Born With a Bang

by Jennifer Morgan

8-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