The Hundred Languages of Children

The child is made of one hundred.

The child has a hundred languages, a hundred hands, a hundred thoughts, a hundred ways of thinking of playing, of speaking.

A hundred. Always a hundred ways of listening, of marvelling, of loving, a hundred joys for singing and understanding, a hundred worlds to discover, a hundred worlds to invent, a hundred worlds to dream.

The child has a hundred languages (and a hundred hundred hundred more) but they steal ninety-nine.

The school and the culture separate the head from the body.

They tell the child: to think without hands, to do without head, to listen and not to speak, to understand without joy, to love and to marvel only at Easter and Christmas.

They tell the child: to discover the world already there and of the hundred they steal ninety-nine.

They tell the child: that work and play, reality and fantasy, science and imagination, sky and earth, reason and dream are things that do not belong together.

And thus they tell the child that the hundred is not there.

The child says: No way. The hundred is there.

Loris Malaguzzi

“The bones are from a very long time ago, it comes from under the soil where it is very hot and there are lots of cactuses" (Reggie, 3.10 yrs)

Our language

“Language is the roadmap of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going” RITA MAE BROWN

We work hard to create a fun and challenging learning experience for all the children in our care. The choice of language we use to achieve this plays a vital part in this process. It helps us to refine our thinking, to be inspired and to give value to everything that we do with and for children.

Atelier

A space for children to explore and research, often through artistic media.

Atelierista

An artist who works directly with the children to nurture their creativity through expressive media.

Education

There are two different Latin roots to the English word ‘education’. They are ‘educare’, which means to train or to mould, and ‘educere’ meaning to lead out. Although a certain amount of training is necessary to teach children certain skills, the focus at Little Jungle is to prepare them for the changes that are to come, by encouraging them to question, think and create; in other words, readying them to create solutions to problems yet unknown.

Educator

The early years form the most important time in which to establish the core values of humanity in a child’s mind. To develop children’s mental, moral and social capabilities – i.e. to educate them - is therefore an adult’s primary role. This is why all adults working directly with children at Little Jungle are referred to as Early Years Educators.

Experiences

As opposed to short-lived ‘activities’, children are invited to take part in ‘experiences’ to provoke thought, stimulate their imagination, creativity and deepen their learning.

Languages

There are hundreds of ways for children to express their thoughts and ideas. Words are one way, but children also like to use gestures, movement, construction, clay modelling, painting and many many more. That is why we refer to them as their many ‘languages’ – Languages, which we adults need to encourage so as to retain children’s openness, creativity and free-thinking. Click here for a poem which really brings this point to life.

Open-ended materials

Resources with no obvious predisposed use, with the potential to be transformed into anything which the child imagines, offered to encourage their creativity and openness to ideas.

Pedagogista

The person responsible for supporting the professional development of Educators and staff, collaborating with them to make choices and decisions about their work with the children.

Reflection

The process of thinking through our observations of children’s learning so as to make sense of it, bring value to it and plan to expand on it.