Sunday Post: Silence…Should Children Be Seen and Not Heard?

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Jake at Time after Time has a Sunday Post Challenge and every week he provides a theme…this week’s theme is SILENCE.

 

I’ve only “heard” true silence twice in my life…twenty-five years ago while parasailing and last year while skydiving.  Silence…the absence of sound or communication…is sometimes helpful when one needs to collect one’s thoughts or ponder an important decision.

But should we apply this to our parenting approach…following the old proverb that says…children should be seen and not heard?

I don’t recommend it.

Why not?

 

Children need opportunities to tell us what they think and feel.

 

Children need time to interact with their peers.

 

Children need to form strong friendships in those early years in order to develop healthy relationships later in life.

These activities don’t call for silence…they call for open and honest communication.

What activities do you have planned for your kids this summer?  Summer is a perfect time to read picture books to young children!  Children who are read to at an early age are more successful in school.  I’ll be posting an A-Z list of some of the best in my next post.

For great story suggestions and quick and easy activities for kids, you might want a copy of Show Me How!

 

Are you wondering if the book really works?  Check out these recent reviews: http://nrhatch.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/show-me-how/

http://creatingcuriouskids.wordpress.com/2012/06/14/summer-fun-shortcut-show-me-how/

 

Want more information about Jake’s Sunday Post?

 http://jakesprinters.wordpress.com/ 

And here are some other bloggers who are doing Jake’s Sunday Post:

http://p0nky.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/sunday-post-silence/

http://piecesofstarlight.wordpress.com/2012/07/07/what-does-a-mixed-garden-of-prompts-grow/

http://northernnarratives.wordpress.com/2012/07/07/sunday-post-silence-2/

http://jullianeford.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/sunday-post-silence/

http://francineinretirement.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/sunday-post-silence/

http://tostir.wordpress.com/2012/07/07/sunday-post-silence/

http://jmeyersforeman.wordpress.com/2012/06/30/3307/

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26 thoughts on “Sunday Post: Silence…Should Children Be Seen and Not Heard?”

  1. Silence? What’s that? In a house with 5 kids and 2 dogs, we don’t do silence 🙂 I have always loved hearing what my kids have to say. Their thoughts and observations are often so different from mine – I learn from them – and as a writer of children’s stories, it’s important to keep in touch with the way kids think and see the world.

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    • Hurray, Susanna…you hit the nail on the head! Interacting with kids helps adults keep a fresh perspective on life, love and everything in between. 🙂 I’m sure that a great majority of children’s picture books draw on memories of the writer’s own childhood or the current observations of kids.

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  3. Pingback: SUNDAY POST : Silence « Flickr Comments by FrizzText

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    • Thank you so very much for your kind words! I agree…the sound of children playing is like music…but it can be a discordant symphony if they are overtired, hungry and dealing with a problem they haven’t shared. 🙂

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  6. I love to hear my grandchildren talking to each other, to us, to the dog, to themselves. Sometimes we need to regulate it for a while, though.

    When we’re all together for a couple of days, we make a “SOUND” jar with cues like “The sound a bird makes after thunder, when it starts to rain” or “The sound Rudolph makes when he sees that the sleigh is filled too full.” Kids made the cues and so do the adults.

    When we all need a little quiet, everyone draws a cue and goes to the basement or back yard or porch for 30 min. When we come back together and each make our sounds (and like in charades, everyone tries to guess what it is), we’re coming together to have fun and enjoy the sounds.

    Having some creative time alone makes the sounds even happier when we come back together.

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  8. I don’t know why this saying is still around, children should be seen, not heard. People so quickly forget how they were as children, and if they had kids, they forget what it was like. Today, everyone wants children to sit still for hours, not make a peep. Yet, lots of adults are rude, loud, even when not drunk! That double-standard always bugs me. Kids laugh, speak loudly, play rough (and yes, sometimes they cry and scream) because they live life fully. What’s wrong with that?

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    • I love to watch children playing or dancing…they do it with their entire mind, body and spirit! I guess sometimes adults do find it hard to remember how it was when they were kids…often people just mimic the type of parenting they had…and sometimes that wasn’t the best. 🙂

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  12. Pingback: SUNDAY POST: Silence | Serendipity

  13. in balance would be my way of seeing it…i have seen a few children who were given too much opportunity to opt out of silence but in reality, they should be taught to know when to be silent…no one was teaching them this aspect and well, so much for temperance.
    thought filled post…thanks. 🙂

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    • Oh yes…you are so right…balance is so important!  There are definitely times when a child needs to be quiet…and I’m always amazed when I hear kids screaming and running through a store…where are those parents???? Thank you so much for your kind words about the post. 🙂   

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