What Karen Reads

Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey

2012-01-31T16:59:00.000-08:00

It's fun reading these books again after so many years. There were definite echoes while I was reading with memories coming back, but then there were also moments that I didn't remember at all and I was left wondering what might happen, almost as if I were reading this for the first time.

Although there is technically a lot that happens in this book, it does feel a lot like setup for the next book, which if we count this as a trilogy within the series, this would be the second book of the trilogy and that is what usually happens in a second book.

I loved the glimpse of Ruth and Jaxom. I remember really loving The White Dragon so it was wonderful to see them in this book. I can't wait to read that one, but my list says that Dragonsong is next, so I guess I'll have to wait for more Ruth.

Brain Rules for Baby by John Medina

2012-01-22T07:38:00.000-08:00

I picked up this book (or rather, downloaded it for my Nook) on the recommendation by a couple of moms in my local moms' group. It also has very high reviews on amazon.

The basic idea behind this book is that to raise a smart and happy kid, there are two main things to do: develop empathy in yourself and your child and teach your child that emotions are okay and how to appropriately respond to them (rather than push them aside). I bookmarked a few pages that I wanted to remember, so I'll quote some sections from the book and add my thoughts.

"Exploratory behavior--the willingness to experiment, to ask extraordinary questions of ordinary things--is a talent highly prized in the working world." A study that looked for a common characteristic in people who were considered innovative executives and found that the biggest common denominator was "a willingness to explore." One of the lead authors of that study is quoted in a discussion about children: "'If you look at 4-year-olds, they are constantly asking questions. But by the time they are 6 1/2 years old, they stop asking questions because they quickly learn that teachers value the right answers more than provocative questions. High school students rarely show inquisitiveness. And by the time they're grown up and are in corporate settings, they have already had the curiosity drummed out of them.'"

One of the most important qualities that I think a person should have is curiosity. I think that the exploratory behavior is a part of that and this study shows just how important that is. So does my own experience as well as the lack of curiosity that so many people seem to have, especially my students. What I wanted my students to learn most of all was how to ask questions of literary texts and how to ask questions of their own writing. I approached my comments on papers and discussions in the classroom that way in the hope that by seeing me model the question asking, they would be able to start doing it themselves. It happened sometimes, but frequently it was just not working. Students seemed to want to know what questions I wanted to ask and then which answer was right. And in the world of writing and literature that just isn't how it works, or at least not how it's supposed to work. There isn't really a right answer. It's all about exploration. So I want to make sure that Luke is always able to ask questions and explore and not just feel like he has to come up with the right answer that the teacher (or I) want.

"Human learning in its most native state is primarily a relational exercise."

One aspect of this book is to explain just how important human contact and relationships are to a child's development. Children learn a lot more through interaction with actual people and a lot less through things like watching "educational" videos.

"There are four nutrients you will want in your behavioral formula, adjusting them as your baby gets older: breast-feeding, talking to your baby, guided play, and praising effort rather than accomplishment."

I've already got the first two down, although I do need to remember to do the second more. I'm by nature a more quiet person so I have to actively think about verbalizing to Luke as we're doing things throughout the day. By guided play, Medina means imaginary free play but with some help; for example, if the child is pretending to be an astronaut, you might ask questions about how an astronaut might react in certain situations.

The last one is something that I need to think about. I understand where he is coming from: a child who is just told all the time "you're so smart" can get the idea that because he's naturally talented, things come easy to him. But when something doesn't come easy, he gives up more quickly or gets discouraged because he hasn't built up how to deal with those situations. Instead, if you praise the effort ("you studied really hard for that test, which is why you got an A"), then children are more likely to keep trying, keep putting in effort, if something is difficult. I can see this in my own life. I was always told that I was smart and I'll admit that sometimes when things got more difficult (such as calculus), I gave up quickly rather than spend another hour trying to figure out a problem. If I couldn't get it right away, then I just wouldn't be able to get it. But I also have an issue with the effort idea because I've run into people who feel that as long as they've made a good effort, they should get a good grade (or whatever other reward). And although effort is definitely important, you also need to show competency. So I want to make sure to get a balance in there: effort is important, but the effort itself is not the end all of it.

