Heads up: This post is 14 years old. My thinking may have evolved since then — read it with that in mind.
Last weekend, we went to the Kadoorie farm for our playgroup, the place takes up an entire hill side, with lots of trees and homegrown vegetables, animals and even a river to supply its drinking water! It was awesome! But since it was the first time L has been there, he was keen on running around exploring the whole place, so that didn’t leave him and C much “uninterrupted play time”. As a result, I couldn’t observe any breakthrough in his learning, hence no diary was written. (Diary entries are only written when “events are considered to have new significance, when it arouses surprise in its characters and is likely to increase knowledge.”)
Today, we had another excellent playgroup at my apartment. I didn’t see a lot of new learning, but there were a lot social, interpersonal dynamics between C and L that were interesting. Since they were still very much into the books, I brought out some extra books I had bought from the Montessori playgroup L has been going to. It’s from a Korean company, and we discussed about how the Koreans love the structured, categorized methods, that’s why they love the Montessori method. And how Montessori is different from Reggio Emilia. (Good topic for another blog post.)
After snack time, we went to the park and the kids had fun re-exploring the exercise machines. We talked about how some Reggio are chaos - no scaffolding, no boundaries! Most parents nowadays want to provide the opposite for their children - controlled, structured teaching. Both are extremes. Meanwhile, the two of us are doing Reggio inspired learning but often worried about if we are still directing too much of the play. I think it’s good we have that in back of our minds.
Not a moment later, we went to wash L’s feet and C happily played with the water, drenching himself from head to toe and spraying water everywhere! If it was my son doing this and I’m alone with him, I would be quite conscious about how other people would say my son is naughty or even tell me that I should stop him! (I’ve had these unrequested advices from random old ladies before, may be they see a guy and think I must have no clue how to take care of my child?!) I ignore all those people, but it goes to show again the kinds of pressure you’ll get from people around you simply by giving your child the freedom to pursue learning on their own!