More Than Four Sides

Category: Books & Reading

  • Reading electronic books

    There’s been a lot of discussion on the news and on the web lately about the influence of e-books on our brains, and on how we read and how we learn.  And the net is so ephemeral, that I can’t find, now, an article that I read and found fascinating just a couple of days…

  • Providing an anchor, an invisible rope

    “…my eye beams a rope around her, because I will jump in—splash!—and rescue her the moment she’s in difficulty.  And then she’s twelve years old, self-conscious in a modest navy sports swimsuit, …[but] she’s still the little girl in the pink-and-orange flowery swimming costume to me, and I still have my invisible rope around her…

  • Reckless parenting

    Parenting in the 21st century (in the US) is full of caution, supervision and anxiety. No one could have imagined the term “helicopter parents” 50 years ago. My parents were both incredibly bright and gifted graduate students when they met, married, and started a family. My mother was very anxious and cautious in her parenting…

  • Secrets & Lies

    When I was in my early teens, my Sri Lankan aunt (my father’s sister), had my stars read by her astrologer. She asked me for the exact time of my birth, and the exact place I was born. And, after a few weeks, I got a folded piece of thin paper with quite a number…

  • Life lived through podcasts…

    I commute 45 minutes each way, to and from work. I have always been the half of the partnership, both in my first, and in my present marriage, that has the longer commute. This arrangement tends to work reasonably well, as I do enjoy driving. I know exactly the point along I-95 when I will…

  • Father’s expectations…Son’s reality

    My dad left his home in Sri Lanka to travel across the seas to the great New York City, to pursue a graduate degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Columbia University. I wish I had the photos in my hand of his departure from Sri Lanka – I saw them at my aunt’s home more than…

  • Alphabetizing

    S has “Wall Words” that he has to learn. He’s in the Giraffe word group in his class. The other two groups are the Elephants and the Pandas. He’s starting to figure out how reading and spelling work, but it’s been harder for him than most other things that he tries to do; and he…

  • An Education with Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio

    I learned about Collodi’s original version of Pinocchio about a year or more ago, when I mentioned on Facebook that we watched the Disney version with our kids, and my very well-read cousin (yes, you, R) told me of the “real” version. I love this version so much more than the Disney-fied, saccharine story. I…