Oh what a tangled web...

Do you know which comes first, the chicken or the egg? That’s a debate that can gone on forever. Here’s another trick question, how do you teach more? Yes, we ask them “do you want some more juice?” “are you going to eat any more?” But what is more?

When we talk, we use all kinds of words and hope that the person we are speaking to has the same shared meaning for the words. You and I know what more is. My daughter knew what more was when asked about more cereal, more milk…but when it was time to select the picture that had more…yee-ha! That’s a different story! What do you mean circle the one with more?! Before this, more had to do with things to eat or do. Now you want me to look at a picture and determine more?

Discovery – you don’t know what you don’t know until you come face to face with it. I didn’t know that more was not an obvious concept until I saw the blank stare when asked to point out the jar with more jelly beans or the glass with more milk or the box with more toys. More is a single word that applies to countable and non-countable items. (Yea…see what goes in to understanding the language). More juice usually is followed by someone pouring juice into a glass or cup…which action there does the young mind recognize as MORE. More cereal usually is followed by a bowl and some additionally cereal and milk. Which action there means MORE? You know the answer…they only experience the answer (as they drink or eat).

So when the picture shows up on a piece of paper, how do they know what MORE looks like? You break it down….break it all the way down. I took toy cups and toy food and demonstrated more. Bear has some juice…rabbit has more juice. I would put the cups side by side so that she could SEE that one glass had MORE than the other. Ah-ha! This is what more looks like (with a non-countable liquid object). Now we had to understand more in terms of countable objects…a stack of blocks and another stack of blocks. One stack had MORE blocks than the other.

Discovery – words only have meaning because we give them meaning and that meaning is shared by us all. A child with a blank slate is trying to understand the universe around him/her and there are lots of words that have meanings that are not obvious. A dog is the four-legged thing that barks – they come in different shapes, sizes, and colors. Each time a child sees a dog, he/she says the word part in recognition and part in confirmation – the poodle dog is a dog just like the Labrador dog is a dog. Those are concrete objects that share a label but look slightly different. They’ve got that to figure out and understand and then you add MORE.

It turns out that spiders aren’t the only ones who weave a tangled web. Humans in their use of language have an extraordinary web that their young not only have to acquire but also figure out. One way to help the tangling and untangling of the web is to recognize that it all makes sense to you….it makes no sense to them. Be attuned to how your child experiences the world. If she’s visual, then you might need to be creative as you explain these little words that power the language. If he’s kinesthetic, then you might have to do something else that allows him to experience MORE and other concepts in a way that brings meaning to him.

Think about all of the words you use....some have meanings that are clearer than others.  What's more important?  Do you want some more examples?  How about some more juice?  What really is more?  Oh, what a tangled web. The more you know, the more you can help.