Future Suggested Reading Material

So I've been talking a lot lately about reading to the LAB and, like I said, if doing this is nothing more than a way for my mind to stay occupied while he grows in there; and maybe for him to start recogonizing my voice, then I'm more than OK with that.

Once he gets out though, that's another story.

I don't plan on being one of those parents like Rick Moranis in "Parenthood" who's teaching his daughter Spanish at six months of age, but I do believe there's a great disconnect in what we teach our children at an early age and what they're capable of: call it the death of the Count (from Sesame Street... remember him?)

Just last week looking through the shelves of a local store I found heaps upon piles upon mounds of books for little kids that taught them how to read, how to speak, and how to write. I even saw one teaching kids sign language. Nowhere in there did I see anything even remotely related to math or science.

Now before you start laughing, yes, I know that my profession (Nerd) pre-disposes me toward this opinion, but I really do believe there's room for more math and science in our kid's educational diets than they get right now outside of the classroom. I think there were some fine television examples when I was younger that maybe still exist, but if they do I haven't been able to find any of them so far. Remember any of these from your younger days?

3-2-1 Contact
Square One
Mr. Wizard

While I applaud Bill Nye "The Science Guy" for his contributions I still think there's room for so much more, especially in the literary end of things. Some ideas I've thought about recently:

Project books for kids along the lines of "scientific paper dolls" where kids get lessons on science and technology in ways they could understand. (I learned what makes airplanes fly by building hundreds of different shaped paper ones, and learned about air pressure by stringing straws, with baloons attached, across my living room, so maybe things like that). Basically, I want to take math and science ideas and make them accessible to kids at an earlier age- something I think could definitely be done. Call it Physics for Five-year-olds, or Engineering for Eight-year-olds.

Children's fiction with a math/ science tilt. Anyone out there remember "The Adventures of Encylopedia Brown"? These were collections of short, ten or so page, stories that were written in a mystery novel type setting and were easliy my favorite books. Not just then. Ever. It was the one time in my life that reading ever really held a great sense of adventure and possibility for me. At the end of each story there was a one page conclusion in the back of the book that gave the "solution" to the mystery; one that could be logically deduced from the contents of the story itself. What about taking that same idea and juggling it into a math and science-based set of "solutions"?

Like I said, I know part of this is me "looking out for my boy" and another part of me is just a math-happy nerd who wants everyone else to come over to the dark side. But part of me really does believe this is possible.

Anyone who has seen some great resources like the ones I've described above please let me know. I'd love to get my hands on some copies. Maybe I'll even share them with the LAB... eventually.