Friday, January 16, 2009
In love with his hands
Nathaniel loves to eat his hands....even when he's hanging out with his buddy Mr. Monkey.
Another Interesting Tid-bit from THE TIPPING POINT
Excerpt from The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Chapter Three - The Stickiness Factor
"...Many critics of television, to this day, argue that what's dangerous about TV is that it is addictive, that children and even adults watch it like zombies. According to this view, it is the formal features of television - violence, bright lights, loud and funny noises, quick editing cuts, zooming in and out, exaggerated action, and all the other things we associate with commercial TV - that hold our attention. In other words, we don't have to understand what we are looking at, or absorb what we are seeing, in order to keep watching. That's what many people mean when they say that television ispassive. We watch when we are stimulated by all the whizzes and bangs of the medium. And we look away, or turn the channel, when we are bored.
What the pioneering television researchers of the 1960s and 1970s-in particular,
Daniel Anderson at the University of Massachusetts-began to realize, however, is that this isn't how preschoolers watch TV at all. "The idea was that kids would sit, stare at the screen, and zone out," said Elizabeth Lorch, a psychologist at Amherst College. "But once we began to look carefully at what children were doing, we found out that short looks were actually more common. There was much more variation. Children didn't just sit and stare. They could divide their attention between a couple of different activities. And they wren't being random. There were predictable influences on what made them look back at the screen, and these were not trivial things, not just flash and dash." Lorch, for instance, once reedited an episode of Sesame Street so that certain key scenes of some of the sketches were out of order. If kids were only interested in flash and dash, that shouldn't have made a difference. The show, after all, still had songs and Muppets and bright colors and action and all the things that make Sesame Street so wonderful But it did make a difference. The kids stopped watching. If they couldn't make sense of what they were looking at, they weren't going to look at it."
"...One of the standard myths about children's television, for example, had always been that kids love to watch animals. "The producers would bring in a cat or an anteater or an otter and show it and let it cavort around," Palmer says. "they thought that would be interesting. But our Distracter showed that it was a bomb every time." A huge effort went into a Sesame Street character called the Man from Alphabet, whose specialty was puns. Palmer showed that kids hated him. He was canned. The Distracter showed that no single segment of the Sesame Street format should go beyond four minutes, and that three minutes was probably optimal. He forced the producers to simplify dialogue and abandon certain techniques they had taken from adult television. "We found to our surprise that our preshcool audience didn't like it when the adult cast got into a contentious discussion," he remembers. "they didn't like it when two or three people would be talking at once. That's the producer's natural instinct, to hype a scene by creating confusion. It's supposed to tell you that this is exciting. The fact is that our kids turned away from that kind of situation. Instead of picking up on the signal that something exciting is going on, they picked up on the signal that something confusing is going. And they'd lose interest."
Chapter Three - The Stickiness Factor
"...Many critics of television, to this day, argue that what's dangerous about TV is that it is addictive, that children and even adults watch it like zombies. According to this view, it is the formal features of television - violence, bright lights, loud and funny noises, quick editing cuts, zooming in and out, exaggerated action, and all the other things we associate with commercial TV - that hold our attention. In other words, we don't have to understand what we are looking at, or absorb what we are seeing, in order to keep watching. That's what many people mean when they say that television ispassive. We watch when we are stimulated by all the whizzes and bangs of the medium. And we look away, or turn the channel, when we are bored.
What the pioneering television researchers of the 1960s and 1970s-in particular,
Daniel Anderson at the University of Massachusetts-began to realize, however, is that this isn't how preschoolers watch TV at all. "The idea was that kids would sit, stare at the screen, and zone out," said Elizabeth Lorch, a psychologist at Amherst College. "But once we began to look carefully at what children were doing, we found out that short looks were actually more common. There was much more variation. Children didn't just sit and stare. They could divide their attention between a couple of different activities. And they wren't being random. There were predictable influences on what made them look back at the screen, and these were not trivial things, not just flash and dash." Lorch, for instance, once reedited an episode of Sesame Street so that certain key scenes of some of the sketches were out of order. If kids were only interested in flash and dash, that shouldn't have made a difference. The show, after all, still had songs and Muppets and bright colors and action and all the things that make Sesame Street so wonderful But it did make a difference. The kids stopped watching. If they couldn't make sense of what they were looking at, they weren't going to look at it."
