I organize grandparents, parents and kids, during evenings and weekends, to
play with reading and visualizing by encouraging them to crawl into
dramatic
characters, and make the words of dramas, stories, and poems their own.
All
learning begins with play. For many years, I organized community staged
readings at the Unitarian churches in Hartford and Manchester, Connecticut
and the Learning Exchange in Connecticut to show parents and children how
they can have fun reading together. Basically, I gather about 30 parents
and
children, divide them into the chapters of, for example, Alice's
Adventures
in Wonderland, and have each small group present their chapter, as a play,
or as a dance, or as a mime. People of all ages can participate, and
parents
and kids don't have to know how to read, or read well, or have any
experience performing to participate enjoyably. No audience is encouraged
other than the participants so as to have an emotionally safe environment.
Its purpose is to have fun and experience mental visualization and
expression. This can be done with stories, plays and poetry. It encourages
reading aloud as a recreational activity, as well as visualization,
intimacy, cohesion, and cooperation. Especially for troubled families,
crawling into literary characters in plays and stories can help them
understand and articulate emotional conflicts.
Conventional wisdom believes that the single most im****tant influence on a
child's achievement is the teacher. I am suggesting that for every child
their parent is their most im****tant role model. If kids see their parents
having fun giving expression to stories, plays and poems, it will give
kids
a model for an additional way for them to play with reading. Conventional
wisdom tells us that
the purpose of reading is to acquire information. I am suggesting that the
purpose of reading is to trans****t the reader into the world created by
the
author. This can be done more effectively if kids and parents read aloud
together as teams. Parents and kids reading aloud together is simple and
achievable, and can motivate parents and kids to visualize everything from
the expression of
dialogue to simple costumes. It can encourage parents and young people to
work as teams in achieving goals, as well as to discover the intimacy and
articulation of literary characters.
If parents and kids can be encouraged to work as teams dramatically
exploring the content of literary stories as recreation, then it is
possible
to create team-based programs in everything from social sciences to math
and
physical sciences that are designed around an exploration/recreational
model. Middle class and higher income kids are encouraged to explore many
things by their
parents; working class and lower income kids are steered toward sole
reliance on their teachers whose focus is fixed on achievement tests. It
is
possible to implement programs that encourage both family and educational
values through creatively designing ways for parents and kids to
collaboratively play and explore.
"Thom" <thomjohn21@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:Yi0af.473$uD5.360@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>I am a parent of 2 very young school aged girls. There are times I
wonder
>if I am being the best parent for them. My spouse and I both work, just
>like other parents. We went through the years (and expense) of daycare.
We
>have gone through the abuse at daycare.
>
> We have done everything that other parents in the U.S. are doing now.
> But, I wonder if we have lost, or never knew the art of parenting. We
can
> both remember our mothers being home to greet us from school; being
> chaperones on field trips; picking us up from school when we were sick.
>
> Now, we cannot do these things. Our children's school is constantly
asking
> for help from the parents; but it is very hard to take off from work
> whenever the school needs help. Thus the school needs to hire more
people
> to help in the schools. In turn, our taxes go up because the schools had
> to hire the help.
>
> We know that we don't like our taxes to go up. We know the schools need
> help. But is this helping our children? More and More I keep wondering
if
> we as parents are neglecting our children because of the economic
> pressure?
>
> Personally, I found myself working 8 hours a day; then brought work home
> and continue for another 3 to 4 hours. When did my children get to play
> with me?
>
> Now I teach high school and still have the same issue. No matter what I
do
> to change the situation, I always find myself back into it.
>
> What can we do to find the art of parenting?
>
> www.auto-send.com/tr.php?537
>
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>
>
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