Don't Dumb it Down!

I have been an ESL Teacher for some 6 years or so (probably a lot less depending on your idea of what a "teacher" really is). A few things that have changed over the years, especially upon becoming a father to 2 bilingual children, is that when it comes to language acquisition, DUMBING THINGS DOWN is nooooooooot the way to go!

The temptation is always there though, I know it. Trust me, I battle with myself every time I step in a classroom. You know, wanting to speak in monosyllabic yes/no questions that even our dogs could bark back to. Mostly, I think we do this to feel understood. After all it's quite nice to be fed back an answer we comprehend, or a response we mostly expected, quite possibly even contrived, molded or enchained long before even tossing out our question in the first place. Or perhaps it is simply the urge we have as parents or teachers to be assured that learning has actually taken place. Those haunting voices can't only be spooking me, "You are wasting your time treading off the beaten path trying to disprove the empirical educational system in place".   

Furthermore, this does not only occur when it comes to language. This malady spreads to multiple healthy cells like cancer trumping any chance of benign growth. But not this week, not in Caillou Home it won't!!

Concentration level at its peak! 

On Monday morning, we dove straight into Electrical Circuits 101 by putting together a little lamp to represent the Sun in our solar system. The project started out with a trip down to the store so that the kids could see where all of the stuff came from, the wires, the sockets, the bulb, the plugs and screws. We are always taking trips but this week's stop stood out like a nook carved out only for fathers, a previously unadventured cave of wonders. The sparkle in the eyes of my 5 out of 6 boys got me thinking perhaps many of them will spend many-a-hours in shops like these, like me, later down the line. And to think...I was their first venture into the Wunderkammer!

These eyes reveal, "I'm still with you Uncle Carl."

Once we were back in the class we scattered the materials purchased out on the table. A predictable energy was in the air. I started by having the youngest in our group, 2 year old Yiyi, help me cut the wire into 6 little pieces of about 5cms each to hand out to the kids. The goal was to create a little body with 2 arms, 2 legs and some hairy metallic hands and feet. This turned out to be a really fun way to get our practice on for the final splicing and cutting that would be needed on the actual cable we would use to build our light. Not to mention the fantastic fine motor skill development happening all along the way!!

Authentic fine motor skill work 

All but two of my kids dropped away from the activity as it progressed into the more tedious aspects of trying to get the wires through the little holes and then screwing it all together. In part, I was surprised that they didn't all huddle around to watch what I thought was magical. I had imagined one of the problems of this activity being that they would all want to use the one screwdriver we had and I was ready to enforce sharing. But this is the greatest wonder of them all: Kids surf wave-lengths of their own, and more often than not us adults are just meant to be on the safe shores watching them from afar, at times breezing out of the wave's closing tunnels and landing an aerial 360 at others being crushed into the reefs.

Nonetheless, the payoff was celebrated by all. When it came to time to light it up, I gathered everyone around those who would be the stars for the rest of the week and 3...2...1. Tada!!!

What all went down inside each of my kids psyche this week is hard to know. But educated guesses can and should most certainly be made. I imagine that the 2 who stuck through it all had a deeper feeling of satisfaction. Those who didn't may have felt like, "Oh man, I should've helped out." Who knows really? That is not for us to worry about, our concern is to create enriched environments fit for continuous discovery. Beyond any shadow of a doubt I know all my kids are getting that every week they come to Caillou Home, cause in this joint we ain't DUMBING THINGS DOWN!!!

Mounted for the solar system class. 

Little Changchang Tesla.