Books are my passion. I read about new books coming out, author interviews, publishing news, etc. And lately things about the publishing industry are focused on what's next - how can publishers keep making money to pay their staff, keep publishing good material, and stay in business? There are a lot of questions floating around about the future of picture books (which I love) and the impact e-books (so far, the jury is out on these for me) will make on the industry as a whole.
Here's one thing I have noticed recently - my local bookstores (from two of the major chains) seem to be looking for ways to make their brick-and-mortar stores serve more purposes than just books. Both have cafes (only one seems to serve non-coffee items for younger patrons), and both sell DVDs and music. Both have also been pushing their toy offerings - games, Lego sets, stuffed animals.
There was something new at one shop recently though - the craft section.
Craft and activity books have always been a part of the shop offerings, but this display was pretty extensive - there were several more sections. There were fashion design sets, scrapbook kits, and how-to kits for crafts like quilling and knitting.
Some may find this annoying - watering down the book selections available to kids because so much shelf space is devoted to these other things - but I like it. Granted, I am a crafty person, but I like the idea of letting kids explore their creative sides. My only criticism is that so much of it is girl-y. Some crafts that would appeal to boys would be great, too.
Have you noticed anything new at your usual book-spots?
Observation #3 - Children Crave Value
Children want to be valued - they want someone to believe in them.
I had a student in Writing Club who had finished the story she was working on about a month or so before the end of the year. Then she decided to test out some poetry. Around this same time, her aunt passed away.
One day she came to my desk to show me her poem. It was beautiful. I told her I thought she should showcase it in our final presentation for club. My suggestion seemed to catch her off guard. I think she was just looking for something to write to fill time in club, but this was a piece that needed to be seen. She told me later that her grandmother had been at the final program and was touched by her poem.
Children want to be valued for who they are, for the gifts they have, for the things they have to share.
Observation #2 - Children crave connection.
Children want to be connected to people - to their peers, to their families, and to others. This goes with "being known," but it doesn't have the same depth.
For example, the other day, one of my Writing Club students escorted my son to the car at dismissal. She was working as one of the safety patrol students that day. I noticed that she brought my son to the car, and then kept looking over her shoulder as she started to walk away. Once the back door of the car was open and I could make eye contact with her, I smiled and waved. She got a big grin on her face and then hurried back to her task.
I didn't have time to call her by name or reference something that showed I knew her on a deeper level. I just renewed our connection with some eye contact, a smile and a wave and that was enough.
I saw another student at a local shop. I left my family to go over and say hello and she jumped up from her chair to give me a hug.
I didn't do anything extraordinary in either of these situations. I just made the smallest bit of effort and said hi. But it mattered to them - they were looking for it and they responded to it.
Children crave connection
After another year spent in the classroom (this year as a sub and as a volunteer leading a weekly Creative Writing Club), I have observed a few trends with my students - things I think kids are looking for.
Why should you care? Maybe you are like me - maybe you like kids. Maybe you have stories and experiences that match up with mine and confirm my observations.
Some people don't like kids - they like their own kids, but not other people's. Maybe you want to like kids but you are afraid of them, or just don't "get" them. Maybe the observations of others will encourage you to connect with a kid some time.
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Observation #1 - Kids crave being known by someone.
Have you ever called a kid by the wrong name - especially the name of a sibling? Whew - they don't like it. They want to be known for themselves. They want to know you are paying attention and you remember who they are.
At the end of Writing Club this year, I made the students journals. Each one was a standard composition book. Then I printed up a name card for each student (with alphabets from Lettering Delights) using a font that I thought fit that student. When I had students say, "How did you know I liked...?" I knew I had found something important in my relationship with students. I needed to know them as individuals. I needed to know them by name, know something about what they did with their free time, what they were interested in.
Kids want to be known.
We have been looking at research about kids from the book Nurture Shock. This will be my last entry from the book, and today I want to talk about relationships between kids.
*The more educational media the children in one study watched, the more relationally aggressive they were. Preschoolers don't always "get" the message of the shows, so they just pick up the behaviors displayed. Often these shows spend more time setting up the problem than they do on the solution, so the behaviors seen are the problematic ones.
*In one study, 96% of children's programming included verbal insults and put-downs - on the average of 7.7 insults per 30-minute program.
*The behaviors modeled on these shows then come out when children relate to one another at home or at school.
I don't know about you, but I though the more educational shows were "safe," but apparently not. What do you think?
I'm still looking at some of the research cited in Nurture Shock - a great book about research on best practices with kids, whether they are in your house or your classroom. Today I want to look at some of the research about lying - the experiments included in this chapter were really interesting.
*When kids are old enough to really understand the difference between a lie and the truth, they are also old enough to be more skilled at lying. And if it works, they stick with it.
*The story of George Washington and his father's response to George's admission of cutting down the cherry tree is more effective as a deterrent for lying than The Boy Who Cried Wolf - whether George is part of the story or not (if it is told with a non-famous person). Children know lying will get them punished. The idea that they might not get punished, and that the parent will be happier with the truth makes a difference in their behavior.
*Kids lie because they want to make the adult happy. They think the lie is telling the parent what he/she wants to hear and that would be a good thing. What matters most to kids is getting back to good-standing with the parent/authority figure.
Do your kids lie? Mine does. And I know I did when I was his age. I always got the boy-who-cried-wolf treatment when I got caught. Do you think George would work better for your kids?
Riley Armstrong "Sleep" - video here.
When I think about sleep, I think about that song. "Sleep - I never get enough. Always waking up tired..." Sleep is one of the topics covered in the book Nurture Shock. Here are some of the things mentioned in the chapter on sleep.
*Kids today get an hour less sleep than kids did 30 years ago.
*Teens do better at school with later start times, and they feel better emotionally. Some of what we consider typical adolescent angst and behavior could actually be more about sleep deprivation! {I really appreciated the statement in the book that the reasons school systems start high schools when they do has less to do with optimal educational environments for students and usually more to do with bus schedules and other external factors}
*When kids sleep, their brains are doing hard work for development and shifting learned information from the day into more efficient storage regions.
* In one study, kids who got one hour less sleep consistently over a few days showed a gap in IQ larger than that between the average 4th grader and the average 6th grader.
*Obesity odds increase with a decrease in amount of sleep.
[Check out the book Nurture Shock to get more details on each of these statements]
What do you think? How much sleep do your kids get? Is it enough? Would you advocate for later start times for high schoolers?
This week on my book review blog, I am reviewing a new book called Nurture Shock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. You can see their website here.
This book looks at research about children and what it says about "best practice" for our kids. And some of it might surprise you! So, for the next few posts I thought I would highlight a few pieces of information from the book and ask you what you think. Today, we will talk about praise.
*Parents can over-praise, leaving kids either feeling like that can never measure up to parental expectations or feeling like the praise is empty and fake. Praise should be genuine and specific.
*Telling kids, "You're smart" can actually leave kids feeling fearful of trying something new or difficult. They think, "If I'm smart, this should be easy." Instead, praise hard work, perseverance, and process.
*The brain is a muscle. It grows new neurons when it works on something hard. When kids know this, they can see the value in trying new or hard things and "exercising" their brains.
I have to work hard on praising specific things and not using "smart." What about you? What do you think about praise? Can it be too much of a good thing? or a bad thing?
