[imported from livejournal and backdated]
I don't think there is any sound in the world more beautiful than a baby or child's laughter.
Josh
and I cart Tiny around with us everywhere we go (partly coz he's
breastfed, partly coz we wouldn't have it any other way), and everywhere
we go people are taken by his cuteness. He's recognising people we see
frequently, and will often shoot them the most adorable gummyshark
smiles, thus reducing them to melted puddles.
It's even better
when laughter can be elicited from him. He is such a happy baby, he
smiles and laughs so much, and it's the best thing to watch and listen
to. And he has the cutest laugh.
Tiny has big eyes that may well
be brown. They're still in the colour changing process but I'm
thinking they will probably end up being brown as they stay some shade
of brown most of the time. The comments I most commonly get about him
is that he is a "good" baby (because he doesn't cry often in public...or
even much out of public) and that he is so alert.
(I shamelessly
plug that he is carried all the time and sleeps in our bed with us,
gets plenty of cuddles, we read to him lots, etc etc etc...what this is
leading up to is a secure, happy well attached child who is on his way
to independence because he knows that he is secure and can always come
to us when something scares/bothers him)
He takes in the world
through these beautiful big bright eyes. He is still a bit unco
sometimes but he can deliberately clasp his hands together, he wants to
touch everything that looks interesting, grab everything that looks
interesting and stuff it into his mouth. He's "only" 3 months old.
He
wants to crawl so badly, I finally found a useful skill in the mother's
group and now know how to "help" him to crawl. He slithers so fast.
I
was talking to the codemonkeys the other day and stumbled across
another or maybe the real reason I want to homeschool. I want to
homeschool because I think I would miss Tao too much if he spent the
entire day at school. I want to homeschool because I don't believe
learning is sequential. You shouldn't HAVE to learn a whole bunch of
stuff before getting to other stuff. You shouldn't have to memorise a
whole bunch of bullshit because someone arbitrarily decided that all
kids should know this by this time.
How much do you actually remember from school?
One
of the major things schools seems to teach is that there is only a
certain number of ways to do something, there are only so many right
answers, and there's no real point finding something out unless it gives
you the right answer. And usually there is no time left to explore
things that are interesting because you're too busy trying to get the
"right" answer. I don't want Tiny to lose his curiousity, I don't ever
want those beautiful bright eyes dulled by a system that insists on
conformity and are stuck in the misguided notion that this NEEDS to be
done before this or this and there is NO POSSIBLE WAY adequate
comprehension will be reached if you don't do things a certain way.
Only
in the last couple of years or so have I started again wanting to know
things for the sake of knowing them. Before it was just a case of doing
because I "had" to. Was some bizarre attitude that carried over from
school. And then when you get to uni you spend so much time unlearning
what you learned in school and find out most of it was crap anyway.
I
want Tiny to want to learn things just for the sake of knowing them as
well as using whatever he learns for whatever he wants. i want him to
be able to be whatever he wants to be without being told what he should
be doing and when he should be doing it. I want somewhere for there
always to be that little bright eyed baby looking at the world with new
eyes.
(Amazing, I can still write...hope that didn't sound like a whole lot of wank)