"Children do not need to be made to learn about the world, or shown how. They want to, and they know how." -John Holt
Like it or not, these children we birth start growing up and acting all "big kid" on us just when you least expect it. Take yesterday for example... I signed Gabriel and Simone up for their first class ever AND it was the mommy-free type. I wasn't sure what their reactions were going to be but after a little prodding Gabriel trotted off to join the group of strangers and after a little more prodding to peel Simone from my side, she scampered off too.
I may have been glued to the glass and waved excitedly no less than a thousand times but they did it and lasted the whole hour. I was the proudest Momma there.
Simone's review was that it was "really good" and "wicked awesome". Gabriel thought it was "too fun" and both are ready to go for next week. (I may try and sneak in and get better pics too.)
I hear it's going around too. Need more proof? Check out cousin Adeline's newly pierced ears. About as grown-up as you get!
"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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