Lesson Plan: Should 4-Year-Olds Be Allowed to Run Errands Alone?
II. While Reading Activities
Word Inference
- perch |pərCH| verb [no object] (of a person) sit somewhere, especially on something high or narrow: Eve perched on the side of the armchair.
- nauseous |ˈnôSHəsˈnôzēəs| adjective affected with nausea; inclined to vomit: a rancid, cloying odor that made him nauseous.
- coax |kōks| verb [with object] persuade (someone) gradually or by flattery to do something: the trainees were coaxed into doing hard, boring work | “Come on now,” I coaxed.
- flimsy |ˈflimzē| adjective (flimsier, flimsiest) (of a pretext or account) weak and unconvincing: a pretty flimsy excuse.
- autonomy |ôˈtänəmē| noun (plural autonomies) • freedom from external control or influence; independence: economic autonomy is still a long way off for many women.
- escapade |ˈeskəˌpād| noun an act or incident involving excitement, daring, or adventure.
- daredevil |ˈderˌdevəl| noun a reckless person who enjoys doing dangerous things.
- reality show noun a television program in which ordinary people are continuously filmed, designed to be entertaining rather than informative: a reality show following young people who are trying to become professional athletes.
- tyke |tīk| (also tike) noun 1 [usually with adjective] informal a small child: is the little tyke up to his tricks again?
- *Laugh Track noun A laugh track is a separate soundtrack for a recorded comedy show containing the sound of audience laughter. In some productions, the laughter is a live audience response instead; in the United States, where it is most commonly used, the term usually implies artificial laughter made to be inserted into the show.
Sources:
New Oxford American Dictionary
*Wikipedia
Grammar Focus: Word -Recognition
Autonomy has oodles of benefits for kids of all ages. Studies have linked autonomy to long-term motivation, independence, confidence and better executive function. As a child gets older, autonomy is associated with better performance in school and a decreased risk of drug and alcohol abuse.
Reading Comprehension: Identify The Speakers
- David Lancy, anthropologist. “Learning to run errands has huge benefits to kids All around the world, little kids, even as young as ages 3 or 4, run errands for their parents. In fact, if you look across cultures, not running errands is an oddity.”
- Katrin a reader from Germany. “kids in many parts of Europe walk to school and make trips to the grocery store alone.
- Alyssa Crittenden, anthropologist, describing her research with the Hadza community. “Even youngsters who are still walking very unsteadily on their feet are conscripted [asked] by adults to hand knives, beads and food to other nearby adults.”
- Carolina Izquierdo and Elinor Ochs, anthropologists. In a study published in 2009, they described a 6-year-old girl in Peru who volunteers to join Izquierdo and another family on a five-day journey down river to fish and gather leaves.
- Dorsa Amir behavioral scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. “Autonomous play has been a really important part of child development throughout human evolutionary history. And actually, it was a feature of American society until relatively recently as well.”
- William Stixrud, neuropsychologist and Ned Johnson, educator. They write in their book The Self-Driven Child: “…when children don’t have enough autonomy, they can feel powerless over their lives…Over time, that feeling can cause stress and anxiety. In fact, lack of autonomy is likely a major reason for the high rates of anxiety and depression among American children and teenagers. Autonomy provides the antidote to this stress.”
- Holly Schiffrin, psychologist wrote in the Journal of Child and Family Studies. “The biggest gift parents can give their children is the opportunity to make their own decisions.”
- Kim Brooks, nonfiction author, wrote in a 2018 essay for The New York Times about fear in American parenting. “We now live in a country where it is seen as abnormal, or even criminal, to allow children to be away from direct adult supervision, even for a second.”
- Jessica McCrory Calarco, a sociology professor at the Indiana University. “What counts as ‘free-range parenting’ and what counts as ‘neglect’ are in the eye of the beholder — and race and class often figure heavily into such distinctions.”
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