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

Monday, July 09, 2007

Caden, circa July 9th, 2007

Caden is the most elusive photographic subject I have ever encountered. He ignores, he turns away, he doesn't fall for any "peek-a-boo", "look-what-I-have" or "Uh-Oh!" tricks like every other child acknowledges. You can scream his name, jump up and down, shake toys and all for naught. In fact, the last time I got a decent shot of him was at Christmas and it still graces the fridge as an everyday reminder of my shortcomings.
Well wouldn't you know, all he wanted was to say "cheese". And when I asked, I was rewarded with an spirited "chee!" and smiles from ear to ear.
(I'm sure they seem rather ordinary but believe me, they are anything but...)
(And reading Little House on the Prarie no less! ;)

Posted by Jessica at 6:48 PM

1 comment:

Sarah, Chris, Elijah & Sadie said...

Whoa! He's sooo big! Look at all those teeth...

10:04 PM

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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