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Montessori Perspectives on Children’s Social Growth After COVID

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 11:01:10 GMT

Since the pandemic, we can find ourselves carrying new or heightened worries about our children’s social lives. We can have concerns about whether our children “lost time” with peers during critical developmental years. Or maybe it’s worry about shyness, reluctance in groups, or how screen time may have replaced face-to-face play. Even now, long after schools and activities have reopened, it’s common for anxiety to surface: Is my child making enough friends? Are they socially behind?

Why We Feel This Way

The truth is, these concerns are natural. COVID disrupted our social connections, and children being with other children is an important part of childhood. For months (and for some even years), daily opportunities to share space, work through conflict, and experience the joy of play were limited. Add in the reality of increased screen use, the culture of comparison amplified by social media, and children who may show hesitations around groups, and it’s easy to see why we are carrying this extra layer of worry.

What Montessori Reminds Us

Montessori provides us with a helpful perspective: growth is not lost, it is simply unfolding in its own time. Children are incredibly resilient. Social development isn’t a race, and there isn’t one perfect timeline. Just as each child learns to walk or read at their own pace, children find their own paths into friendships and community life.

How We Can Support Children (and Ourselves)

So, what can we do to ease our own (and our children’s) anxiety while supporting their social growth? First, remember that depth of connection matters more than numbers. A child with one or two genuine friendships has a strong foundation. In Montessori classrooms, we often see that meaningful, sustained interactions carry more value than a large peer group.

Second, provide opportunities for natural interaction rather than overscheduling. Time at the park, family gatherings, or small playdates often offer more authentic growth than tightly managed activities. In the classroom, children practice collaboration daily, from sharing materials to working on group projects.

Third, support independence. After COVID, it’s natural to want to step in quickly if our child seems uncomfortable socially. But small moments of trust—like letting our children introduce themselves, ask to join a game, or resolve a conflict—help them build confidence and resilience.

Finally, model calm and social grace. Children absorb how we approach social situations. When they see adults showing openness and curiosity, they are more likely to approach peers with the same ease.

Partnering with Teachers

Your child’s teacher is also a valuable partner. Montessori guides closely observe children’s social interactions and can offer concrete reassurance: “I noticed your child inviting a friend to join her work,” or “He showed patience while sharing materials today.” These insights often show growth that may not be as apparent outside the classroom.

Supporting Social Growth at Home

Simple, practical activities in our children’s lives can make a big difference. Hosting a “work together” playdate, for instance, shifts the focus from entertainment to shared purpose. Children might bake bread, build with blocks, or create art together. These collaborative activities naturally encourage conversation, cooperation, and problem-solving, giving children structured opportunities to navigate relationships.

Practicing grace and courtesy at home also builds confidence. Small role-plays, like asking to join a game or politely declining an invitation, help children learn the social scripts they need. “Can I play with you?” or “No, thank you. I’d like to work alone right now,” are examples that may seem small but make a significant difference when children encounter peers in real settings.

Family game nights are another excellent tool. Cooperative board games, memory games, or card games teach turn-taking, handling winning and losing, and joyful connection. Games provide low-stakes opportunities to practice critical social skills like patience, negotiation, and flexibility.

Finally, spending time in community spaces offers invaluable real-world practice. Visits to the library, farmers’ market, or nature center allow children to engage in everyday interactions, such as greeting a librarian, asking a vendor a question, or navigating shared space with peers. These experiences help children build confidence and fluency in social settings.

Moving Forward with Confidence

It’s understandable to feel anxious about our child’s social life after such a collective disruption. But rest assured: children are not permanently “behind.” With trust, time, and supportive environments, children continue developing the skills of friendship, collaboration, and community.

Montessori reminds us that growth is steady and ongoing. Our role is to provide the space, opportunity, and confidence children need to thrive socially. When we step back and trust the process, we discover that children are, in fact, developing social competence.

Come visit our classroom environments in Richwood, TX, to see how Montessori fosters a lasting sense of confidence and a deep form of belonging.

Montessori Myths: Balancing Teacher Guidance & Exploration

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 11:01:41 GMT

A common misconception about Montessori education is that it is entirely child-led. This couldn’t be further from the truth! Certainly, children feel like they are in the driver’s seat of their education, and that’s by design. Behind the scenes, Montessori-trained teachers are skillfully guiding children through carefully sequenced lessons, ensuring they encounter and master all of the subject areas, strands, and standards they need.

The true gift of Montessori education is that it blends the best of two worlds: direct instruction and hands-on learning. Direct instruction means children receive explicit, structured, teacher-led lessons focused on clear objectives and skill mastery. Hands-on learning, on the other hand, is where children engage deeply with materials and ideas, learning concepts through direct experience rather than passive absorption. This dual approach is always tailored to the needs and readiness of each child. In a way, it’s as if every child has their own individualized education plan and one that is seamlessly built into the Montessori model.

The Power of Hands-On Learning

Montessori classrooms are alive with opportunities for children to learn by doing. Instead of simply listening to a teacher or reading about an idea, children are actively engaged with beautiful materials that invite exploration. They pour, build, count, measure, and experiment, discovering concepts in a way that feels natural and meaningful. Learning is not abstract. It is concrete, tactile, and rooted in experience.

This approach has profound benefits. Children who learn through active engagement develop a deeper understanding because their brains are making strong connections between what they see, touch, and do. They also grow as problem-solvers because they are encouraged to try, adjust, and try again when faced with challenges. The process itself is motivating, which means children stay engaged and joyful in their work. Along the way, they also pick up practical skills they can use in daily life, as well as social skills, due to many of the activities naturally fostering collaboration and cooperation. Because children are learning through experience, the knowledge they gain tends to stick with them, building a lasting foundation.

The Role of Direct Instruction

At the same time, Montessori teachers provide an essential framework through carefully designed lessons. This is not free-for-all learning. Rather, it is a highly structured and intentional process. Teachers give clear, step-by-step presentations that introduce new concepts or skills. These lessons are sequenced in a logical and developmental order, ensuring that children build on what they already know and are ready for what comes next. Even better, these lessons are given one-on-one or to small groups, so the lessons can be tailored to individual children’s learning needs and styles.

During these lessons, children first practice with the teacher’s guidance and support, which allows for immediate feedback and correction. Then, as they gain confidence, they continue working independently, applying what they’ve learned in their own time and in their own way. This direct instruction is especially valuable when children are new to a subject or skill. It provides clarity, reduces confusion, and builds confidence. Over time, the structured approach helps children achieve true mastery and ensures they are well-prepared for more advanced work.

Montessori: The Best of Both Worlds

What makes Montessori unique is the seamless blend of these two approaches. A child might receive a beautifully clear lesson on a new math concept one day and then spend the rest of the week exploring, practicing, and applying that concept with hands-on materials. Teachers provide the roadmap, and then children are given the freedom to travel the path at their own pace, in a way that feels meaningful to them.

This balance allows children to feel ownership of their learning while also benefiting from the expertise and intentionality of their teachers. The result is an education that is joyful, engaging, and deeply effective. Montessori children grow into curious, capable, and confident learners who know both the satisfaction of discovery and the security of guidance.

Montessori education offers the best of both worlds: clear guidance and joyful discovery. See for yourself how this balance supports children’s growth and confidence. Contact us to schedule a tour here at Richwood, TX.

Honoring Indigenous Peoples’ & Columbus Day the Montessori Way

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 11:00:42 GMT

Every October, families and schools across the country face the question of how to approach Indigenous Peoples’ Day and Columbus Day. For many of us, these holidays can bring up complex feelings. Montessori offers us a way to hold that complexity with honesty, balance, and respect for human dignity.

Grounding in Truth and Respect

In Montessori, we first ground ourselves in the big picture. This includes presenting history truthfully, even when it’s uncomfortable. While Christopher Columbus’s voyages were remarkable in their boldness, they also marked the beginning of a period that brought devastating consequences for Indigenous peoples. To honor human dignity, we acknowledge both.

The Human Story of Exploration

Dr. Maria Montessori described the universal human tendencies that drive our development: exploration, orientation, imagination, and communication, among others. Columbus’ journey across the Atlantic can be understood as part of this shared human story of curiosity and discovery. At the same time, we acknowledge that Indigenous peoples had been exercising these same human tendencies for thousands of years, creating thriving civilizations, languages, technologies, and cultures long before Europeans arrived.

Celebrating Indigenous Cultures

Indigenous Peoples’ Day gives us an opportunity to celebrate the beauty, resilience, and contributions of Indigenous communities. Montessori classrooms and families might:

Read stories or legends written by Indigenous authors.
Explore maps that show the many nations that existed (and still exist) across the Americas.
Listen to Indigenous music or learn about traditional art forms.
Reflect on the continued contributions of Indigenous people today, not just in the past.

Gratitude and Reflection

Montessori places great emphasis on gratitude and stewardship. We can invite children to pause and ask: Who lived on this land before us? How can we honor their legacy? How do we show respect for people whose voices may not always be heard? Simple practices like acknowledging the land, offering thanks to the earth, or caring for nature connect to both Montessori principles and Indigenous values.

Developmentally Appropriate Conversations

How we approach these topics will vary by age:

Young children can focus on cultural appreciation through stories, art, music, and food.
Elementary children can begin to discuss colonization and resilience within the context of the story of human interdependence.
Adolescents can dive even deeper, exploring issues of representation, justice, and equity, or even engaging in service projects that support Indigenous communities.

A Balanced Montessori Approach

Montessori encourages us to reframe the conversation: How do we tell the full human story? We honor the courage of exploration while also telling the truth about colonization. We celebrate Indigenous cultures not only as something from the past but as vibrant, living contributions to our present and future.

By approaching these holidays with honesty and reverence, Montessori classrooms and families can help children grow into compassionate global citizens.

Schedule a time to visit our school in Richwood, TX, to see how we support young people who understand that our shared human story is both complex and beautiful.

Human Tendencies: Why Montessori Still Feels So Relevant

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 11:00:06 GMT

When Dr. Maria Montessori was observing children’s development, she wasn’t just focused on how they learn in the classroom. She was curious about the drives, instincts, and patterns that have shaped humans across time.

These human tendencies are the forces that have guided our species since the very beginning, helping us adapt, survive, and thrive. And when we recognize them in children, we can create environments that don’t fight against human nature, but flow with it.

Here’s a closer look at some of these tendencies, and how they show up in both history and our children’s lives.

Orientation

At its root, orientation literally means turning toward the east and the rising sun. For early humans, orientation meant survival through knowing where to find water, food, or shelter, as well as recognizing the stars and using them to navigate.

As adults, we still crave orientation when we move to a new place, start a new job, or even visit an unfamiliar store. We rely on guides, rituals, and familiar touchstones to help us settle.

Children, too, need orientation. The way they’re welcomed on their first day in a classroom, where they put their belongings, what routines they can count on—all of this helps them feel secure. Even a simple “good morning” is a daily act of re-orientation that matters more than we sometimes realize. Children look for orientation in daily rhythms: the bedtime routine, knowing which shelf holds their favorite books, or even how breakfast is served each morning.

Exploration

From the moment we are born, we explore. Infants use their mouths, eyes, and hands. Toddlers climb stairs like they’re scaling mountains. Older children explore through research, imagination, and adventures into both history and science.

Exploration is how humans pushed across continents, learned to farm, crossed oceans, and now even travel into space. Our curiosity never stops. Montessori environments honor this by giving children real opportunities to investigate the world, whether that means calculating the area of the classroom or researching life in the Carboniferous period. We see our children exploring as they turn over rocks in the backyard, take apart a toy to see how it works, or invent new rules for a favorite game.

Order

We all know the relief of an organized kitchen drawer or a well-structured calendar. Order helps us make sense of life. For early humans, ordering the world by figuring out what was safe versus unsafe or edible rather than poisonous ensured survival.

Young children need physical order. Anyone who’s seen a toddler melt down because their bedtime story was read “out of order” or because the blanket wasn’t arranged in just the right way knows this is real. Montessori classrooms respect this sensitive period by offering environments that are consistent and predictable. At home, you may notice your child lining up toy cars, insisting on a particular bedtime ritual, or sorting stuffed animals by size.

By the elementary years, order shifts into the mental realm. Children now want to classify animals, chart types of mountains, or debate the “rules” of their group. They’re learning not just order in things, but order in ideas, logic, and morality. You’ll see this at home when children organize their collections, invent complicated rules for backyard play, or argue passionately about fairness.

Self-Control

Self-control has always been key to survival. Hunters had to move silently. Communities relied on cooperation. Today, self-regulation is one of the biggest predictors of success in school and life.

In Montessori environments, self-control grows naturally: waiting for a material to become available, choosing the right time to speak, or practicing social courtesies. When children find deep concentration in meaningful work, that sense of inner discipline blossoms. We may notice our children waiting patiently to blow out birthday candles, saving allowance for a bigger purchase, or calming themselves after a disagreement with a sibling.

Imagination

Imagination isn’t just for artists. It’s what allowed early humans to picture tools before they were built, imagine migration routes, or dream up stories around a fire.

For children, imagination expands exponentially in the elementary years. Suddenly, they’re not only absorbing the world, they are imagining other worlds. Dinosaurs, outer space, ancient civilizations, atoms…nothing is off-limits! Montessori taps into this by giving children the universe itself as their curriculum. Imagination at home might unfold through elaborate pretend play, story writing, or inventing new games with household objects.

Abstraction

Abstraction is the ability to pull an idea from an experience. Early humans drew symbols on cave walls. Today, we live in a world of abstractions: math, laws, justice, and freedom.

Children naturally move toward abstraction, but only after being fully grounded in hands-on experience. Montessori materials are designed as “materialized abstractions,” allowing children to build concepts with their hands before holding them in their minds. We see children developing abstraction when they begin to understand time (“after lunch,” “in three days”), use symbols in drawing or writing, or play games that rely on imaginary rules.

Activity, Work, Movement, and Experience

Humans are doers. From stone tools to skyscrapers, everything we know about early humans comes from their work. Dr. Montessori believed, echoing Kahlil Gibran, that “work is love made visible.”

