Archive for February, 2008

Kids and Television — Episode I: Huh?

Surfing the social intarweb I came upon a link to a cute little video of a three year old girl explaining the plot of Star Wars from her own perspective. As you can imagine it was something both completely predictable (as in you knew it was going to be a cute kid pulling random details from the story and over-simplifying) and entirely surprising (in that ‘kids say the darndest things’ — possibly, trademarked). Immediately a thought crossed my mind resembling something along the lines of ’sweet! I can’t wait until MY daughter can do that.’

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Full text from February 27, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: Encounters of the Mind

2 Comments

Avoiding the Rip Cord

As I write this I’m sitting on the floor of the living room in my pajamas struggling to find that internal parental peace that will prevent me from jumping in and rescuing my daughter from her struggles. She’s a few muscle-fibers short of being able to prop herself into a crawling position and in an effort to do so she is performing failed, faux push-ups and bemoaning the fact with an ongoing vocal tirade that is enough to drive me some sort of intervention. But in the name of all things ‘independence’ I resist, and so I’m distracting myself with a blog post.

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Full text from February 24, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: Skepdad thoughts, The Three Eyes

Toys for (Really) Young Scientists, Bug Jug

I think it would be fair to say that I have something of an askew fascination with insects. Having (unofficially) minored in entomology in university, I took every undergraduate course offered by the school filling the gaps in my schedule left whilst studying the arguably less critter-filled world of molecular genetics. Had I been gutsy enough to pursue the passion over the practical (a conversation for another day) I might today be writing a more scientific exploration of some rare lepidopteran mating habit instead of a sure-to-be overlooked fluff editorial on plush, bug-shaped children’s toys. But, alas, such is life. And being in the curious position of father, writer, and science-buff I thought it useful to put otherwise wasted talents to better gain and continue the mission of bringing critical thought to the next generation by looking at my own experiences locating toys for aspiring scientists.

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Full text from February 12, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: Encounters of the Mind, Reasoned Education

2 Comments

“Is reading aloud even optional?” Part 1

I’ve been trying to dig up some real research on the topic of reading aloud to kids, positive or negative. Other than a few vague correlational analysis there does not seem to be much scientific literature online about this either way. (Perhaps a reader could point me in the right direction. I thought I was adept at searching, but I’m stumped on this one.) Alas…

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Full text from February 11, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: Encounters of the Mind, Reasoned Education

2 Comments

I just wanna be…

… the dad who can lay back on the summer grass with his starry-eyed kid and not just answer her questions about the planets, galaxies, and random mysteries of quantum physics, but who can also inspire an persistent and probing curiosity about the universe in a young mind.

… the dad who knows why bugs have six legs and spiders have eight, and encourages his kids to come home with a jar full of crawlies so he can explain the local ecosystem and why we need to set the bugs free when we’re done.

… the dad who can build a mean snow fort.

… the dad who doesn’t buy his kids ’stuff’ to make-up, replace, or apologize for anything, but rather comes home with a sheath of paper and a rainbow of coloured pencils to spend a Saturday afternoon side-by-side laying on the living room floor tracing random shapes and abstract arts onto a hundred sheets of paper.

… the dad who avoids the easy-route of plugging in a head-rest DVD, and instead sings ridiculous songs in the car, negotiates the countryside with observational narratives, and carves away hours with dozens of meandering games that point out the colour of the passing vehicles or silly words extracted from the letters of license plates.

… the dad who knows the lyrics to all the crazy kid’s songs.

… the dad who can invent elaborate and entertaining fictions from the lives of his kids, mixing, blending, and extrapolating elements of their personalities and realities into playful narratives to be enjoyed under the safety of their blankets and explored as they drift off to sleep.

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Full text from February 5, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: Skepdad thoughts

To Shampoo or Not to Shampoo… ?

My wife was kind enough to point me towards a news article (appearing from various news sources) today about a supposed connection between baby care products such as shampoos, lotions, and powders and a common — though marginally studied — group of chemicals known as phthalates. I started scanning some of these alarmist-style news reports and immediately was struck by the typical “ohmygods the sky is falling” reaction of some — many — of the articles.

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Full text from February 4, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: Encounters of the Mind

1 Comment

The skep/dad blog is a place for rational, science-minded fathers to express their thoughts, opinions, and ideas about bringing up kids to be critical thinking adults in a world filled with superstition, mysticism, and pseudoscience.
Brad adds: As of October 2007, I'm soliciting interest for skeptics in the Edmonton, Alberta, Canada area who are interested in forming a skeptical society to contact me. Please do so through this blog or via Facebook (through the Edmonton Skeptical Society Group).

Or visit our new website: www.edmontonskeptics.org
When through indifference, inattention, incompetence, or fear of skepticism we discourage children from science, we are disenfranchising them, taking from them the tools needed to manage their future.
- Dr. Carl Sagan