"...One of the standard myths about children's television, for example, had always been that kids love to watch animals. "The producers would bring in a cat or an anteater or an otter and show it and let it cavort around," Palmer says. "they thought that would be interesting. But our Distracter showed that it was a bomb every time." A huge effort went into a Sesame Street character called the Man from Alphabet, whose specialty was puns. Palmer showed that kids hated him. He was canned. The Distracter showed that no single segment of the Sesame Street format should go beyond four minutes, and that three minutes was probably optimal. He forced the producers to simplify dialogue and abandon certain techniques they had taken from adult television. "We found to our surprise that our preshcool audience didn't like it when the adult cast got into a contentious discussion," he remembers. "they didn't like it when two or three people would be talking at once. That's the producer's natural instinct, to hype a scene by creating confusion. It's supposed to tell you that this is exciting. The fact is that our kids turned away from that kind of situation. Instead of picking up on the signal that something exciting is going on, they picked up on the signal that something confusing is going. And they'd lose interest."
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
PRODUCT REVIEW: Bugaboo Chameleon Stroller
We were very fortunate to have received this stroller as baby shower gift from Estela's former boss(thank you mucho by the way). When we got this gift, we tore it open even though it was still around a month before Nathan would arrive. Putting the stroller together was a no brainer. There are few components that come in the box including an instructional dvd that shows off the versatility of this stroller. Most of it is constructed from thick aluminum that makes it very stable. It comes with a bassinet and seat fabric that is interchangeable on a rectangular frame. The seat pops off and the stroller folds up for easy storage. We ordered our custom colors in grey/beige. The manufacturer claims to have 32 different color combos and 4 different fabrics to choose from. I wouldn't doubt this, as I have seen this stroller all over in all sorts of colors.
I also think that it looks cool. I like the rigid lines and minimalistic appearance of it. The wheels in the front have adjustable shocks and the rear wheels are 12" rubber which make it easy to push around. The shocks help a lot. We've taken Nathan all over in this thing, over sand, concrete sidewalks, pot holes, and it rides pretty good. Nathan likes the seat to be tilted up a little. He's very curious and this position gives him a good view of his surroundings. You can tilt it up, down, and have it face the front or the back looking at you. Popping it off requires a quick simultaneous push of two buttons on each side of the frame and voila, the seat is off for quick storage. It has a brake lever conveniently located on the handle, and some storage underneath the seat. The size is pretty good, slightly larger then other Bugaboo models. It looks like we'll be able to use this for a while.
Overall, we are very happy with this stroller. The price would probably be the only downside to owning this thing. If we hadn't received this as a gift, I'm not sure if I would've compromised for a cheaper model.
We would recommend this stroller to everyone who is looking to buy a new stroller. If it's too pricey, hey, you can do what we did and put it on your baby shower wish list or you can always ask the grandparents. :P
Monday, January 12, 2009
Conversational Rhythm with Your Baby
I was reading "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell and came across a few interesting points for parents to consider.
Chapter Two - The Law of the Few
"...Two people may arrive at a conversation with very different conversational patterns. But almost instantly they reach a common ground. We all do it, all the time. Babies as young as one or two days old synchronize their head, elbow, shoulder, hip, and foot movements with the speech patterns of adults. Synchrony has even been found in the interactions of humans and apes. It's part of the way we are hardwired."
When I was reading this, I began to think back on all the conversations I've had around Nathaniel. He's 68 days now, so I've must've already had hundreds of conversations with different people around him. Naturally, my wife and I converse at a fast pace. Could this be why our little son moves around so much? He is already moving around like a 4 month old. We are anticipating he'll be able to start rolling around very shortly. I don't know if speech patterns contributed to his motor skills, but I would say that it is very much in sync with the pace of the conversations he's mostly around.
I guess reading this passage reiterated the importance of something we hear all the time. READ TO YOUR BABY. No matter how young they may be, 1 or 2 days old, setting aside some time to read to your baby would give you the opportunity to have a nice conversation and teach him some moves.
Chapter Two - The Law of the Few
"...Two people may arrive at a conversation with very different conversational patterns. But almost instantly they reach a common ground. We all do it, all the time. Babies as young as one or two days old synchronize their head, elbow, shoulder, hip, and foot movements with the speech patterns of adults. Synchrony has even been found in the interactions of humans and apes. It's part of the way we are hardwired."
When I was reading this, I began to think back on all the conversations I've had around Nathaniel. He's 68 days now, so I've must've already had hundreds of conversations with different people around him. Naturally, my wife and I converse at a fast pace. Could this be why our little son moves around so much? He is already moving around like a 4 month old. We are anticipating he'll be able to start rolling around very shortly. I don't know if speech patterns contributed to his motor skills, but I would say that it is very much in sync with the pace of the conversations he's mostly around.
I guess reading this passage reiterated the importance of something we hear all the time. READ TO YOUR BABY. No matter how young they may be, 1 or 2 days old, setting aside some time to read to your baby would give you the opportunity to have a nice conversation and teach him some moves.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
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