For children, work isn’t drudgery. Rather, work is joy. Whether pouring water, building long math equations, or researching volcanoes, children grow through purposeful activity. Movement is not a distraction from learning, but a pathway into it. Children eagerly help bake, sweep, carry groceries, or build forts. This is joyful work that feels both purposeful and fun.

Repetition

Watch a toddler stacking blocks again and again, or a preschooler repeating a pouring exercise 40 times in a row. Repetition for young children is how they achieve a deep sense of mastery.

Older children still repeat, but they do it differently. They elaborate, amplify, and push concepts further: instead of practicing small sums, they’ll dive into giant multiplication problems just for the thrill of it. At home, this shows up when our children want the same story read every night, practice a cartwheel over and over, or endlessly build new versions of the same LEGO design.

Exactness and Self-Perfection

Humans have always needed exactness, whether it was a sharp spear or a stable bridge. Children share this drive. They beam when their handwriting is neat, or when they finally get something just right.

Linked to exactness is the tendency toward self-perfection. Children don’t just want to do it. They want to do it well. You see this tendency in the toddler learning to zip a coat, the elementary child striving to be fair, or the adolescent wrestling with big moral questions. The tendency shows up when our children insist on re-tying their shoelaces until they’re perfectly even, redoing a drawing until it’s just right, or correcting themselves when they mispronounce a new word.

Communication and Belonging

At the heart of it all is our need to connect. Communication, whether through language, art, music, or technology, has always been how we share knowledge and emotions. Belonging is what makes us human, and we create this connection in various ways, joining together in families, tribes, clubs, or communities.

Children live these tendencies out loud. They talk endlessly, write stories, create clubs, and invent games. Classroom and family rituals, shared meals, whispered secrets between siblings or friends help children know they belong.

Why This Matters

These human tendencies remind us that education isn’t about filling children with information. It’s about nurturing what is already inside them.

When Montessori said we should “follow the child,” she wasn’t suggesting we leave them to wander aimlessly. She meant we should pay attention to these deep, universal drives and prepare environments where these drives can manifest in positive ways.

Because when children’s natural tendencies are honored, they don’t just learn. They grow into the kind of humans who can orient themselves in a new world, explore with curiosity, build with order, imagine boldly, and belong with others in peace.

Visit our school here in Richwood, TX, to see how Montessori deeply connects with what it actually means to be human so that children can flourish in beautiful ways!

Our Montessori Bookshelf (and Music Shelf!)

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 11:00:09 GMT

In the Montessori approach, we consider music to be a form of language. As such, we incorporate singing and music into daily life.

So, this month, in addition to sharing some of our favorite books from our bookshelves, we’re also offering songs that complement the books’ content. Whether you read these books aloud to your children or offer them as options for independent exploration and enjoyment, we hope you’ll incorporate a little singing into your family life!

We find music provides a wonderful form of bonding. In fact, several studies confirm that listening to music and singing together can strengthen social bonds.

We have also included a printable list of the book titles to take with you to the local bookstore or library, as well as the song lyrics for when you practice the tunes!

Be sure to also come visit us here in Richwood, TX,to hear (or join in) some melodies!

The Discovery of the Americas: From Prehistory Through the Age of Columbus

By Betsy and Giulio Maestro

History can sometimes be oversimplified for children, however, The Discovery of the Americas shares the many facets of human migration over a span of about twenty thousand years. But thanks to clear writing and illustrations, this complex story is completely accessible and incredibly engaging. For those wanting more details, the authors provide a timeline of dates and additional information at the end of the book. This is a must-read for children and adults!

Accompanying Song : “ Indigenous People's Day – 1492 ”

By Nancy Schimmel

“In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

It was a courageous thing to do.

But someone was already here. (Repeat)

The Inuit and Cherokee, the Aztec and Menominee,

Onandoga and the Cree

Columbus sailed across the sea,

but someone was already here.

Columbus knew the world was round.

So he looked for the East while westward bound.

But he didn’t find what he thought he found,

And someone was already here.

The Inuit and Cherokee, the Aztec and Menominee, Onandoga and the Cree

Columbus sailed across the sea, but someone was already here.

It isn’t like it was empty space

The Caribs met him face to face.

Could anyone discover the place

When someone was already here?

The Inuit and Cherokee, the Aztec and Menominee,

Onandoga and the Cree

Columbus sailed across the sea,

but someone was already here.

So tell me who discovered what,

He thought he was in a different spot.

Columbus was lost. The Caribs were not.

They were already here!”

Eat Your Math Homework: Recipes for Hungry Minds

By Ann McCallum, Illustrated by Leeza Hernandez

If you are looking for a fun way to engage children's mathematical minds (and maybe even help them fall in love with math), this book is just what you need! The author uses cooking projects as a way to introduce and explore concepts like the Fibonacci sequence, fractions, tessellations, tangrams, pi, and probability. Based on children’s level of interest, the focus can extend beyond the food preparation into fun and memorable follow-up activities. With tantalizing snippets of information, zany illustrations, and simple recipes, this is a sure-fire way to find something that will satisfy your children!

Accompanying Song : “ The Pi Song ”

By Mitchell Moffit

“3.14159 this is pi, followed by

2653589 circumference over di-ameter

7-9 then 323 o-m-g, can’t you see?

8462643 and now we’re on a spree

38 and 32 now we’re blue, oh who knew!

7 thousand 9 hundred 50 and then 2

88 and 41, so much fun, now a run!

97 16939937 51 - halfway DONE

058 now don’t be late, 209 where’s the wine

7-4 it’s on the floor, then 9-4-4-5-9

230 we gotta go, 78 we can’t wait

1640628, we’re almost near the end keep going

62 we’re getting through, 089-9 on time

8628034 there’s only a few more

8-2 then

5-3

42-11-7-0 and 67

We’re done!

Was that fun?

Learning random digits so that you can brag to your friends”

The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape

By Amy Alznauer, Illustrated by Anna Bron

This true story is an inspiration for people of all ages! This charming story begins when Marjorie Rice was a young girl fascinated by art and geometry. Woven throughout the fabric of her story, the author provides insights into the history of patterns, tiling pentagons, and the power of being determined. After reading this book, you’ll want to make your own mathematical discoveries! Be sure to also check out the author’s note and tips for discovering a shape at the end of the book.

Accompanying Song : “ The Polygon Song ”

By Peter Weatherall

“na na na na na na

just a boring square

I wish I was a pentagon but

I am just a square

I wish I was a pentagon but

I am just a square

my sides equal four

but if I had one more

then I’d be a pentagon

and not a square

na na na na na na

just a boring square

I wish I was a hexagon but

I am just a square

if I was a hexagon

then I wouldn’t care

My sides would equal six

If they were made of sticks

then I’d be a hexagon

and not a square

I’ve always been a square

and it just isn’t fair

because I’ve wanted more

than sides that equal four

na na na na na na

just a boring square

I wish I was a heptagon but

I am just a square

if I was a heptagon

then I wouldn’t care

My sides would equal seven

and I would be in heaven

if I were a heptagon

and not a square

na na na na na na

just a boring square

I wish I was a octagon but

I am just a square

if I was a octagon

then I wouldn’t care

My sides would equal eight

and that would be just great

if I were an octagon

and not a square

I’ve always been a square

and it just isn’t fair

because I’ve wanted more

than sides that equal four

na na na na na na

just a boring square

I wish I was a nonagon but

I am just a square

if I was a nonagon

then I wouldn’t care

My sides would equal nine

and that would be just fine

if I were an nonagon

and not a square

So you want to have more than four sides

Is it possible?

Anything is possible for Dr. Polygon

Ooh! What are you doing?

Bisecting ze diagonal by ze square root of the hypotenuse!

Please, no, not that!

Aah! You squares are so obtuse! There! All done

Well now I am a decagon

and not a square

now I am a decagon

and very rare

I won’t complain again

‘Cause my sides equal ten

I am a decagon

and not a square

when I was just a square

and I thought it wasn’t fair

so I had surgery

to my geometry

NOW LOOK AT ME!

na na na na na na

not a boring square”

Mailing May

By Michael O. Tunnell, Illustrated by Ted Rand

Based on a true story, this picture book tells the account of a young girl’s desire to visit her grandmother and how her parents found a creative way to afford the train trip. Young readers will be captivated by the realistic illustrations, lively dialogue, and the delight of young May’s perspective as she travels in a train’s mail car with a relative who happened to be a mail carrier.

Accompanying Song : “ Mail Myself to You ”

By Woody Guthrie

“I’m a-gonna wrap myself in paper,

I’m gonna daub myself with glue,

Stick some stamps on top of my head;

I’m gonna mail myself to you.

I’m a-gonna tie me up in a red string,

I’m gonna tie blue ribbons too,

I’m a-gonna climb up in my mailbox,

I’m gonna mail myself to you.

When you see me in your mail box,

Cut the string and let me out;

Wash the glue off of my fingers,

Stick some bubble gum in my mouth.

Take me out of my wrapping paper,

Wash the stamps off of my head;

Pour me full of ice cream sodies,

Put me in my nice warm bed.”

Becoming: How Montessori Supports Adolescents

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 11:00:30 GMT

Adolescence. A time when the sentiments of childhood begin to fade and the physical and emotional changes of puberty take hold. A time of dramatic transformation.

Dr. Maria Montessori referred to this stage as the third plane of development, a time when adolescents are no longer satisfied with the protected world of childhood and instead seek something significant, purposeful, and real.

This transition is marked by a profound inner shift. Adolescents begin to separate emotionally from their families and look outward toward society, searching for connection, relevance, and identity. They want to be seen as capable individuals who can live their own lives. There is a deep emotional need to be treated with dignity and to be entrusted with real responsibility.

Dr. Montessori described adolescents as “social newborns.” Having achieved functional and intellectual independence in earlier developmental stages, adolescents now turn toward economic and social independence.

This stage is filled with anticipation and restlessness. Adolescents are asking fundamental questions: How does society work? How do I fit into it? What is my role? These are urgent, developmental inquiries. Adolescents seek to make real contributions and to be recognized for them.

The Drive for Economic Independence

Among the most powerful needs of adolescents is the drive for economic independence. This isn’t just about about earning money. Rather, adolescents are compelled by the desire for worth, agency, and validation. In our society, economic activity is closely tied to adulthood, and young people intuitively understand this. They want to "try on" adulthood by participating in the same world they see shaping the lives around them.

This is a developmental necessity. Adolescents need to:

Act in roles of genuine responsibility
Succeed through their own efforts and merit
Understand the value of time and money
Be respected as individuals with something to offer

Through these experiences, adolescents are able to form themselves through meaningful contributions.

Production and Exchange: The Foundation of Social Life

In Montessori’s vision for adolescence, meaningful work is essential and at the core of adolescents’ learning. This is especially true when adolescents engage in production and exchange, the fundamental human cycle of creating value and sharing it with others.

Whether growing food, making a product, or offering a service, adolescents begin to understand how society functions through work. They see how individuals and groups contribute to a larger system. Effort, collaboration, and mutual need shape our social fabric.

In Montessori adolescent programs, students decide upon and manage small-scale businesses. These are not simulations. They are real ventures serving real community needs.

Through these experiences, young people:

Learn how their efforts impact others
Feel the pride of being needed and useful
Grapple with the complexities of work, money, and time
Develop confidence and a growing sense of purpose

This work forms character and builds a sense of dignity that cannot be taught through lectures or assignments.

Interdependence and the Reality of Society

While independence is essential, it is only part of the picture. The deeper goal of adolescence is to understand and embrace interdependence. We are all connected. No one can do everything alone. Contribution to others is both a privilege and a responsibility.

Through real work, adolescents see this web of connection. They experience firsthand that:

Society functions through collaboration
Each person has a role to play
The success of one is often tied to the success of many

Whether they are preparing meals for the community or adjusting a business plan to meet increased demand, adolescents begin to understand what it means to live with others, not just near them. They see how their actions matter.

Valorization Through Work

At the heart of all of this is something Dr. Montessori called “valorization of the personality.” This is the feeling of being capable, of being recognized as a person of value, of seeing oneself reflected in the eyes of others as someone who contributes meaningfully.

Valorization is the antidote to the uncertainty and fragility that so often characterize adolescence. This is how young people become strong, secure, and self-aware. Through valorization, they begin to understand who they are and how they can serve. Ultimately, this is how adolescents prepare for adult life.

To Become Oneself

The adolescent years are often misunderstood as turbulent or rebellious. But from a Montessori perspective, adolescence is a time of becoming, a time when young people, equipped with growing independence, turn toward society and say, "Let me try. Let me contribute. Let me become who I am meant to be."

In guiding them toward economic independence, meaningful work, and social contribution, we are not only preparing adolescents for the future. We are affirming their worth right now, as capable, valuable, contributing members of the human community.

Schedule a tour here in Richwood, TX, to see how we support young people in this process of becoming!

From Independence to Interdependence

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 11:00:34 GMT

As we help our children learn to navigate the world, we are supporting their journey toward independence. In Montessori, we often emphasize the importance of independence. But did you know that independence isn’t the end goal?!

Our Children’s Journey

Dr. Maria Montessori observed four distinct planes of development, each representing a stage in the human journey toward greater maturity, independence, and ultimately, interdependence. At each stage, children have specific developmental needs and characteristics, and our educational approach evolves to meet them.

A core element of Montessori education is the prepared environment, a carefully designed space that gives children the freedom to move, make choices, and act with purpose. This freedom within limits supports the development of a child’s personality. We become who we are through movement and choice. Independence, then, is not just about being able to do something alone; it is also about being able to do something independently. It’s about becoming oneself.

Yet, as humans, we don’t exist in isolation. We live amongst others, and in order to live effectively in community with others, we must first be able to function independently. Put another way, before we can offer help to others or make ourselves useful, we must first meet our own needs.

