Decorating for parties and holidays today is often engineering. Cooking is chemistry and physics. (You also need to be a chemist today to figure out if the spray bottle of cleaner is safe to use in your home.)

I had eye surgery when I was 2 and my maternal Grandpa got me a red fire engine while I was in the hospital. Unfortunately, when the little boy in the next bed went home they just assumed the fire truck was his.

I got a chemistry set, a child's garden, smaller buildable blocks when I was a kid. I don't think my folks cared where they were. I had two sons but I now have a 3 year old granddaughter so this is again relevant to me.

to mix the toys up a little more. Put some construction stuff next to some dolls, put a chemistry set next to the play kitchen equipment.

And parents need to give their kids a larger variety of toys also.

and pay attention to what their kids are saying. These messages about what things are for which sex are absorbed so early. My own daughter was shy about saying that she wanted things that were on the 'boy' aisle. I had to encourage her to ask for what she really wanted and not put any stock into silly rules.

Even worse is parents who reinforce this gender madness by refusing to buy their daughters 'boy' toys, or vice versa.

I don't remember it being that way when I was young. There were just lanes of toys grouped by type. They didn't have so much pink and blue gender based marketing nonsense wrapped around them.

The gender associations have just gotten worse with marketing. Actually, everything has gotten worse with marketing.

biological and a fact. that when we talk about the influence in this forum, we are called all kinds of names, when reality is their behavior and exclamation that it is biological proves how powerfully effective the marketing is with so many.

Excuse me...

females to make them favor that color?

and that would be only one example.

I understand the idea but marketing will go all out and ruin it like the stupid girls Leggo set. At least that was what I thought about after thinking about this.

Great ideas with the stories. We are different in the way we go about learning but that does not mean we can't do it or are somehow less interested.

english, both do better with stories connecting things.... hence all the talking we do in this family and lessons learned that way instead of other means.

i imagine there are also girls that need other ways to learn, beside storytelling. that is the problem with that ole box...

but, i hear ya... lol, just saying

I have one son who got it by the numbers and one who needed more context than just the numbers.

I should probably not have said anything about how we learn, it is partly anecdotal and partly what I have read but my info could be way too old to apply anymore.

For me I would fit that description. Give me a story and something to solve and I could hit it. Give me numbers and, well to this day I have math issues. Not my thing.

My number one field in my aptitude testing was engineering. I never even thought about it, mainly because of the math.

You are right, of course, about that box. LOL, I stepped right on in it!!

i took statistics twice, dropped college twice, lol, that last time was it, over statistic class.

BUT... i am so fluid in numbers also. when a bunch of numbers are being given, or percentages, or anything in that manner, my hubby sits back and lets me do the numbers in my head. i can do numbers faster in my head than a person can on a calculator or writing them down. oddest damn thing. and i play games with numbers. i see stories told in numbers.

algebra and the rest of the math, takes me down. i fail. cannot do it. i looked at it and say... ya, what????

it is so odd.

i wonder though if the boys are naturally this way or because it is who i am and how they were raised, seeing i spent most of the time/raising them. HUGE on reading in this house. critical thinking a must and we always have to have a discussion on all things. they really were not allowed the opportunity to NOT be.

i dunno...

we always saw hubby as analytical, but since being married with me he has LEARNED how to express. and yes, people, he loves the freedom of doing it and loves our sons ability to express. one of the places i get a pat on the back. in his house, it was hierarchical and his voice was not heard often, and the two younger brothers almost never allowed to talk. and they certainly were not allowed differing opinion. so, in my opinion, it was taught to not express. that was his household. mine growing up was exact opposite. if we had a well thought out argument, then we got our way.

interesting.

i dont know

you just made me think.

we read from the very beginning, I read while nursing them. We discussed and danced and sang to everything (they are now both successful musicians). Even with the same upbringing the oldest was always too darned smart and could pick up numbers and do number puzzles that I could not from early on. The youngest was good visually and was able to complete puzzles far faster than his older brother. I love thinking back and seeing the likeness and the sameness in them and thinking about it.

Whatever those outcomes were, they both picked up the music gene from me and when I see them play together, they do often, it is astounding to see the communication they have.

Mothers brag.. the youngest just cut his second CD. It was recorded in Paris so I have only heard the rough cut.

OK back to the topic. I do think this is a great idea, anything that opens up new worlds that have been closed or difficult for girls and women to get into. I wonder though, if studying how girls learn and how boys learn is not stopping us from seeing everyone as an individual more clearly.