"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

Kaleidoscope

With Jocelyn in town and babysitting Adeline and Amelia last week, we thought we'd all check out the new museum in Concord, "Kaleidoscope". It was really nicely done and had a lot of things to do packed into a pretty small space. The whole place is decked out with these wicked cool wooden structures like a giant pirate ship and a music tree house with slides, a fire engine and a bunch of "shops" with different themes like a vet office, beauty shop, pizza place, car repair and a sweet shop. Not to mention a stage with lots of dress-up options and a little spot for Caden to crawl and play. After Gabriel abandoned the pirate stuff, he wore a firefighter hat and carried a tool box around the whole time. Simone (oops, no picture!) was enthralled with taking care of her sick pets and bringing them back and forth to the vet. The kids had a ball since we went at an "off" time so we almost had the place to ourselves. It was a perfect playdate idea. Afterwards we walked next door to Foodee's for the buffet. A great day of play and pizza!

No comments:

"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