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Eleanor
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| Posted: Aug 03 2007 at 12:28am | IP Logged
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JennGM wrote:
| There is no magic or unrealistic events. |
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Unrealistic for what species?  I'd be curious to discover a real-life creature that would make a kitten dumpling roly-poly pudding. (On second thought, no I wouldn't. If there is one, please don't tell me.  )
This mixture of realistic human behavior, and realistic animal behavior, is part of what makes Beatrix Potter's stories so charming for older children and adults. From a Montessori perspective, though, it's also what makes them so potentially confusing for very little ones, who are just learning about the order of the world. According to Marianne's posts, her children haven't had any trouble sorting this out, even as young as age 2 -- but mine certainly did.
Oddly enough, I'm one of the few people in my social circle who actually likes Beatrix Potter. Most of my friends from church think her books are too English, too old-fashioned, and just plain weird. And they aren't into Montessori; they're just used to present-day American culture.
I've always thought that Maria Montessori is very much an ally in the fight to promote "living books." She believes that children should be given the best that their culture has to offer: the most noble ideas, the highest standards of language and art, and the most beautiful materials. She just has her own ideas about timing and sequence... and she's wary of what she perceives as a common adult tendency to impose concepts and experiences on young children, before they show signs of an inner desire or readiness to receive them.
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Meredith
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| Posted: Aug 03 2007 at 10:53am | IP Logged
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OK, here's my take. Keeping in mind that I have children ranging from age 11 down to age 2, so I do have some experience with Picture Books and little ones and I'll add this caveat that there's more experience with the books for me than there is with Montessori at this point, so keep that in mind when you are reading.
I agree wholeheartedly with Lori that every child is different with regard to being able to distinguish fantasy/reality at young ages. My feeling is that the works of Beatrix Potter are not in a category I would call fantasy they are just excellent and well-written Children's Literature and I woudl not keep these from a child that *I* thought was ready for them no matter the age.
Compare her to something akin to Maisy or Barney and there you have a very different distinction, in my mind. Now granted, I do not have the mind of a 2 year old anymore, but I have had four 2 yo's and they have NEVER had any trouble distinguishing between animal "characters" and real live animals. We do not *do* the disney character thing at ages under 4 here, and only in limited circumstances. But even in situations where my now 2 yo watches Cars with his older brothers, he just thinks they are neat, there's no deep philosophical misunderstandings going on for him about the talking cars.
Theresa's point about being first and foremeost a mother/parent superseding our home education role is very accurate and I think as a parent more so than a teacher, choosing appropriate books, and viewing for children that young is a parental responsibility no matter WHAT educational genre you subscribe.
I also believe that if MM and Beatrix Potter were to have met in their lifetime, they would have appreciated each other very much and I don't believe MM would have told BP that her books were inappropriate Children's Lit, at least not for the 4 and over crowd, but that it was up to the parent to decide what kind of stories the child would hear at home.
I do firmly believe that it's important for any child under 4 to have had PLENTY of experiences with REAL things in their environment, a dog, cat or fish to learn about, plants to care for, stuffed animals to cuddle with, beautiful art and books with REAL things in them, photo albums of themselves and all of their family in them, visits to farms, zoos, gardens to view REAL living/non-living thing, etc. These are just my thoughts, and hope they are helpful to some, whether we are in agreement or not 
I'm looking forward to the Picture Book listing and I'll add some of our favorites too!!
Blessings!
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Meredith
Mom of 4 Sweeties
Sweetness and Light
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marianne
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Meredith,
Thank you so much for offering your opinion on this. I think the main thing I am taking away from this discussion and the shocking moment when I read Montessori's ideas on this in my book, is that reality based books have a lot of value and help ground the child in their world. I never gave much thought to that before, and I certainly haven't placed any special emphasis on reality based picture books for my young children, although we do have plenty (book addict here). I will now be on the look-out for really special books that fit in with this philosophy, and I will make a special effort to keep my younger children from getting confused when reading a book that is pure fantasy.
I also need to remind myself that I am not trying to morph into Maria Montessori here and that's OK! I am also not turning our homeschool into a real Montessori classroom either - I'm just on a Montessori "kick" right now and the ideas that I glean from all my fanatical (at the moment) research will enrich our homeschool, but not radically change it, I don't think.
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montessori_lori
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| Posted: Aug 03 2007 at 5:18pm | IP Logged
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You bring up a great point, Marianne. None of us do every single thing that Maria said or did - and no schools do either. I don't advocate a "pick-and-choose" approach, but there are some ideas that were applicable in the early 1900's that need some tweaking to fit today's world.
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4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: How do y'all feel about children's lit
