My Kid the Genius

"Studies indicate that there are critical periods, windows of opportunity that nature flings open, starting from before birth and then slams shut one by one, with every additional candle on the child's birthday cake." Wow. So reads the insert for a CD we recieved in a goodies bag from our health insurance group. It's full of things for the new born and this CD "Majors for Minors" is a mix of classical music redone for babies. It makes some big claims. If I play Tubman Jnr this music it will stimulate, strengthen and devlop his higher level learning skills, facilitate the development of language and speech and strengthen the circuts for complex reasoning. Pretty impressive stuff. If you believe the blurb from the CD, not playing your kid this music is a crime on the same level as locking him in a dark closet. Now, don't get me wrong. I love classical music, I even had the benefits of a quasi classical education, but I wonder if they are not overplaying their hand just a bit? I'll have to check with my parents to see if they ever played me any music while I was a baby. That might explain why I never got off quota 18 on my spelling list and why the 8 times tables caused me so much grief. I may have been abused by lack of classical stimulation! Bottom line, I'll give the CD a go. But my kid is also going to get some other 'classics' as well. For play time we might go with a mix of Counting Crows, Lyle Lovett and The Presidents, and then for bed time a soothing compelation of Van Morrision, Enya, Lemon Jelly and James Taylor. This kid will be a genius!! Scott