Four years ago when I was getting ready to open Community Montessori I structured the program around two things: the Montessori philosophy, and offering a flexible schedule. I had been in the Montessori world for 10 years at this point, every school I worked at, or even knew of, only offered 5 day schedules. I…
Preparations. We know that all young children have a lot of knowledge they need to acquire. In a Montessori school learning is self-driven and is done effortlessly. When the child is young they busy themselves with washing tables, polishing brass, stringing beads, moving cylinders in and out of blocks, matching colors, dishwashing and even making…
A young child is bombarded by many, many things to learn. Thankfully they are born with the gift of an “absorbent mind”. Maria Montessori, (founder of the Montessori Method), uses this term consistently in her observations of children. She uncovered the fact that a childs’ brain is like a sponge. We have all seen this…
The first time I walked into a Montessori classroom I was 20 years old looking for a ‘job with children”. I had held many jobs prior, all related to kids, but NOTHING like this. As I walked up to the “school” I marveled at the 2 cottages that had been turned into classrooms. It looked…
It has always surprised me that “learning materials” for young children can be very confusing. For example, we find materials that try to “teach” shapes, but each shape is a different size and color. Our children can easily be confused by WHAT they should be learning. I saw a puzzle the other day that had…
As parents and educators we want our children to make discovered on their own. As adults we know that when WE figure something out by ourselves our memory is heightened, our self worth is elevated and we take that feeling forward to preserve with our next task. How do we accomplish this with our children?…