Are you a believer of this… A baby during the first 6 months of her life is like a little animal, has no mental capacity in any wise, concerned only with eating, drinking and sleeping, etc?
If you have the time, join me in this…
Below is an extract from [Maria Montessori – Her life and Her work by E. M. Standing]
Montessori presents a surprising picture of an infant who acquires “the whole world” unconsciously; and then passes gradually from the unconscious to conscious.
How is this passage from the unconscious to he conscious accomplished?
It is through movements which follows the path of pleasure and love. When the child begins to move, his absorbent mind has already taken in the world unconsciously. Now, as he starts to move, he becomes conscious.
If you watch a small child of two or even one, he is always manipulating something. This means that – while he is manipulating with his hands, he is bringing into consciousness what his subconscious mind has already taken in before.
It is through this experience of objects in his environment, in the guise of playing, that he goes over again the impressions that he has already taken in with his unconscious mind. It is by means of this “work” – for it is much work as play – that he becomes conscious, and constructs himself.
He develops himself by means of his hands, using them as instruments of human intelligence.”
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Each time I see Jeanne manipulating with things in her hand and bringing them to her mouth, I would think of this passage above…
It has been weeks since I last blog. There were so many things to put down here but I was just so busy shuttling from housework to kids to working on biz… Well, our online biz that you could have heard us talking about is finally going to start. John and I had a pact, that is our biz must start before Jeanne can start having her solids which I am very very eager to start. It was supposed to be yesterday but… postponed again… Poor Jeanne… Sorry dear…
Do stay tune to our new website!
Jeanne turned 6 months old yesterday! She has amazed us with her unique personality and her ability to crawl days before she turned 5 months! Ju started crawling at 6 months old and we already thought he was early.
Jeanne has a very unique set of personality. She knows exactly what she wants and how to ask for it. Daddy’s feet have became her doorbell to press when she wants to be carried. No matter where Daddy is standing, she would crawl to his legs, tap on his toes repeatedly till she is picked up.
We did a same experiment on a few occasions… John, Ju and I would stand in a row with our feet put together and leave Jeanne in a distance away. She never fails to tap on daddy’s feet.
We set up this basket of treasures for Jeanne according to an activity in How to Raise An Amazing Child the Montessori Way by Tim Seldin. The basket is filled with household items of different materials, temperature, size, weight for her to feel, touch and of course taste!
This is a great activity that had gave us at least 30mins of time to do our work while she is busy exploring her treasures.
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