Born With a Bang
02 May 2009 | 02:03 PM
by Jennifer Morgan8-Year-Old Recites Universe Story onYouTube
Introduced by Jennifer Morgan, author of Born With a Bang
More than fifty years ago, Maria Montessori observed that the elementary age child passionately seeks answers to the great cosmic questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? That's why she developed the Cosmic Education Curriculum and made teaching the universe story the centerpiece for the elementary level. The story is such a gift for children during this precious window when they think cosmically.
I recently received a message and YouTube clip from Tom Weiland, father of Ava, an 8 year old Montessori student in Seattle. The video of Ava reciting from memory volume 1 of my Born With a Bang trilogy powerfully demonstrates this thirst for the universe story. Ava’s presentation is remarkable and mesmerizing. Although she's never heard me speak, I was delighted to witness not only her passion in this recitation but also many of the same inflections that I use when telling the story.
Thanks so much Ava! You're a huge inspiration!
Editorial note: Tom Weiland approves of our writing about and linking to the video of his daughter. Here is a clip of the e-message he initially sent to Jennifer Morgan:
Hello Jennifer Morgan, I'm writing to you because my daughter is such a big admirer of yours. Your books are in her classroom. She picked them up about a week ago and has been totally entranced by them. So much so that she set out to completely memorize Born With a Bang. Her name is Ava and she is eight years old. I sat down with her a few days ago, she was anxious to show me that she was memorizing it. To my amazement, she'd memorized about half the book. I was stunned that she retained that much — word for word. She was so passionate about it. I encouraged her to keep going, and a couple of days later she'd memorized the entire book. I thought you might find it fun to see, so I captured it on video.
Thanks for writing such an engaging, informative, and fun book. It is truly a great work and our whole family has enjoyed it — especially as told through Ava.
Links to the 2-part video . . .
Part 1 Part 2
Link to the Born With a Bang website . . .
http://www.universestories.com/
Part 1
Part 2