First Plane (Birth to Age 6): The Formation of the Individual

From birth, children begin the work of self-construction. During this stage, children are focused on adapting to their immediate environment. Infants and toddlers explore freely using movement and their senses.

This stage is all about gaining functional independence. By the end of this period, children can walk, talk, eat, and care for their bodies. They no longer rely completely on adults for basic needs and are ready to take their place in a social setting. And a Montessori classroom is just the place!

Dr. Montessori referred to this period as the “social embryo,” when children are just beginning to participate in group life and shape their sense of self.

In the classroom, we offer children endless opportunities to gain independence, such as zipping their own jackets, pouring their own water, and preparing a snack. We also provide opportunities to care for others and the environment. Once children master the skill of pouring, they can use it to beautify the classroom by pouring water into a vase for flower arranging. After learning to sweep, they’ll notice a spill and take initiative to clean it up. When a friend needs help with their coat, they’re eager to step in and assist.

Caring for oneself and for others lays the foundation for a life of contribution.

Second Plane (Ages 6–12): Intellectual and Moral Independence

In the second stage of development, the focus shifts from physical to intellectual exploration. Children begin to ask big questions: “Why?” “How?” “What if?” Their imagination and reasoning take center stage, and their curiosity is boundless.

Socially, this is a period of intense peer interaction. Children form close friendships, work collaboratively, and begin sorting out moral questions of right and wrong. Montessori described this as a “practice society,” a safe space where children rehearse the roles and responsibilities of adulthood.

While the first-plane child says, “Help me do it myself,” the second-plane child says, “Help me think for myself.” Their independence becomes more abstract. They’re forming their own ideas, solving problems, and taking responsibility for their learning and behavior.

And in this intellectual and social freedom, we see the seeds of interdependence. Children might notice a peer struggling with a math problem and offer support. Or they might mediate a conflict between friends, using logic and empathy to help everyone feel heard. Their developing independence becomes a tool for service and connection.

Third Plane (Ages 12–18): Social and Economic Independence

In adolescence, the need for independence takes a new form. Teenagers want to understand their role in society and make real contributions to the world. They’re seeking both social and economic independence, and they need real, meaningful work to meet this developmental drive.

Montessori adolescent programs are designed to meet this need. Adolescents might run a small business, grow food, engage in community service, or take on leadership roles. These experiences enable them to apply academic skills in real-world contexts, from writing marketing plans to managing finances and collaborating with others. In doing so, they are learning how to live and work in a complex society.

This is the point at which all earlier experiences of independence converge. Teens apply their knowledge and skills in the service of others. They’re discovering what they can offer the world and who they are becoming in the process.

Outcomes: Maturity, Independence, and Interdependence

Ultimately, Montessori education supports three interconnected outcomes: maturity, independence, and interdependence.

Maturity goes beyond academic achievement. It’s the holistic development of a person capable of making a meaningful contribution to the world. Independence, evolving across each stage of development, is essential to this process. But independence is not the final step. True maturity culminates in interdependence, the natural, collaborative state of human life.

Why This Matters

Every act of independence, from an infant grasping a rattle to a teen managing a group project, is a step toward full participation in human society. These conquests matter.

So, when your toddler insists on putting on their shoes, when your eight-year-old argues about fair rules, or when your teenager wants to solve a conflict without your help, pause . Remember that these are not just frustrating moments. They are signs that your child is on the right path.

Because in Montessori, independence is not the goal. It is the means toward interdependence and a life of meaningful work, mutual respect, and connection to others.

Come visit us here in Richwood, TX, to see independence and interdependence in action!

Unlocking the Power of Language

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 11:00:59 GMT

We all know that reading is much more than just decoding words. When we understand and appreciate the full meaning behind words, phrases, and sentences, reading can transport us in powerful ways.

In our Children’s House classrooms, we support young children’s deeper understanding. One way we do this is through a set of activities called the Function of the Word exercises.

At first glance, these exercises may appear to be grammar lessons, but they serve a distinctly different purpose. They are actually reading activities designed to help children explore how language works and to do so in a joyful, hands-on, and developmentally appropriate way.

Why Do These Exercises Matter?

Children around age 4½ to 5 are in the midst of what Dr. Maria Montessori identified as a Sensitive Period for Language. During this time, they naturally begin experimenting with grammar, word order, and expression. The Function of the Word exercises tap into this innate curiosity by offering playful and engaging opportunities to explore how words function within a sentence.

These lessons are full of movement and drama. When a child reads something like “jump and sing a song” and gets to act it out, they are having fun and actively building the foundation for what we call “total reading.”

Total Reading

We want children to move from decoding into “total reading,” which is when they can comprehend and interpret the meaning of written text, including understanding the author's intent, emotions, and the overall message conveyed. This is when children go beyond basic decoding skills and integrate various components of reading to achieve a holistic understanding.

In essence, total reading is the complete comprehension and interpretation of the thoughts and ideas presented in a written text. It's not just about recognizing the words on the page, but about understanding what those words mean and how they connect to the larger message.

From Words to Sentences: A Natural Progression

The Function of the Word exercises provide children with increasingly longer phrases to read, and eventually lead up to sentences. A sample progression is as follows:

Example exercises of the Noun Family :

1 word (noun): horse
2 words (noun and article): the horse
3 words (noun, article, adjective): the brown horse
Phrase (with conjunction): the brown horse and the spotted cow
Phrase (with preposition): the brown horse and the spotted cow in the pasture

The best part is that as children read these words and phrases, they find the figurines to set up the scene.

Example exercises of the Verb Family:

1 word sentence (verb): gallop
Short sentence (verb and adverb): gallop swiftly

Children love experiencing how verbs bring life to a sentence! They act out the sentences and delight in experimenting with how adverbs change the action.

Through this kind of progression, children begin to understand how words build on each other to create meaning.

Making Language Visual and Hands-On

In Montessori, we also use symbols to represent each part of speech. Using color-coded symbols provides children with a sensorial impression of the different functions of words and how they relate to each other. Children also begin to visually identify syntactical patterns.

Noun : large black triangle
Article : small light blue triangle
Adjective : medium blue triangle
Conjunction : pink bar
Preposition : green crescent
Verb : large red circle
Adverb : small orange circle

Using these symbols, children can build and manipulate sentences. They play games where they switch the order of words to explore how syntax changes meaning. Imagine the giggles when children realize how different “the man on the horse” is from “the horse on the man”!

Oral Language Games

Before reading and symbol work, each function is introduced through spoken games. Here are a few examples you can try at home:

Article Game : Ask your child for “the ball” (a specific one) or “a ball” (any ball). See if they can tell the difference!
Adjective Game : Ask for “the pencil,” but don’t specify which one. Then say, “I meant the red pencil, but I didn’t say red. How did you know?”
Conjunction Game : Name a group of objects using “and,” such as “a spoon, a cup, and a plate.” Play around with omitting the conjunction.
Preposition Game : Use simple commands like, “Put your hands behind your back” or “Put the napkin under your legs.”
Verb and Adverb Game : Give playful commands like “Jump quickly,” “Walk slowly to the door,” or even a three-part task: “Say hello to your teddy bear, hop to the kitchen, and touch the blue chair.”

These games can be fun time-fillers while waiting for others, an appointment, or your turn in line. Plus, they help children internalize the beauty and power of language in meaningful, developmentally aligned ways.

A Joyful Journey Toward Literacy

It’s important to note that in the preschool years, we don’t introduce children to grammatical terms (this comes later in Montessori elementary classrooms!). The goal isn’t to memorize parts of speech, but to explore language playfully and deeply. Through repeated, engaging, and sensorial experiences, children begin to read with understanding, emotion, and appreciation.

Schedule a visit to our school here in Richwood, TX, to see how Montessori provides a true foundation for lifelong literacy.

More Than a Method: Honoring the Legacy of Dr. Maria Montessori

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 11:00:47 GMT

August 31 marked the birthday of Dr. Maria Montessori. Thus, we want to take time to honor the roots of this movement, the visionary contributions of Dr. Montessori herself, and our shared responsibility to carry her legacy forward.

At the heart of Montessori education is a deep respect for human potential. Unlike traditional models that begin with the adult's idea of what a child should learn, the Montessori approach emerged from deep observation and genuine curiosity. Dr. Montessori did not set out to create a new educational system. Rather, she observed children with scientific curiosity and developed an approach in response to their needs.

It’s important to remember that Dr. Montessori was first and foremost a scientist. She was one of the first female physicians in Italy, graduating in 1896 with a specialization in pediatrics and psychiatry. In her medical practice, she encountered children who were often seen as uneducable. However, rather than accept this assumption, Dr. Montessori looked closer.

A Discovery That Changed Everything

In 1900, Dr. Montessori was appointed director of a university program for children with developmental delays. Observing their sensory-seeking behaviors in bleak institutional settings, she began studying how sensory experiences affect cognitive development. She designed hands-on materials and engaged the children in purposeful activity. The results were stunning: children who had been dismissed by society not only improved, but some went on to pass the same standardized exams given to their peers in traditional schools.

Dr. Montessori’s response was not one of self-congratulation. Instead, she challenged the broader education system, asking: If children with significant delays could thrive when given the right environment and tools, why weren’t typically developing children doing better in school?

This question launched a lifetime of work dedicated to understanding and supporting the natural development of all children.

The Birth of the Montessori Method

In 1907, Dr. Montessori opened her first classroom, the Casa dei Bambini, in the working-class neighborhood of San Lorenzo in Rome. Tasked with overseeing daycare for children too young for public school, she began by introducing simple, practical activities, starting with self-care and environmental care. She also provided an array of materials designed to engage children’s hands and minds.

The transformation was extraordinary. Children who had previously been described as wild and unruly became calm, focused, and joyful. They took pride in their appearance and their surroundings. They concentrated for long stretches of time, developed social awareness, and, unprompted, began asking to learn how to read and write.

Dr. Montessori was fascinated by what she called “spontaneous discipline” and the deep love of work she observed in the children. Through observation and experimentation, she continued to refine the materials, the environment, and the adult's role.

Education Rooted in Development

What emerged was a revolutionary approach: an educational philosophy based on the science of human development. Rather than seeing the adult as the source of knowledge and the child as an empty vessel, Dr. Montessori recognized that children come into the world with innate potential and a deep drive to learn.

Montessori education supports this natural unfolding by honoring what Dr. Montessori called human tendencies, such as exploration, orientation, order, communication, work, and repetition, through carefully prepared environments that meet the specific needs of each developmental stage. The adult's role is not to instruct, but to guide, observe, prepare, and support.

This vision of human development extends beyond the individual to a larger understanding of humans as part of a cosmic web of interrelationships. In this interconnected world, every part plays a role in maintaining balance and harmony. Humans have a unique place in this system, and our role requires conscious awareness, humility, and stewardship.

In addition to fostering rich academic growth, Montessori education cultivates mature, adaptive, and compassionate individuals who are capable of making meaningful contributions to our interconnected world.

The Enduring Impact of Montessori’s Vision

Dr. Montessori eventually left her medical practice and professorship to fully devote her life to this work. She lectured around the world, trained teachers, wrote extensively, and advocated for children’s rights. She also always insisted that the focus remain on the children, not on her.

Through decades of scientific observation, experimentation, and cross-cultural study, Dr. Montessori discovered that children, when provided with the right conditions at the right time, flourish. Her insights have stood the test of time. Today, there are approximately 15,000 Montessori schools worldwide, with over 3,000 located in the United States alone.

For over a century, Montessori education has empowered children to reach their full potential—academically, socially, and emotionally. Yet Montessori is not just about individual success. It’s about building a better society.

We know that children are not just preparing for the future. They are the future. By focusing on children’s holistic development, we are supporting a generation of individuals who are more connected to themselves, to one another, and to the planet.

Carrying the Legacy Forward

Dr. Montessori’s vision asks us to do more than remember her birthday. We need to believe in children, observe them closely, and prepare environments that honor their needs. This also means that we, as adults, approach our role with humility and a sense of curiosity. Our job is to accompany children as they create the future.

In this way, Montessori education becomes not just a method, but a movement, one rooted in peace, interdependence, and the full development of the human being.

Thank you for being part of this vision. Together, here in Richwood, TX, we are carrying the Montessori legacy forward, not only by what we teach, but by how we believe in the children before us. Come visit to learn more!

The Power of a Mirror and a Tissue

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 11:15:00 GMT

One of the many beautiful and empowering aspects of Montessori education is how it helps children understand themselves as valued members of a community. A key way this happens is through Care of the Environment, a form of Practical Life work that provides children with the opportunity to tend to the spaces they live in each day.

By participating in this care, children begin to feel at home in their classroom, school, and community. They feel a sense of ownership and take pride in their surroundings, and in the process, develop a deep sense of responsibility and connection.

The Outdoor Environment

When considering the children’s environment, we're not just referring to indoor spaces. In Montessori, the outdoor environment is not an afterthought. Instead, we consider the outdoors to be a natural and essential extension of the prepared indoor space.

For young children, who are absorbing everything from the world around them, the time spent outdoors supports development in profound and lasting ways. For older children and adolescents, outdoor spaces can be a place for self-regulation and deep focus.

Now more than ever, when children tend to spend increasing amounts of time indoors, reconnecting with natural spaces is vital for physical, emotional, and cognitive health.

Why Being Outdoors Matters

Research, including the work of Richard Louv in The Last Child in the Woods, highlights a growing body of evidence that time spent in nature is critical to the healthy development of both children and adults. In Montessori, we recognize that outdoor time is not a break from learning. Rather, the natural world is a powerful space for movement, language, social development, and sensory integration. Time outdoors is learning time.

Young children are in the midst of sensitive periods for order, language, movement, and sensory refinement. These windows of opportunity allow for an intense connection with nature that nourishes the whole child. Plus, the natural world’s beauty, order, and rhythm speak to our deepest human tendencies: to explore, understand, and belong.

The Adults’ Role Outside

Outdoor spaces become a rich environment for observation, guidance, and connection. Children are often more socially expressive outdoors, making this a critical time for observing group dynamics and supporting social-emotional growth.

