"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
finally visited our first Nigerian Dwarf Goat farm this afternoon in our quest for a few new pets. No matter that Spring sprang a snow storm on us, we bundled up good this time and set off for Windham.
The kids were a bit wary at first and stayed their distance but it didn't take long to warm up to the super-friendly does we met.
I was in heaven as Brenda, the goat lady, answered my questions for over an hour while the kids played with the animals. She even had a mini donkey to torment me with. He was so cute. After seeing all the goats, the donkey, a horse and a pony, Simone's fondest moment was their mangy (and I mean really mangy!) barn cat they found outside and got to pet. An ugly cat... how exotic! Gabriel wanted to know if I got a picture of him with it. Sorry, no.
Next week, we visit another farm that has had a bunch of new babies just born and I will get a lesson in milking! Can't wait!
"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 finally visited our first Nigerian Dwarf Goat farm this afternoon in our quest for a few new pets. No matter that Spring sprang a snow storm on us, we bundled up good this time and set off for Windham.
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