Teaching Devon to Ride a Bike

Devon has had a bike with training wheels for a couple of years now, and a few weeks ago I decided it was time for the training wheels to come off. I had tried taking them off once before, but he was too freaked out by it. Anyway, I decided to try again. My basic approach was this: take it slow. I would take Devon out every day for short sessions, and I'd try to ensure that he didn't fall, and he'd be riding in a week. It has taken more like 3 weeks, but we're almost there. The (almost) daily lessons are extremely short -- 5-10 minutes. Sometimes we just ride to the end of the block and back a couple of times. At first, I held on to the seat the whole time, running behind the bike. After a few sessions, I could let go briefly. Now I only hold on to get him launched, and we are practicing starting from a stop solo. After that, it'll just be practice.

I should say that Devon is a nervous kid -- not exactly a daredevil -- so biking is scary for him. Other kids would throw themselves into it, and learn after a few falls. But Devon needs a gentle touch. I think he is gaining some self confidence by being able to ride without training wheels.

Teaching Devon

Devon has had a hard time learning to read. I have heard that often boys aren't ready to learn to read until they are about 7, and in some countries, that is when reading is first taught. In the US, there is ever increasing pressure to accelerate the process, forcing children to do tasks for which they are not yet ready.

So for a long time, we did not put pressure on Devon to learn to read, although we did read to him (and to Claire) regularly, and both have large vocabularies, and know how to use them.

At the beginning of July, I left my job, and have been inflicting myself on my family. I have made one of my summer projects teaching Devon how to read. I've told Devon that I will read with him every day. We are starting with the basics: Dr. Seuss. Devon is a visual/spacial learner, and I've heard that whole word learning works best for kids like him. While before I would try to teach Devon phonetically, I have find that the phonetic rules are so frequently broken, that it only confuses things. So when he stumbles on a word, like "know", I just tell him that that word is "know", and eventually he learns it, rather than trying to describe a complex rule. He will ultimately infer the rules.

By being patient, and being very regular (that is, reading every day), Devon has made great progress. Just the other day, he picked up "The Far Side Gallary" (a book of cartoons by Gary Larson) and was reading the cartoon captions all by himself. It was a breakthrough event.

Vegetarian for a Week

I recently finished reading The God Delusion, which caused me to reflect on my own morality. I have long felt that it was hypocritical to be a carnivore if I wasn't willing to kill the animals that I was eating. But my they're tasty. Anyway, I decided to try being a vegetarian for a week. In some ways it has not been as hard as I expected. It has not been the case that there is nothing that I can eat. It's a matter of selection.

The big surprise for me is how hungry I have become. I eat what appears to be enough food, but come meal time (or a few hours before) I'm ravenous. I guess meat is just very calorie rich, and my body is telling me it wants (and is accustomed to) more. This effect has been more pronounced as the days pass. I have now gone more than a week and I'll have to decide whether to keep it up. If I get hungry enough, maybe I'll become more willing to kill a cow, thus resolving the issue of hypocracy.