"Children do not need to be made to learn about the world, or shown how. They want to, and they know how." -John Holt
I think Gabriel might have gotten the idea from "Curious George" but one day he desperately wanted to make paper boats. So we jumped online, found some directions and started folding. First paper ones, then foil ones and eventually, fancy foil ones with a straw glued on and a sail attached. We took our fleet and headed to the stream to set sail. They had a blast. Gabriel is obsessed now and wants to make and float boats every day. Our goal is to clear the stream of 20 years worth of leaves so the boats can really catch the current. Caden was content to watch from the backpack but was very happy to be released onto the big rock afterwards.
"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
1 comment:
Good time for sink or float experiments! We had a stream behind the neighbors house and my brother and I spent untold HOURS floating little stick boats down it every spring.
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