This makes me want to ask the question if teaching children complex activities very early is pointless because they have not developed the neurological wiring in their brains at the early stages of development to make learning math and reading at a complex level worth while. At what point to children start to understand abstract concepts?
I always thought the greatest thing a parent can do with a child is to read to them, Dr. Seuss. That does not mean teaching children to read before they are ready positively effects them.
I think sometimes parents my age (late 20s early 30s) try to force their kids to engage in a lot of activities the kids aren't ready for and aren't interested in because they want to show everyone how much better their kid is from everyone else's. Helicopter parents are one extreme. Kids should have some room to breath, explore, and play. You shouldn't force them into something they're not ready for and of course every kid is going to develop differently. There's a good middle ground, I'm sure. Just my 2 cents anyway.
dr. seuss is a tricky one because the "things" in his book are so totally made up. i often find myself reading him to my toddlers and wondering if any of it makes sense.
There are a lot more reading materials available for children than when The Cat in Hat was first published. Interest and attention at the task of reading something, anything is more important than fantastic content. I don't have children but if I did I'd read What Do People Do All Day and The Way Things Work. Richard Scarry books are the best.
The twenty somethings are back from college. Last Saturday they collectively entered a fantasy world with the Santa Con pub crawl. Two guys were wearing Thing 1 costumes. Men acting like children just can't be healthy. Perhaps they grew up in a fantasy they never left.
For me imagination is the greatest thing. I produce so much thought and ideas -- new stuff every day. I sit at a computer with the IDE open and want to make something happen. That is where imagination comes in. I can't stop it, ideas just keep coming, but that doesn't mean they are good. I had a boss whose ego was so big she treated anything she thought as a good idea just because she thought it. The real power of imagination is that I can take new ideas and further imagine the different outcomes without typing a single key. As a coder looking at a blank new JS file, when I ask myself, "What should we do?" I'm quoting Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat. I should probably go to work now, and like in the book, I'll be spending most of my day breaking perfectly fine things cursing myself for not writing more tests.
My 3 year old, who is otherwise enthusiastic about reading (or being _read to_) dislikes Dr Seuess books more than anything we've read to her thus far, which was surprising to me since kids are supposed to universally adore them. It may just be finding the right stage in her development where she'll enjoy stories that sound like they were written by a complete fucking lunatic.
I always thought the greatest thing a parent can do with a child is to read to them, Dr. Seuss. That does not mean teaching children to read before they are ready positively effects them.