Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.PCS 1/10/84; site mtuxo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!houxm!mtuxo!smuga From: smuga@mtuxo.UUCP (j.smuga) Newsgroups: net.kids Subject: Re: Better Baby Institute Message-ID: <671@mtuxo.UUCP> Date: Mon, 6-May-85 12:08:42 EDT Article-I.D.: mtuxo.671 Posted: Mon May 6 12:08:42 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 8-May-85 00:17:36 EDT References: <49983@apple.UUCP> <1135@cbosgd.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ Lines: 44 > I am very skeptical of the claim that "he already > knows what addition is, you are just showing him the notation". We are > just now getting into addition on the second pass (see above for the > results of the first one 12 months ago) and the jury is still out. So > far my impression has been that the child has no concept of addition, > although he certainly knows the sequence of numbers. > > Doman's reading program has an undocumented weakness, too. While the > child learns to recognize words by their overall pattern, this pattern > is recognized (and stored away) as a picture, not as a sequence of letters. > This may be good for the program, but you quickly discover that the > child is only able to read the word "mommy" if it is a particular size, > color, font, and capitalization. If you change from the Helvetica font > to the Times Roman typical of children's books, he can't read it. We > used hand drawn words, done exactly according to the directions, and > then ordered the kit through the mail. When the kit arrived, we lost > about 3 days while we changed from the hand drawn font to Helvetica. > Right now, we're reading sentences, and he has trouble with the first > word in a sentence because of the initial capital letter. He seems to > be getting more comfortable with different point sizes as he sees more > examples, but at some point he's going to have to insert a layer of > letter recognition underneath what he's learning now or he'll never be > able to read the wide variety of fonts that are out there. > > Mark *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** Relax. As children grow up, they seem to develop the ability to read and do arithmetic. I base this statement on my observations of my children (now 6 and 8 years old) and their friends. About the time my older child approached school age, she and several of her friends began to do addition. For several weeks addition fascinated her; it popped up in every conversation (e.g. me- "Today we're going to the library." her- "Mom, six and three make nine.") All of this seemed to happen spontaneously; that is, none of the parents had been coaching the children, so far as I know. Likewise with reading. Evelyn began to recognize words at an early age and built up a large vocabulary of words she knew on sight; but it was not until she reached school age that she began to sound words out. At three she knew that c-a-t spelled "cat", but not until she was five or six could she go from that to working out what m-a-t might spell. What I'm trying to say is that there is a readiness factor at work in children's education. And generations of children have learned to read and do arithmetic without the Better Baby Institute.