Building Excitement
Think of your daughter's future in increments of five years. Envision her proceeding through her school years — at five, ten, fifteen, and twenty years of age — so smoothly that she will excel in many subjects, gain knowledge to the best of her ability, and enjoy the whole process. That is your underlying goal: to help her soar in scholastics and develop her character. To achieve your goal, be willing to provide her with every opportunity possible.
Character Triumphs
Character trumps academics every time. For that reason, teach your daughter about it constantly and stress its significance, but not only at home. Also make sure she receives many fine character lessons at your house of worship. Every time you notice her showing signs of inner strength and integrity, praise your girl.
Having a good character and high morals, however, does not automatically equal future career success. It is most important for her as she goes through life, and if and when she has her own family. But even the strongest value system should be enhanced by strong school skills. To have your girl's inner beauty and backbone underlined by her brilliance should be on your agenda. That combination will definitely make your daughter the complete package.
Fact
Noah Webster (1758–1843) was a pioneer in the field of dictionaries. A man of many and varied interests, he spent more than twenty years studying and researching the English language and compiling spelling books. He ranks as the greatest of American lexicographers (writers of dictionaries).
A Home Library
To facilitate this goal and make it fun, buy these three books and set them on a table in your den, living room, or kitchen — wherever you and your daughter spend the most time:
An unabridged — that is, not condensed — dictionary recommended for older students, preferably of high school age
An atlas of the United States and the world, plus a globe if space permits
A thesaurus (a book containing synonyms, words with similar meanings; and antonyms, words with opposite meanings)
Now the academic excitement can begin. Use these books like board games and have your daughter delve into them several times a week. Circle new words in the newspaper and have her find the definitions.
Another great option is to play Home Travel Channel with your daughter. Every time she hears a city or country mentioned anywhere, ask her to find it in the atlas. After that, play word treasure hunt. Mention a simple word like go, and ask your girl to list all the words that have the same meaning, such as move, drift, flow, travel, or sashay. Then look in the thesaurus with her to see if she missed anything. Soon she will return the favor and laugh when you have to scramble for words that escape you. You daughter will find it exciting to best you with word games of her own invention. She may make up an impossible word list for you to memorize or even invent a new language. The excitement that builds with each little academic activity will be contagious.
The Library as Home
From the time you start reading to your daughter, take her with you to the public library, so that by the time she is three or four, she will feel at home there. Help her discover a quiet corner in that building that she can call her nook and will gravitate to as if it were in her own home.
Alert
Never treat the public library as a babysitter. Sadly and too frequently, some parents have dropped their little girls off at the public library during a teacher workday only to find that this location can be a magnet for all kinds of people of questionable character or intent.
Once your daughter feels welcome at the public library or a “commercial” one — otherwise known as the mega bookstore in the mall — she can settle in and flip through the pages of a children's book. Later she will scan several “chapter” books by a favorite author before settling on one to read immediately and saving the others for later.
As soon as your girl is old enough, make sure she gets her own library card. Besides letting her browse in the fiction section in search of more thrilling stories, tell her about the American librarian Melvil Dewey (1851–1931). He invented the Dewey Decimal System that divides all publications into ten major areas, from encyclopedias, to engineering books, to essays, and so forth.
Fact
The Library of Congress is the oldest U.S. federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world. It houses more than 130 million items and more than 530 miles of bookshelves. Besides books, it has millions of recordings, photos, maps, and rare manuscripts and is an exciting place for girls to visit in Washington, D.C. Recently it has also begun storing tweets, messages sent on the well-known Twitter media network.
At home, help your daughter organize her growing book collection, according to her own system. The more she bonds with her books, the more excited she will be to read voraciously. Mark Twain said, “The person who does not read has no advantage over the person who cannot read.” You want your daughter to have every advantage possible.
Alleviate School Fears
Just as you familiarize your daughter with the library, do the same with her school, so that she is ready to learn without being scared, which could limit her capacity for absorbing new knowledge. A 2006 survey conducted by guidance counselors in several states revealed that girls, no matter what age, have similar fears about starting school, transitioning from one school system to another, or advancing from elementary to middle school.
These fears center on:
Not knowing any other children
Forgetting their books or locker combinations
Getting lost in a much larger building
Even elementary schools vary greatly in size, and middle schools are often two or three times the size of an elementary school. High schools top that in size. So ask your girl what fears, if any, she might have and then ease them. Only then can the academic excitement you have created in your daughter at home continue at school. It should also permeate the way she tackles the assignments she receives as homework.
