"Children do not need to be made to learn about the world, or shown how. They want to, and they know how." -John Holt

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Christmas Eve

'Twas the night before christmas and off to Jen's with one croupy and feverish kid (Gabriel), one semi-croup kid (Simone) and one super-teething, fussy and fever-on-the-way baby. Everyone was terribly glad to see us there. ;)

Despite the contagious germs floating around, we managed to have some fun... presents will do that you know! The smorgasbord of food didn't hurt either.

The kids cleaned up nice with gifts from Grampy Allen, Jacqueline, and the Quinlivans. New dress-up outfits, Leapsters, trains & dinosaur excavation kits to name a few!



By the time we got home, Simone was the only one able to put out the cookies and milk for Santa as Gabriel had conked out after a dose of Motrin. We had to remind her that she wouldn't actually get to SEE Santa or feed the reindeer which is quite the bummer when you're a 2-year-old animal enthusiast.
Rich and I (and Caden of course, who doesn't like to miss a thing) were able to get to bed by midnight after all the last minute wrapping and arranging presents.

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"By nature people are learning animals. Birds fly; fish swim; humans think and learn. Therefore, we do not need to motivate children into learning by wheedling, bribing, or bullying. We do not need to keep picking away at their minds to make sure they are learning. What we need to do - and all we need to do - is to give children as much help and guidance as they need and ask for, listen respectfully when they feel like talking, and then get out of the way. We can trust them to do the rest."
John Holt
"In the end, the secret to learning is so simple: Think only about whatever you love. Follow it, do it, dream about it...and it will hit you: learning was there all the time, happening by itself." -Grace Llewellyn
"What we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge, not knowledge in pursuit of the child."
George Bernard Shaw
Real, natural learning is in the living. It's in the observing, the questioning, the examining, the pondering, the analyzing, the watching, the reading, the DO-ing, the living, the breathing, the loving, the JOY. It's in the joy. ~Anne Ohman
"How could youth better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?" -Henry D. Thoreau