It’s also a time to model joyful, playful behavior. Children need to see that being human includes lightness and laughter, and outdoor time offers the perfect opportunity for us to play alongside children while still maintaining an appropriate level of guidance.

We can also help children understand that different environments call for different behaviors. What is appropriate outdoors differs from what is expected indoors. As children gain different experiences, they come to understand how to conduct themselves with grace and courtesy on a woodland trail and a garden bed, or how to navigate the intricacies of fort building and group game dynamics. Montessori children learn to move through different scenes and scenarios with increasing awareness, sensitivity, and confidence.

Setting Up Outdoor Spaces

We want our outdoor spaces to feel like a true extension of our classrooms, not a break from them. As such, we are intentional about how the outdoor spaces are developmentally appropriate, deepen children’s understanding of cause and effect, and nurture a sense of order. We want activities in the outdoor space to have a purposeful intent so they support the integration of children’s will, intellect, and coordinated movement.

At home, outdoor activities can provide open-ended play opportunities that encourage exploration and independence, as well as ways to involve children in purposeful projects. Here are some ideas to get started!

Practical Life

Provide tools for cleaning tasks: sweeping paths, washing outdoor furniture, scrubbing flower pots, washing the car, and wiping off outdoor toys.
Encourage gardening: planting seeds, watering, weeding, harvesting herbs or vegetables.
Offer animal care opportunities: refilling bird feeders, walking the dog, playing fetch.

Sensorial Exploration

Include sensory gardens with fragrant herbs, soft leaves, and vibrant flowers—like lavender, mint, and lamb’s ear—that invite children to touch, smell, and observe.
Create a collection space for sticks, stones, pinecones, shells, and seed pods.

Gross Motor Development

Find natural structures like logs or balance beams for climbing.
Encourage running, rolling, or playing games in grassy areas.
Create sand or dirt pits for digging and building.

Observation and Nature Study

Set up bird feeders, weather tools, and insect hotels.
Create small areas for quiet observation with a bench, blanket, or hammock.
Add sensory elements like wind chimes or water features to create a calming atmosphere.

Curricular Connections

Math: count petals, measure plant growth, sort leaves by size and shape.
Science: Tools like magnifying glasses and microscopes help them explore soil, insects, and plant life up close. Composting systems, rainwater collection, or native plantings foster environmental stewardship.
Art: Natural materials become mediums for creativity, such as twigs for weaving, leaves for prints, and landscapes for sketching.
Language: Storytelling, reading under a tree, or labeling plants and garden tools strengthens vocabulary and communication while keeping learning grounded in the real world.

Observe and Adapt

As with all prepared environments, the key is observation. What captures our children’s curiosity? Where are they returning again and again? What challenges are they facing?

By observing carefully, we can adjust to our children’s needs and interests. A prepared environment supports the whole child and helps them feel connected, not just to the earth, but to themselves and their community.

We’d love to share our outdoor spaces with you. Schedule a tour today!

Where Learning Grows: The Montessori Approach to Outdoors

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 11:01:00 GMT

The Outdoor Environment

Now more than ever, when children tend to spend increasing amounts of time indoors, reconnecting with natural spaces is vital for physical, emotional, and cognitive health.

Why Being Outdoors Matters

The Adults’ Role Outside

Setting Up Outdoor Spaces

Practical Life

Provide tools for cleaning tasks: sweeping paths, washing outdoor furniture, scrubbing flower pots, washing the car, and wiping off outdoor toys.
Encourage gardening: planting seeds, watering, weeding, harvesting herbs or vegetables.
Offer animal care opportunities: refilling bird feeders, walking the dog, playing fetch.

Sensorial Exploration

Include sensory gardens with fragrant herbs, soft leaves, and vibrant flowers—like lavender, mint, and lamb’s ear—that invite children to touch, smell, and observe.
Create a collection space for sticks, stones, pinecones, shells, and seed pods.

Gross Motor Development

Find natural structures like logs or balance beams for climbing.
Encourage running, rolling, or playing games in grassy areas.
Create sand or dirt pits for digging and building.

Observation and Nature Study

Set up bird feeders, weather tools, and insect hotels.
Create small areas for quiet observation with a bench, blanket, or hammock.
Add sensory elements like wind chimes or water features to create a calming atmosphere.

Curricular Connections

Math: count petals, measure plant growth, sort leaves by size and shape.
Science: Tools like magnifying glasses and microscopes help them explore soil, insects, and plant life up close. Composting systems, rainwater collection, or native plantings foster environmental stewardship.
Art: Natural materials become mediums for creativity, such as twigs for weaving, leaves for prints, and landscapes for sketching.
Language: Storytelling, reading under a tree, or labeling plants and garden tools strengthens vocabulary and communication while keeping learning grounded in the real world.

Observe and Adapt

As with all prepared environments, the key is observation. What captures our children’s curiosity? Where are they returning again and again? What challenges are they facing?

We’d love to share our outdoor spaces with you. Schedule a tour today!

Curiosity Over Commands

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 11:00:20 GMT

Imagine the scene. A young child is trying to get comfortable for a car ride, but nothing seems right. Parents (and maybe even siblings) try to help. However, with each suggestion, the child becomes increasingly upset and overwhelmed.

When we see that our children are getting frustrated, often our immediate response is to offer help, usually in the form of advice: “Try this.” “Do that.” “Just calm down.” While our intentions are good, our children’s responses tend not to be positive. Depending upon the situation, they may get more overwhelmed, respond with resistance, or even shut down.

Advice, even when helpful, isn’t always what’s needed in the moment. What often works better (with children and even adults!) is a different kind of support, one that builds connection and trust, rather than pressure.

The Power of Curiosity Questions

In the Positive Discipline approach, this alternative is known as curiosity questions. Rather than imposing solutions (think of this as “you should” kind of advice), these questions are designed to invite children into the problem-solving process. Curiosity questions shift the dynamic from a command-and-control approach to one of collaboration.

Here are a few examples of curiosity questions:

“What’s happening?”
“What would you like to have happen?”
“How can I help?”

By asking instead of telling, we can give our children space to think, feel, and take ownership. Their brains remain engaged in a calm, reflective state rather than flipping into fight-or-flight mode. Even more importantly, children start to feel capable because their ideas and feelings are valued.

Why This Matters

Moments of frustration or challenge are inevitable. Whether it’s struggling with a seatbelt, navigating friendship dynamics, or facing academic pressures, children need tools to navigate those moments, and we need ways to guide without overwhelming them.

Curiosity questions do more than solve the problem at hand. They:

Build emotional resilience
Strengthen communication skills
Cultivate problem-solving and independence
Foster mutual respect

When we ask questions instead of rushing in with answers, we step out of the pressure to “fix” everything. We create connection instead of conflict.

A Simple Shift

Imagine a different response on that car ride. Instead of “You should move your backpack,” or “Just unbuckle and redo the seatbelt,” or “Take a deep breath and calm down,” what if the question had been, “What’s bothering you back there?” or “What would make things more comfortable?” The child may still have felt upset, but they would have been invited into the solution.

Key Principles

Using curiosity questions effectively, our tone, timing, and intent are critical. Keeping these core principles in mind will help immensely!

Be Genuinely Interested

When we ask questions, we want to make sure we don’t have a hidden agenda. Children are incredibly perceptive and can sense when a question is loaded or when it's a subtle way of getting them to do what we want. Curiosity questions are most powerful when they come from a place of authentic wonder and care. Ask because you want to understand their experience, not because you're trying to control it.

Create a Calm First

When children are in the middle of a meltdown, they aren’t able to process language-based information. If they (or we) are emotionally flooded, focus on calming and connection first. “I can see this is really frustrating. Let’s take a breath. We can talk about it when we’re both ready.” The focus, thus, is first on everyone feeling regulated.

Avoid Accusatory Language

Children are also incredibly sensitive to undertones of blame. Even well-meant questions can come across as judgmental if they're delivered with irritation, sarcasm, or disbelief. Focus on gathering information with empathy and openness. We want to avoid “Why did you…?” if it feels like an interrogation. Thus, it’s best to frame questions to understand.

Listen Actively

When a child answers a curiosity question, they’re offering a glimpse into their inner world. Pause. Make eye contact. Tune in with your full attention. Reflect back what you hear. Ask follow-up questions to deepen understanding. Active listening builds trust and strengthens the relationship. A good go-to question is, “Tell me more about that.”

Be Patient

Children—especially younger ones—often need time to process both the question and their thoughts. Thus, we want to avoid jumping in with another question or suggestion too quickly. Silence can be a powerful part of the process, giving our children time to think and respond.

For the Road Ahead

Curiosity questions are a cornerstone of respectful, connection-based parenting. We’ll face plenty of moments when instinct tells us to jump in and take control. However, sometimes the most empowering thing we can do is to slow down and get curious. With just a few simple questions, we can help our children feel calm, capable, and connected. In the process, we can also remind ourselves that guidance doesn’t always mean having all the answers.

To learn about more examples of effective and respectful guidance, schedule a time to visit our school!

Easing the Transition: A Guide to Starting the School Year

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 11:00:43 GMT

As summer winds down and the school year approaches, our children often experience a mix of emotions from excitement and curiosity to worry and anxiety. Whether your child is returning to familiar routines or stepping into something entirely new, transitions can be challenging for both children and parents.

The good news? With a little forethought and gentle structure, the shift from summer to school can become an opportunity for growth, connection, and calm. The Montessori philosophy reminds us that preparing the environment is key, and that includes preparing our home routines, emotional landscape, and mindset for the change ahead.

Reestablishing Routines

One of the most effective ways to support a smooth transition is to gradually reintroduce routines. Children thrive on consistency and predictability, and reestablishing a gentle rhythm can reduce stress and help everyone feel more grounded.

Sleep Schedules

The shift from late summer nights to early school mornings is often the trickiest. Rather than expecting a sudden adjustment on the first day, we recommend starting 10 to 14 days in advance. Gradually move bedtimes and wake-up times earlier in 15-minute increments. The goal is for your child to wake feeling rested and ready when the school year begins. Pair this adjustment with a calming, age-appropriate bedtime routine to support both physical rest and emotional regulation.

Morning Routines

A consistent and peaceful morning routine can transform the start of the day for the entire family. With a few subtle adjustments, we can also encourage our children to participate in preparing for the day ahead. For example, offer two outfit options for younger children, or encourage older children to choose and lay out their clothes the night before. A visual checklist with steps like getting dressed, eating breakfast, brushing teeth, and packing up can help alleviate the pressure. For added fun and independence, laminate the visual guide and let your child check off each task with a dry-erase marker. Ultimately, it helps practice the morning routine together before school starts, so it feels familiar and low-pressure.

Preparing Lunches and Snacks

Involving children in packing their own lunch fosters independence and gives them a sense of responsibility. Set up a small shelf or refrigerator section with healthy, ready-to-grab options. With a little support, even very young children can help pack their snacks and lunches the night before or as part of the morning routine.

Creating Calm and Order at Home

Designating a special area for school items helps build a sense of order and capability. Low hooks for backpacks, a bin for shoes, and a tidy shelf for lunch bags or outerwear give your child the tools they need to manage their belongings independently.

You can even “practice” coming home before the first day of school. Having your child hang up their backpack, unpack their lunch, and put things away helps establish habits that will carry through the year.

Supporting Emotions

It’s completely normal for children (and us!) to feel a mix of emotions about returning to school, especially when starting somewhere new. The key is to remain open, curious, and validating.

Encourage open conversations about feelings that might be arising. Instead of trying to fix discomfort, try reflective listening: “It sounds like you’re feeling a little nervous about meeting new friends.” We can also model a positive mindset by highlighting joyful aspects of school, such as reconnecting with friends, engaging in favorite activities, or exploring something new.

Another approach is to create rituals to mark the transition, such as an end-of-summer breakfast, a special note tucked into a lunchbox, or a celebration to mark the start of the school year.

Cultivating Connection

Transitions are smoother when children feel supported and connected to their community. If possible, visit the school before the first day, especially if your child is starting something new. Even a walk around the outside of the building can provide helpful familiarity. Coordinating playdates or meetups with classmates can help build or rebuild social bonds. If your child is interested, it can also be fun to explore extracurricular activities that foster a sense of belonging.

Maintaining Wellness and Balance

We do better when we feel better. To help children sustain their energy for the school day, focus on nutritious meals, especially a healthy breakfast that will fuel concentration and energy. To support a healthy balance between screen time, movement, and rest, work with your child to establish technology boundaries and screen limits before the school year starts. This helps children adjust ahead of time to different (and hopefully healthier) habits.

Encouraging Independence and Collaboration

Back-to-school doesn’t have to be something adults “do to” children. When we invite children into the process with genuine collaboration, they begin to feel more in control and more confident. From setting up routines, to preparing meals, to expressing their feelings, children are capable of contributing meaningfully to the process.

The result? A smoother transition, a greater sense of peace, and children who feel ready to step confidently into the school year ahead.

Curious to learn more about supporting children in developing habits that serve them for a lifetime? Visit our school today!

From Impulse to Intention: Raising Capable, Conscious Kids

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 11:00:55 GMT

In our culture, we often think of “will” in terms of willpower—gritting our teeth to do something difficult or pushing ourselves to achieve a goal. But in the Montessori approach, the will is something far more profound. We understand that, rather than being about discipline or determination, the will is the very force that propels children forward in life, guiding them from unconscious action to conscious choice.

In Montessori, supporting the development of the will is a significant part of our work. It is through this development that children become truly independent, capable of acting thoughtfully, responsibly, and with purpose.

What Is the Will?

Dr. Montessori described the will as a universal force of life. Like memory or language, it is part of our cognitive development, something we are born with and must nurture. It isn’t created. It’s cultivated. And like our muscles, the will grows stronger through repeated use and practice.

From birth, children are guided by natural instincts and unconscious drives, which create windows of opportunity in their development. Around age four or four and a half, those internal motivators begin to fade. That’s when the will begins to take over and become the children’s primary internal guide. At this stage, children start to act not just out of impulse, but from conscious decision-making.

