Bringing up children. Praise and punishment Task 1. Read and translate the text and answer the questions after it.

Bringing up children. Praise and punishment
Task 1. Read and translate the text and answer the questions after it.

Rules and childhood
All children need rules to know the difference between right and wrong. Parents make house rules for a lot of reasons - to make sure the family is safe, to organize family life and to teach their children how to behave well. Most parents want to teach their children how to live happily in the world and to be able to get on well with other people.

There are some general rules that can improve family life. Family members should:
- avoid aggressive behaviour such as hitting, pushing or kicking;
- ask before borrowing things and return things in good condition;
- take care of the home and the things in it;
- talk about problems and arguments in a nice way to try and make things right.

Specific rules are necessary as children grow up because they start to do more things on their own. Very young children are usually under the direct control of their parents. But school children spend some of their time with friends, and parents must make sure that their children know how to behave when they are not at home. For example, children should wear a proper seat belt when they travel in another person's car, they should be polite, and they shouldn't talk to strangers.

To help children to learn self-discipline, parents make certain house rules, for example:
- healthy eating such as a good breakfast and eating lots of fruit and vegetables;
- always do homework in a relaxed way after school and not late at night or just before school;
- keep their bedroom neat and tidy and also put their clothes in the wardrobe.

Ideally, parents should make rules that are easy to introduce and to follow. But most of all, children will always refer to and rely on what they learnt at home in a safe and caring environment.

1) Is it necessary for parents to introduce rules for children at home? Explain your opinion.2) What rules can improve family life? 3) What rules can help children to learn self-discipline?

Task 2. Complete the sentences with one word from the text in each gap. Do this task in written form.

1) Parents want their children to communicate well and … with other people in life. 2) Parents make house … to protect their children from danger. 3) In your family, you should … aggressive behaviour. 4) Every … member has to take care of things they share at home. 5) Parents of very young children under their …. 6) It's important not to rush homework and do it in a … way. 7) Parents want their children to eat … food. 8) When parents make rules, it's important that they are … to introduce and follow. 9) It is important for parents to teach their children how to take care of themselves when they are on their … or with friends. 10) Parents teach children not … to people they don't know. 11) It's the child's responsibility … their bedroom tidy.

Task 3. Read the text and answer the questions after it.

Bringing up a better baby
Bringing up children very much depends on schools they attend. Good schools make good citizens. The role of a teacher is of great importance in this process. Nowadays the teacher's aim is to develop child's character. Teachers try to teach pupils about right and wrong, they also must prepare children for their future careers. You, as a would-be-teacher, must educate children to read, write and count properly. They should have more art, music and games on the timetable to become well-educated people with a sense of beauty. And the aim of any school is to pass on knowledge from one generation to another.

Bringing up a better baby (and goodbye Dr. Spock) Part I
Dr. Benjamin Spock, the famous American pediatrician, reassured several generations of anxious parents in his best selling Baby and Child Care. He wrote: "Your baby is born to be a reasonable friendly human being". Today's parents aren't sure this is enough. There is a growing number of American professional parents with obsessive ambitions for their children. They are dedicating their lives to creating brilliant children. The Age of Spock is over! Why have a merely "normal" baby when you can have an improved model, a Better Baby? In the world of baby care, common sense has given way to competition.

The Better Baby Institute: This was founded by an American called Glenn Doman. Four to six times a year the Institute opens its doors to a group of about eighty parents who have paid $490 for a seven-day seminar entitled "How to multiply your baby's intelligence". After studying children for over forty years, Doman has developed an apparently brilliant, internally consistent, and completely idiosyncratic brand of science that commingles development psychology, neurology and anthropology. He introduces the parents to his "89 Cardinal Facts for Making Any Baby into a Superb Human Being."

Cardinal Fact #6: "Our individual genetic potential is that of Leonardo da Vinci, Mozart, Michelangelo, Edison and Einstein".
Doman claims that up until the age of six, when brain growth slows, a child's intellectual and physical abilities will increase in direct proportion to stimulation. Thus any child, given the proper stimuli, can become the next Leonardo.

