PC-SIG: World of Education/PC-SiG's World of Education.iso/wor/disk3906.zip/PARENTS.DOC

Text File | 1993-07-10 | 8KB | 140 lines

A Word to Parents:                                     6/1/93

     Educational software is only another tool you can use in
helping your children to learn better. As with any other
educational tool, including books, your child is most interested in
working with together with you. Many parents make a big mistake in
thinking that a computer can substitute for their own attention or
that a computer will somehow magically transform their child into
a genius. It does not work this way, as the computer enthusiastic
parent soon finds out, sometimes after spending a lot of money on
little used educational software packages and CD-ROMs.

     As old saying goes: genius is nine tenths perspiration and
one tenth inspiration. It is very important for you, the
parent, to put in the required perspiration in those early years,
when your children are developing a philosophy towards the world of
letters. The harder you work early on, the easier will it be for
your children to work on their own. Some people hold an opposite
view, that children should do everything by themselves to encourage
them to be self-reliant. Unfortunately, this attitude is often used
as an excuse for inattention. Self-reliance in scholarship requires
the real confidence that only a love of learning can develop. This
love of learning is the greatest gift that you can share with your
children, and is also the best guarantee of maintaining lifelong
shared interests. Developing this bond is not automatic. It
requires hard work all around. But hard work need not be drudgery--
a little inventiveness can really make it fun.

     We have tried to make our software as open ended as possible,
not only to make it more interesting, but to allow you, the parent
to adapt it to your own home environment. Let me give you a few
examples of how it can be used by you and your children working
together:

(1) Spelling: Type in this week's spelling words in the editor. The
editor allows you to type it in the same way it appears on the
teacher's handout. Now, play the game with you at the keyboard and
your child looking over your shoulder. Set the blasting rate to a
slow speed. Have your child spell the word out as you blast each letter.
Do this until you get 100% correct. You will improve your typing
skills in the process. Then have your child turn away from the
computer and spell out each letter as you type it in. If you do not
have the sound card, say the word as it appears on the screen. The
child knows when a letter is correct because the tone sounds only
when the right letter is pressed. Do this until you get 100% and
your child will get a 100% on tomorrow's spelling test. Of course,
this is really no different from having your child spell the words
for you, but it turns a chore into an fun activity.

(2) Social Studies: Your first grader needs to know the Pledge of
Allegiance. Go into the editor and type in what you are told the
words are. Then press F10 to have the computer read it. Now go back
and make corrections and have the computer read it again. Sounds
better, right? Your child will want to press F10 a number of times.
Notice that you can have the computer read just one section by
moving the arrow keys up and down to the line you want to start
reading at. Also experiment with pressing the TAB key to make the
computer read at your own rate. Don't forget to print it out. Your
first grader will jump over to the printer to see what is coming
out.

(3) Learning Name and Personal Information: Have you child type in
the information in the editor. Help make appropriate corrections.
Type in phone numbers with spaces between them, such as 4 2 5 etc.,
so that the computer will read them as individual letters. Let your
child press F10 to hear the computer read the information. The
cursor moves to each word or number as it is read. Print it out.
Play it with the game. Do the fast typing yourself if your child
cannot keep up yet. Remember to keep things short so the game will
play better (the editor has been intentionally restricted to a
single screen to encourage concise writing and short lessons).

(4) Phonics: Type in a few rhyming words, changing the beginning or
ending consonants. Make up rhyming poems or nonsense ditties. Let
your child type in the names of comic book or story book
characters. Comic book character names use a lot of common and not
so common words, as well as compound words, which are a great way
to get into interesting phonetic debates. Put dashes between
syllables until the computer is able to read the names or multi-
syllable words correctly. You are teaching the X-Mutant how to
speak English properly! Of course do this together with your child.
Ask your child to make up the words as you write them down. You are
only limited here by your imagination.

(5) Poetry: Use the editor to make up a poem with your child
together. If you can't think of anything, copy something in from
Alice and Wonderland, such as "HOWDOTH the little crocodile," or
from Mother Goose, "Jack Sprat could eat not fat, etc." Serious
scholars might even attempt a few passages from the "Hunting of the
Snark." Remember that the things children love to read most are the
things they write together with you. Don't inundate your child with
the classics or with your own favorite poet. Poetry can only be
appreciated to the extent that it is re-invented. You study a
poet's style so to inspire yourself to develop your own style and
wit. Good poetry like a good painting is easy to recognize, it is
one which is holds your interest for an extended period of time.

     While the mark of scholarship is writing ability, I think it
is important to understand that output requires input, and the best
input is in the form of reading a wide diversity of books. So
remember to take your child to the book store every time you go to
the mall, even if you cannot afford to buy something on every
visit. Children like to sit in the stacks and read. Also remember
that a book a child buys is a book really treasured. Libraries are
important too, as many good books may be out of print, but they
should not be the only source of reading material available to your
children. To go along with your neighborhood shareware library, why
not initiate a children's book store in your community center,
using donated and surplus books. Only when your children and your
neighbors' children develop a love of books, will they get the most
out of computers, and this program as well.

Thank you very much, and good mutations!

Thomas R. Lacey, Ph.D.
President

P.S. Please register X-Mutant Word Blaster and receive an upgrade
to the latest version. The new version 5.0 allows you to make up
multiple choice type questions. A clue word is given in the
dialog box on the bottom of the screen. Alternative choices are
dropped all at the same time by multiple invading space craft.
Only one of the choices is the correct target. The others are decoys.
This can be used for studying synonyms and antonyms, word definitions,
teaching phonics, or just about anything else.

Also available is X-Mutant Math Fun. This program allows you
to mix numbers and words together in problems you design yourself.
It can be used to memorize multiplication tables or for
improving the ability to comprehend a math problem as it is read aloud,
word by word. The format is similar to X-Mutant Word Blaster, but
the game has been changed to do math and logic problems.

Please print out order form in help section of program.

Remember, mutant minds are creatively self-educating!