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

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Drake's Island, ME

After the zoo (see below) we headed north another 20 minutes and met Steph & Family at their vacation house on Drake's Island. The beach was so awesome you might think we stepped into Australia...There were crazy cool (but warm!) tidal pools with river-like rapids in places and a strange peat moss-ish tide pool to search for critters in. The sand on the other side of the "rivers" was like walking on moon sand- super soft and sinkable, or so I'm told since I stayed on the opposite side with Caden.

This wicked sweet "drift tree" was just asking to be climbed and photographed...Lest you think life is always picture-perfect, I'll tell you that after we forced Simone to release her critters back to the tide pools, specifically- the crab, she cried, whined and moaned the whole 20 minute walk back to the beach house. That was a fun trip.However, she recovered, as she always does, and was able to enjoy playing in the sand while the sun was setting. To make up for the crab, she deemed this pile of dead seaweed her "pet" and carressed it, carried it around and stored it safely, if not a bit scratchily, under her shirt.

Gabriel kept busy burying himself in the sand and building "lobster traps" with driftwood and rocks.


Steph and Sean then treated us to a BBQ feast and drinks to cap off the beautiful day...
(We missed you Lenore & Susan!)

Posted by Jessica at 6:38 PM

1 comment:

.... said...

I'm glad you all had fun! Wish I was there!

8:10 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