"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, March 10, 2009

LEAP Field Trip: Planetarium

The old planetarium is now called the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center. Sadly they spent more time on the new name instead of consulting with moms on how to improve and maximize their space. Gabe enjoyed this building set but too bad it wasn't the old one that had wires and plugs so you could turn your creation into a robot.The other two were bored out of their gourd downstairs.Before checking out the new upstairs, we had lunch at the "Countdown Cafe". Hands down, the best part of the place! I had a panini with fresh (and local!) veggies and a side of potato salad. Delish! The girls mirrored the moms and lazily enjoyed lunch and the downtime to catch up with each other.Upstairs, the kids fiddled with turbines, completing circuits,determinig our household gigawatt usage,and comparing wattage from various lightbulbs and other electrical devices.
All in a day's work. Maybe we'll be ready to visit again next year...?

Posted by Jessica at 3:51 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