the fun of learning
I have to say that one of my favorite things so far about the age of 5 is the new level of interest in the world. E always liked maps and information about how things work, but now he's coming up with new interests that actually interest me, too. It's really fun to have him thrilled and excited to read about things that I actually want to read about. Right now the two big ones that pop into my head are the Titanic and mummies. Ancient Egypt in general, as well, but sort of second to mummies. Today he was building lego models of the Carpathia, the ship that rescued the Titanic survivors. He loves drawing the Titanic sinking over and over again. Sometimes it's really dramatic, breaking into pieces, funnels collapsing, water all turbulent (really it was calm, but it heightens the drama to see huge choppy waves).
We've gone on many missions to the library over the last couple months. First it was astronomy, then some meteorology, which brought our first disappointment with the library. E wanted to read about typhoons. They had no books on typhoons. The librarian pulled out a book on tornadoes and said it talks about typhoons, but the word was only in there once, and it was the caption to a photo that just stated the fact that a tropical storm in the western pacific is called a typhoon. Quite disappointing, thought at least he also likes tornadoes, so enjoyed the book. Our next big frustration came on the day E wanted to go get books about the Titanic, mummies, the sun, and more Tintin. We failed at finding anything on the first two without help, and once directed, were really astonished that there were only 3 books on the Titanic and two about Egypt in general. Nothing about mummies, and the Titanic books are more like stories, not facts and details like E wanted. We found a video about Egypt that we also got, and it mentioned mummies, but was a little strange and got some things wrong, I'm pretty sure. Maybe I just got spoiled by the Palo Alto library and it's plethora of kids' non-fiction books. Our library is new, and really quite nice, and there is a decent sized room that houses the children's collection.
Still, now I'm wondering if I can rely on the library. I guess we'll have to look hard for some adult books about the subjects he gets interested in, and then I'll have to sensor/explain them. Doesn't help a lot when he really gets going with reading and wants to read them on his own. The other obvious solution is to resort to purchasing more books for him. We do buy books, but not regularly. Seems like that's the point of having a library. They store them, you go pick out what you're interested in on any given day, return it once you've learned the contents, then move on to the next thing. We really don't have space or funds for hundreds of books, and the library is only 4 blocks away. Yet if we can't find the information E wants... There's the internet, but that's also not very self-serve for him at this age, and therefore frustrating to him. He wants to hold a book and pour over it for an hour or more. So, for tonight, I'm poking around Amazon and adding things to E's wishlist that I'll likely never end up buying. So far it has a bunch of the DK Eyewitness series of books in it, which E loves and devours (we own Universe, Religion, and Volcanoes and Earthquakes). They usually get the facts right, have real, quality photography, and provide a nice overview. Those things seem to be hard to find all in the same book, but it's exactly what E wants. So, tonight I've found:
Titanic
Shipwreck
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Ancient Rome
Ancient China
Pirate
Oil
Weather
Time and Space
Light
Energy
Electricity
Force and Motion
Chemistry
Really, I want these books as much as E does. When I was a kid I was fascinated by earth sciences, like most kids probably are. I wanted to be a paleontologist, vulcanologist, oceanologist, geologist, archaeologist, astronomer, and meteorologist, amongst other things. Really, I still love these sciences, though rarely find the time to think of them. It's so much fun to have E wanting to read about all these things, forcing me to refresh my memory and relish again in the fun of history and how the world works. Now if only the library could keep up...
We've gone on many missions to the library over the last couple months. First it was astronomy, then some meteorology, which brought our first disappointment with the library. E wanted to read about typhoons. They had no books on typhoons. The librarian pulled out a book on tornadoes and said it talks about typhoons, but the word was only in there once, and it was the caption to a photo that just stated the fact that a tropical storm in the western pacific is called a typhoon. Quite disappointing, thought at least he also likes tornadoes, so enjoyed the book. Our next big frustration came on the day E wanted to go get books about the Titanic, mummies, the sun, and more Tintin. We failed at finding anything on the first two without help, and once directed, were really astonished that there were only 3 books on the Titanic and two about Egypt in general. Nothing about mummies, and the Titanic books are more like stories, not facts and details like E wanted. We found a video about Egypt that we also got, and it mentioned mummies, but was a little strange and got some things wrong, I'm pretty sure. Maybe I just got spoiled by the Palo Alto library and it's plethora of kids' non-fiction books. Our library is new, and really quite nice, and there is a decent sized room that houses the children's collection.
Still, now I'm wondering if I can rely on the library. I guess we'll have to look hard for some adult books about the subjects he gets interested in, and then I'll have to sensor/explain them. Doesn't help a lot when he really gets going with reading and wants to read them on his own. The other obvious solution is to resort to purchasing more books for him. We do buy books, but not regularly. Seems like that's the point of having a library. They store them, you go pick out what you're interested in on any given day, return it once you've learned the contents, then move on to the next thing. We really don't have space or funds for hundreds of books, and the library is only 4 blocks away. Yet if we can't find the information E wants... There's the internet, but that's also not very self-serve for him at this age, and therefore frustrating to him. He wants to hold a book and pour over it for an hour or more. So, for tonight, I'm poking around Amazon and adding things to E's wishlist that I'll likely never end up buying. So far it has a bunch of the DK Eyewitness series of books in it, which E loves and devours (we own Universe, Religion, and Volcanoes and Earthquakes). They usually get the facts right, have real, quality photography, and provide a nice overview. Those things seem to be hard to find all in the same book, but it's exactly what E wants. So, tonight I've found:
Titanic
Shipwreck
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Ancient Rome
Ancient China
Pirate
Oil
Weather
Time and Space
Light
Energy
Electricity
Force and Motion
Chemistry
Really, I want these books as much as E does. When I was a kid I was fascinated by earth sciences, like most kids probably are. I wanted to be a paleontologist, vulcanologist, oceanologist, geologist, archaeologist, astronomer, and meteorologist, amongst other things. Really, I still love these sciences, though rarely find the time to think of them. It's so much fun to have E wanting to read about all these things, forcing me to refresh my memory and relish again in the fun of history and how the world works. Now if only the library could keep up...