October 1, Homework
The Absorbent Mind
Chapter 1: From the moment a child is born he is ready to learn and fulfill his destiny in the world that surrounds him.
Chapter 2: The child must be provided from birth with education to insure his success.
Chapter 3: Every stage of life is capable of different levels or forms of learning and physical and mental growth, the ages from birth – 6 being the most important.
Chapter 4: The child is an extension of their parents and also a new beginning for those parents.
Chapter 5: The development of an embryo from a single cell and how complex all the cells that multiply are to form a life.
Chapter 6: The development of cells their individuality, adaptability and importance to each living being.
Chapter 7: A child absorbs his environment and makes it his own, imprinting memories as he experiences life.
Chapter 8: A child has an inner need for independence, for his mental and physical development.
Chapter 9: From birth a child should part of his mother’s everyday life and be exposed to its new world and surroundings so it become comfortable with it and learns from it.
Chapter 10: A baby learns to speak from hearing human voices; the brain is programmed to favor that over any other sound it hears.
Chapter 11: How a child speaks develops from what he can hear and process and then verbalize, being sensitive to the sound of the human voice.
Chapter 12: The development of language should be carefully watched and the child should be allowed to express themselves, and we should be patient so we may understand.
Chapter 13: Movement is needed for the physical and mental development of a child.
Quote: All movement thus has a most intricate and delicate machinery. But in man none of it is established at birth. It has to be formed and perfected by the child’s activity in the world. Page 143
Quote: Dancing is the most individual of all movements, but even dancing would be pointless without an audience; in other words, without some social or transcendental aim.
Page 147
At my school there is one little girl that is very daring, loves to climb and hand upside down and swing from the play set wherever she can grab, trying to get higher every time. She scares us sometimes but we let her do as much as she wants at a safe level. Her movements have improved so much since last year. The best part of it all is that she has inspired movement in other children also. Even our three year old want to swing and hang upside down like her.
Quote: The child’s first instinct is to carry out his actions by himself, without anyone helping him, and his first conscious bid for independence is made when he defends himself against those who try to do the action for him. To succeed by himself he intensified his efforts. Page 90-91
When I read this right away I though of so many children that get so frustrated and upset when an adults does something for them because they (the adult) feel they need help or just can’t wait any longer for the child to be done. I watched this happen recently at school when a child was being picked up. The child wanted to open the sliding door on his mother’s van and attempted it several times to pull it. The mother waited for him to try a few time but then went ahead and opened the door. The child was so upset and started to cry and yell that “he wanted to do it”. She felt embarrassed because other parents were watching and I just felt sad for the little boy who just wanted to do it himself.
Quote: We can only use the machinery of our own language; no one but a child can construct his own machinery and so learn to perfection as many languages as he hears spoken about him. Page 111
We have a new little girl in our classroom that doesn’t speak a word of English, or I should say she didn’t speak a word of English when she started two weeks ago. She already says and understands the commands of our routine, wash hands, hanger, jacket, draw, line, paper, outside, and can follow and remember song that we sing at circle time. I am in constant amazement of what children can learn when it comes to languages. We have another little girl that last year didn’t speak English and is speaking almost perfectly this year. I can’t remember from one day to the next a word that she teaches me. When I started school in this country in Kindergarten I didn’t speak English either and remember clearly not understanding the teacher but I don’t remember when I started to understand. I know that by first grade I spoke and understood perfectly.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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7 comments:
Diamira,
Your readings,quotes and examples are very readable. Good Work
Molly
Diamira,
I had two kids two years ago who were non-english speakers. The 3 yr old boy spoke Hebrew and the 3 yr old girl spoke French. They both had and continued to develop broad receptive language, but they were vastly different in their approach to speaking. The boy from the first day would name something in Hebrew, I would repeat and provide the work in English which he would then repeat! The next day he would name the item in English. His vocabulary grew at lightning speed! The little girl would not try to say words in English. It was almost as if she was embarassed! I even took out books for myself to learn a bit of French, but when I tried using simple words like fromage for cheese...she became upset! It took her another full year to really begin speaking in English!
So, even though she did absorb English, I noticed that her distinct personality almost got in the way, so to speak, of her practicing!
Diamira-
Montessori talked about how we can never learn a second language as easily and perfectly as our first language. I would think Engish was your first language. You learned it when you were in kindergarden -still in the sensitive period for language. Do you think you learned English or "Absorbed" it?
Diamira-
Montessori talked about how we can never learn a second language as easily and perfectly as our first language. I would think English was your first language. You learned it when you were in kindergarden -still in the sensitive period for language. Do you think you learned English or "Absorbed" it?
oops
Grainne,
That’s an interesting thought, I don’t know if I absorbed it. I can’t remember learning it. I have to say that Montessori’s views on language, when she says that the language the mother speaks is the language of the child, is something I have never agreed with or completely understood. Even though I can speak Spanish and it’s been the only language that I’ve spoken to my parents all my life, I feel that English is my language and the Unites States in my country, not Cuba.
When Montessori and others speak of the Mother tongue it does not mean that other languages cannot be learned during their sensitive period. As she said the senstive period for learning language is the longest of all the sensitive periods.
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