Einstein Never Used Flash Cards: How Our Children Really Learn-- And Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less [Hardcover]

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek Ph.D. (Author), Roberta Michnick Golinkoff (Author), Diane Eyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2003

Play Is Back

Reassuring to parents and educators, Einstein Never Used Flash Cards shows why-- and how-- to step away from the cult of achievement and toward a more nurturing home life full of imaginative play and love of learning.

Here's the message that stressed-out parents are craving to hear: It's okay to play!

In fact, it's more than just okay-- it's better than drilling academics. After decades of research, scientists and child development experts have come to a clear conclusion: Play is the best way for our children to learn.

Children who are prematurely pushed into regimented academic instruction display less creativity and enthusiasm for learning than their peers

Children who memorize isolated facts early in life show no better long-term retention than their peers.

Children who learn through play also develop social and emotional skills, which are critical for long-term success.

Somewhere along the line, we've gotten off track by stressing academic products and programs to our preschoolers. Thankfully, Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Dr. Roberta Michnick Golinkoff have a simple remedy for our children that is based on overwhelming scientific evidence from their own studies and the collective research results of child development experts.

Einstein Never Used Flash Cards goes beyond debunking the myths spread by the accelerated-learning industry. Parents and educators will find a practical guide to introducing complex concepts through smart, simple, and loving play.

For every key area of a child's development (speech, reading, math, social skills, self-awareness, and intelligence), you'll understand how a child's mind actually learns. Then you'll discover exercises (40 in all) that will showcase emerging skills and leave your child smiling today-- and prepared for tomorrow.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Authors and child psychologists Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff and Eyer join together to prove that training preschoolers with flash cards and attempting to hurry intellectual development doesn't pay off. In fact, the authors claim, kids who are pressured early on to join the academic rat race don't fair any better than children who are allowed to take their time. Alarmed by the current trend toward creating baby Einsteins, Hirsh-Pasek and Golinkoff urge parents to step back and practice the "Three R's: Reflect, Resist, and Recenter." Instead of pushing preschoolers into academically oriented programs that focus on early achievement, they suggest that children learn best through simple playtime, which enhances problem solving skills, attention span, social development and creativity. "Play is to early childhood as gas is to a car," say Hirsh-Pasek and Golinkoff, explaining that reciting and memorizing will produce "trained seals" rather than creative thinkers. Creativity and independent thinking, they argue, are true 21st-century skills; IQ and other test scores provide a narrow view of intelligence. The authors walk parents through much of the recent research on the way children learn, debunking such myths as the Mozart effect, and pointing out that much learning unravels naturally, programmed through centuries of evolution. Although the research-laden text is sometimes dense, parents will find a valuable message if they stick with the program, ultimately relieving themselves and their offspring of stress and creating a more balanced life.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"An elegant summary of what mind and brain science can tell us about child development and learning. The reasonable and reassuring implications the authors draw from this research provide a much-needed corrective to the hype and distortions all too prevalent in the popular media. Finally, the truth!"--John T. Bruer, Ph.D., president of the James S. McDonnell Foundation and author of The Myth of the First Three Years

"Parents eager to know what to do-- and even more important, what not to do-- to help their children discover and take advantage of their hidden talents will find this well-written book a treasure trove of information and advice. A trustworthy parenting resource from two highly respected scholars!"--Linda Acredolo, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, and author of Baby Signs and Baby Minds

"This book makes it easy to be a good parent! It explains how, by nurturing your child's love for learning through play, you will foster initiative, creativity, curiosity, empathy, and self-esteem-- in sum, a happy child. Isn't that what we all want? Indeed, I gained many new insights into how my 4- and 2-year-old daughters are engaged in learning through their own magical play."--Janet Rice Elman, executive director of the Association of Children's Museums in Washington, D.C.

"Although parents know that the early years are learning years, just what that means has been confusing-- until now. Einstein Never Used Flash Cards makes practical sense of the vast number of technical studies and hyperbole of advertising claims. It explains in clear, compelling, and scientific terms how learning really takes place. This book is a must-read for parents, grandparents, teachers, caregivers, pediatricians, and policy makers-- in other words, all those who care about and for the next generation of children."--Ellen Galinsky, president and cofounder of the Families and Work Institute in New York City

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 302 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books; First Printing edition (October 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579546951
• ISBN-13: 978-1579546953
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #531,231 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

127 of 127 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond Excellent. You won't panic while reading this book!, August 6, 2007

By 

Bargain Savvy Mom - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How Our Children Really Learn--and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less (Paperback)

You know how it goes. You hear another mommy in the playgroup or a mutual friend talk about how they are teaching their one-year-old to read or how their toddler just got in to the spanish immersion pre-school and you feel that twinge of guilty panic, wondering if you're doing what is right to make your child as smart as possible. This book is INCREDIBLE and will calm you down and help you realize what is truly important: children do not learn from boring drill-and-kill experiences. They learn from play and enjoyable reading.

