Got Rest?!

This is Scotty and Scarlett -- aren't they cute? Their mom, Melissa, took this picture of them at Christmas last year, long before she wrote this blog entry. I'm quite confident that they'll be really proud of her when they're old enough to read what she's written here -- enjoy!



I really enjoyed reading the first chapter. I found that there were many interesting facts presented to suggest that children learn focus and self control through play and exploration. Children also tend to learn these skills through example. The bulk of the chapter was about this, but what intrigued me most were Galinsky’s suggestions to promote the growth of focus and self control.

Galinsky says that the most important way to help develop the skills is to promote them. As a parent she suggests that we must allow our children to be well rested and to have their breaks. Now as a parent myself, I thought this one a no-brainer. I am the mother of a 4 month old, and if she does not have her naps between play-time, she becomes over-stimulated and extremely cranky. The idea of breaks is even more important to the older developing child such as my stepson. He is turning four years old, and when he does not have his breaks, he gets even more cranky than my 4 month old, and is fairly vocal about it. When he naps he returns to his same old happy go lucky self, and is willing to play more and expand on his developing skills.

Galinsky further suggests that it is not only children who need breaks but adults as well. If parents model this behavior, we will not only be better parents (because well-rested parents are less stressed!), but it allows the children the opportunity to mimic our behavior. As we all know, most children spend the majority of their time doing this already.

A second suggestion that I found interesting was Galinsky’s ideas about technology. From everything that I have read as a Child Development major, a lot of theorists do not condone the use of television for most children. Theorists tend to view the television and its programming as more of a distraction than actually beneficial in any way. Galinsky provides a different view on the technology issue. She suggests that television, when implemented as an educational tool, can actually be a good tool to help develop focus and self-control. I’m not sure if I completely agree with Galinsky, but I do see the point in trying to utilize technology. Our children are of the technological age, and not only need to be able to use computers, cell phones, and the like, but they will most likely be required to at a much younger age than we were.

I personally do not like the idea of the TV being a tool, but I do like the idea of interactive computer games. Not only are the computer games cost effective (many are either free or very low-cost), but they are going to interest the child, teach them useful skills cognitively, and get them used to operating devices that are going to be required of them as they grow older.

My stepson and I have spent time playing color matching and shape matching games on the computer. One of his favorites is one called “Chuzzle.” It’s a game where there are multicolored puff balls that you must match up in a row of at least 3 by color. After he mastered this concept, we moved on to adding shapes to the game. Each chuzzle had to match by color and a corresponding shape on the lower belly of the creature. He could spend upwards of 45 minutes playing this game, and got a kick out of it every time. Not only is it fun for him, but it is educational too; therefore, it’s a win in his book because he gets to play on the computer by himself, and it’s a win for me because he’s happy and learning something at the same time.