Our little excursion today involved two places. The book store and the Asian grocery. For the very first time in my life, I was in the book store not only for someone else, but a child. A 20 month old girl. My niece. I don’t think I’ve even mentioned my niece before, but I suppose I never had much of a reason to until today. I mainly mention her to help put my coming rant into context. Yes, I am going to rant a bit, so be prepared.

My initial interest in getting Amy a book was because my sister was telling me how she thinks Amy is going to be intelligent (which is a family trait, but not entirely pervasive, did I say that?….lol). Amy can count to 10, knows her ABC’s (although she can’t recite them in order), and she generally has a very inquisitive nature. She is not only very observant of the world around her, but also is always asking questions all the time. Maybe I just don’t know a lot about children, but that seems very good for a 20 month old child. So, I felt the urge to appeal to her inquisitiveness and go the the book store to see what I could find. Note that she lives 900 miles away, so I can’t just drive over to see her.

I only went to one book store, but it was a well known big book store. I should probably try some more places, but I have a big gripe I want to air. Almost all the children’s books were a bunch of fru-fru fairy & dragon books, or some other story that teaches them social rules and conformity. I finally found the science and “reality” book section, and I was very disappointed in the selection. While there were a few interesting books, most were “eh” and oriented more for children in grade school. Why can’t we start teaching – really teaching- children useful information about science and math early on? And why must a lot of the “reality” books be boring and drab when the fantasy books have neat pictures and maps for the children to look at. Children are very visual. Heck, even now I am a very visual person. Did that book store just not cater to this audience? If so, is that becuase parent’s just aren’t going to buy their children books like that? This is a disturbing question.

Children need to learn more than their colors and zoo animals. Counting to 10 by the time you reach preschool seems like a low goal. And, when I was in preschool at the age of 3, I don’t remember many useful lessons, only finger paint. Sheesh. Learning can be fun, colorful, and much more interesting than fairy-tales and dragons BECAUSE IT’S REAL.It’s only boring if presented that way. Children are very attentive to the moods of their parents and other influential people in their lives because it is a way for their growing brains to pick up on social ques and learn about what will benefit them or harm them. Of course this is almost all done in the subconscious, and I feel many adults forgot how easily children pick up on habits, behaviors, and though processes of the adults around them. Kind of scary if you really start to think about it. If their parents and/or teachers belittle science or think it’s boring, the child will likely follow suit.

QB and I don’t plan on having children, but I now have a definite interest in showing my neice how neat and exciting the real world can be. Science IS exciting. Space IS fascinating. And, life can be much more interesting and meaningful when you ARE NOT taught that maybe fairies really are in the garden. I would also never tell a child Santa Clause is real. GRRRRR. Sure, children can read these books; I am not arguing for these types of books to be taken away. I am just arguing that the importance and reliance on this books shift. Context people.

No wonder the educational system in our country is lacking compared to other industrial nations. People are just not teaching their children, and the schools can only compensate for the lack of parental involvement (or inadequate involvement) when their curriculum is, at best, par for the course.

Oh, and don’t even get me started about the creationism problem we have in the USA right now. I don’t want to put myself in a foul mood all day long thinking about that fairy-tale dribble.

So, since my niece wants to learn, I am going to make sure I help provide neat and informational tools to help her learn. Part of me wishes I was closer, but that’s a whole different issue. I did find one book that I think is good. It’s a bit over her head with the reading, but my sister should be able to help her with that. The book also has many greatly colored intricate pictures. I feel like the book hits on many major scientific topics (albeit briefly, but I am going for exposure not details), and will be a book she can not only “grow into” but also a book she will hopefully be fascinated at looking though before she can read it all by herself.

I will go ahead and share the book in case any of you out there have a young child you know. I am very pleased with this book (but my exposure to children’s books is admittedly low), and I feel like it would work for a variety of ages. When Googling this book to find a picture (I don’t want to link to amazon, that just feels icky) for y’all, I discovered this book is part of a group of books like this by the same people. Amy is going to be getting all of these books over the next year or two. But, I will still be on the lookout for other great children’s books and I will gladly take suggestions.