The Four Stages of Will Development

Montessori described four stages in the development of the will:

Instinctual behaviors : These are the reflexes of infancy, such as rooting, suckling, grasping, and crying. They are unconscious and essential for survival.

Deliberate actions : Soon, babies begin to act with intention. We see this as they turn their head toward a voice or reach for a toy. These actions, while still not entirely rational, demonstrate a developing sense of cause and effect.

Voluntary actions : As children grow, they begin to make intentional choices, and this is when their will really begins to form. When children choose which snack to eat, which material to use, or whether to carry a tray with two hands, they are practicing using their will.

Conscious actions : Around age four and a half, children’s motivation increasingly comes from within. The choices they make are guided by thought, deliberation, and understanding.

The Role of the Environment

The will develops through experience. This means children’s environment, and how they’re allowed to interact with it, plays a central role.

Montessori classrooms are designed to give children opportunities to make real choices and experience natural consequences. This freedom, within clear boundaries, helps children learn how to act with purpose and to reflect on their actions.

By giving children appropriate levels of choice—“Would you like to carry the tray or the underlay?” “Do you want to walk by yourself or hold my hand?”—we offer them chances to practice decision-making in manageable ways. And every time children make a choice, they are exercising their will.

Balancing Impulse and Inhibition

Dr. Montessori also spoke of two fundamental forces in all of us: impulse and inhibition. Young children are often driven by impulse, an intense curiosity to act, explore, and move. That being said, they must also learn how to regulate those impulses.

The will is what helps children find balance. It allows them to move from reacting to choosing. In a well-prepared environment, children develop the capacity to think, “I want to do this…but should I?”

This balance supports their formation of character. We don’t want children to become compliant. Instead, we want them to develop their internal strength to persist, overcome challenges, and act with integrity. Today, we might call this “grit,” but over a century ago, Dr. Montessori recognized it as the outcome of a well-developed will.

Obedience: A Natural Outcome

Montessori’s approach to discipline is often misunderstood. In many traditional systems, obedience is demanded early, sometimes before the child is developmentally capable of giving it. But Montessori believed that internal discipline is a choice, and a well-developed will must support that choice.

She described three stages of obedience:

Children cannot obey : They do not yet have the control or skills to carry out a request.

Children can obey sometimes : As abilities grow, children can follow directions, but not consistently.

Children choose to obey joyfully : They align their will with the will of trusted adults out of love, respect, and understanding.

At this highest level, obedience isn’t about power or fear. Rather, it’s about harmony and mutual respect. But to reach it, children must first be allowed to develop their own will.

Why It Matters

The development of the will is not about producing obedient children or compliant workers. It’s about raising thoughtful, capable individuals who understand themselves, make choices with care, and live harmoniously within a community.

The Montessori approach offers something radically different: an environment where children can grow into themselves with dignity, strength, and self-direction. Schedule a tour to learn more!

Little Hands, Big Purpose: The Power of Practical Life

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 11:00:11 GMT

In our daily lives, we undertake numerous tasks to care for our homes, loved ones, and ourselves. As adults, we often move through these routines without much thought: washing the dishes, setting the table, tidying up a room. But for young children, these moments hold incredible fascination. They yearn to participate in practical matters and delight in doing meaningful work alongside the adults they admire.

In the Montessori approach, we refer to these tasks as Practical Life activities. Whether it’s dressing themselves, wiping a spill, or watering a plant, these activities help children connect to the world around them. They offer a gentle introduction to cultural norms and everyday responsibilities while also supporting the development of internal motivation, intellect, and body coordination.

Two Purposes: One External, One Internal

Every Practical Life activity serves two important purposes. The first is external and easily visible: when children wash a table, the table becomes clean. The second purpose is internal and perhaps even more meaningful: children grow in confidence, independence, and a sense of belonging.

When children are invited to participate in purposeful work, they feel like important contributors to their family or classroom community. Learning to meet their own needs — such as dressing, feeding themselves, or cleaning up — helps them develop a sense of competence and pride. Over time, these small but significant experiences lay the foundation for future independence and responsibility. By the time children become young adults, they are well-prepared to care for themselves, plan for their future, and contribute meaningfully to the world around them.

Preparing the Environment for Success

In Montessori classrooms, Practical Life activities are intentionally prepared and beautifully presented to support children’s independence. The sink is at children’s height. The soap dispenser holds just enough soap for a single wash. Every tool has a place, and children learn how to use and return each one with care.

This thoughtful preparation allows children to take on tasks that might previously have been done for them. Now, they can do it for themselves, and in doing so, they begin to see themselves as capable and responsible individuals.

Even our youngest children can begin participating in daily routines through collaboration. For infants, we might say, “I’m going to put on your shirt. Let’s slide your arm through the sleeve,” giving them the opportunity to feel involved in the process. As they grow, children begin to imitate the adults around them and eventually take on tasks in their own unique way. This process isn’t always linear — some days, more support is needed. On those days, we can offer gentle encouragement, saying, “Let’s do this together,” while still honoring our children’s role in the task.

Caring for the Environment

In addition to self-care, children in Montessori environments are given many opportunities to care for their surroundings. From watering plants to sweeping floors, these real and purposeful activities help children feel connected to their community.

Success in this area depends on a well-prepared environment. Child-sized tools and meaningful work allow the child to make a visible impact. If the plants are dry, the children water them. If a table is dirty, children scrub it. These aren’t pretend tasks — they are real contributions, and children know it.

Supporting Practical Life at Home

Parents often ask how they can support Practical Life work at home. The good news is that it doesn’t require elaborate preparation. A few intentional routines and accessible materials go a long way.

A basket in the room for laundry, a drawer with placemats and utensils for setting the table, or shelves with toys that are easy to return to their place — these simple choices allow children to take ownership of their environment.

When creating Practical Life opportunities at home, consider these guiding questions:

Will this activity help develop independence and coordination?
Can it be done independently?
What skills are needed?
Does it allow for repetition?
Is it culturally appropriate and necessary?
Is it beautiful?
Is the material child-sized?
Is it logical and safe?

The Joy of Purposeful Work

As children learn to care for themselves and their environment, they come to understand what is essential. They begin to internalize procedures, take pride in doing things “all by myself,” and discover just how capable they are.

Children naturally pour their attention into meaningful work. They experience deep satisfaction not only in the outcome but in the process itself. Through Practical Life, they develop a strong sense of belonging and the confidence to grow into their fullest, most independent selves. Come visit our school to see this for yourself!

Feeling Heard: The Practice of Active Listening

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 11:00:15 GMT

Have you had the experience of your child exploding in frustration when you try to answer a question? This can manifest in different ways. When you try to answer, your child may react or even shout, "Stop interrupting me!" This can feel baffling, especially if we don’t seem to be interrupting at all. Your child asks a question. You answer.

Looking Behind the Behavior

Children often communicate in ways that reveal deeper needs. Their words can be loud, reactive, or difficult to interpret. But often, it is not the content of our response that causes tension—it’s the speed, the timing, and the presence behind it.

In many cases, we are already forming our responses before a child finishes speaking. This habit, while unintentional, can make our children feel unseen or unheard. What they may need instead is a thoughtful pause—space between the question and our reply. This kind of mindful interaction can be especially meaningful in moments of stress or conflict.

Space for Ideas to Breathe

We use a similar approach in Montessori classrooms. As adults, we strive to pause after someone speaks. This space allows ideas to breathe and encourages deeper listening. Over time, as we practice this technique, we become more aware of body language, emotional tone, and unspoken cues. We learn to listen with the intention of understanding, not just responding.

In both classrooms and homes, this practice of active listening can significantly shift the tone of relationships. Active listening involves pausing, tuning in, and reflecting back what the speaker has expressed. It communicates, “I hear you. I understand what you’re feeling.” This doesn’t mean we need to agree with every statement, but rather we are validating the speaker’s emotions and experiences.

Active Listening in Action

When we respond with active listening, our children often become calmer and more open to cooperation. For example, if your child asks, “Can I watch a movie?” rather than offering an immediate yes or no, we might pause and say, “It sounds like you’d really like to watch something. I understand how fun that can be. I’m not willing to do that today because we already had a movie night last night.” Your child might not like the response, but when we practice active listening, children tend to be calmer and less prone to react emotionally. The boundary remains firm, but your child’s feelings are acknowledged.

In more emotionally charged moments, active listening can also help de-escalate conflict. For example, if your child yells, “I hate you!” a simple response, such as “It sounds like you’re really angry with me,” can validate their emotions and help your child identify feelings that may seem complicated or hard to name. On calmer days, we can allow our children to explore even more deeply by asking follow-up questions, such as, “Is there more?” This can lead to an even deeper connection and emotional awareness.

Deeper, More Cooperative Relationships

Children, like all people, want to feel heard. When we slow down, listen with intention, and respond with empathy, relationships deepen. The result is not only fewer emotional outbursts but also more goodwill, cooperation, and mutual respect. Active listening becomes more than a communication tool. It becomes a way of honoring each other’s humanity.

To experience active listening in action and see its impact on our children, schedule a tour to visit our school!

More Than a Method: Montessori's Vision for Humanity

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 11:01:03 GMT

At the heart of Montessori education is a deep respect for human potential. The core of Montessori philosophy and practice originated when Dr. Maria Montessori, as part of her medical school training, worked with children who had developmental delays. Dr. Montessori observed that the children needed something different, so she provided them with materials and an environment that truly supported their development. The result? The children demonstrated remarkable growth. This discovery has forever changed our understanding of learning and the human experience.

A Scientific Lens on Human Nature

Dr. Montessori approached children and human development as a scientist. Through her observations, she recognized that humans possess innate, universal characteristics and follow predictable patterns of development. At our core, we are a species designed to learn, to adapt, and to grow.

By observing children through the lens of human development, Dr. Montessori identified specific stages of growth, which we now call the Planes of Development, and a set of Human Tendencies that drive learning and adaptation from birth to maturity. These tendencies are not random. They are evolutionary forces that guide humans to meet their needs and fulfill their potential.

Education That Aligns With Nature

Montessori education is structured around supporting these stages and tendencies. Instead of imposing learning, we respect and reinforce the natural unfolding of each child’s abilities. Montessori learning environments are carefully prepared to meet developmental needs, and the adult’s role shifts from teacher to someone who serves as an aide to life. This means adults serve as guides who observe, prepare, and support rather than direct.

A Cosmic Perspective

Montessori’s vision of human development goes beyond the individual. She saw human beings as part of a cosmic web of interrelationships. In this interconnected system, each part plays a role in maintaining balance and harmony. Humans have a special place in this system, not only because of our capacity to adapt but because of our consciousness of that very role.

With this perspective, we recognize that education must also cultivate humility, wonder, and stewardship —qualities that enable us to live responsibly within this complex, interdependent world. In this context, education is not just about achieving success; it’s about supporting the growth of mature, adaptive, and aware human beings.

The Power of Adaptation

Humans are uniquely capable of adapting to a vast range of environments and social conditions. We have been able to move beyond survival and, in the process, have become creative, intelligent, and intentional in our adaptation. From birth, children adapt and evolve through interaction with their surroundings. Through their senses, hands, minds, and relationships, children construct themselves and their understanding of the world.

Dr. Montessori identified key characteristics that support this adaptation. Humans have a long childhood, noteworthy for the development of our hands, intelligence, imagination, and social interdependence. These capacities are guided by the Human Tendencies, which not only move development forward but also shape who we become.

The Human Tendencies

These universal tendencies include the drive to:

Orient to the environment
Explore the unknown
Order and make sense of the world
Abstract and think symbolically
Imagine possibilities
Calculate and reason
Work to shape and adapt the environment
Repeat and strive for precision
Perfect oneself through effort
Communicate and associate with others

These tendencies are innate, universal, lifelong, and evolutionary in nature. They cannot be eliminated, but they can be supported—or thwarted. When blocked, children will still try to meet their needs, often in less productive or more disruptive ways.

Observation and the Role of Adults

To truly support a child’s development, we observe with care to determine if children’s tendencies are being honored or obstructed. As Montessori-trained guides, we strive to look beneath behavior and recognize what drives it. This observational practice shifts our understanding of children and deepens our respect for their developmental process.

Dr. Montessori’s work challenges traditional views of education. Instead of seeing adults as the agents of growth, Dr. Montessori emphasized that children are self-constructing beings. Education should not be about imposing knowledge but about intentionally supporting the natural process of development.

Education as an Aid to Life

Ultimately, we believe that education should serve as a vital component of life itself. When we align learning environments with the science of human development, supporting children’s creative process of adaptation, we open the door to profound potential.

Montessori education offers not only a method but a visionary framework rooted in observation, science, and deep reverence for what it means to be human. It calls us to see children not as empty vessels, but as beings full of possibility, ready to become mature, capable, and compassionate citizens of the world.

We invite you to visit our school to see how Montessori environments support the potential of our young people!

Montessori’s Living Curriculum: Biology in the Classroom & Beyond

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 11:00:05 GMT

What is biology? At its root, the word comes from the Greek bios, meaning "life," and logos, meaning "word" or "reason." In short, biology is the study of life. In Montessori elementary classrooms, however, biology is more than a science subject—it’s a gateway to wonder, connection, and understanding our place in the larger story of life on Earth.

A Living Subject in a Living Curriculum

Dr. Maria Montessori saw biology as essential to what she called Cosmic Education—a curriculum designed to help children in the second plane of development (ages 6 to 12) see how everything in the universe is interconnected. In this context, biology is not just about memorizing facts. It’s about discovering how plants, animals, water, minerals, and even the air work together in a grand collaboration. Through this lens, we can discover how each species has a cosmic task—a unique role in sustaining life on Earth.

Plants, for example, draw minerals and water from the soil, but they also protect that soil from erosion and help purify the air. Animals depend on plants for food and, in turn, help pollinate, fertilize, and spread seeds. Each element takes what it needs and gives something back. In a Montessori classroom, children explore these ideas deeply, not just as scientific facts, but as part of a moral and ecological awareness.

