Mini study on 手 shǒu hand 👋🏻
through 📕 人 People by Peter Spier
After reading 《当手指跳舞时》When Fingers Dance
about a girl Kaka with deaf and mute parents
from 与众不同的朋友 Special Friends (Set of 6),
I checked out one of my favorite books of all time
人 People by Peter Spier
with my 6 and 8 year old boys 👦🏻👦🏻.
We zoomed in on a related page,
the part on sign language
and the following pages about different languages of the world.
❓ Can you tell which letter in the alphabet
my firstborn was trying to sign?
It's just so amazing to know
that everyone has a message to share,
a story to tell...
and that there are so many different systems of communication
around the world.
📚📚📚
Sharing some reflections about non-fiction reference books:
Earlier this afternoon, I met
Aparna @globalmindfuljourney,
Vivian @moomoovi and
Karen @k.for.kinder
at our primary school kids' 6-12 class on Connections in the Universe
at The Attic @sgmontessori!
Karen showed us 3 of her lovely reference books during class
and Aparna shared with us another good resource she has at home
- suitable for our primary school age kids.
We were discussing about these non-fiction reference books
that contain tons of information
that may be hard for kids to absorb in a single sitting,
or may be difficult even for us adults!
How do we use these wonderful books,
and how do we interest our kids in them?
Aparna shared with us that
she sometimes intentionally picks out these reference books
and puts them on her coffee table.
She flips through the books herself
and may invite her kids to read something of interest.
I tried... and it works!
We can model the reading
and curiosity,
and invite them -
if they come, great!
If not, it's fine too.
I'm excited to explore
lots more of such books with my older boys,
as they increasingly yearn for
deeper and more specific knowledge at this age!
I think kids of this generation need not
be crammed with more and more information
which evolves with time anyway...
Instead, perhaps we could
nurture their curiosity,
teach them to be resourceful,
help them learn to think critically,
feel deeply, and
to make the world a better place.