A child offered stimulation to fill his intellect and more to expand his growth will never be naughty!! for he will be occupied and content with the self-satisfaction of personal success.. Now this seems to be a thread of Montessori.. interesting … and I can see it to be in line.. I must say that when I take the time.. and time and effort it does take to the point of feeling extremely stretched at times, I find that Khai focuses in on what he has taken to at the time and becomes .. as Montessori would put it ‘normal’ .. Lately I have not found him ‘normal’ just freaking hard work. but I would far rather have a extrovert busy child than an introvert and not be able to tell what is going on inside his head. So anyway, the hard work .. it would seem that he is going through a stage of pushing boundaries, of having so much going on in his little head that focusing on fulfilling simple tasks like get dressed or eat breakfast is a mammoth task.. BUT.. just when we think he is beyond controlling himself there seems within this chaos to be some kind of order assembling within the depths of his person trying to escape the child ..
Nico had taken Khai to the Natural History Museum in Cape Town, Nico observed that Khai had wanted him to read all the information plaques and seemed that Khai was frustrated with not being able to read the information for himself.
That afternoon Khai seem particularly our of hand and seemed erratic in his behavior. We ushered him off to bed earlier than usual putting his behavior down to over tired.. Khai offered Nico Phonics one book that I had gotten from the library but not read yet. As he was about to choose another book I said “ why don’t you read Daddy a story..” “Yes Yes! I will” And slowly word for word he began to read the letters sounding the words phonetically. It was so amazing to watch the penny drop and his little mind grasp the concept of reading .. and he was off.. sounding the word.. processing..desperately concentrating.. READING!
I had tears in my eyes.. how fortunate to have the time and for Nico and myself to have been there for this monumental leap toward his independence in learning and gaining information for himself thorough reading! … The triumph and joy when he had finished his book was out of this world.. leaping about shouting .. ‘ I can read, I can read!!!’
The Power of reading.. Montessori refers to this as an explosion into reading.. It is a great highlight in that kids learn in a different way to adults.. If they are ‘ready’ and allowed to follow intuitive steps they explode into reading… into learning.. “Reading begins early by tracing sandpaper letter and learning the phonetic sound of these letters. Children can handle objects that begin with these sounds. Reading starts out much more abstract that Math, but it involves a finite number of sounds to experience and memorize. Once these have been mastered a child can begin to build words with the moveable alphabet. This is more of a phonetic spelling activity than reading. By repeated experience with this sounding out of words, the child comes to the spontaneous discovery one day that this arrangement of symbols has meaning c-a-t translates into cat, the child has taught herself how to read. Now they begin to sound out all words around them, on signs, cereal boxes, anywhere. This “explosion” into reading is the culmination of all the language experiences. Since English is not a truly phonetic language we then present the “exceptions” such as the, ch, sh. The child now has the skills to attack any new words they come upon. This is one of the advantages of a phonetic approach to reading. Story writing and creative expressions are encouraged. Spelling is not corrected in the beginning of these activities. It is more important that the idea be expressed. Later, corrections can be made when the child has experienced success.”
Besides his activities at Old Cape Farm Montessori school (http://www.sweetnet.com/montessori/materials.htm). I usually do at least a page or two of his Early Learning Activity Books which can be obtained at C N A in South Africa.. here are some cool printable reading books… I guess when we are cruising we will use reading-tablets to keep all the books for the kids to read…
It is encouraging to know that when you feel there is little progress and even disorder that their little minds are expanding and reaching for meaning..
Little by little, one travels far. – JRR Tolkien
It is beautiful.. Khai Reading his 1st book - Video-
