"Children do not need to be made to learn about the world, or shown how. They want to, and they know how." -John Holt
We hadn't been to the Discovery Stop in ages so I thought it'd be a good idea to meet our friends there for a morning of play. Yet I always forget how controlling and restrictive the place is, even though it's "designed" for young children. We always get in trouble for something.
This time Gabriel was told "weapons were not allowed" after creating a structure with this giant erector-type set. Pretty sure he didn't even know what the lady was talking about...
All grumbling aside, the kids still enjoyed themselves and were completely tuckered out which I suppose is the whole point anyway.
"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
We hadn't been to the Discovery Stop in ages so I thought it'd be a good idea to meet our friends there for a morning of play. Yet I always forget how controlling and restrictive the place is, even though it's "designed" for young children. We always get in trouble for something.
1 comment:
Our kids would have a great time. Jacob always ends up riding through that tunnel that Gabe is in with the little motorcycle and getting 'yelled' at. LOL.
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