"Brain research tells us there are also several toxins: pushing your child to perform tasks his brain is not developmentally ready to take on; stressing your child to the point of a psychological state termed 'learned helplessness'; and, for the under-2 set, television."

The last one is the easiest as we're already doing that: no TV for Luke until he's at least 2 years old. The other two are ones that I'll need to remember. As happy as I am to see Luke hit developmental milestones, I need to try to make sure that he's doing it on his schedule and not because I think he should be doing it and pushing him to it.

With regard to the current trend of texting: "Real-life experiences are much messier than life on the Internet and not at all anonymous. Flesh-and-blood people touch each other, get in each other's way, and constantly telegraph information to each other in a fashion not easily reformatted into emoticons and cute three-letter abbreviations. [...] A great deal of asymmetry can be averted through the correct interpretation of nonverbal cues. The less practice humans get at it, the more immature their social interactions are likely to be."

This makes sense. The more we talk to people through screens and less in person, the less developed are our abilities to be able to read facial expressions and body language. I don't want Luke to be left out of what his peer group is doing, but I also don't want him to interact with a screen all day. I'll have to see what the social landscape and technology is like when he gets older and try to determine what might be most helpful to balance this.

"'The only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.'"

This is the key to happiness: having solid friendships. To help Luke be happy in life, I need to help him learn how to make friends. This is a large part of the sections about developing empathy in this book.

"There is no such thing as a bad emotion. There is no such thing as a good emotion. An emotion is either there--or it is not. These parents [those who raise well-adjusted happy children] seem to know that emotions don't make people weak and they don't make people strong. They only make people human."

The idea here is to not let children think that some emotions, such as happiness, are good and others, such as anger, are bad. Allow the child to feel emotions. What you should teach instead is the actions that should be taken. So for example, it's okay to be angry. It's not okay to hit your sister because you are angry. Also, the ability to label a particular emotion is apparently extremely important. So help your child give a name to the emotion he is feeling.

"Be willing to enter into your child's world on a regular basis and to empathize with what your child is feeling."

This is part of helping your child learn how to handle the emotions he is feeling and also how to empathize with others because he sees you modeling this empathy.

"There may be as many different types of playrooms as there are families, but every one of them should have the following design element: lots of choices. A place for drawing. A place for painting. Musical instruments. A wardrobe hanging with costumes. Blocks. Picture books. Tubes and gears. Anything where a child can be safely let loose, joyously free to explore whatever catches her fancy. [...] I am focusing on artistic pursuits because kids who are trained in the arts tend to resist distractions better, stay focused better, and have better score on fluid intelligence tests."

This is part of helping them with the guided free play.

"If you also create a set of rules and enforce them with consistency and warmth, you have virtually everyting you need to start your parenting journey."

When Luke gets older, we need to sit down and come up with rules and actually write them out. We need to also develop the consequences for breaking a rule and make sure that every time that rule is broken, the consequence occurs. And my husband and I need to be on the same page. Consistency seems to be the biggest key.

He mentions the Tools of the Mind program (http://www.mscd.edu/extendedcampus/toolsofthemind) several times, so that's something I want to look into.

All in all this book was quite nice and I got a lot of helpful information out of it. It's also nice that Medina says that he knows that parents are in the real world and no parent can truly do all of this perfectly 100 percent of the time. Even if it is just 30 percent of the time, it will make a really big difference in the child's life. So it's a relief to know that it's okay to not have to constantly make sure I'm doing everything "right" and that it's okay to make mistakes. And truly, that's something that I want Luke to learn because I think that learning through making mistakes is more important than never making any mistakes at all. Because who could really live that way?

Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey

2012-01-16T09:09:00.000-08:00

When I was an undergrad, I had a friend who loved the Pern books and who convinced me to give them a try. I, too, fell in love with them and read all the ones that were out at that time. Masterharper of Pern (1997) was the one that was coming out right at that time, so that's how far I read. Over the next few years, I continued to read the Pern books as they came out but then I stopped keeping track and I got behind. I kept telling myself that someday I would start from the beginning and reread and then catch up with the ones I hadn't yet read, but I never sat down to do it.

