"The Read-Aloud Handbook" by Jim Trelease

This is a very helpful book, and it's also very interesting to read.  The author's main ideas are:
1. Read to your children as much as possible.  What the child hears will later benefit his reading and writing.
2. When the child is able to read, encourage/require him to read as much as possible.
3. Limit time before TV and computer.  Give more time to family fun and... reading.

Although it seems that the book is about "to do" and "not to do", it's very vividly written and sometimes funny, making it a very enjoyable book, perhaps due to the author's experience at the newspaper.

My personal takes from the book:
1. Continue to read to my kids.  Spend more time and effort from my part.
2. Continue to read to my kids both in English and Chinese.  If reading-aloud in English will help kids with their English language skills, then reading-aloud in Chinese will definitely strengthen their Chinese language ability and, more importantly, interests.  I think to most ABCs, interests in Chinese is directly correlated to how good they are in this language.

'The Well-Trained Mind' by Susan Bauer & Jessie Wise

（居然一整年都没有发blog了。去年看了虎妈的书，不过感想好像贴到facebook上面去了。改天可以再写一点在这里。） 

拿到这本书的时候很兴奋，恨不得马上开始读，因为是一个大师姐推荐的。果然刚开始Jessie记叙她以前对Susan及其兄弟姐妹进行早教（主要是阅读）最后“被迫”homeschooling的故事就很吸引人。第一部分grammar stage的教导很细节，让人很想去follow。第二部分logic stage也还不错，不过离我比较有距离，就没什么共鸣。第三部分rhetoric stage明显感到作者好像有点功力不够，讲述比较肤浅，看上去都是凭着想象写的，可能只是我的个人感觉吧。或许确实是这样，因为Jessie自己当初教导孩子的高中阶段，基本上是靠孩子们自推的（比如Susan），她并没有trivium的完整理论和应用；而现在Susan自己的孩子们都还小，最大的可能刚刚才到rhetoric阶段，所以她自己也没有具体经验。所以她们写的最详细最清晰的还是grammar stage，因为是她们自己最熟悉最有经验，实际上也是最重要的阶段。同时我也同意网上一些review说的，她们对于数理化的指导比较一般，到高中阶段几乎不知所云。（对于中国人来说，数理化基本上不需要别人指导怎么教。） 

从另一个方面说，单看她们对于grammar stage的指导，本质上跟其他的教育理论并没用什么差别，就是重视语言基础。中国人早就说了，“熟读唐诗三百首，不会作诗也会吟”。我个人经验也是，在英语上读的多背的多，自然会写的比较流畅。所以小学早期，主要就是多读多看多背，逐渐完成量上的积累，慢慢就可以看到质上的飞跃。那么，早一点学会阅读，早一点就可以开始积累。 

（先前想到虎妈，拿她的故事跟Jessie/Susan的故事对比，倒是很有趣。Jessie也算是美国式的推妈了，基本上是很成功的；恰巧碰上了极其自推的Susan，就更加显得当妈妈的了不起，有很多可抒发的。）—— 中国虎妈的故事让我仔细思考孩子的养育目标和家长的投入，美国虎妈的经历经验让我更加坚定了提早教孩子reading的决心。所以一个是战略上的方向，一个是战术上的方法，两本书一起都给我很多启发和帮助。 

总之我很喜欢这本书，只是我现在能用上的还很少很少，没有实践就不再进一步妄加评论了（我也很喜欢虎妈的书，下次再具体写吧）。