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

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Day of Play

I love me a good long day of friends over and kids playing/fighting/crafting/whining/eating and repeat. At least Caden has seemingly stopped beating Cavan up and can enjoy his company now! Caden also took it upon himself to show Cavan the ways of chair climbing and switch flicking. You can thank me later for that Steph... Paper snowflakes were the order of the day. Doused with glue and glitter. Is there any other way?Constant snacking was the other order of the day. After sampling my wheat germ, rolled oats, whole-wheat and pureed bean (yes, BEANS) chocolate chip cookies, Gabriel said, "These are even better than chips!" And my boy loves his chips.Caden preferred sucking the remains of left-over juice boxes. If you had told me 5 years ago, I'd be letting juice pass the lips of my 18 month old, I'dve called you crazy and slapped you silly. But here's my baby chugging away and all I can do is try and take a proper photo to document this crazy life we lead... (The dimples may have blinded me in the moment.)I leave you with my most technically correct shot of the day. Wide open aperture, slight camera tilt (I do love a good tilt) all while utilizing natural light, of course.
:)

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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