When Anne McCaffrey died in November, I decided that it was finally time to revisit Pern. And so with the new year, I loaded up the first few books on my Nook and started reading. I was instantly transported back to my first reading of Pern although there were some subtle differences this time around for this first book. Since I now had many more Pern books read including ones that cover the foundation of Pern, I had a lot more knowledge (even though it was only half remembered) than I did the first time that I read this book. So it was a slightly different perspective but it didn't make the book any less exciting. Perhaps more so, knowing what the characters hadn't yet discovered.

Once again, I was in the world of Lessa and F'lar and the dragons. My biggest disappointment with this first book is that it was rather short. So it's good that there's a whole series of books waiting to be reread and then some read for the first time. I'm looking forward to my continuing adventures in Pern.

For my own reference, here is the list of books in the series in publication order and the order I'll be reading them in:
Dragonflight
Dragonquest
Dragonsong
Dragonsinger
The White Dragon
Dragondrums
Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
Nerilka's Story
Dragonsdawn
The Renegades of Pern
All the Weyrs of Pern
The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
The Dolphins of Pern
Dragonseye
The Masterharper of Pern
The Skies of Pern
A Gift of Dragons (short stories, some published earlier)
Dragon's Kin
Dragonsblood
Dragon's Fire
Dragon Harper
Dragonheart
Dragongirl
Dragon's Time
Dragonrider (release mid-2012)
After the Fall (in progress) [I also saw reference to one called Sky Dragons]

2011 Archive

2011-12-02T04:59:00.000-08:00

I'm posting this before the year is over, but as of right now I have read only 23 books, even worse than last year. I really want to make reading more of a priority in 2012. I know I won't have the time to read the 150 books of years past, but I would like to try to make it 50, which is just under one book each week. I think that's a fairly realistic goal.

Archive for 2011

2010 Archive

2011-12-02T04:58:00.000-08:00

Grading and knitting took up a lot of my time this year. I read a paltry 32 books.

Archive for 2010

2009 Archive

2011-12-02T04:57:00.000-08:00

My dissertation work really intensified this year (I defended in the summer and graduated in August) and so did my knitting, which meant little time for reading. I also started a full time job teaching 5 classes each semester. Only 50 books this year.

Archive for 2009

2008 Archive

2011-12-02T04:56:00.000-08:00

As I started working on my dissertation, my reading time took a slump (I spent more of my "free" time knitting). Only 87 books this year.

Archive for 2008

2007 Archive

2011-12-02T04:55:00.000-08:00

My reading slowed down a little this year, but I still managed to read quite a few books: 106 books total.

Archive for 2007

2006 Archive

2011-12-02T04:54:00.000-08:00

I kept up with the outside reading during my third year of my PhD program, reading 156 books total.

Archive for 2006

2005 Archive

2011-12-02T04:53:00.000-08:00

Deep in my PhD program, I really needed some breaks and so I did a lot of reading this year: 151 books total.

Archive for 2005

2004 Archive

2011-12-02T04:52:00.000-08:00

For half of this year, I was out of school and teaching full time. The other half involved a move out of state and the start of my PhD program. I read quite a lot: 136 books total.

Archive for 2004

2003 Archive

2011-12-02T04:51:00.000-08:00

I finished my MA program this year, but I also wanted to do more personal reading, which I accomplished by reading 110 books this year.

Archive for 2003

2002 Archive

2011-12-02T04:50:00.001-08:00

I was in my MA program this year, so I read only 58 books, some of which were for classes.

Archive for 2002

2001 Archive

2011-12-02T04:49:00.000-08:00

Partway through 2001, I decided to start keeping track of what I was reading with a few comments made about each book. I'm not sure exactly when I started as I didn't put dates on the first few books. So starting from whenever in that year, I read at least 41 books.

Archive for 2001

Reading Log

2011-12-02T04:47:00.000-08:00

I've been keeping a reading log over the years on my website by creating a table in HTML. I think I'd finally like to change the format from HTML to more of a blog setting, so I'm moving it over here. I will finish up 2011 over on the website, but starting in 2012 I will start posting individual posts for each book. In the meantime, I will make one post for each year with a link to the website for that year.