The Curiosity Cycle (Second Edition): Preparing Your Child for the Ongoing Technological Explosion

The Curiosity Cycle is a fascinating read. It's a parenting book, a thesis, a how-to solutions manual, and also just a fun little topic. Can be devoured in one sitting, but draws you back to flip through again. And the ideas it contains gives me hope for the future of our children! There is so much pressure in education today for kids to fit a formula. To pass a test. To have access to the latest and greatest yet ironically obsolete gadget/technology in the classroom. While books and daydreams and big red foursquare balls gather dust.What is a parent to do?Read the Curiosity Cycle and recognize that the atmosphere you create at home (or the museum or park) and the way you talk with and to your children, how you answer their questions or play with them, is the BIGGEST antidote to an educational system that is either failing them due to mediocrity or squashing them with the Latest Trend in hyper-learning. It is also refreshing that the answer has very little to do with plonking children in front of a computer or tv screen!I disagree with the reviewer who believed this book to be a long rambling opinion with no science behind it. Or something that is accessible only to parent with an IT/AI background. I was a humble Liberal Arts major back in the day. This person might have been hoping for more of a checklist or formula. Do this, IQ will increase x points. But that is not the point of the book.Mr. Mugan gives loads of real-life examples, conversations, ideas on how to spark Curiosity as a mindset and a joyful habit - many taken from his own family interactions and experiences (experiments?). Verbal games you can play with your child. Beneficial computer games. He explains both the how and the why and give specific ways to teach, ask, foster, and nurture what he refers to as "flexible and adaptive thinking". The type of thinking that will encourage your child to be ahead of the game (or perhaps authoring the game!) that will be required by the Technology that is around the corner.I especially appreciated his message that a physically active child is a happier, more open to learning child. (My paraphrasing). That getting out to play soccer and enjoy any outdoor fun activities is one important key for growing bodies and minds.It is likely true that robots are our future. This excellent little book will help you equip your kids with the mindset and success to be their bosses rather than associates. To raise the shepherds, instead of the sheep. To be a leader in whatever field they choose. Or at the very least, kids who become grownups who fully enjoy their vocations and keep inquiring minds!Skim the "read this" features. Read the free chapter he posted on his website. Then buy a copy for yourself, your best friend, your neighbor. ALL of our children deserve to be prepared for the ongoing technological explosion! To be simply curious kids.

Fast read. The author clearly knows their area of expertise but has gone to great lengths to keep it practical. Every chapter and section has suggestions for lessons learned, opportunities and things to try. Anyone with children under 10 needs to read this. It will enable you to help them build a framework of questions that they can build themselves and follow their interests into the future. It doesn't make any guarantees, but I feel a bit better understanding the state of things in a well thought out, practical discussion. A full 1/5 of the book is resources and citations.Worth the price and the time. A cursory read took about 45 minutes, but you could spend 2 hours going in depth.

This is clearly just dumped from an academic math/CS thesis in LaTeX into a PDF with a cover slapped on it. I find the writing dry, repetitive, and difficult to parse. It felt like it was written by a robot for robots to understand, not for a new parent to quickly grasp and apply the concepts.

I felt like this book was written specifically for me. It clearly illustrates how one can take ideas from developmental psychology and developmental robotics/AI, and usefully apply them to raising a child. Unlike most other child-rearing books I've read, this book addresses the problem of raising children in the context of smart-phones, web apps, and increasing automation. The "Useful Media Resources" appendix was particularly helpful, pointing to a number of learning video-games, websites and videos I might not have heard of otherwise (e.g., Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and the Kodu visual-programming game).

A guide for parents about how to make their children curious about life and science; as well as an interesting overview of how we learn ourselves. Good read.

I bought this book thinking there would be more founded in scientific research but instead its presented more like a rambling opinion with nothing to back up anything it says. I bought this book because I've recently had a new baby and thought I should read some books to help me with some ideas on how to raise him well. Unfortunately, I was disappointed by this book because I was expecting something it wasn't: mainly something with some research behind it. This book is probably more interesting for someone with a computer science background, which I do have, but as far as someone interested in learning something for their own parenting this book isn't going to get you anything but a rambling opinion without any research to justify any claims. Given the background of the author, I think this book is probably best suited for someone similarly interested in AI and machine learning and taken as a motivation for building towards strong AI.

I had higher hopes for this book, but it had some good advice to glean. 3.4 is where I reviewed it.