For many years I criticized the work of Piaget because his "stages" were based on his study of his grandchildren rather than on the study of hundreds of developing children. Perhaps watching Taylor grow up, I understand why the man felt the study of a child or two could seem to express perfect child development. With each visit I marvel at the details of his development that I did not notice with my own sons.
This visit in included a number of milestones. Taylor became acquainted with the new computer. He learned his way around Windows 95 on Saturday. On Sunday he changed the wallpaper. He mastered the art of getting to the games, using the start button, clicking on accessories, clicking on games, and choosing the icon for the game he wanted to play. He played Hearts for the highest points, and Solitaire until he got all the aces out. The shoot-em-up games were played until he mastered a few levels of each, but his favorite was POD, a race game with fantastic graphics. Since we hadn't replaced the joystick yet, he played the games using the arrow keys for movement, and space bar or letter keys for shooting. He was pulled to the screen whether to play the various games or to listen to Merlin explore the computer. He stood at it, sat at it, and perched at it.
When not at the computer, he played with Steve's trains, his toy gun and sword, and wandered in and out to the yard. We took short walks through the woods, and I taught him all I knew about find his way in the woods (keep the house in sight at all times). But above all, he enjoyed his "snacks" plucked fresh from the garden. He tasted a rosy pink kale leaf from a flowering kale plant. His eyes lit up when he learned that this tasty leaf was a "vegetable". He ate a two-toned purple pansy, and was told that he could only eat flowers and leaves that adults said were OK. His eyes lit up when he tasted the parsley, and declared it "just like in a restaurant". From time to time all weekend, he'd declare he wanted a "snack" and would head for the garden, and another rosy kale leaf.
Saturday night, bath time was fun time as always. The Pirate ship that he's played with in this bathtub for several years, came out, as did a scrubber and extra soap. Taylor loves to scrub the tub to lengthen his bath time.
After his bath, I asked him if tomorrow he'd like to make a home page on the computer using the pictures we had taken, and put them on the web. He said yes, then added, he could see it on the web at home. He has WebTV at home, and is comfortable with the concept of web page and home page. He picked out the background, color scheme, and wrote the opening paragraph for his home page. Well, actually, he dictated it, since his keyboard skills are limited to using keys for shooting, so after he thought of what to say, how to spell it, he still had to hunt for each key. After a few words, he asked it he had to do all of this, and I took over typing from what he said to write. Then we read it back a few times to be sure it said what he wanted.
Sunday morning we spent exploring links on the web to find the three that Taylor would put on his web page. Disney of course, and Richard Scarry, then a site with pictures, sound bites and movies of Jonny Quest and Snoopy characters. Within minutes he was clicking on links, and the back key, like the best of them. With help, he downloaded an animated program that read a story from a Ridiculous Riddles book and a screensaver of The Little Mermaid, and a Bongo-playing game from George of the Jungle. He watched as the files flew from folder to folder, and announced when it was finished. He listened to the riddles many times and got up to level ten matching bongo notes in the bongo game). He discovered that the screensaver won't come on while watching, so when he wanted to see Arial, he would hide his face. Worked every time!
Sunday night was joke time. Taylor didn't notice the new computer had a microphone, and after telling some sillies, was rather shocked to hear the computer repeating his joke back to him. He immediately loved this new use of the computer, and set about recording several of his favorite jokes. You can clickHERE to listen to Taylor tell the joke about the tomatoes. Do not expect it to make sense if you are older than six.
At the end of the day, Taylor showed his budding math skills playing backgammon. As with the card games, he does it his way, and the pieces are carefully counted to the dots on the dice and the holes in his travel board, but he moves in any direction. Bedtime is story time, but when I didn't want to read his book because it was "scary", he picked one of mine. I read to him from Carl Sagan's "Contact", and we discussed barnacles until he was ready to sleep.
Anne, November 17, 1997
Page created November 17, 1997. Anne Pemberton. Updated Sun, August 30, 2009
Return to: 
HOME...Newsletter
...Staff &
Mission ... Forums
... Courses .....Mrs.
P's Links ... Professional
... Sitemap
Famous Americans ... My Own Books ... Language Arts ... Math ... Social Studies ... Science ...Music ... Holidays |