"Children do not need to be made to learn about the world, or shown how. They want to, and they know how." -John Holt
If ever you need Simone to acknowledge strangers in her home, just send her out to the barn to show off the livestock. She immediately lights up, turns on the chatter, and happily answers questions and offers tidbits of information. (Otherwise she will ignore like a pro.)
Let it be known, our guests were excited for an animal tour and not dragged there unwillingly. Lesly was right at home, hand feeding everyone their dinner.
I think Grace squealed with delight the entire time...
After visiting the goats, it was off to the coop to wrangle a chicken for Grace to check out a little closer...
Then Simone demonstrated her knack for twisting a chickens neck until it is obediently posing for the camera.
(When I can convince her the chickens do not need to be beak-forward, I get cute shots like these...)
"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
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