Cover News Reporter Zhang Jie
Anyone who has dealt with children has noticed that children are always whimsical, often surprising and unexpected. "Philosophy comes from wonder". People's expression in early childhood is often full of poetry and art, exploring the essence of the fun, especially the younger the child, the easier it is to say philosophy and poetry, the more original and original, bringing adults a lot of inspiration, intriguing. However, as children grow up, such amazing words slowly disappear and are forgotten...
But some people, as parents, are very sensitive to this stage of their children and record these precious moments of children in time. Chongqing human insects are such a mother. Ten years ago, her son Jingle Bell was born. In the process of raising her children, she discovered that Jingle Bell enjoyed drawing, especially street lamps and roads, bridges and buildings. More concerned about time, space, dreams, human beings, life, the universe and other issues. Therefore, regardless of language or pictures, insects encourage children to create in various ways, and they also treat children's works with great seriousness.
A language record of a boy between the ages of one and nine
Awaken the forgotten wonder of the world
In July 2023, her new book "Listen to Children" was curated by Dandelion Children's Bookstore and officially published by Guizhou People's Publishing House. What's special about this book is that she co-authored it with her now-10-year-old son, Tinkerbell. Because the book is a transcript of her conversations with her sons Jingle between the ages of one and nine, it faithfully presents his curiosity and inquiry about life, as well as the innocence and humor of daily life. And all the illustrations in the first part of the book come from graffiti by Jingle himself.
"Listen to Children"
"Mom, are you getting old soon?" "Ah, no, mom is still very young." "Did you grow to the middle?" "Yes..." This is the conversation between the bug and his son Jingle Bell. Since the birth of Jingle Bell, the insect has been using brushes and words to record the child's "running account" in an authentic way, including nibbling toys, drooling, learning to walk, and asking various questions... There are all close-ups and testimonials. The jingle remarks in the book are novel, the perspective is amazing, the logic is unique, and those fleeting words make people endure and overwhelm, and I wonder how insects can accurately remember.
The insect recorded her son's words at any time or directly, and she needed to record them in a race against time to retain her original Chongqing accent. From the book, we can see that Jingle Bell was a good poet from a young age, "The lights are off, and the day becomes night." "There is moss here, there is moss there, there is moss on the ground, there is moss on the walls, and all the ground has moss." Do you know why? ”
Inside "Listen to Children"
"Listen to Children" is a language record of a boy between the ages of one and nine, and it also took place in more than 3,000 days, more than 1,000 parent-child daily conversations. It allows us to see that when a child says something, it gets a serious response, without being ridiculed or corrected. He will continue to say it without any worries, forming countless unique expressions that make people laugh and move. It is not a parenting book, but it allows us to see the "parenting way" at the language level. It is not a parenting book, but it allows us to re-understand what is companionship and parenting, every curiosity, upside-down, and nonsense for children, presenting a warm and intelligent way of responding. There is no instructional demonstration, but there is a lot of inspiration to get along with children. The child is saying important things, and the more important the child is, the more shortcut can be found to understand the child.
This book is not so much a parenting method as a record of the development trajectory of wisdom and heart, presenting us with a vast, deep, and flexible childlike world, and is a book written for adults to self-reflect. Because of the ubiquitous creativity of children in their daily lives, we are brought back to the time when the world was still young, let us see the world again through the eyes of children, and awaken the wonder and poetic sensitivity to the world that we have forgotten.
Hu Bingshuang, a psychiatrist at West China Hospital and professor of psychology at Sichuan University, wrote an afterword to "Listen to Children", "Hearing Children Talking", "These seemingly ordinary children's words, if you insist on recording for nine years, they will become a children's corpus, which is not just a private diary, we must be able to see from it, our children, our childhood." ”
This wisdom is not unique to a few children
"All children will speak up"
In fact, the observation of children has long been noticed by professional scholars. Ninety years ago, the Swiss scholar Piaget observed and studied the three sons and daughters, and also recorded the "running account". About their perception, attention, judgment, memory, consciousness, language, intelligence, movement, games, interaction, as well as symbols, logic, symbols... His interest in recording led to endless ideas and research that eventually became a world-renowned child psychologist. Around the same time, the Chinese scholar Feng Zikai also used paintings and poems to record the daily anecdotes of his children.