The Importance of Real Experiences

Montessori elementary children are imaginative, curious, and developing a strong sense of morality. They want to understand how things work and why they matter. That’s why biology in Montessori isn’t taught from a textbook—it’s brought to life through real experiences and thoughtful exploration.

Whenever possible, we begin biology lessons with real specimens. A single seed, a fallen leaf, or a live plant offers more opportunities for engagement and connection than a picture ever could. Children are encouraged to observe, touch, ask questions, and form hypotheses. We may use sketches and charts to aid understanding, but hands-on exploration always comes first.

Children examine the parts of a flower, experiment with how different leaves respond to light, or observe how water travels through a stem. Along the way, they learn the functional anatomy of plants and animals, explore systems of classification, and begin to understand adaptation and evolution.

Moral Considerations in Science

Because elementary-age children are developing a sense of right and wrong, we take care to present biology with sensitivity and respect. We don’t cut living plants carelessly or keep animals for the sake of experimentation. Instead, we invite questions: Is it right to dissect a flower? What happens when we keep a bird in a cage? How does using pesticides affect bees and flowers?

These questions encourage children to develop empathy, a sense of stewardship, and a respect for life. It’s not just about learning how living things function—it’s about understanding our responsibility within the web of life.

A Dual Environment: Classroom and Nature

One of the most important aspects of biology in Montessori is that it happens in two environments: the classroom and the natural world. Children study parts of a plant in class, then go outside to identify those parts in a garden or forest. They may observe a classroom pet or bees coming to planter boxes, then learn about insect behavior and classification. This dual environment deepens understanding and builds connection.

When in Kodaikanal, India, Dr. Montessori experienced how elementary children learned by exploring hills, forests, and fields. While not every school is surrounded by nature, the beauty of biology is that it’s everywhere–a patch of grass, a few fallen leaves, or the cracks in a sidewalk where something green is growing.

How Families Can Support a Love of Biology and Nature

As parents and caregivers, we are our children’s most important guide to the natural world. And the good news is, we don’t need to be a biology expert to nurture a deep love of life sciences. Here are some simple ways we can provide support:

Go outside often . Whether it’s a walk around the neighborhood, a hike in the woods, or just time in the backyard, give children plenty of opportunities to observe and wonder.
Make collections . Children love collecting things—leaves, rocks, feathers, shells. Encourage this instinct, and use it as a way to ask questions and spark further research.
Model curiosity . If your child asks why some plants grow in the shade or why certain animals come out at night, don’t feel pressured to have the answer. Say, “I wonder that too. Let’s find out together.”
Create a nature journal . Encourage children to draw, label, and write about what they see in nature. This can be as formal or informal as they like. The goal is to create a habit of observation.
Ask big questions . Children love the extraordinary. Ask them what they think about camouflage, desert survival, or why birds migrate. Their imagination and reasoning will shine.
Use your interests . If you love gardening, birdwatching, or hiking, share that with the children in your life. Even your casual observations can spark their own questions and investigations.

From Biology to Ecology

As Montessori children grow in their biological studies, they naturally move toward ecology—the study of how all living and nonliving parts of the world interact. This final synthesis reinforces their understanding that they are part of something bigger, something intricate and beautiful.

Ultimately, biology in Montessori is about more than life sciences—it’s about living fully, attentively, and respectfully in the world. With a nurturing classroom, a natural world to explore, and the guidance of engaged adults, our children can grow up with a profound sense of connection, wonder, and care for the Earth.

Schedule a time to visit the school to experience how we cultivate a love for living things and an interconnected way of thinking about the world.

Wonder and Words: How Montessori Builds Language Through Biology

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 11:00:45 GMT

In our primary classrooms, science is woven into children’s experience. Children are driven by wonder, and our classrooms nurture this natural curiosity. From the moment they step into the learning environment, children’s natural curiosity leads them to explore the living world around them.

In Montessori, we support children making sense of what they are absorbing through their senses by offering a powerful tool — language. As children effortlessly absorb new vocabulary, they also use new words to organize their thinking.

Why Start Biology So Young?

Between the ages of two and six, children reach the peak of their sensory and language development. They are in a sensitive period for absorbing vocabulary, categorizing objects, and forming meaningful connections between words and their experiences.

Biology in a Montessori classroom isn’t about memorizing facts. It’s about building a relationship with life—plants, animals, and the systems that support them. Through language-rich, hands-on experiences, children develop both a scientific mindset and a deep appreciation for the natural world.

The Foundation: Observation and Vocabulary

Everything begins with observation. Through their senses and experiences with specially designed sensorial materials, children develop the ability to notice minute details, such as leaf shapes, flower structures, and animal features. Once children have had numerous experiences, we provide language to describe sensorial qualities and scientific details.

We don’t flood children with information; instead, we provide just enough vocabulary to unlock further exploration. These words become tools for thinking and communicating.

Botany: Language Rooted in Nature

Plants are all around us, and in the Children’s House, they’re part of daily life. Whether watering classroom plants, taking a nature walk, or tending to outdoor gardens, children encounter a diverse range of botanical specimens.

When in the pre-reading stage, we provide children with activities such as:

Matching real leaves to wooden shapes in the Leaf Cabinet
Learning the names of parts of plants, flowers, and leaves
Classifying plants: wildflowers, trees, desert plants, and more

Once they are reading, children begin:

Labeling the parts of plants with cards
Creating booklets and plant care guides
Using three-part cards and definition booklets to solidify vocabulary

Zoology: Speaking the Language of Animals

Animals captivate children—and provide rich opportunities for expanding language. From feeding a classroom fish to identifying birds at a feeder, children develop vocabulary through real-world encounters.

Pre-readers engage with activities such as:

Sorting animals by category (mammals, birds, amphibians, etc.)
Sequencing the life cycles of insects or frogs
Learning the external parts of animals through picture cards

Our young readers then begin:

Matching pictures and labels
Reading or creating definition booklets
Solving riddle games, such as “Who am I?” based on animal traits
Engaging in word study (e.g. animal homes, male/female/young, collective nouns)

More Than Words: Cultivating Curiosity and Connection

In Montessori, the goal isn’t to create little encyclopedias—it’s to nurture lifelong learners. When a child asks about a bug or leaf we don’t recognize, the best response isn’t an answer—it’s a shared investigation.

As adults, we might say: “I’m not sure what it is, but let’s look it up together.” This approach models curiosity, critical thinking, and the joy of discovery.

These language extensions in biology offer powerful tools for children by encouraging observation and reflection, fostering an emotional connection to living things, providing a framework for organizing experiences, and helping children develop precise vocabulary to express what they see.

Montessori biology connects wonder and words, and equips children with the tools to explore and care for their world with confidence and respect.

Looking for ways to bring this home?

Go on a nature walk and label what you see
Set up a small plant care station for your child
Use picture books to explore animal life cycles
Keep a journal of new plants and animals your child encounters

We also love to share what we do, so please contact us to schedule a tour and see biology come to life for young children!

Our Montessori Bookshelf: Wonders of the Natural World

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 11:00:52 GMT

In Montessori, we recognize the importance of children being immersed in the wonders of the natural world. We want nature to be an integral part of daily life, rich in experiences that awaken curiosity and inspire awe.

Whether it’s watching ants march across a sidewalk, wondering at the shape of a cloud, or marveling at a tree's branches reaching across the sky, nature has a way of capturing children’s imaginations. Our goal is to help them see the natural world not just as a backdrop for play, but as a living, breathing system of which they are a part.

Children are often drawn to books that reflect the magic they sense outdoors. To support that connection, we’re sharing some of our favorite nature-based book series—beautifully written and illustrated titles that encourage exploration, observation, and a lifelong relationship with the natural world.

Over & Under Books

By Kate Messner with art by Christopher Silas Neal

These picture books will appeal to the youngest children, while also serving as an invitation for older children to explore. With illustrations that open windows to how we perceive the natural world, the books offer readers a glimpse into what we can discover if we look a little more closely. Whether we lift our gaze or peer deep down into the depths, there are wonders waiting to be revealed. The storyline of each book takes us on a child’s journey, with the security of a loving adult as a companion.

Messner, a former teacher, also includes descriptions of each animal at the end of the book, as well as additional resources for those who want to learn more about the ecosystem she has highlighted. Depending upon upcoming excursions or current interests, you and your child can explore the following titles:

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt

Over and Under the Canyon

Over and Under the Pond

Over and Under the Rainforest

Over and Under the Snow

Over and Under the Waves

Over and Under the Wetland

Mary Holland Books

The photographs in Mary Holland’s books bring us close up to the animal world. Crisp and full of detail, each page is immersive, both visually and factually. The books that focus on particular aspects of animals (ears, eyes, legs, etc.) weave together rich information with engaging commentary and questions (“Can you do that?” -or- “Can you find…?”).

The books that detail a particular animal, such as Ferdinand Fox’s First Summer and Otis the Owl, take us on a seasonal journey through the lens of that animal’s life. Each title also ends with activities, called “For Creative Minds,” for further exploration. Animal lovers will lose themselves in these books!

With over 15 books to choose from, this collection can provide days and weeks of exploration. For those who really fall in love with this series, it’s worth investing in Naturally Curious Day by Day: A Photographic Field Guide and Daily Visit to the Forests, Fields, and Wetlands of Eastern North America, which offers information about the natural world for each day of the year.

Holland’s picture book titles include:

Animal Ears

Animal Eyes

Animal Homes

Animal Legs

Animal Mouths

Animal Myths

Animal Noses

Animal Skins

Animal Tails

Animal Tracks and Traces

The Beavers' Busy Year

Ferdinand Fox’s First Summer

Otis the Owl

What’s Inside?

Yodel the Yearling

Rothman’s “Anatomy” Books

Written and Illustrated by Julia Rothman

Perhaps more suited for older readers, these books are a treasure trove of information. Easy enough to flip through to discover captivating details, and well worth moving through the thematic chapters, the pages offer sweet illustrations, short descriptions, labeled anatomy, and much more.

Rothman’s delightful drawings offer just enough detail without being too much, making them accessible yet engaging. If anything, these books are a great introduction to what nature journaling can be! If children are inspired to try their hand at nature journaling, Claire Walker Leslie’s books, especially Keeping a Nature Journal: Deepen Your Connection with the Natural World All Around You, can be another wonderful option to explore with your child!

The five Rothman “Anatomy” books are:

Food Anatomy: The Curious Parts & Pieces of our Edible World

Wildlife Anatomy: The Curious Lives & Features of Wild Animals Around the World

Farm Anatomy: The Curious Parts & Pieces of Country Life

Nature Anatomy: The Curious Parts & Pieces of the Natural World

Ocean Anatomy: The Curious Parts & Pieces of the World Under the Sea

Whether they’re flipping through pages while curled up on the couch or stepping outside to explore with new eyes, these texts and illustrations can help children cultivate a lasting relationship with nature. We hope these books offer a meaningful bridge between your child and the natural world—one that inspires closer observation, deeper questions, and joyful discovery.

In Montessori, we believe that fostering a love for the natural world lays the foundation for stewardship, empathy, and wonder. These books are just a starting point—an invitation to see more, learn more, and care more about the life that surrounds us every day. Please reach out to let us know what you think of these books or to recommend others. Happy reading, and happy exploring!

A Different Kind of Homework: A Montessori-Inspired Summer

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 11:00:13 GMT

With its change of pace, summer can be a lovely time to branch out into different kinds of family adventures. Even though school isn’t in session, learning doesn’t need to end! In Montessori, however, we believe summer is a time not for worksheets and drills, but for wonder, exploration, and deep connection with the natural world.

As adults, we can offer invitations to exploration. For inspiration, we are offering this list of meaningful, joyful, and skill-building experiences designed to awaken the senses, ignite curiosity, and nourish the spirit.

Here is our "Summer Homework List" that reflects Montessori values of independence, care for the environment, and learning through doing. Consider this a summer challenge! How many can your family tackle during these upcoming months?!

Explore the Great Outdoors ��

Climb a hill or mountain.

Hike a section of a trail.

Walk, bike, or skate along a bike path or greenway.

Canoe or raft down a local river.

Spend extended time walking quietly through the woodlands.

Climb a tree and observe the world from a new perspective.

Play and splash in a summer rainstorm.

Learn to Navigate and Survive in Nature ��

Learn to use a compass and a map to find your way.

Pitch a tent, build a fire, and cook a meal outdoors.

Go on a night hike with a flashlight and listen for nocturnal life.

Use Your Hands to Build and Discover ��

Make sandcastles on the beach or mud pies in the yard.

Build a fort or lean-to in the woods.

Spend hours making dams and bridges in streams.

Dig for worms.

Try catching frogs and fireflies.

Experiment with different designs for kites or paper airplanes.

Connect with the Cosmos ��

Learn to identify a few constellations and find the North Star.

Discover where north, south, east, and west are in relation to your home.

Watch the Perseid meteor shower in August.

Observe and Create ��

Build a birdhouse.

Learn to whittle a stick.

Identify local birds by sight and sound.

Learn the names of the trees around your home.

Blow bubbles and observe patterns with wind direction and speed.

Create a scavenger hunt in the yard.

Collect, Record, and Reflect ��

Start a small home museum: shells, rocks, feathers, or postcards of natural wonders.

Collect and paint rocks.

Create a sculpture or design with found objects.

Keep a Nature Journal with drawings, leaf rubbings, and observations.

Lie in the grass and observe the clouds.

Grow and Gather ��

Care for your own tomato plant.

Plant and tend a vegetable garden.

Gather locally grown foods and create a picnic.

Pick fresh berries—and bake a pie!

Why It Matters ��

Summer is an excellent time to consider what experiences will nourish our children’s love of life! With that in mind, let’s trade pencils for pinecones, screens for stargazing, and worksheets for wildflowers. This is the kind of homework children will remember, and that will support deep growth and learning.

