Homeschooling Just Next Door: Quote

Showing posts with label Quote. Show all posts

Knowing When They 'Get It'

Our 6 year old learning how to use a thesaurus.

If you can't teach a 6 year old,

you don't understand it yourself

~ Einstein

Around our house, we have been putting this idea to great use lately.

Some of the things our 6 year old has been taught recently include:

how to draw a road using perspective,
how to use a thesaurus, and
how to measure distances accurately.

Principles of Freedom

Words for parents to ponder this Independence Day from one of our Founding Fathers...

"Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom."

~ John Adams

"It should be your care, therefore, and mine,

to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage;

to accelerated and animate their industry and activity;

to excite in them a habitual contempt of meanness,

abhorrence of injustince and inhumanity,

and an ambition to excel in every capacity, facutly, and virtue.

If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives."

~ John Adams

Happy Independence Day!

*Pictures of summertime from the archives {summer 2011}

Reading Aloud Fairy Tales

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.

If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."

~ Albert Einstein

Don't you just love that quote by Einstein? Though I don't hold stock in it completely, I do know it can be fun to read fairy tales to children.

Lately, I have been reading a few more fairy tales to our younger children. The older have perused these picture books on their own. {All the books mentioned in this post were found at our local library.}

The top three favorites in our house, over the past three weeks, have been:

Jack and the Bean Stalk - We found two versions at our library. The first version was retold by Ann Keay Beneduce and the second was retold by Jonh Cech. Each tell the tale in a slightly different manner, but the children liked them both. A young boy sneaking by a giant more than once delighted our youngest.
Rumpelstiltskin - The version we found is yet another fairy tale retold by John Cech. The children love to revisit this tale of triumph. Outsmarting the trickster Rumpelstiltskin provides great enjoyment to our young listeners.
The Nightingale - Originally written by Hans Christian Andersen, this fairy tale tells of a Chinese emperor who has everything. He is praised by travelers for his beautiful palace and gardens. However, each one mentions the beauty of a singing nightingale. The emperor's jealousy leads to a search and capture of the nightingale. Onward the story continues through twists and turns that captivated our young listeners.