The McEldowney Family: December 2008

Friday, December 19, 2008

Hello everyone!
we have been very busy the last few weeks with many fun projects. So far we have managed to keep from getting any flu or cold bugs, so we have been able to function as normal. Aidan did a research assignment on The Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, very informative and interesting...Alexis is writing a paper on the Kindertransport that took place during WWII with Jewish children in Europe. We watched a movie called "Into the arms of Strangers" which we would definitely recommend, that detailed the stories of the some of the children that were sent away. It shows how hard it must have been for these child refugees. Aidan is also compliling a paper of his own on the same movie. We went to the Victoria theater to see a play about the mystery of King Tut , it was kind of childish, but enjoyable none the less. The kids also helped us with the remodel of the upstairs bathroom, learning about plumbing , tile, and flooring. It was good.
The kids go to a weekly Math class and they are coming along nicely with that. Sean has started coming up with questions for them to consider along with their history book "Proclaimers" and they are enjoying that also. Well, that's all for now, take care until my next post!

My current favorite quotes about education and life

"What does education often do? It makes a
straight-cut ditch of a free meandering brook."
~Henry David Thoreau, Journal,
1850

"Learning can only happen when a child is interested. If he's not interested, it's like throwing marshmallows at his head and calling it eating."
- Barbara Lamping
"I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of coloured paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experience."
-- Anne Sullivan (Helen Keller's teacher)