First day of school

Yes, Jasmine is only 9 months old now, but we've already been bombarded with things like RESP and infant classes. It's good to have a plan to start saving for higher education and definitely good to go to early infant classes. What I'm thinking about is a bit further in the future.

There have been many articles and tweets about the current state of our education systems in North America. Things in Ontario seem to be much like other jurisdictions in North America. When I was finishing up high school Ontario started rolling out standardized testing. In some ways I think I was lucky to not be a part of that.

In theory, standardized testing seems like a good idea - it ensures that students across the province are learning at least the basics prescribed by a standard test. There are a lot of opinions on whether or not this works. To me it brings up a few issues. I'm not an expert on education and I'm potentially only brushing the surface with these points.

With standard tests, the curriculum is only teaching the absolute minimum to pass the test.

I absolutely believe this to be true. With news everywhere of resource shortages, there's no way a public system will spend any more time than needed. Using math as an example, if the test only requires knowledge of addition and subtraction, there's no incentive to teach multiplication and division. Obviously this is overly simplified as an example. As a result, kids that are faster learners are being held back even more than they used to be.

Common-core

One of the major criticisms is that tests require adhering to the common-core method. I'll have to start figuring this out before my daughter gets to this point so that I can be able to explain why anyone would use this method, since this was not taught while I was in school. People tend to hate the method because it introduces additional (unnecessary) steps, but I've also seen the argument about why it's good. It seems to make sense to me, but time will tell. The examples that were shown using common-core were overly simple. I could understand why people complained, but think back to our childhood - sometimes we were required to show our work. We sometimes lost marks for not showing our work that we assumed was obvious.

As long as my daughter is learning well, that is all that matters. Standard tests may be a necessary evil, but it shouldn't stop us from teaching above and beyond the requirements. Jasmine is a smart girl already - I'm sure she'll be able to figure out common-core or whatever other method becomes the standard by the time the testing comes up.

I like to move it move it

A few weeks ago Jasmine figured out how to sit herself up, and quickly followed that with crawling. It's really amazing to see her progress.

But with the newfound freedom she has discovered, she also started to hate being stuck. In the car seat. In the high chair. In my arms. Mom's arms are ok though.

Understandably, she wants to move around and explore but it's learning quickly that she's only there temporarily. As an example, when we first buckle her up into the car seat she wiggles around to try to get free. She's not really upset by it, just trying to get out if possible. After about 30 seconds of protesting she settles in. Sometimes she'll even fall asleep.

What I really think, though, is that she gets bored being strapped in. This is also true for some adults (the ones who stop at every service station on a road trip). Lately she has been sitting in the child seat of shopping carts. She'll complain once in a while but generally doesn't mind it. There is a lot to look at during the shopping trip.

Final thoughts: whenever possible, let her roam around. She needs to experience things for herself. If she's happily playing on her own, let her. If she's a little closer to risky areas, get ready to stop her. Most importantly, let her know that it's safe to play and warn and watch when it's not.

Can't touch this!

Over the past week and a bit, Jasmine gained the strength and courage to do more. I've known that she had been wanting to stand up for a while now as we've been practicing. Suddenly one day she figured out how to get up on her own!

Fast forward 1 week.

This post has taken me a while to write and since I put it on pause, Jasmine has started to crawl consistently and even able to stand unassisted for a few seconds! She has always been curious and now she has figured out the ability to move to take a closer look.

Already she is crawling over to furniture to stand up, and many times things that were stacked up are knocked over. Luckily for now these stacks are only folded clothes and her books, but this brings me to the main topic.

When I was a little kid I don't remember my house being child proofed very much. I climbed up and down the stairs and I don't recall opening cupboards and drawers to play with whatever is inside. I do remember the power outlets having the covers. My two younger brothers definitely didn't have child proofing or I would have remembered it. My first encounter would be for my cousins, who were only a few years younger than me. The kitchen cupboards had the inner locks. I found it annoying because I was trying to get cups or something.

These days, child proofing is at a different level. I do agree that some things need to be child proofed, especially if items can't be moved for whatever reason. For example, drawers containing knives, cupboards containing chemicals, and stairways should be blocked off. I say should, because I think some kids are less inclined to get into that kind of trouble. Really though, the main goal is preventing these accidents (because kids don't mean to do it... right?). At the same time, putting that trust in the kids gives them immense responsibility, self-awareness, and critical analysis. Of course, parental supervision is always required. I'm not saying to leave knives lying around, but sometimes things that are more difficult to get might be more rewarding in their young minds.

Child proofing is scary. I'm saying this as an adult because when I look at things they look quite sturdy. When you think about how a child might climb something, it suddenly looks much more dangerous than it needs to be. Perhaps this is a good thing to be worried about but you can also be too safe. Kids need to be able to learn risk and to assess it. Overprotective parents could prevent learning this ability to assess risk because the parents are always taking that risk away. There's a difference between tying down that TV that could fall over and disinfecting every blade of grass the baby might sit on.