"The child is curious. He wants to make sense out of things, find out how things work, gain competence and control over himself and his environment, and do what he can see other people doing. He is open, perceptive, and experimental. He does not merely observe the world around him, he does not shut himself off from the strange, complicated world around him, but tastes it, touches it, hefts it, bends it, breaks it. To find out how reality works, he works on it. He is bold. He is not afraid of making mistakes. And he is patient. He can tolerate an extraordinary amount of uncertainty, confusion, ignorance, and suspense ... School is not a place that gives much time, or opportunity, or reward, for this kind of thinking and learning."

~John Holt, (1923-1985) American Educator, How Children Learn

Saturday, May 8, 2010

A Day in the Life, April 30, 2010


It's been a perfectly wonderful day! We were headed out the door to go to the library and then the playground, when the UPS truck arrived with our bullfrog tadpoles. That meant delaying our outing, to get the tadpoles settled, but that was fine... We did all sort of fun experiments with the starch-based packing peanuts that the bag o' tadpoles had been nestled in, and then another UPS truck arrived with all sorts of goodies from the online science store: the fetal pig, a book describing how to dissect the fetal pig, and a dissecting kit to do the deed; a flower press; all manner of items to collect, identify, pin, and display insects; a soil testing kit; several blood testing kits; various instruments to measure various aspects of the weather; owl pellets and a guide to what we might find therein... and on and on. We are all so excited; we don't know what to do first! We did end up going to the library: Caleb is heavy into mythology right now and found a great deal to bring home; Amelia loaded up on poetry anthologies, Samantha filled her bag up with all the Bailey School Kids books; Mark was happy as a clam to find a bunch of X-Men videos to bring home. THEN we went to the playground, where the kids played happily with a bunch of other kids of various ages, genders, and backgrounds. Now, challah and dinner, then "Capitalism: A Love Story" and finally, as our bedtime read-aloud, at Michael's request: _Johnny Tremain_. He heard the beginning of it, read aloud by a teacher, in middle school, but the teacher never finished it, so we are all going to enjoy it together. THIS IS THE LIFE!

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