Wednesday, April 11, 2012

The Importance of Answering Questions

Although it was not my intention to post about all of the questions we answer during the day, this seems to have become a regular part of this blog. These are questions that come up in discussions, during activities, or seemingly out of the blue and they arise out of curiosity and desire to learn.

My daughter learned to read when she was 6 by asking lots of questions (and I made sure to answer her right away). At night before we went to sleep she would ask what "fty" or "pmk" or "urw" said, and I would try to make the sounds as best as possible. Many nights we were all laughing uncontrollably at the funny sounds the 'words' made. When I would read stories, she would ask me to point right at the words as I read them. After a while she would ask "Is this word 'flower'?", or some word that she had heard me say and wanted to find it on the page. Many times it was a word that was repeated several times in the story.

If learning were a river, a question might be a tributary. Answering the question will add to the river. The more tributaries, the larger the river, and the farther it will flow. As long as the questions come, we answer them, and the learning continues to flow.




Here are more questions that came up this week:

Is chess like a war?
What does a bishop look like in real life?
What does a rook look like in real life?
What is a pawn?
Why do people wear a special uniform for karate?
What is the best design for a car so it won't roll over?
Are there any words without vowels?
Are donkeys the same as burros?
What is metamorphosis?
Are mermaids real?
What is passion?
Have I ever done anything that you haven't done?
What is Good Friday?
How far can a koala turn its head?

Usually we try to answer all the questions before I post them, but we are behind this week. Maybe today we can finish up this list. :)


2 comments:

Sandra Dodd said...

This is beautiful:

-=-If learning were a river, a question might be a tributary. Answering the question will add to the river. The more tributaries, the larger the river, and the farther it will flow. As long as the questions come, we answer them, and the learning continues to flow.-=-

Nina said...

Thank you Sandra!
Nina