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

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Rules of the House!

While making a grocery list one day, Simone complained that I never make her a list! (Uh...okay...) So what kind of list do you want, I asked? I stumped her as she hadn't given much thought beyond the fact that I DON'T MAKE LISTS FOR HER!!! I suggested "Rules of the House" just to see what she would come up with as we don't really have rules per se.

So without further adieu, The List- by Simone:

  • Watch out for the bird (that would be Grandma's parakeet that lives on the floor)

  • Don't be crazy

  • Don't be so naughty

  • Don't lose cups (trillions of sippy cups littered throughout the house and car is a pet peeve of mine)

  • Don't eat the yucky snow

  • Don't scream

  • When the baby does something naughty, you tell Mommy in the shower (my personal fav)

  • Turn the water off

  • Don't touch hot stuff

  • Don't yell at that baby!

Apparently we have rules now. ;)

5 comments:

majikfaerie said...

I've just made a new 'rule' in our house - keep the doors closed so the goanna wont get in
LOL

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

A few years ago, my kids made up a list of house rules, too. They had a long list of "don'ts" until my son added "Eat ice cream every day." Then a bunch of "do's" started pouring out of them. 8-)

Susan Burke said...

I am curious about the comment that was deleted, what was it? I am not sure if Lochlann thinks we have rules. I am trying to do a no eating in the living room after finding crusted yam smeared all over the sofa. But, I can't seem to keep my own rule.
Susan

Jessica said...

The only comments I've ever removed are from my annoying sister who can only say snarky things. Don't need those kind of vibes here.

Lori- I thought it was funny too how she was stuck on the "dont's". Guess we need to change our thinking around here to what we DO want!

"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