Cardinal Fact #26: "Tiny kids would rather learn than eat".
Doman claims that they'd rather learn Greek than baby talk, since higher orders of complexity offer more stimulation. He makes the average adult seem like a tree sloth in comparison with a two-year-old. "Every kid", he asserts, "learns better that every adult". Parents at the Better Baby Institute learn to regard their mewling puking infants not so much with respect as awe.

It doesn't matter if it is a boy or a girl; the question is now one of technique. Can parents spoil a baby? How can parents create the kind of brain growth that leads to expertise in reading, maths, gymnastics, and the like? Are there any common rules?

Excessive Competitiveness: Recently the problem of the volume of educational material for babies to be comprehended has occupied the leading position. To be more precise, the borderline between compulsory and essential material is vague. Parents want their kids to be "prodigies" and start to "stuff" them with all kinds of information to be devoured. Grown-ups forget about the fact that educational games are aimed at helping child to adapt to the surrounding world. The idea of bringing up a perfect child is unrealistic. The most important thing to remember is that there is no one correct way of bringing up a child…

Bringing up a better baby (and goodbye Dr. Spock) Part II
The question of technique how to do it is an acute one now. The main task of any kindergarten teacher is to arrange all conditions so that a child could feel at home and get ready and adapted for the surrounding world. We, parents, are to help them despite our constant lack of time, because they are our children and our future.

Say you want to teach your six-month-old now to read. Write down a series of short, familiar words in large, clear letters on flashcards. Show the cards to your infant five or six times a day, simultaneously reciting the word written on each one. With his extraordinary retentive powers he'll soon be learning hundreds of words, then phrases. The idea is to try to treat the baby's mind as a sponge. By the age of three, Doman guarantees, your child will be entertaining himself and amazing your friends by reading "everything in sight". In like manner he can learn to perform staggering mathematical stunts, or to distinguish and thoughtfully analyze the works of the Great Masters or the classical composers.

Doman declines to prove his claims to the scientific community; he's happy, he says, as long as parents are convinced. These Professional Mothers (it is usually the mother) turn out to be paragons. Attractive young Mrs. Di Battista printed up 9,000 flashcards for five-year-old Michael. Stout, solemn Mrs. Pereira patiently explained that she "took time off" from her all-day routine of teaching eleven-year-old Josh to devote several weeks exclusively to making Josh's French and Spanish flashcards for the coming year. Wasn't Josh lonely? "No", his proud mother replied. He was "socially excellent". What does Dr. Benjamin Spock think of the better baby phenomenon? Like most octogenarians he thinks the world has gone to hell, he argues that competitive pressures are taking a psychic toll on most Americans, especially young people, and blames "excessive competitiveness" for the extraordinary rise in teenage suicide over the last twenty years. Efforts to improve infants' cognitive abilities only prove to him that the scramble for success has finally invaded the cradle.

1) Have you ever thought of the problem "How to bring up a better baby?" What ideas have you got? 2) What's your opinion about useful techniques of educating a better child? 3) What difficulties are there in upbringing boys and girls, sons and daughters? 4) What should we teach kids beginning with their early age? 5) Should parents try to teach their children before they go to school? 6) Should a child be allowed to do anything he likes when he is ill? 7) Should parents help their children with their homework? 8) What is more important in the process of upbringing: school (teachers, collective) or home (parents) background? 9) What home atmosphere encourages a child's development?

Grammar (Conditional sentences)
Упражнение 1. Поставьте глаголы в скобках в нужную форму
1. The trains all (stop) … if it snowed heavily. 2. If you (go out) … in cold weather without a coat, you would catch a cold. 3. If I saw a cheap second- hand car, I (buy) … it. 4. If you ate well and exercised regularly, you (live) … 100 years. 5. You would have had stomach ache if you (eat) … too much of that cake. 6. If it (rain) … this afternoon, I (take)… my umbrella. 7. If you did not drive carefully, you (have) … an accident. 8. If you (study) … for a higher qualification, you (get) … a better job next year. 9. If you sent the letter by first class mail, it (get) … there the following day. 10. If the weather is fine, we (go) for a picnic.

