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September 27 - October 23, 2019
His energy level and dedication to his single-minded task are extraordinary but terminate just as abruptly as they began.
elementary school children between the ages of six and twelve years become interested in their peers, not from the self-centered viewpoint of younger children, but from a genuine curiosity and desire to understand on a deeper level the thoughts and activities of others.
Rather than being focused primarily on a sensorial exploration of the factual world about them, they now want to devote the main thrust of their energies to getting along with others and doing things together. They are transformed from essentially “sensorial explorers” to “social explorers.”
They are freely available to the children at all times, and never relegated to a separate room and a “specialist” teacher down the hall from the regular classroom. The message to the children is that these expressions of the human spirit are not esoteric activities for the talented
few but activities to be understood and engaged in
by...
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Elementary school children, especially, need heroes from the past and to recognize that they are part of the grandeur that is the pageant of human civilization. It is in the second plane, then, that the seeds of respect for human progress and the permanence of human civilization must be sown.
It is through this effort of concentration and control of attention that all learning takes place.
we are not born with a disciplined will, only the potential to develop it.
the prepared adult, the prepared environment, and freedom with responsibility.
Deep concentration is normal for human beings. Because it represents a normalized state, it results in relaxation and contentment in the individual.
By keeping “doing and thinking” together, the child gradually develops the ability to inhibit all movements not conducive to the accomplishment of the task at hand.
it was not until the later elementary school years that children begin gradually, and on an individual timetable, to work entirely on an abstract basis.
everything that adults give to the young child for sensorial exploration should represent the real world.
Nonsense songs, pictures, and stories that are the product of adult fantasy give no useful information about the world to the child under six years old.
On the other hand, being out-of-doors in natural settings gives infants and young children hands-on experiences that are concrete and reality based.
Hence, the first mobile portrays flat, black-and-white geometric shapes and reflected light from a glass sphere. Subsequent ones are introduced in ordered sequence: three octahedrons of colored metallic paper, ideally each in a primary color; five Styrofoam balls covered with embroidery thread
in gradations of the same color and hung in ascending order from darkest to lightest; stylized paper figures of light metallic colored paper that move with the slightest current of air; and, finally, stylized wooden figures painted in pastel colors.
Next, an object is hung by a piece of elastic. A wooden ring about three inches in diameter with a thickness of half an inch is ideal.
Rattles are going to replace mobiles as the major tool for her ongoing sensorial exploration of the world.
own. While we are waiting for the infant to move on her own, we can collect baskets of common household objects that are safe for her
When a familiar object is re-presented a few weeks later, the infant will look at it on a different level because her brain has progressed and she is ready to take in more information.
Repetition of the familiar is essential for developing focus and true knowledge at every stage of development.
Does it make sense? Is it ordered, simple, and functional? Is it beautiful? We want the baby to discover an orderly
environment and thereby incorporate this order within her own mind.
Children under the age of six years, who have not therefore reached the age of reason, will eventually get into almost any item in the house, and they are often able to do so long before we realize that they can.
Parents who inadvertently thrust one new object after another into an infant’s hands create just such obstacles for their child.
He is the source of the movement—not an adult or a mechanical device—and thus he gains a sense of his emerging capacities.
repetition is key to the learning process at all ages. Rotation, not substitution, is the answer to the process of habituation to objects.
Experience with hand-to-hand transfer of objects has implications for development of preferred handedness and the development of the right and left sides of the infant’s brain.
By age nine to ten months, he has fingers that are truly useful, and he achieves a finger-thumb position that is capable of precise movements.
It is only when we—whether as adults or as children—can relate new information to past knowledge that we are capable of making discoveries with that new information.
By the time the child is fifteen months old, the early mission of hand and brain development is complete: the intellect, guided by information supplied by the hand, is developing, and the hand is now an effective tool.
We do not typically give similar attention to fine motor coordination and the development of the hand, wrist, and fingers.
fifteen-month-old children are driven to activities of “work” in the home because doing all of these activities requires more and more control of their hands, and results in further development of the feedback loop from hand to brain to hand again.
Practical-life activities keep fifteen-month-olds at the leading edge of their skill development, building their intelligence, deepening their concentration, and giving them a new appreciation of their expanding capabilities.
the baby should not wear dresses, for these prevent her from drawing herself up on her knees and pushing off, first to scoot and eventually to crawl.
simply attired in bootie, diaper, cotton shirt, and sweater, the baby is dressed for action.
After the beginning weeks are past, we need to watch for our impulses to carry the baby about constantly with no place to put her down that is not a confined
space such as a crib or other holding device. We want to foster the baby’s self-concept from the beginning: “I am a capable person. I can do things for myself. I can affect my environment.” It is the infants experiences, as she figures out how to use her body that will give her this view of herself.
“We are not the only interesting things in the environment. You are going to belong to the world, not just to us.”
mobiles that are moved by the wind or the child’s own motions, rather than wind-up, mechanical ones that require the mother to make them move.
In effect, in things large and small, parents are continually preparing their infant for the day that she will be in the world without them. Such an attitude toward the child reflects the parent’s selflessness and establishes that...
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“Push ups” with the arms from the stomach position are key in forming this needed coordination and strength for all of the subsequent large-muscle development of the infant.
It is not helpful to her if we constantly carry her about to other
peoples houses or to shopping malls. This is another instance where we need to give our child the gift of time.
We will see to it that there is a balance between effort and success. However, a constant attentiveness and hovering over the baby by parents, family members, or other adults is not helpful. Such behavior negates her initiative and cripples her at the threshold of life.
We lay a foundation for an understanding, so important in a healthy adjustment to life, that physical presence is not essential to trust and a feeling of oneness with loved ones.
“Sitters” very often acquire language early, for example, and tend to be very verbal throughout childhood. It is as if the brain cannot excel in every area of development at once and, for the moment at least, has opted for language over locomotion.
Balls of rubber and wood, and other objects that roll more easily and thus further, such as a cylinder with a bell inside, are substituted for the cloth and
