#7 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write Using Books

#7 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write Using Books
"There's No Such Thing as a Stupid Question"

This was one of my mother's favorite sayings. She talks about our family going on a tour to Monticello, for instance, and my brother or my asking a question of the guide. She said you could see the faces of the adults change: they went from being closed, cold, "I don't want to look ignorant" faces to relaxed, warm, "I'm so glad someone asked that because I wanted to know too and was afraid of looking foolish" faces. But, my mother had taught us, "The only stupid question is the one you don't ask," so we weren't afraid to ask questions. That doesn't include obvious questions that are meant to obstruct the flow and show how clever someone is. You know what I'm talking about. But, while you read with your child, any question is fair game. I admit, while reading 1-on-1 with my mom, I could ask questions that were VERY far afield from the subject at hand and I haven't been able to do that while reading with 4 or 5 kids. But, when they have a sincere question, I try to get to the bottom of it. I say that because sometimes 4-year-olds have very pertinent questions or connections to make that they don't have the vocabulary for. But, the questions that children ask about the reading is helping them to make sense of it, to apply it, and to make connections and connections are what education is all about. As my ex-nun history teacher Mrs. Maureen Schmidt expressed it, education is a process of learning to Memorize, then Analyze, then Synthesize information. This corresponds completely to the medieval Trivium still used by Classical Education -- Grammar, Dialectic and Rhetoric. It's basically learning something, pulling it apart, and putting it back together again in a new way. The best way to learn that is by reading together and asking questions. Why else do we write?