A parent asked me, "What can we do at home to extend our child's interest in class?"This question made me think, "What is the adult role in both the classroom as well as at home?"
The Wonder Studio classes are built around instilling a strong sense of Wonder in children and their parents.
In her book, A Sense of Wonder, Rachel Carson states the following:
"I sincerely believe that for the child, and for the parent seeking to guide him, it is not half so important to know as to FEEL. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. Once the emotions have been aroused-a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration or love-then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response. Once found, it has lasting meaning. It is more important to pave the way for the child to WANT to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimilate." p.45
Children want a conversation not lectures and abstract explanations. Our job is to be careful observers, listeners, and to keep the conversation going.
How do we teach our children to think?
We give them many opportunities to wonder and ask questions, develop their own theories, predictions, and ideas.
When they ask, "Why is it windy mom? We don't provide the answers, we say, why do you think? And then listen and find ways to keep this conversation going.
On An Answer Tree by ???
Some wish there could in Nature be -----
an ever-blooming Answer Tree;
So when they have the urge to find
THE "Answer" for their troubled mind,
All they'd have to do is look ----- and,
that "tree" would get them off the hook.
But "friend" there IS NO "Answer Tree"
(or "Other" to take care of Thee) ----- SO,
When questions 'rise or touch your ear,
(we suggest) you get your mind in gear;
And do some "searching" for the nonce,
(forget about a "quick response").
A Question is much like a Door,
it can open "regions to explore".
THE "Answer" is much like a Key,
“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.”
-Rachel Carson
Here is some brainstorming for what I think we can do as parents to encourage our children to think, wonder, problem-solve, and be creative:
Listen, join them in their quest, be excited about their discoveries, teach them to discover their own answers, ask them interesting questions, and give them experiences (hands-on) that allow them to experiment, offer toys that are don't have "right answers", but that can be manipulated in many different ways. Teach your child boundaries and be careful that their play is constructive play and not destructive (you can tell;), when you see them having difficulty getting into deeper play and meaning making, sit down and play with them, get a conversation going! Light a spark in your child and then begin to understand how to keep the fire going!
"Education is the lighting of a flame, not the filling of a vessel"
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