There we go
When I got home from work today, I finished off Churchill’s volume 2 of The History of English Speaking Peoples. The story was very interesting, and I found out I knew very little about the country that largely produced the USA. The 1600’s were full of power struggles, with power swaying all over the map. I got this fantastic book for free.
A few days ago I stopped by the library on the base where I work. They had a stack of books on the table that they were giving away. Along with the normal fluff, they had things like the US Constitution, Churchill’s History of English Speaking Peoples and Blood, Sweat, and Tears. I was amazed at the books that were being given away, but after a little thought, it made perfect sense.
Why would people want to read a book on it when they can watch a discovery channel special?
Asking this question is like asking, “Why read Lord of the Rings? Those books are hard and I watched the movies.”
The answer is that almost always the books are better. They can give us more information in less time.
I also have some great news. Good books are cheap. If a book requires a little reading to get into and uses some challenging vocabulary, people don’t want to read it. We have people who convince themselves that Harry Potter is a deep philosophical book (the last few are 700+ pages each, after all). Before the Potter fans kill me, I would like you to know that after I received book number 7, I sat down and read it all the way through. It was a fabulous book of fun escapism, and I will probably read it again. The point is, we don’t like to read to many truly deep books because they tax us and make us think harder than we wish. The upside is, after going through the initial difficulty they can do a lot for us, and turn out to be enjoyable in a deeper way.
Keep your eyes open at garage sales and libraries for free or very cheap entertainment that will build up your mind. There are hundreds of opportunities out there.
I have two pre-kindergarten children, and I am wondering how to proceed with their education. I have a desire for them to be smart, and I wonder where that is from.
Part of me says that I want them to be smart so I can show up other peoples kids. The more I think about this the less true that I think it is. Who cares as long as they acquire enough wisdom to get them successfully through life.
Another part of me wants smart people to associate with. I teach for a living, and dealing with slow learners can be frustrating. Dealing with smart people is refreshing and invigorating. Spending time with your children is very important, and I want to desire to spend as much time with them as possible, both working and playing. There are people with whom I work that are not that bright but know it and work hard enough to overcome their obstacles. They are great to work with because you really feel like you are making a difference, but it is nice to make a difference faster. I hope my kids aren’t lazy because dumb lazy kids just make me want to choke them.
Last of all, I want my children to be able to enjoy the pleasures that I have learned to enjoy. Books, music, and art are fantastic. So many people I meet do not even consider the possibility of deriving pleasure from anything except popular entertainment, alcohol and sex. So many things can bring you joy, and I would hate to see my children limited to those three. You also will have more time to do the things you want to if you learn to spend your time profitably.
Until I receive more wisdom then I now have, I will continue wondering. Anybody have any thoughts?
Other games to play with very young children (2-3)
Published September 6, 2007 Games , Math Leave a CommentI am trying to find out what games my son, a three year old likes to play. This last week I have come across a couple that he likes to play that I can stand, Dominoes and Uno. Candyland is one that still drives me nuts. Can’t you just put it on fast forward and see who wins? There are absolutely no choices in that game, except whether to play to the end or quit half way through.
Dominoes
The great thing about dominoes is that it is a basically a matching game. When you are playing with a three year old, you don’t exactly keep score, so all they have to do is count the dots and match things up. My son wants to play dominoes over and over. We have one of the newer sets that has all of the numbers a different color also, and this makes it much easier for my son to identify which is which. Another benefit is that it is pretty hard to damage the dominoes in any substantial way.
Uno-
This is a game that I hate unless I am playing it with little kids. But it helps little kids identify numbers and colors quickly. It is almost a drill, and we have noticed that our son can more quickly identify numbers now. It also helps kids thing of two things at once, matching either color or number. The drawback is that my two year old, who wants to play along, bends the living snot out of the cards.
For both of these games we have our children lay their tiles or cards all up to make sure that we can clue them in if they are missing something. It is a good time.
Most children today are oblivious to financial realities. I have been thinking about how to teach my children about doing well economically, both in earning and spending. One way to get a child to grasp financial realities is make him or her get a job and buy their own stuff. This method is very effective. Two 12 hour days worth of manual labor don’t seem to be worth a pair of jeans anymore.
One way of teaching that seems to be more fun is through games. Games often bring out our inner personalities. They also teach us life skills in certain sectors.
There are calculational games, such as monopoly or risk, where you play the odds.
There are creativity games, such as Cranium.
There are also communications games, where you try to guess what the other person is thinking or doing such as charades.
Most games seem to fall under multiple categories to different degrees. Poker is calculational, but if you can’t read your opponent, good luck. Charades is a combination of creativity and communications. Chess is very largely calculational, in that it is based on logic, but creativity and reading your opponent is also important.
Certain games help us realize what our modus operandi and how other people respond to those. Next time I am going to talk about specific games and what they did educationally for my family.
Update- Here’s my take on Monopoly and Settlers of Cataan.
When I bought the computer I am currently typing at I could justify the price based on selling the monitor. Then we received the monitor. It was so big and beautiful, yet took up less of a footprint than our old monitor. The catch was is I could ebay it for around $280. That Friday night before I went to bed I made a deal with myself that if the following Saturday I could find something at garage sales that I could resale and make over $200 profit, I could keep the monitor. I have made a little here and their finding items at garage sales and selling them on ebay. This Saturday, I really wanted to find a deal. The first garage sale I went to had an old Philippine immigrant who said that he had acquired the large stack of army boots in front of his house at garage sales. That guaranteed that I could not get a good deal from him, because he knew all the ropes. I bounced from sale to sale and could not find much. Finally, I saw a box of comic books that everyone seemed to walk by at a couple’s garage sale. I asked them how much. He said he wanted $.25 a piece or $10 for the box (of about 100). The comics appeared to be in great shape, and they were over 20 years old. I asked him if he had ever thought of ebaying them and he did not express interest. I told him I would take them all. I figured for comics that old and in that good of shape I could average at least $.50 a piece, so my risk was largely mitigated. When I looked them up online when I got home, I recognized that I had hit a jackpot. It looks like I will end up making between $350 and $400 off of them. Not bad for a box of junk. Anyway, that more then pays for my monitor and puts me in great shape towards another toy.
A tangible reward tied to a task resulted in me finding a solution that I would not have otherwise found.
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