Seriously, what is wrong with some of you people. It is a fun little song. Who cares if it produces some profound and life long appreciation of the ethnographic influences of Bulgarian cheese manufacturing on chimp trading in Mongolia. Why get your stuff in a twist? Are you seriously jealous of a three year who can perform a parlor trick?
Also, rote memorization is of value. Knowing the order of the presidents is essentially useless, just as knowing the "Alphabet of Nations" is, in a practical sense, useless. That is not the point. What is of value is establishing the neural pathways that facilitate the development of more complex memory functions. More importantly it is fun.
My kids love to sing this song, it is one of our favorite car ride chanties. I don't think TMBG were setting out to get five year olds onto Jeopardy. Its a cd about the Alphabet for cripes sake. They were just engaging in fun little mind game and rhyming some really nutty words. The follow up to singing this song for us is, "Ok everbody now its time for the Alphabet of Foods or the Alphabet of Farm Animals." Not trying to make geniuses just trying to get to grandma's house.
As the father of a remarkable five year old girl, this is a book I am keen to buy (or win) and use. As you might expect, my daughter is one of the few stars that light my life. Furthermore, I think I can say without fear of contradiction, that as far as she is concerned, I set the moon.
As a father, I take very seriously my obligation to help my daughter realize that she should never limit her aspirations. She is in that rare place where her dreams about her own potential are clear and unconstrained. Among other things we have spent time hammering nails; fixing a faucet; creating a board game; watching a partial lunar eclipse; collecting morning dew; learning to play (or make a tremendous amount of noise with) the drums and electric guitar; making baking soda rockets; making paper; writing and filming a movie; and learning to throw a frisbee. During each of these events, my daughter invariable intones, "Daddy, I could never do that by myself before!" This expression of sincere amazement and exhilaration always makes me dizzy with love.
So I am unable to identify one memory as the most remarkable. It is instead those recurrent experiences of watching my daughter identify more things that she can do, explore, know, or achieve. It is those recurrent experiences of knowing that I had a hand in making her growing world of opportunity and amazement just a little bit bigger.
Also, rote memorization is of value. Knowing the order of the presidents is essentially useless, just as knowing the "Alphabet of Nations" is, in a practical sense, useless. That is not the point. What is of value is establishing the neural pathways that facilitate the development of more complex memory functions. More importantly it is fun.
My kids love to sing this song, it is one of our favorite car ride chanties. I don't think TMBG were setting out to get five year olds onto Jeopardy. Its a cd about the Alphabet for cripes sake. They were just engaging in fun little mind game and rhyming some really nutty words. The follow up to singing this song for us is, "Ok everbody now its time for the Alphabet of Foods or the Alphabet of Farm Animals." Not trying to make geniuses just trying to get to grandma's house.
As a father, I take very seriously my obligation to help my daughter realize that she should never limit her aspirations. She is in that rare place where her dreams about her own potential are clear and unconstrained. Among other things we have spent time hammering nails; fixing a faucet; creating a board game; watching a partial lunar eclipse; collecting morning dew; learning to play (or make a tremendous amount of noise with) the drums and electric guitar; making baking soda rockets; making paper; writing and filming a movie; and learning to throw a frisbee. During each of these events, my daughter invariable intones, "Daddy, I could never do that by myself before!" This expression of sincere amazement and exhilaration always makes me dizzy with love.
So I am unable to identify one memory as the most remarkable. It is instead those recurrent experiences of watching my daughter identify more things that she can do, explore, know, or achieve. It is those recurrent experiences of knowing that I had a hand in making her growing world of opportunity and amazement just a little bit bigger.