Language is essential to humanity, but it is something we often take for granted. It allows us to communicate our thoughts and emotions and lays the foundation for reading and writing. It sets apart entire cultures.
Anyone who has children of their own, or those of us who work with children know the great capacity of their ability to listen and to speak. Maria Montessori, who had her own gift for words said, "At the base of every language is the great register of the sounds of the language - the child. The child is, as it were, a machine made by nature for this task. The child hears the sounds exactly. That is in itself marvelous....The child has no preparation either, yet nature has given him this immeasurable gift which is that of registering and fixing these sounds in exact measure. The adult prepares the intelligent part, the child takes it up, fixes it, keeps it." (Creative Development in the Child)
Sometimes we marvel at their words, and sometimes we wish we had been more careful speaking around their little ears. Either way, children certainly have their own unique way of communicating. In that light, here is the top 10 list of gems we have compiled "from the mouths of babes":
- "I know the biggest number in the world. It's five thousand, two hundred, fifty-three hundred thousand twenty-seven."
- Child approaching Guide with a tangled necklace halfway around his head, "Can you help me with this? It won't fit. My head grew too much."
- Child: Today is my daddy's birthday!
Guide: Well tell your daddy happy birthday for me!
Child: Ok. He's turning um, 90, well, I think 91 today.
- "We have to have our heads checked to make sure no lace is in our hair." (child referring to a lice check)
- "I saw a mommy worm and then I went away and came back and it gave birth to three baby worms!"
- "My mom said I can't choose that work."
- Child: "My dad has a job."
Guide: "What does he do in his job?"
Child: "He rides his bicycle all over the place and sells pieces of plastic."
- After an informative discussion on spitting and germs, a child excitedly waved her hand to share a comment: "Well one time when I was a little baby, I stuck my hand all the way down my throat and threw up all over my bed."
- "My grandma sleeps ALLLLLLLLLL day. Until the afternoon!"
- Guide (asking a child if he is available for a presentation): "Are you free?"
Child: "No! I'm 4!"
-Becky (Children's House Guide)