Children thrive when they experience real-world learning, especially when it involves movement, observation, problem-solving, and connection. Plus, these summer suggestions awaken the senses, promote independence, and help children feel rooted in their environment.

If you are interested in learning more about how Montessori keeps this spirit of discovery alive all year, please be in touch. We love to share what we do!

Creating Community in Montessori Toddler Environments

Thu, 29 May 2025 11:00:43 GMT

In Montessori education, we emphasize community, not just as an abstract concept, but as a lived daily experience. From the very beginning of life, we emphasize carefully prepared environments that foster a deep sense of belonging and connection.

What Is Community?

The word community comes from the Latin communis , meaning “common, public, general, or shared by all or many.” In addition to shared space, in Montessori, we also think about community as a shared sense of meaning, values, and connection.

At its core, community begins with the most fundamental human group: the family. Families form children’s first social experience and the first place where values, culture, and expectations are passed down. This bond has helped humans survive and thrive throughout history.

Partnering with Families

In the Montessori approach, we honor and respect each family's unique values, striving to foster strong home-school relationships. Our partnership with families is a mutual journey—one in which the adult caregivers at school and home come together with a shared purpose: to nurture children’s natural growth.

Building the Toddler Community

We design our learning environments—both indoors and outdoors—to meet each child where they are, providing just the right level of challenge, comfort, and beauty. In creating community, we focus on essential, concrete elements like people, space, and materials, while also attending to intangible aspects that provide a profound sense of order.

The People : The adults—both the lead guide and trained assistants—focus on personal and professional preparation. Their role is not to direct the child but to support their natural development with presence, purpose, and peacefulness.

The Space : The physical environment must be appropriately sized, thoughtfully arranged, and aesthetically pleasing. If it’s too large, children can feel lost or overstimulated. If it’s too small, they may feel crowded and unsettled. We design every detail—from the furniture to the flow of the day—with intention.

The Materials : Everything in the classroom is purposeful, developmentally appropriate, and in harmony with Montessori principles. We carefully select materials to support children’s movement, independence, concentration, and sense of order.

Profound Order : A true Montessori community also relies on an invisible but essential structure: the order that underlies everything. Children have a fundamental need for order, especially during the first six years of life when they are in their sensitive period for order.

External order—seen in routines, consistent expectations, and a well-organized space—helps children form inner order, which is the foundation of emotional regulation, concentration, and autonomy.

If children do not experience order in their lives, they must expend energy trying to create it—energy that should instead be used for self-construction. That is why order must exist not just in the physical environment, but also in the adults’ behavior and in the flow of the day. A sense of control, predictability, and respect enables toddlers to flourish as they begin to form their personalities.

The Role of the Prepared Adult

As we create and cultivate our learning communities, we also recognize the significance of our role as adults in creating a community where toddlers feel safe, supported, and free to grow.

While we play a critical role in creating and maintaining a beautiful environment, we also recognize that it belongs to the children for their growth and development. To ensure that we support this development, we strive to master the art of observation, which enables us to identify what children need to aid their growth. With a deep understanding of the purpose of every material in the classroom, we can then connect children to meaningful work through intentional and respectful presentations.

We also practice humility, recognizing that children are often more in tune with their needs than we are. Our work with toddlers requires us to respect each child’s human potential, even when behavior is challenging, and to love unconditionally, accepting children for who they are, not who we want them to be. This practice means that we regularly reflect on our own work, always striving to improve so that we can better serve the children.

A Living, Breathing Community

Creating a Montessori community for toddlers is both an art and a science that requires intentional environments, well-prepared adults, and a deep respect for children’s developmental journey.

At its heart, the Montessori Toddler Community is a shared space where children learn how to be in the world—together. It is here they first experience what it means to belong, to contribute, and to grow with others.

Schedule a visit to see what an intentionally designed community looks like in action!

Montessori Materials Explained: The Fundamental Needs Charts

Mon, 26 May 2025 11:01:18 GMT

Exploring Human Connection: The Fundamental Needs Charts in Montessori

In the Montessori elementary classroom, we support children’s natural curiosity about what it means to be human. One of the tools we use for this exploration is the Fundamental Needs Charts, which illustrate the universal needs that connect all people, past and present.

Understanding Our Shared Humanity

The purpose of these charts is to help children recognize their own needs and see how human beings across time and cultures have worked to fulfill them. Through this, children begin to develop a deeper awareness of their place in history and the common threads that unite all people.

There are two charts that children use first as an overview and then as a tool for research.

The first chart provides a broad overview of fundamental needs, divided into material needs (food, shelter, clothing, defense, transportation) and spiritual needs (art, music, religion, communication).
The second chart focuses specifically on the human need for food, a concept that even the youngest elementary students can appreciate!

Unlike traditional text-heavy resources, these charts rely on visual representations, which makes them accessible to younger elementary children. The charts also provide a visual model of how to organize an investigation into ancient civilizations and cultures.

A Framework for Exploration

Elementary-aged children are naturally curious about how things work and why people live the way they do. The Fundamental Needs Charts provide a structured way to study history and culture, allowing children to ask meaningful questions:

How did different civilizations meet their needs for food and shelter?
How did people create art, music, and systems of belief?
What innovations, like the wheel, changed the way humans lived?
Are spiritual needs as essential as physical ones for survival?

These questions encourage children to think critically and compare cultures in a way that fosters both curiosity and respect for diversity.

From Concrete to Abstract Thinking

At first, children relate to physical needs like food and warmth because they have personally experienced hunger or cold. They also begin to grasp more abstract concepts, such as the role of art, music, and communication in human development.

We introduce the first chart through conversation:

What did you have for breakfast this morning?
How did you get to school? Did you wear a seat belt?
Why did you choose the clothes you have on today?
What do you plan to do this weekend?

We often write little slips with students’ answers. Then, we display the first chart and, together with the children, figure out how to put the different answers into the different categories. Children love this personal connection to the material, and the process lays the stage for how information can be organized thematically.

Encouraging Independent Research

The Fundamental Needs Charts do not present every possible human need–this is intentional. Instead, they provide a model that encourages children to create their own charts based on their research. This process deepens their understanding and allows them to make connections between cultures in a meaningful way.

Younger children often love making “needs” collages from magazine pictures or even charts of their own personal “fundamental needs” such as “What I Eat.” Sometimes, children may make booklets or write a story or report about a particular aspect of the chart, such as “How We Get to School” or foods that come from fish or foods that are flowers! Or they may make a chart with all the different ways human beings transport themselves, or about human houses. The possibilities are endless!

As they continue their studies, older children transition to The History Question Charts, which rely more on text and research. These allow for a more detailed examination of historical patterns, further reinforcing the idea that history is a story of human beings working to meet their needs.

Education for Peace

Dr. Maria Montessori believed that education should help children see themselves as part of a larger human family. By studying the universal needs that all people share, children develop a sense of human solidarity through space and time. They learn that while cultures may differ in their approaches, our fundamental needs unite us all.

This understanding fosters empathy, respect, and a sense of interconnectedness—essential components of education for peace. The Fundamental Needs of Human Beings Charts are more than just learning tools; they are a gateway to understanding human history, culture, and identity.

Visit our classrooms to see how our learning activities help young people become interconnected citizens!

Practical Life Has Purpose!

Mon, 19 May 2025 11:01:00 GMT

The Purposes of Practical Life in Montessori

In a Montessori classroom, practical life activities play a foundational role in supporting children’s development, independence, and connection to their environment. Because children are actively absorbing and adapting to the world around them, everything we offer in practical life serves a developmental need.

Supporting Independence

One of the primary goals of practical life is to nurture children’s functional independence—the ability to care for oneself and the environment and interact meaningfully within a community. The first plane of development (0 to 6 years) is marked by a strong drive for independence, with children eager to do things for themselves.

By the time a child enters the Children’s House (approximately ages 2.5 to 6), they have already made strides toward independence. However, they still require an environment that allows them to refine their skills. In the world, children generally encounter a number of obstacles to their independence:

Household processes (e.g., cleaning dishes in the dishwasher) may be hidden or too complex.
Tools are adult-sized and difficult for small hands to use.
Movements happen too quickly for children to absorb (e.g., tying a shoe).

The Montessori environment addresses these barriers by providing:

Child-sized tools for daily activities, such as preparing food and caring for the classroom.
A clear, ordered sequence of movements that children can observe and repeat.
The freedom to practice skills at their own pace, allowing them to move from passive observers to active participants.

Supporting the Sensitive Period for Movement

We also recognize that young children are in a critical period for refining their control and coordination. So practical life activities are designed to help children refine their movements in purposeful ways, directing children’s attention and energy toward focused, intentional actions. Walking on the line of an ellipse develops balance and control. Pouring water from a basin to a bucket refines precision. Carrying a tray teaches careful, measured movements.

One of the most challenging yet essential aspects of movement is control. It takes effort to stop pouring just before a cup overflows or use only a small drop of polish when shining an object. By engaging in these exercises, children strengthen their willpower and gradually master their own actions.

Supporting the Sensitive Period for Order

Children in the first plane of development have an innate need for external order, which is reflected in their surroundings and daily routines. Montessori environments support this in a variety of ways.

We ensure that activities have a logical sequence of steps so as children learn new concepts, they can also rely on the sequencing.

Materials are placed in a specific order on the shelves, moving left to right and top to bottom so children begin to internalize the same patterning we use for reading as they work through the easier and most concrete activities to the most challenging and abstract.

Montessori activities are color-coded. For the youngest children this means that all of the items for something like window washing will have the same color which helps children keep the set together. As children get older the color-coding is designed to help them grasp concepts like place value in math or parts of speech in language.

Once children internalize these structures, they gain confidence and independence, allowing them to complete tasks from start to finish without adult intervention.

Assisting with Cultural Adaptation

Practical life activities reflect real-world tasks that children observe in their daily lives. Children are naturally drawn to meaningful work—they want to help, imitate, and participate. For example, in Dr. Montessori’s early observations in San Lorenzo, she saw that children were fascinated by the gardener and the custodian, eagerly following and watching their work. Children see adults doing marvelous activities, and children want to learn the skills to participate! Through practical life activities, children engage in culturally relevant tasks that allow them to feel like valuable members of their community.

Supporting Orientation

Orientation is a fundamental human tendency—we all seek to understand our surroundings and how to function within them. Practical life exercises help children orient to the Montessori classroom by introducing essential routines. For example, we take the time to teach children things that might otherwise be taken for granted, such as:

How to carry a chair properly.
How to greet a friend.
How to roll and unroll a work rug.
How to ask for help.

By taking time to demonstrate these tasks, we show respect for the child and provide the knowledge they need to act confidently in their space.

Supporting the Development of Concentration

Practical life activities serve as a gateway to deep concentration. The freedom to choose and repeat exercises allows children to follow their intrinsic motivation and work toward self-perfection.

When children reach deep concentration, they experience:

Joy and a sense of fulfillment.
An increased connection to others.
A natural reduction in undesirable behaviors.

The ability to repeat an activity for as long as needed also supports children’s sensitive period for order and mastery. This is why practical life often serves as the first point of engagement for children in the Montessori classroom.

Supporting the Development of the Will

Practical life exercises help children develop willpower and self-control by bridging the gap between impulse and deliberate action.

At first, children act on instinct, but through repeated exercises, they learn to:

Act consciously and voluntarily.
Perfect their actions through self-correction.
Develop grace, courtesy, and social awareness.

Whether through learning how to clean up a spill or preparing snack to share with others, children learn to control their impulses and consider the needs of others.

Dr. Montessori beautifully summarized this transformation in The Discovery of the Child:

“The grace and dignity of their behavior and the ease of their movements are the corollaries to what they have gained through their own patient and laborious efforts. In a word, they are ‘self-controlled,’ and to the extent that they are thus controlled, they are free from the control of others.”

Practical life is far more than just pouring, scrubbing, and folding—it is the foundation for independence, concentration, order, and social development. These carefully designed activities help children orient to their world, refine their movements, and develop the willpower to act with purpose.

By embracing practical life, we give children the tools to engage meaningfully with their environment, take ownership of their learning, and ultimately, become confident, self-sufficient individuals. Contact us to schedule a tour so you can see how young children use practical life activities in powerful ways!

Mother and Newborn: A Deep Early Connection

Mon, 12 May 2025 11:00:05 GMT

The moments immediately after birth mark the beginning of a new yet deeply connected relationship between mother and infant. Though they are now separate beings, their bond remains intensely intertwined in a symbiotic relationship—one that nurtures, sustains, and supports both.

The word "symbiosis" originates from the Ancient Greek "σύν" (together) and "βίωσις" (living), beautifully encapsulating this critical early period where mother and baby live in close, mutual dependence. During this time, each provides something essential to the other, fostering survival, emotional security, and a foundation for lifelong attachment.

The Newborn’s Dependence on the Mother

Human infants enter the world in a state of immense dependency. Due to the evolutionary growth of the brain, babies are born before they reach full developmental maturity—an adaptation necessary to ensure a safe passage through the birth canal. This means that, unlike many other species, a human newborn requires continuous care and support in order to thrive. Infants’ nervous systems, movement, and even digestion are still developing outside the womb, making maternal presence essential for their adaptation to life beyond the confines of their prenatal environment.

The Mother’s Need for the Newborn

While the newborn’s need for the mother is evident, the mother’s need for her infant is just as profound. After birth, a mother’s body requires the baby’s presence to complete the physiological transition of childbirth.

Skin-to-skin contact and immediate breastfeeding trigger the release of oxytocin, which aids in contracting the uterus, expelling the placenta, and reducing the risk of postpartum hemorrhage. Additionally, prolactin, another key hormone stimulated through breastfeeding, deepens maternal attachment and fosters the nurturing instinct. As Ashley Montagu explains in her book, Touching:

“Psychologically, this intensification serves further to consolidate the symbiotic bond between herself and her child. In this bonding between mother and child, the first few minutes after birth are important. This is the beginning of that time when mother and baby are literally getting in touch with one another.”

