reason. It's engaging, and there is a pretty wide variety of direct, tactile experience offered in this one little book. Much better than its spin offs: Pat the Puppy and Pat the Cat , which rely more on pop-up book type interactions like pulltabs and turn wheels.
Roger Priddy Cloth Books: Simple text and lots of different material.  You don't have to worry about these being damaged; they're made for babies to throw around and chew.
Peter Rabbit Touch and Feel: My son has always had a special affinity for this book.  The textures are more subtle, and the illustrations are more detailed, making this book different from your usual touch and feel book.  It can be a welcome change from the others.

Photographs: Sometimes you need photos.  I have lots of recommendations for ages one to two in this category, but I have two favorites for the under one crowd.

Baby Faces:  There's a reason this book has five stars on Amazon.  Large pictures of babies' faces, each depicting a different emotion or other description.  Children under one are generally fascinated by this.
Daddy and Me:  Out of print but available used very cheap.  Pictures of dads having fun with their kids with one word descriptors.  

Visual Stimulation: A baby's vision is blurry, but he can distinguish subtler contrasts than you might think.  Still, most babies enjoy looking at high contrast images.  For that, black and white board books are available.

What are your favorite books for the under one crowd?

Bloglift

Time to update the blog template.  Will be upgrading to new layout system.  Will be updating blogroll.  If you come here, and things look weird, that's why.  I'll post again when I'm done.  No, that won't be today.  And probably not tomorrow.

ADDED 5/29/09: Well, I was wrong.  I'm pretty much done now.  The sidebar will evolve, but this will be the basic layout and color scheme.  My favorite color is red.  Can you tell?

So, why the update?  I did like the Scribe design, but I was using the old Blogger template system and wanted to upgrade to the new layout system.  The Scribe design under the layout system looks the same but has a quirk I don't like.  Instead of allowing content to override layout, the layout overrides the content.

What does that mean?  A few posts below, there is a widescreen video about government spending.  In my old layout, the video extended outside the post text column.  It looked a little goofy, but I was fine with that.  It was more important that readers could see the whole video frame rather than keep the layout looking perfectly neat.  The new Scribe layout cut off the video frame where it crossed the right side of the post text column.  That was a big chunk.  And the width of that column was fixed.  I probably could have edited the graphics for that layout and changed the coding to make a wider Scribe, but I didn't want to devote that much time to it.  

So, red it is.