I finished my third book on this trip last night. (Which means that while I did pack a lot of books, perhaps I was not as excessive as Russ though—after all, I still have a 5 hour shuttle ride up to Idaho to visit Cindy Lynn, and a plane trip home. Who knows how much more reading I will get done!)
(Cindy Lynn thinks that in the interest of honesty I should add that I just borrowed a book from my sweet friend Abigail…I’m a little worried about not having enough to read now!)
Anyway, back to this book. It is called Nurture Shock. I think the title comes from the shock you will feel when you learn that so much of the conventional wisdom about children is actually very very wrong.
The authors began by researching the science of motivation in grownups, and then began to investigate how kids get self confidence. Much to their surprise the scientific evidence they found showed pretty conclusively that the parental instinct that it was important to tell your kids how smart they are is actually dead wrong. The article that they first published a couple of years ago which became the 1st chapter in this book) surprised and fascinated me.
Here are some of the other topics they cover in this book:
- sleep
- racial issues
- kids & lying
- early IQ tests
- sibling rivalry
- teen rebellion
- teaching self-control
- connections between tv and social aggression
- language development
I really enjoyed this book, and will have to re-read a few parts. Maybe on the plane!
Posts
I just read that and thought it was interesting. What really freaked me out was the sleep chapter- that they lose a grade level or something like that for every hour they miss...my poor kids. Now that Eric is working later though, I feel so bad sending them to bed an hour and a half after he gets home...guess they'll have to be stupid!
ReplyDelete