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Thursday, June 26, 2008

For the love of books

"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."
(St. Augustine)

I love reading.. be it books, magazines, subtitles (hahah.. necessary while watching the HK TVB dramas series.. j/k), even a piece of leaftlet at the doctor's waiting room.. I even read the preface section on books - word by word!

I have funny feelings for books, either reading them, looking at them.. Sometimes, I would fall in love with a book and just want to have it.. I might not read it immediately, but the sense of ownership satisfy me.. Hahaha! Sounded nerdish.. yeah.. a mama nerd! hahaha..

Lil C loves books too.. We cultivated that habit when he was an infant till now. I normally read to him before going to bed, and THE END would mean another book! hehehe.. Lil C loves non-fictional books and poetry. We try not to introduce him books where animal/plant talks, but sometimes just cant help it. There are masses of children books out there which are too fictional for children below 5 years old. (Read Misconception about Fantasy down below)

His first collection of book was the Grolier - I wonder why. Bought the set for him when he was 7 months in my tummy. From there, our book collection keep growing.

Another favourite collection of his (& Mama's) are Dr.Seuss'. (This set contradicts with my believe that no-talking-animal policy, but I cant resist the out-of-the-box poems written by Dr.Seuss.) The words are so catchy that even lil C love reciting his poems."One fish, two fish; red fish, blue fish"

One of the poem books with lovely language, lil C was showing the book to us while waiting for Mama cleaning baby up. At anytime of the day, Lil C would just go to his bookshelf and grab a book that excites him..


Reading for Baby C; he is also exposing books to Baby C, voluntarily & spontaneously.

Read more about fantasy, you can agree to it, you can disagree to it:

Misconception that Maria Montessori was against fantasy; she didn't believe in letting kids be creative.

Maria Montessori was not against fantasy and creativity for young children. What she did observe was that young children were at a stage in life of huge development and to be participating in the here and now was what they needed most. Some fantasy time was not necessarily harmful, just as for adults, some sort of diversion isn't harmful. But she was concerned about children who spent considerable time fantasizing, especially those who were unable to NOT fantasize. She also found time and time again in her classes that the children would leave toys and fantasy aside, of their own volition, when provided with suitable real-life activities that fulfilled their inner needs. This concurs with Paula Polk Lillard's experience as described in her book "Montessori in the Classroom: A Teacher's Account of How Children Really Learn". Every year, she started her class with one box of toys the children could choose from, plus the prepared Montessori environment. Within a matter of weeks, the toybox became untouched.

As for creativity, children at the 0-6 level (meaning, ages 0-6) do best being creative with real things. They may not be allowed to use the materials in any way they see fit, just as an adult is not allowed to use a car in any way he or she sees fit, but there is opportunity for creativity and more importantly, there is the development of the senses at the 3-6 level that will be the foundations of higher creativity later on. At the 6-12 level, the children are simply at a different stage of development and imagination, creativity and fantasy are non-issues.

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We should check that they [books] present reality, since at this age children are trying to make sense of the environment and the life around them. There is nothing more extraordinary and interesting than our own daily life. Fantasy can come later - after reality has been experienced and absorbed.

- Dr. Silvana Montanaro


Happy reading, everyone!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Celine,

Is this "I wonder why" suitable for 2.5 years old? I like this book as now my girl always ask me:"mummy what is it oh?" I think her next question will be "mummy why like this oh?" I need to get myself prepared first. Do you also order this order online (http://www.grolier.co.uk/our_books/i_wonder_why)?

Joan D'Arcy said...

HI serene,
Not sure what age it covers. Tho it seemed to be good for 5years and above, I started reading to lil C when he was a baby.. Just read to him only, as if telling stories and show pictures. We bought it from some salesman sometime ago. Yeah, the kids will ask 101 Qs and in fact, I learn a lot of facts from this book too. When there's doubt about the facts, I check online.. to be sure! So kiasu kan! Enjoy reading with your daughter..

Anonymous said...

OOh...we are so alike..the way you describe your reading habit and your obsession with books..The feeling of owning the book is so great that's y I can't stop shopping for books though I do not have time to read them all. Now in the midst of packing, hub asked me to part with some books...aiYo...that's like cutting my flesh from my body.

Btw, I also have the grolier set..in fact i'm a grolier baby...I grew up reading grolier encyclopedias, now handed down to my children though a little out of date.

Joan D'Arcy said...

Elaine,
aiyaah! Dont throw the precious books away!! Ouchh!! R u selling them? List them out, maybe I would be interested on some? hahahaha!!!! Nerd mama! hehehe and you are a grolier baby :)

Anonymous said...

Good ba read books... I'm regretting for not reading a lot of books while I still had the time... Now susa already heehe... Like they always say, "Melentur buluh, biarlah dari rebungnya"...;D

Joan D'Arcy said...

arms,
well said. thanks for reminding me of the malay proverbs. :)

Anonymous said...

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