Mensa for Kids (T-Shirt and Excellence in Reading Award Certificate)

Well, it's not really a hot deal and no info given besides a link. That's probably why it got red (note, I didn't give it red). Maybe it should be in Free Stuff...?

My guess is that the red is for the least informative title in history. No mention of what the deal is at all. And before you edited the post there was no mention of the deal there either.

Green for OP! Give parents some book titles to get for their kids...

zapy said:   befalas said:   That's a HUGE list, and kids must read ALL of the books to (truthfully) qualify for the certificate and T-shirt. I laughed out loud when I read the high-school list; not one in ten thousand students will have read ALL of those by the time he/she graduates.

That's kinda the gist of Mensa isn't it? It's not for everyone - just a few.

Sure but especially for the K to 3rd group. If the kid gets 10 pages in and decides the book sucks...he/she should stop. At that age, when they can read, they need to be reading for information or entertainment. If a book is not serving either of these move to the next one.

Not bagging on the OP just the idea of completing the whole list.

junkbin said:   Sure but especially for the K to 3rd group. If the kid gets 10 pages in and decides the book sucks...he/she should stop.If that's the perspective that you give an 8-year old, how are you going to convince that same kid that he needs to read past page 10 when he gets to high school?

I recognize most of the titles on the K-3rd list. I think it's a great list, and kids love checking things off. Heck, hunting all these down at the library is an adventure itself. Green from me.

junkbin said:   zapy said:   befalas said:   That's a HUGE list, and kids must read ALL of the books to (truthfully) qualify for the certificate and T-shirt. I laughed out loud when I read the high-school list; not one in ten thousand students will have read ALL of those by the time he/she graduates.

That's kinda the gist of Mensa isn't it? It's not for everyone - just a few.

Sure but especially for the K to 3rd group. If the kid gets 10 pages in and decides the book sucks...he/she should stop. At that age, when they can read, they need to be reading for information or entertainment. If a book is not serving either of these move to the next one.

Not bagging on the OP just the idea of completing the whole list.

At that age children are "learning to read" not "reading to learn" as you suggest. Looking at that list of K-3 books it appears it is designed to appeal to a wide variety of interests. Kids that age don't really have enough knowledge to decide that a book "sucks" especially if it is very short, as are many of those books. A kid at the young end of that group is going to have most of those books read to him anyway, which is something kids love, no matter the book. Kids at the higher end can read many of those easier books independently and might read the chapter books with a parent over the course of several nights. With the easier books, by the time they are 10 pages in and decide they don't like it, they're almost done. The older kids will also know that there is an incentive to finish each story, even the ones they may not find quite as interesting. There is also something to be said for attaining a goal or assignment, even if there are parts you don't like.

zapy said:   All good points mpattdu !

WRT the "goal" comment though - we are a society that tries to place everyone on an even playing field. Everybody on all sports teams gets a ribbon, trophy, or special mention. There are no losers except the kids. It's like politics. 50% think that is ok and 50% thinks it is not.

yea, the comment was a little harsh. i agree with your general sentiment though.

back on topic, this campaign is organized by the Mensa Research Foundation, which is the non-profit (and somewhat separate) arm of American Mensa that tries to promote intelligence-oriented topics like education through grants and scholarships.

some of their other programs can be found here and their contributors and financials can be found here. $1.3mm for scholarships, $360k for youth programs.

given that the only controls for this program seems to be "scout's honor", and the relatively liberal interpretations of rules in some other fw deals, it'd be interesting to see whether they end up having to send more shirts than they expect.

zapy said:   All good points mpattdu !

WRT the "goal" comment though - we are a society that tries to place everyone on an even playing field. Everybody on all sports teams gets a ribbon, trophy, or special mention. There are no losers except the kids. It's like politics. 50% think that is ok and 50% thinks it is not.

But this isn't a competition so there's no playing field to level. The program is simply something parents can do with their kids to encourage them to read. My goal comment was simply to point out that a kid's personal goal of finishing the list and getting a shirt may be a strong enough incentive to get them to read a book they think they won't like, which was junkbin's complaint about the program. Plus, the difficulty in attaining the goal can be tempered by picking a lower tier of books if a student reads at a lower level, or having parents help with reading.

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