“Sue Sue Suedio!”
May, 14, 2011
I just read that there are lawsuits against the program “Your Baby Can Read”. I was excited to see that because I just bought the Program “Your Baby Can Sue”! That’s good timing on my part.
I also read where lots of people were complaining that those Baby Einstein videos didn’t make their kid smarter! Some people where even looking into law suits. (This is the truth)
Seriously? You’re going to blame the tapes? I’d love to be in that court room.
“Your honor! Look at my baby over there! The one eating the crayon. I let him watch Baby Einstein for 7 hours a day for three months! And he’s not like Einstein at all! Notice his hair isn’t sticking up all crazy-like! And it doesn’t remotely look white! He’s not talking with a German accent. He cant even do simple math! Watch! Hey, Billy Jim! What’s 8 plus 4! See… nothing! He’s not saying 11. He’s just staring at us…looking for another crayon! Probably doesn’t even know what’s going on. No 13 year old should be like that! I want my 9 dollars back…and an extra million…for crayons.”
Look, if you want your kid to be smart you have to be involved. You have to take charge and teach them things. I do this with my two younger boys. I cant really help Colter anymore because he’s in the 6th grade and I’m not going to go back and relearn all that stuff. But you need to get involved!
Speaking of, last week I noticed that Colter has the same History book that I had when I was in school, or at-least its the same cover. I never really looked INSIDE my History book when I was in school. So, I dont know if the content is the same but I’m pretty sure it is. The book ends with the announcement of our new president, Jimmy Carter, and I remember hearing about that the last week of my first 5th grade year.
Anyway, my son was studying the Louisiana Purchase which reminded me of a valuable lesson I learned in school. Unfortunately it wasn’t about the Louisiana Purchase. I learned that confidence will carry you a long way! I remember my teacher saying, “Bob, tell us about the Louisiana purchase.” I quickly replied, “Uh…ok. According to the text book in 1813 Monroe Louisiana made a purchase of all the land belonging to Michael Doctrine…written up in the ‘Monroe /Doctrine’ that we will read about later in our text book…I dont want to jump too far ahead. But when Monroe Louisiana bought all that land for such a bargain price it resulted in what is now known as the ‘Louisiana purchase’.” I then smiled with confidence!
Instead of correcting me, the teacher started flipping through the text book going, “What? That’s not what I remembered!” She eventually found out I was wrong but the lesson stayed with me…the lesson about having confidence that is. I still dont know what the Louisiana purchase was all about. Maybe my son can tell me about it one day.
This also got me to thinking about History. History is really changing and not just because the way CNN is reporting it. I remembering studying WW2 when I was in school. It was the only History lesson I was really into because my grandfather told me his own personal stories about it. This got me to thinking, what war stories will I tell my grandkids?
“Listen up kids. In 2004 the great war between Paris… Hilton and Nicole Richie began. It was a dark time for our country. Sister was fighting sister! Many shots were drank, black mascara ran thick, and many tiny dogs were left behind unattended in their hand bags.”
Or I guess I could go with, “There I was in a fox hole with the enemy closing in. My heart was pounding. My throat was dry. So I paused the Wii remote and took a sip of my red bull. I switched to my grenade launcher and took out the entire fleet of zombies!”
No matter what, its not as interesting as my grandfather’s stories. So I’m not sure what my grandkids will study in school but I do know that if I’m still around I will be involved. Its up to us to raise our families…not some video, not some youth leader, not our government…have you seen the post office? You want that taking care of you when you’re old?
So my challenge to you this month is to go be a great mom or dad! (note: That is, if you have kids all ready…dont go make some just because I challenged you to do this) And if you’re a grandparent, go be the best one you can be! You can always TIVO wheel of fortune for later!