TODDLERS GET TUTORS FOR AN EXTRA EARLY EDGE

NOTE TO SELF: What ever happened to childhood?

As a grandparent this strikes me as too much, too soon but obviously parents don't think so.

Call it kindercramming. These days one of the fastest-growing markets for after-school tutors is preschoolers and kindergartners, whose parents are hoping that if their kids learn to read before first grade, it will ultimately help them get into college and get good jobs. Anxious moms and dads are no longer satisfied with traditional nursery school, which many see as a glorified romper room that focuses too much on learning through play. And of course, after years of Baby Einstein marketing, some parents have become convinced that the more math and reading skills their tots master, the better. Srinivas Rao, a veterinarian in Columbia, Md., began sending his daughter Sanjana to after-school tutoring last summer, shortly before her third birthday. To his delight, he soon found she could not only count the 14 dots on her homework work sheet but also write 14 beside them. "I didn't think kids could just learn that overnight," he marvels.

Read the entire story here: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1686826,00.html

What happened to the "good, old days" when children stayed home with a parent or grandparent and played with toys? While it's admirable to want to offer your child the best upbringing, perhaps let them be children first?

MERRIAM-WEBSTER GETS WORDY

NOTE TO SELF: Pick up some agnolotti for supper

Perhaps you or someone you know participated in speed dating recently followed by a date where microgreens were eaten. If Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary is any indication, words like agnolotti (meaning: "pasta in the form of semicircular cases containing a filling (as of meat, cheese, or vegetables") or speed dating ("an event at which each participant converses individually with all the prospective partners for a few minutes in order to select those with whom dates are desired") will become part of our everyday vocabulary.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary updates its Collegiate dictionary every year with "new words, senses and variants." The word "ginormous" (meaning: extremely large, humungous) was one of 100 neolisms or the use of new words or senses of existing words added. Here are twenty out of the list of the 100 mentioned on their site:

1. agnolotti
2. Bollywood
3. chaebol
4. crunk
5. DVR
6. flex-cuff
7. ginormous
8. gray literature
9. hardscape
10. IED
11. microgreen
12. nocebo
13. perfect storm
14. RPG
15. smackdown
16. snowboardcross
17. speed dating
18. sudoku
19. telenovela
20. viewshed

Without going to their site, http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/newwords07.htm how many do you know without having to check on the meaning? A better challenge is how many can you use in one sentence?

Meanwhile, I'm feeling very crunk-ish due to all the microgreens I ate.