Thursday, January 31, 2008

A Song of the Heart

So I just looked down at a pile of Isabelle's papers, and this is what I saw:


I asked her what it was, though it was obvious, and she told me it was a song. "A Song of the Heart."

Others may not think this is such a big deal, but I was utterly floored. Consider that she's spent the past year and a half practicing drawing letters and numbers, and hasn't yet done so independently and with confidence, but here she spontaneously wrote out musical notes. Mostly eighth notes, but some are conjoined and some are independent (with their flags projecting forward). There's even a pair of sixteenth notes. The thing in the upper left may not look like much, but it seems to be holding the place of the G-clef. I don't know if Montessori has had them look at written music, or taught them about it, but her exposure here has been mostly limited to one embarrassing effort of Daddy's to play the "Bad Babies" song on his guitar.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

tales of teaching

Okay, so this isn't about Isabelle, but it's a quote too good to pass up:

STUDENT: Can I have a rubber band?

ME: [suspecting catapult construction] What do you need a rubber band for?

STUDENT: I need it to hold a rolled up piece of paper.

ME: [seeing no such thing] And this rolled up piece of paper is where?

STUDENT: I just made it up so I could get a rubber band.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Isabelle Art

A Valentine Picture


A Flower





A Falling Star

"Like the one Howl caught. This is what it looks like when a demon steals your heart."