An Invitation to Wonder
How do we teach our children about the world around us?
In our efforts to ensure that they gain knowledge, do we hasten to sit our children in front of what they must learn, have them draw and label all the parts of it, and then explain at length how such and such part enables it to work, followed by a lengthy reading on the subject before dinner to cement their knowledge?
Children do learn this way, but what of their interest? their curiosity? their desire to know and understand? How much of their learning is truly theirs?
A seed is indeed a vessel produced by a plant to propagate, equipped with various parts for disbursement. But why so clinical, so factual in our approach? How interesting, how living, is that, really?
Children are born persons, and as persons, they are spiritual in nature.
Step into the world of your child - and invite them to wonder, to look closer.
"Look! What is that flying there? They look like dancing fairies! How is it they fly so gracefully, and what is it they are carrying? How far will they go?"
Why jump to fact and explanation so fast? They grow dull when there is no curiosity of their own. In this world of cut and dry with every ounce of knowledge at our technical fingertips, it will all become apparent soon enough. Why not linger for now, just a little while longer, in glorious childhood wonder?
Here we have the right order. That which was born of the spirit, the idea, came first and demanded to confirm and illustrate. ~CM, Vol. 6
In our efforts to ensure that they gain knowledge, do we hasten to sit our children in front of what they must learn, have them draw and label all the parts of it, and then explain at length how such and such part enables it to work, followed by a lengthy reading on the subject before dinner to cement their knowledge?
Children do learn this way, but what of their interest? their curiosity? their desire to know and understand? How much of their learning is truly theirs?
A seed is indeed a vessel produced by a plant to propagate, equipped with various parts for disbursement. But why so clinical, so factual in our approach? How interesting, how living, is that, really?
Children are born persons, and as persons, they are spiritual in nature.
Step into the world of your child - and invite them to wonder, to look closer.
"Look! What is that flying there? They look like dancing fairies! How is it they fly so gracefully, and what is it they are carrying? How far will they go?"
Why jump to fact and explanation so fast? They grow dull when there is no curiosity of their own. In this world of cut and dry with every ounce of knowledge at our technical fingertips, it will all become apparent soon enough. Why not linger for now, just a little while longer, in glorious childhood wonder?
Here we have the right order. That which was born of the spirit, the idea, came first and demanded to confirm and illustrate. ~CM, Vol. 6
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