Books, brains and games

Yesterday Owain came up to me and said: mummy can you teach me to read? then I can read any book to you! Ah music to my ears. I'd been waiting for this.

He's been sitting aside watching me and Cait go through the Ladybird books. Once or twice before he would try as well. But when he got it wrong or seemed put out by his mistake, I let it go. No pressure. He would learn when he was ready and more importantly, when he wanted to!

So last night, he came up to me with this and we sat down with book 1A. He found it harder than Cait, probably because Cait already had some visual knowledge of sight words from school - it was not all foreign to her. But for Owain, it was all new. He seemed to concentrate/focus hard and was frustrated when he got it wrong. I was ready to stop but he said no, want some more. So we ploughed on a bit more. Finally, I didn't want to kill his enthusiasm so I stopped for the night and was adamant about stopping despite his pleas for more.

Cait has finished books 1A and 1B and is now starting the first couple of pages of 2A. I am also reading Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, thanks to Ee Lin's recommendation on AP. The book looks formidably cheem initially. And it is a bit dry. But I like it that they tell you exactly what to teach (takes the thinking out of it for me!) and what they say also makes sense. Eg I learnt that one should not teach a child the letter names but rather, letter sounds. So we should not say this is the letter 'M'. Rather, we say this sounds like Mmmmm. These are initial tools of decoding which is necessary for reading skills. I'm still in the early pages but I like what I am reading.

Also reading The Wonder of Boys by Michael Gurion. Interesting first chapter on the biology of boys. He also mentioned the idea of testosterone levels being affected and altered during the prenatal days by maternal stress and therefore resulting in a less 'male brain' being structured or even homosexuality tendencies coming into play. Very interesting reading about the differences between the male brain and the female brain. The fact that girls have a higher level of serotonin and lower levels of testosterone and boys the opposite, would explain the differences in attitudes and behaviour among boys and girls. Boys being more aggressive and more active and more ambitious. Girls demonstrating more conciliatory behaviour.

Its not just about upbringing. The differences are hardwired in the brain. So it does not matter whether you let your boy play with guns or dolls. A boy will just as easily bend a barbie doll and pretend it's a gun! I see this with Owain all the time. Every chance he gets he makes a 'gun' or a robot that 'blasts the enemies!'. Even an umbrella can be a sword. And so on. Both boys now enjoy wrestling with each other. They do this everywhere. Isaac may not seem as active-aggressive as the typical boy (certainly not as much as Owain), preferring to read etc, just watch him in a computer game or during any form of game/competition (even playing scrabble!) and see how emotionally competitive he gets! The aggression and competitiveness will manifest in different ways - both overt and subtle.

The girls on the other hand, are more into 'talky' games - pretend play, playing with dolls, playing shop, tea-sets etc.

Speaking of games, the older kids are into Scrabble now. I play with them because Scrabble is a game I enjoy but could not find anyone to play with until now (my sister lives in KL and KH has refused to play with me since 1988 when he had a fluke win - he's been boasting ever since that he has beaten me already so no need to play anymore. No amount of threats/cajoles will get him to a re-match). So these days, you'll find me, Isaac and Gillian sitting around the coffee table in the living room, the Scrabble board set up nicely. Of course I trounce them lah, with margins of more than 60 points but its still fun. Isaac never gives up trying to trounce me. :-)

Not only Scrabble but Dum. KH had taught Owain and Cait how to play. So last night all the kids crammed into my bedroom for some games of 'Dum' (checkers). The younger kids had a go and then the older kids. And along the way everyone would shout instructions and opinions. Inevitably someone would yell: "Oi!! Can't you see you're letting him/her win??" and "Noooo... you cannot go BACKWARDS!"

I only step in when words like 'stupid' or 'idiot' or 'blind' get bandied about. I am ok with 'goondu' and 'silly' though.

I commented to KH: Wah, so noisy for just a game of 'Dum' and KH said: five children you know... haha, yes I know...