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We drool over and treasure beautifully illustrated children’s books, but are we showing more interest in those books than our children? The most captivating books for young children are not always what we expect. Why do we make a bee-line for the children’s section at the library or select for them only age appropriate children’s books?
“When engaged in what looks like child’s play, preschoolers are actually behaving like scientists, (according to a new report in the journal- Science): forming hypotheses, running experiments, calculating probabilities and deciphering causal relationships about the world.” — -The New York Times, October 1, 2012
(Source: The New York Times)
In 1919, at which point he was just 9-years-old, Samuel Barber wrote the following letter to his mother and left it on his desk for her to find. She did, and a year later Barber began to compose his first opera, “The Rose Tree.” He was still only 26 years of age when, in 1936, he finished his most famous work, “Adagio for Strings.”
Samuel Barber went on to win worldwide acclaim for his work and numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Music twice.
NOTICE to Mother and nobody else
Dear Mother: I have written this to tell you my worrying secret. Now don’t cry when you read it because it is neither yours nor my fault. I suppose I will have to tell it now without any nonsense. To begin with I was not meant to be an athlet [sic]. I was meant to be a composer, and will be I’m sure. I’ll ask you one more thing.—Don’t ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go play football.—Please—Sometimes I’ve been worrying about this so much that it makes me mad (not very),
Love,
Sam Barber II
(Source: lettersofnote.com)
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“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables me to laugh at life’s realities.” — Dr Theadore Geisel aka Dr Seuss.
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“…If you want to make a big change, get all the kids thinking of themselves as a creative person. They’re just going to have that openness that will allow them to come up with new and different ideas that they can choose. When we talk about having ideas, we talk about fluency and flexibility. Fluency means you can quickly come up with lots of ideas like in brainstorming, but flexibility means that they’re different one from the next. So you have lots of ideas and they’re unique ideas. That’s going to help you make a better decision.
I don’t care if that’s about something in your personal life or whether it’s your job of curing cancer, having a better variety of ideas is going to make better decisions.”
— ~David Kelley. Design Thinking For Social Good.
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“I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. If you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good, either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.” — ~ Roald Dahl
(Source: larmoyante, via tnbrando)
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“…An innovator is a creative problem solver. You can be a problem solver without creativity and that doesn’t lead to innovation. You can be creative without solving any problems, that doesn’t lead to innovation either. So we’re not just talking about the breakthrough innovations and the brilliant innovators like a Steve Jobs, we’re talking about the capacities of many many many more young people to solve many many more different kinds of problems…” — ~Tony Wagner, author of: Creating Innovators: The Making Of Young People Who Will Change The World. - Keynote Address.
Why Are Children Drawn To Bright Colour?
Colour provides a bright side to childhood and it’s fascinating to understand why they are so enamored with it. Colour is a big part of their world. The playful, visually stimulating variations of ‘reflected light’ that we see as ‘colour’ provides a dose of happy energy like that of a child. Bright colour aligns with their energy - young kids are drawn to it and desire playful interaction with it. They play with colour like playing with toys. Like the joy of a kaleidoscope they are exploring with an experimental curiosity about what colour means to them.
“We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but is somewhat beauty and poetry.” — Astronomer Maria Mitchell (1818-1889), the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
(Source: explore-blog, via tnbrando)