Упражнение 2. Завершите следующие предложения.
1. I'll ask him to lend me the money (если я вижу его). 2. You'll be late (если не поедете на автобусе). 3. Will you help me (если мне нужна будет ваша помощь)? 4. I'd lend you the money (если бы у меня были деньги). 5. If I had her address (я бы дал вам его). 6. If they had gone by car, (они бы сэкономили время). 7. If my mother won a million pounds, (она бы потратила их очень быстро). 8. If I had more time, (я бы прочитал больше книг). 9. (если я буду чувствовать себя хорошо), I'll be in class tomorrow. 10. He would have come to the party last Sunday (если бы его пригласили).

Упражнение 3. Раскройте скобки, употребляя глаголы в соответствующей форме.
1. If I (to have) this rare book, I should gladly lend it to you. 2. The dish would have been much more tasty if she (to be) a better cook. 3. He never (to phone) you if I hadn't reminded him to do that. 4. Your brother (to become) much stronger if he took cold baths regularly. 5. If he (to be) more courageous, he would not be afraid. 6. If the fisherman had been less patient, he (not to catch) so much fish. 7. If you (to put) the ice-cream into the refrigerator, it would not have melted. 8. If I (to know) the result now, I would phone her immediately. 9. If you had let me know yesterday, I (to bring) you my book. 10. If it (to snow), the children will play snowballs.

Homework
Read and discuss the text. Answer the questions after the text.

Praise and Punishment Go Hand in Hand

Beverly called me last week, upset by her son Scott's recent activities. Without going into the details, let me say this included a big party in the woods, alcohol, marijuana, lots of kids, cars and more.

As she provided more details about the event she said two things that caught my attention. First, Scott had called his parents for help. He wanted them to help extricate him from the situation that actually showed good judgement. And Scott is adamant that his younger brother does not know what he did wrong to get into this trouble.

Beverly had called to ask me what kind of punishment should be implemented. While I don't make recommendations like that, I told her that I see an opportunity for praise and for punishment. The praise part really surprised her.

It is just important to tell your teenager what she/he is doing right, as what she/he is doing wrong. In the areas of discipline and limits, our job as parent takes on a new dimension in the teen years. We don't want to be the ones to make judgements, the goal is to have our kids learn to make good judgements on their own. Praise for good decisions, even in bad situations like this, is very important. It not only provides helpful feedback, it can take the sting out of an unpleasant conversation. This way your discussion becomes more of an objective teaching opportunity. Beverly swears Scott really is a "good kid," so the tone of the conversation is important. If you come down too hard you may create a teen that sneaks behind your back more and begins to fulfil negative expectations.

As for the punishment, one strategy that often works in situations like this is to ask the teenager what he thinks an appropriate punishment would be. Many times teens will recommend a harsher punishment than you would have.

Remember this - praise and punishment go hand in hand. Even when the situation includes serious misjudgements, look for what your teen did that was right, and praise that.

1) Should parents punish their children? If yes, in which cases?

2) What are the best ways, in your opinion, to praise and to punish children?

3) Should teachers punish their students? If yes, in which way?

4) Do you agree that praise makes children be more interested in learning?

5) What do you think about the statement "Praise in public, punish in private"?

Task 1. Find in the text, translate and learn by heart the following words and word combinations:

1) не вдаваясь в подробности, 2) привлечь чьё-либо внимание, 3) суждение / рассудительность, 4) быть непреклонным, 5) применить наказание, 6) цель, 7) ответная реакция, 8) клясться, 9) делать исподтишка, 10) ошибочное суждение / недооценка.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-04