My favorite quote from this book is "Put away your credit card and get out your library card". That is the theme of the whole book. The authors explian why most expensive "educational" toys MAKE your children play with them a certain way and don't allow for creativity so they should not be the only toys your child has. (You can have them! They simply suggest you also have creative toys like dolls, blocks, dress up, kitchen & tool sets or Legos.) They go on to explain that access to toys like these encourage unstructured, imaginative play that help children learn about numbers, physics, geometry, the world and their feelings.

This book tackles our most pressing questions, like how we will teach our children to read before pre-school and how we will teach them the concept of number symbols standing for actual quantities of items. Moreso, they explain to parents exactly how children learn and that parents are not the sole architects of the perfect baby brain. Mother nature has already created a brain that loves to learn and drilling children with flash cards or worksheets can kill a love for learning that is naturally there.

As you can tell from the title of the book, flash cards and demanding, there's-only-one-right-answer educational toys are a fairly new trend but geniuses have always existed. Most intelligent people in the past were allowed to play and leisure read freely - and experiment with things around them - which contributed to their intelligence the most. Parents reading to children and free play are a must! (By the way, I have a psychology degree and I learned in college that children under 1 cannot really see words well unless the letters are FOUR INCHES TALL! Even better if the words are red, not black, to attract the eye to focus. No flash cards look like this! Two year olds still need three inch letters. Adult print is simply too small for their developing visual pathways to read! How bored and agitated would you be looking at small, blurry letters all day? It's like a constant eye-chart test set at 20/10!)

I loved this book and nearly every paragraph is supported by research completed all over the world on child development. The back of the book organized the cites and references by chapter so you can look in to the research if you want to arm yourself with facts! In fact, I have talked so positively about this book, my friends are lining up to borrow it and I'm encouraging everyone to buy their own copy because you will want to keep this one on-hand. I'm buying one for the gal that lives up the street that just won't quit talking about how "smart" and "advanced" her one year old is because she buys educational toys exclusively!

Honestly, you're going to find the answers you are looking for about how to both encourage creativity and teach the fundamentals your children need for Kindergarten. If nothing else, it will assure you that a relaxed, unstructured play day at home is one of the best things you can do for your child!

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the ONLY books I recommend to my friends, April 18, 2005

By 

J. Filipowski "Kindle Bookworm" (Winston-Salem, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Einstein Never Used Flash Cards: How Our Children Really Learn-- And Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less (Hardcover)

it is so amazing to watch my 21 month old daughter learn. it's fun to watch her explore things and figure them out and see the lightbulb go off in her head. and this book is partially responsible for allowing me to sit back and notice those little steps and appreciate them. if she is interested in figuring something out it can hold her attention for a pretty long time. for instance, she'll get bored with the insanely complicated shape sorter I got her pretty quickly right now...but put her in front of her car seat or stroller and she will spend a good five minutes or longer trying to get the buckle snapped without getting frustrated. and once she gets it done she wants you to undo it so she can do it again.

this book argues for the merits of "play" and theorizes that by pushing kids too hard you can end up hampering their natural tendencies to experiment and explore. basically the authors liken a child's mind to a highway and if you cram it too full of information at one time you end up with a traffic jam. they also explain the different stages of learning and how a child's mind works at different ages and give a lot of good experiments to do with them to monitor their development. I rarely recommend reading baby books because i find them to be alarmist and one-sided, but this is one i highly recommend every parent read.

54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great resource to confirm the style of parenting that just feels right!, February 14, 2006

By 

Melissa "Mom of 2 boys" (Northern CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Einstein Never Used Flash Cards: How Our Children Really Learn-- And Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less (Hardcover)

I was concerned that I wasn't doing enough for my toddler. While I sit and play with him at times during the day, he primarily plays by himself while I'm nearby. We don't do alphabet drills, I don't run addition flash cards, and I prefer to have him play with blocks to watching an "educational" video. And yet, now at 24 mo, he has an extensive vocabulary, speaks in full sentences, counts to 10, creates wonderful stories for me, and loves to play with his trucks and trains.

This book confirmed to me what I always felt was right - involve your kids in your everyday activities. Talk to them, reinforce what they learn naturally, and spend time with your kids. You don't need to entertain them, enroll them in "enrichment" classes, or hire personal tutors. Children learn naturally through play and open, unstructured activities.

By no means does this book advocate ignoring your children, or failing to get them assistance if they are developmentally delayed. It does argue, rather compellingly, that over-teaching our kids is not only unnecessary, but is also harmful to their long-term development.