Evidence of Myths

This was going to be my New Year’s morning video, but it (note large book on couch) now contributes to evidence of the mounting mythical artifacts I am finding around the house. Greta is smitten. I have been reading lots these days about the importance of interest development in children. Multiple studies have found direct links between early interest (like getting really into dissecting a cow’s eye in middle school, which I did not) and important outcomes (like pursuing a biology degree in college, which I did not). (I love that in this longitudinal study, eighth grade interest in science was a greater predictor of getting a science-related college degree than test scores in math or science — in your face standardized tests). There is also evidence to suggest that though intense interests can emerge as early as preschool, they are more often observed in boys. They obsess about trains, their parents buy them books about the wonderful world of engines, boxcars and cabooses, they memorize and categorize them everywhere they go. While I tend to think girls have the healthier approach, an interest in a variety of things less intensely, I like Greta’s new interest because like the world of trains, it does demand organizing and categorizing a complex set of items within a larger system (just try to remember who is related to whom). And at the same time she is constantly trying to understand what in the world it all means, referring to the family tree at the beginning of the book, marking important pages and stories and pictures she wants to return to, and re-imagining these stories and making them her own.

Life-sized Medusa head that will soon be attached to Greta’s breastplate when she is Athena for Fasching.

Hades and Persephone that I came across while cleaning up in the underworld of the children’s table. Notice the Playmobile skull in the lower left. Nice touch.

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