Inside "Listen to Children"
Insect has loved drawing since he was a child, and majored in art education in college. She has worked as an elementary school art teacher, website editor, newspaper editor, and now runs an art training institution, mainly teaching zero-based adults to learn drawing online, accompanying everyone to record their lives and express themselves in their own way. She is also a book planner, and her popular bestseller "Autumn Garden" was first discovered and recommended to publishers.
When the son Jingle Bell was not yet born, the worm already had the idea of recording his words. "One day, my relatives and I took the elevator out. The three-year-old nephew counted the number of people: 1, 2, 3, 4... Together. My sister asked: What about the third aunt's belly? The nephew hesitated and said: That, not ripe yet! The people in the elevator laughed. That's when I thought, how fun it is for children to talk. Perhaps inspired by this, after Jingle Bell could speak, I began to record what he said. ”
Seeing such a wonderful and special conversation between her and her son, a friend once asked the worm: "Is there such a conversation record because Jingle Bell is special, are you special, or do all children say such funny things?" The insect immediately replied, "All the children will say it." ”
When Dingdong was more than three years old, he looked at his big brother in front of him and asked, "Is he me?" The bug remembers the American philosopher Matthews writing in Conversations with Children that Steve, who had just turned three, said to his father, "If you were me... In that case, who would be Daddy? Guoguo, a child of a friend of the insect, also said: "When I saw the mirror when I was a child, I suddenly knew that it was 'me', so I carefully looked at what 'me' looked like. ”
This convinced the worm that every child is different, but when it comes to using language initially, every child will have a lot of wonderful expressions. Obviously, children are born with this philosophical thinking, and when they ask curious questions, they often get to the heart of things or events. This wisdom is not possessed only by a few children, nor is it an accidental phenomenon.
"Children and adults relate to things and think differently"
In addition to philosophical thinking, Bugs also found that children also have a great sense of humor (although they don't know it), and everyone must have been amused by fairy tales, such as two funny stories I heard - the three-year-old doll cried after pulling 㞎㞎㞎 because she only pulled two, "No me!" Without me! Only mom and dad, not a family of 㞎㞎! Another dad said to a two-year-old, "If you learn to use the toilet, you don't have to wear diapers." The child immediately asked, "What about socks, can I take them off too?" This somewhat "nonsensical" reaction shows that children and adults have completely different ways of connecting and thinking about things.
Inside "Listen to Children"
In the process of recording his son's speech, the insect also realized that no matter how hard we adults try, we adults cannot imagine and create children's language structures. "The way they ask and express themselves is a natural work of art. And we don't need any special talent, just record the words of the child one by one, we can save these precious works of art. I know that many parents have the habit of keeping a diary of their children's growth, and I think everyone will be as happy as I am every time they read it! Of course, the value of children's language goes far beyond being fun and cute. From a parenting point of view, the more you pay attention to what your child says, the more you can find a shortcut to understand your child. ”
Worm also mentioned that language expression is not only about words, painting is also a language. For children, drawing is an expression that may be earlier, richer and more thorough than speaking. The book is interspersed with graffiti from childhood to adulthood, which are not only illustrations, but also another clue to the development of the Jingle Bell language—the words spoken and the drawings that always echo and complement each other through time and space. The word "listen" in "listen to the child" means both listening carefully to the child's voice and respectfully listening to the child's opinion. Because what children say is their life state and real demands - how they perceive the world, how they express themselves, what grievances or angers they have, and their deepest wishes... Of course, we don't understand it every time, and we don't necessarily respond just right every time, but as long as we are willing to listen all the time, it's like having a code to understand children, which is almost the code of parenting. Bugs said.
After more than a year of sorting, Worm condensed her nine-year parent-child time into the book "Listen to Children", "The purpose of this book is not only to record a child, but to invite everyone to 'listen to the child', which is what I have always wanted to do." ”
"Listen to Children" has been highly recognized by the industry. Psychology expert Li Songwei wrote in the book's recommendation: "Adults listen to children, not only listening to "childlike fun", but also learning a higher level of knowledge. Children show us that the world is not what it was before it was stereotyped by language. There is no clear logic, concept, knowledge framework, no fixed shape of worry, planning, self-reflection. Thanks to Bugs and Jingle Bell for documenting a world where everything is strange and everything is full of possibilities for reassembly. Li Jie, author and curator of "Childhood Art Museum", believes that "in this book, you can not only taste the unique charm of children's language and intelligence, but also re-understand the meaning of being a listener and companion." ”
[If you have news leads, welcome to report to us, once adopted, there is a fee to thank you.] Report WeChat concern: ihxdsb, report QQ: 3386405712]