My Sister is My Best Friend

Because this blog is about words, books, and kids there couldn't be a better book for me to review here than My Sister is My Best Friend by Nicole Weaver.

There are lots of books about sibling rivalry but this one, by contrast, is about two sisters who get along well together and enjoy sharing experiences. Since the girls in the book are twins, it would be an especially appropriate gift for real-life twins.

The words aspect of the book is that it is written in three languages, English, French and Spanish. I enjoyed trying to figure out the meaning of the individual words and phrases in the languages I don't know and some kids will probably like doing that, too. Although I took French in school decades ago and never studied Spanish I found that I could understand more of the Spanish words than the French ones.

My Sister is My Best Friend would be a great help to kids who know one of the three languages and are trying to learn another and already bi- or multi-lingual kids will like it.

Of course children who can only read or hear the story read in one language will enjoy it for the cheerful experiences the sisters share. The cute illustrations by Clara Batton Smith add to the pleasure of the book.

What Kids Need to Learn

What is the most important thing kids need to learn in school?

The public school system was established in America so kids would grow up to be adults who could make wise choices as voters in a democracy.

When they begin attending school, children must learn to function as part of a group, to share, obey rules, and listen to those in authority. But they can learn those things in other situations.

By learning to read and write kids gain access to vast amounts of information that will be useful to them for the rest of their lives.

Arithmetic is essential for handling money and other tasks needed by all adults since calculators and other devices might not always be available.

As the saying goes, those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it, so Social Studies are certainly important.

Since many modern kids no longer just "go out and play" Physical Education is essential for their health.

Science helps them understand how the world works and provides practical information they'll certainly need as adults.

Art and music open their minds to appreciate the world around them and help kids discover and develop their talents and creativity.

Of course as they get older they'll learn more about all these subjects and get to explore others.

So, if kids schools could teach only one subject, which of these should it be? In my opinion, it would be reading because all the others, even how to participate in physical activities, can be learned through that skill.

What do you think is the most important thing kids need to learn in school?

Baby Talk

     Perhaps my life-long interest in Linguistics began when I was three years old. My younger brother was just learning to talk and I could usually understand him although the adults seldom could. How proud it made me feel when our parents asked me to interpret his babble for them. I could actually do something grown-ups couldn't do!

     Now I realize they were trying to decipher the sounds of individual words while I was focusing on my brother's intonation patterns, body language, and facial expressions.

     Babies don't all learn to talk the same way. Some start with individual words like "Mama" and gradually add one word at a time to their vocabularies. Others, like my brother, focus on the intonation patterns, etc., although they usually include a few intelligible words in their sentences and the number of those increases as they learn.

I wonder if babies' temperaments influence how they begin to communicate. It's not very scientific but, in my limited experience it seems like the little ones who began trying to talk with intonation patterns before using clear words became especially sociable, outgoing, and friendly children and adults. Maybe those personality traits made them more aware of the emotional side of communication. 

     Even if someone were able to collaborate that tendency by a scientific study, it wouldn't be able to show which was cause and which was effect, so I guess I'll never know if my theory is correct or not.

Baby Language Learning

I just saw an article in Science Daily about a research study at the University of Delaware saying children begin learning language as early as ten months old.

They're crazy! Kids start learning language much earlier than that.

When my daughter was born we had deaf foster kids and used Total Communication. That's signing and talking at the same time and was encouraged by the school our foster kids attended.

Our daughter began making up her own signs at about five months,. When she wanted her diaper changed she'd hold her feet up in the air and when she wanted to nurse she'd pull my shirt up. A week or so later she began lifting her own shirt or skirt to signify that she wanted to nurse. She used her first legitimate sign at about seven months, and started using spoken words soon after that. By the time she was a year old she had a vocabulary of 30 words and signs, but refused to use a word for something she knew the sign for and vice versa.

You may think she was unusually advanced, but babies born into deaf families often start using legitimate signs at about four months. Our daughter's learning was probably delayed because she was learning two languages at the same time.

Many people are using sign language with their babies now, but if they don't use it all the time to communicate with each other as well as with the baby it won't have the same effect. (And if you want to teach your baby Sign language please use real ASL, not made up "Baby Signs." You wouldn't use a bunch of nonsense syllables and call them "Baby Chinese" or "Baby Spanish.")

If you want to read about the study you can see it at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/03/060322141610.htm but don't believe everything you read just because scientists say it's true.