This early connection is not just physical—it is deeply emotional. The mother’s body, heart, and mind undergo a transformation, developing an instinctive responsiveness to her baby’s needs. The mutual dependency between mother and child is what makes this period so unique and essential.

The Newborn’s Transition: Finding Security in the Familiar

Emerging into the external world is a dramatic shift for newborns. The womb was a place of warmth, movement, and constant sound—their mother’s heartbeat, breath, and voice. Birth catapults them into an unfamiliar space filled with new sensations, but certain elements can help bridge this transition. When held close, newborns find comfort in their mother’s scent, heartbeat, and voice—familiar reference points that reassure and provide continuity between the prenatal and postnatal worlds.

Meeting the Newborn’s Five Immediate Needs

Newborns enter life with five fundamental needs that ensure their smooth adaptation:

Direct contact with the mother
Adherence to biological rhythms
Temporal, physical, and social order
Space for unhindered vision and movement
Opportunities to explore with all the senses

These needs are met through three essential aspects of the mother-child relationship: holding , handling , and feeding .

Holding: The First Experience of Love

Holding, especially skin-to-skin contact, is crucial in the moments and weeks after birth. Being held provides the newborn with reassurance and an immediate sense of belonging. As Montagu describes in Touching:

“It is through body contact with the mother that the child makes its first contact with the world, through which he is enfolded in a new dimension of experience, the experience of the world of the other.”

Through touch, infants absorb the warmth, rhythm, and security of their mothers. This experience lays the foundation for trust, emotional stability, and future social bonds.

Handling: Loving, Intentional Care

Every interaction—bathing, changing, dressing—provides an opportunity for meaningful communication. Handling should be done with love and respect, fostering collaboration between caregiver and infant. When approached with attentiveness and predictability, these routine interactions create security and help the baby integrate into the social world with confidence.

Feeding: A Relationship Beyond Nutrition

Feeding, particularly breastfeeding, is not just about nourishment—it is about connection. The act of nursing stimulates hormones in both mother and baby, supporting digestive development, immune function, and emotional bonding. In fact, as the baby nurses, twenty different gastrointestinal hormones are released in the mother and infant, which stimulates the growth of the baby’s intestines and increases calorie absorption.

How feeding happens also matters. Even though newborns need guidance, we want to allow them to initiate suckling, as this reinforces their autonomy and natural rhythms. This early dynamic of mutual responsiveness creates a foundation of trust—ensuring children feel safe, heard, and secure in their ability to have their needs met.

The Lasting Impact of the Symbiotic Period

The symbiotic period, spanning approximately six to eight weeks, is foundational in shaping the infants’ perception of the world. Babies who experience warmth, responsiveness, and consistency in these early weeks develop an intrinsic trust in their environment. Likewise, through this deep connection, the mother gains confidence in her role and solidifies her bond with her child.

The profound mutual dependence of the symbiotic period is not just about survival—it is about building a relationship of love, trust, and security that serves as the blueprint for infants’ future interactions. By embracing this period with intention, awareness, and tenderness, both mother and baby emerge from it transformed—ready to take on the next stages of growth, hand in hand.

In Montessori, we are intentional about how we support each stage of development. Contact us to learn more!

What’s a Work Period? Your Questions Answered

Mon, 05 May 2025 11:01:08 GMT

"The mind takes some time to develop interest, to be set in motion, to get warmed up into a subject, to attain a state of profitable work. If at this time there is interruption, not only is a period of profitable work lost, but the interruption produces an unpleasant sensation which is identical to fatigue.”

-Dr. Maria Montessori, What You Should Know About Your Child

Consider, as an adult, what it takes for you to do your best work. What must your environment look like? What do you need from others? What constraints do you need removed in order to meet your goals?

Dr. Montessori spent years observing children as they played. She quickly recognized that immense learning takes place during play, leaving it reasonable to call it the child’s work. Left without interruptions, she witnessed pure magic.

Children, even very young children, have the capacity for intense concentration. They have the innate ability to work through problems and develop solutions all on their own. They want to do these things. And what’s even better? They do it with a sense of self-satisfaction, not because they feel pressure or expectation to.

What Montessori realized is that we, as adults, sometimes need to get out of kids’ way. We often imagine they require more help than they actually do, or that we must offer rewards or incentives to ensure they do their schoolwork, but those assumptions are misguided. What children really need is time, respect, and an environment in which they may focus deeply on their work.

Thus, the work period was born. Generally spanning about three hours long in the morning, this precious time is a cornerstone of Montessori education.

How does it begin?

The start of the work period varies, but typically it begins as children arrive in the morning. For some classes, on some days, and during some parts of the year, there may be a whole class morning meeting or circle time at the start or end of the work cycle.

A typical day begins with the child hanging their belongings on a designated hook, changing their shoes, and greeting their teacher as they walk into the room. They may say hello to a friend or two, take a moment to transition, and then select a work from the shelf. Others may be so eager to begin, they waste no time at all and go straight to the material they have been thinking about since the day before.

Prior to age six the child will likely work by themselves, but near their peers, most of the time. They may lay out a work rug, set up their material, and delve into a deeply concentrated state. They use the materials in the way they have been taught, then clean up and replace everything when they are done.

As children older than six, due to their development and desire for social connection, the start of the day can be a bit noisier and more chaotic. They still get to work rather quickly, although it’s often in the form of group or partner work.

What do the adults do?

A Montessori classroom typically has two adults present: the guide and an assistant. The assistant busies themselves with ensuring the room stays neat and orderly and that everything the children need is available to them. If children need help or redirection, the assistant is quick to engage while still allowing the child to maintain an appropriate level of independence.

This allows the guide to focus on two main tasks: observation and presenting lessons. During the work period lessons are not given to the whole group; individuals or small groups of children work with the guide to learn or review skills and materials. This is done as unobtrusively as possible. Adults in a Montessori classroom do their best not to interrupt the work of a child. If they need to speak with a student, there is often a non-verbal structure in place, such as leaving a name tag beside the child as they are working. This alerts the child to check in with the guide whenever they complete the task they are focused on.

Do children really focus the entire time?

Not usually! Can any of us truly focus for three hours straight without breaks? We definitely don’t expect our students to, either. This is one of the reasons our environments are designed for students to meet their own needs independently, when the time is right for them. If they feel hungry, they are welcome to have a snack. If they need to use the restroom, they don’t need to ask permission. Even if they just need to get up and stretch their legs or look out a window - we do not prevent children from doing these things. Allowing for breaks lets us all focus better in the long run anyway.

There is one interesting phenomenon worth mentioning here. Sometime around 10:00-10:30 in the morning, toward the end of the work cycle, classroom communities often experience what we refer to as false fatigue. Like clockwork, the volume of the children’s voices will rise, there is noticeably less engagement with the materials, and fewer children are sitting in one place - rather they seem to be wandering around the room. The adult instinct is to ring a bell or clap and make a plea for re-engagement, but we have learned to hold back. False fatigue is a normal part of the flow of the day. If we pause, observe, and wait even two or three minutes, we will see the children find their way back into their work. It can be pretty amazing to observe.

What might one work period look like for an individual child?

This article has probably already given you a fairly good idea of what this might look like. Once the child completes their first work of the day, they begin another. This repeats for the duration of the morning, but is fractured by any number of other activities. The child will likely have a lesson or two with their guide while the rest of their classmates continue working independently. At some point, the child will get hungry, have a snack, and clean up after themselves. They may take several water breaks, socialize with friends, or even spend some time watching a squirrel climb a tree outside.

In short, the work period is a way to honor the child’s way to balance focused learning with meeting one’s own needs, on one’s own timetable. It’s a way to show the child we trust them, and our students absolutely rise to the occasion.

Curious to see what a morning work period looks like in action? We would love to have you visit. Reach out today to schedule a time to observe.

Cosmic Education

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 09:00:24 GMT

Elementary-aged children have an innate desire to learn about the universe, the world, places, people, and how they interact. They yearn to understand why and how. They are eager to understand not only the culture in which they live but also make sense of the magnitude of cultures (human and non-human) that make up the entire world and, indeed, the entire cosmos.

Dr. Maria Montessori developed Cosmic Education as a guiding framework for children in the second plane of development (ages 6 to 12). Comic Education is designed to nurture their reasoning minds and imagination while fostering a sense of interconnectedness and wonder.

The Philosophy of Cosmic Education

Dr. Montessori described Cosmic Education as an approach that offers children a vision of the universe and its order and a way to understand how all things are interrelated.

“If the idea of the universe be presented to the child in the right way, it will do more for him than just arouse his interest, for it will create in him admiration and wonder... his intelligence becomes whole and complete because of the vision of the whole that has been presented to him.”

– Dr. Maria Montessori

To Educate the Human Potential

Rather than teaching isolated subjects, Cosmic Education presents an integrated curriculum where history, science, geography, language, and math are interwoven into a grand narrative. This holistic approach helps children see themselves as part of both a larger human story and the natural world.

The Scope of Cosmic Education

Unlike traditional curricula focused on skills, facts, and assessments, Cosmic Education prioritizes deep exploration. As Montessori educators, we recognize that we are guides who plant seeds of interest, knowing that these seeds may germinate later in life. We encourage children to pursue knowledge freely, follow their curiosity, and make connections across disciplines.

At its core, Cosmic Education is centered around key themes:

Natural Laws: The universe follows natural laws, from gravity to the water cycle, which children observe and study. Human societies also create laws to maintain order and cooperation.

Work & Contributions : Everything in nature and human civilization has a role to play. From the work of bees pollinating plants to the contributions of scientists and artists, children see how each element of the universe is purposeful.

Interdependencies & Relationships : All systems in the universe, from ecosystems to human economies, are interconnected. Montessori education highlights these relationships to foster understanding and responsibility.

Love, Appreciation, & Gratitude : Cosmic Education nurtures a sense of reverence for the universe, whether through scientific discovery or historical narratives.

The Great Stories: A Foundation for Learning

Cosmic Education is introduced through the Great Stories, a series of imaginative, inspiring tales we share with wonder and reference. These stories not only provide a tantalizing glimpse into the marvels of the universe, they also provide a framework for deeper study. In order to bring significant concepts to life, Montessori elementary guides appeal to students’ imagination through allegory, metaphor, beautiful language, charts, and dramatic demonstrations.

The Great Stories include:

The Creation of the Universe (“God with No Hands”) – An awe-inspiring story about the origins of the universe, the formation of galaxies, and the forces that shape our world.

The Coming of Life – A journey through the evolutionary changes of life on Earth that culminates in an introduction to the fascinating Timeline of Life.

The Story of Humans – Explores the unique intellectual and creative capacities of human beings, emphasizing imagination and innovation.

The Story of Communication in Signs/The Story of Our Alphabet Story – Traces the development of written language, from ancient symbols to modern alphabets.

The Story of Our Numerals – Highlights how mathematics is another kind of human language and introduces the power of math to bring order and exactness, including how math has allowed humans to meet their needs in different ways.

These stories captivate children’s imaginations, prompting further exploration of subjects like physics, chemistry, history, and biology. They provide a unifying theme that integrates all areas of study, reinforcing the idea that learning is not fragmented but part of a cohesive whole.

Outcomes of Cosmic Education

Dr. Montessori’s vision of education extends beyond academics; it is about shaping compassionate, knowledgeable, and socially responsible individuals. She believed that understanding our place in the cosmos fosters humility, gratitude, and a commitment to improving the world.

Through Cosmic Education, children develop:

A sense of purpose, recognizing that their work and actions contribute to the greater whole.

An organized and analytical mind, capable of seeing patterns and relationships in complex information.

A deep appreciation for humanity and nature, encouraging them to become responsible stewards of the Earth.

A lifelong love of learning, driven by curiosity rather than external rewards.

Nurturing wonder, critical thinking, and interconnected understanding lays the foundation for a lifetime of meaningful learning and engagement with the world. Ultimately, Montessori’s Cosmic Education is more than a curriculum—it is a philosophy that empowers children to view themselves as active participants in the ongoing story of the universe. The best way to learn about Cosmic Education is to come see it in action! Schedule a tour today!

Tattling vs. Telling: A Montessori Approach

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 15:14:48 GMT

How often have our little ones run up to us to spill forth their grievances about other children? Sometimes, these reports are about broken rules. Sometimes, they are about hurt feelings. Sometimes, they may even be attempts to get others “in trouble.”

In these moments, we have a split second to determine how best to respond. And our response matters!

Underlying Issues

When children come to an adult to tattle, typically they are trying to figure out the rules, both explicit and implicit, as well as how those rules are enforced. Which rules are critical? Which rules can be bent or broken? When should someone intervene?

Although those “tattle” moments can feel annoying, it can help to remember that there are probably a dozen or more other times when they didn't come to an adult. Coming for help can be because they reached the point of enough is enough. In this case, the "tattling" is really a plea for help.

We can remember that children are in the process of creating their value system, and this is especially so for elementary-aged children who have a heightened sense of justice and are often acutely attuned to what is or isn’t fair.

Children who are regularly tattling, are usually those who need support with figuring out the intricacies of rules and which are the most important. Children who have clarity about this are more likely to just remind a sibling or classmate about the rule.

If we reframe how we think about a tattler, we can see that child as asking for affirmation or clarification, or even just a clear understanding of the consequences of breaking a rule.

Reframing Our Response

If we reframe tattling as a request for help, our response can shift accordingly: "It sounds like you really need some help with this. What can I do to help?" Or "I hear that you are feeling very frustrated with Jackie. Let's go talk to her.”

It’s important that we don’t just dismiss children by telling them to go work it out on their own. The reason they have come to you is for some help.

That being said, if children are seeking retribution or punishment for another, we have a good opportunity to help guide them through another approach. Maybe the two children aren't getting along for some reason and they need some support to repair their relationship.

A Step-by-Step Approach

First, take a moment to try to determine the intention behind the tattling. One way to slow down the process is to make an observation and restate the concern: “So you are upset that…” or “You are concerned about…”
We also want to acknowledge children’s feelings and need for help: “Theo, it sounds like you need some help resolving this with Tristan. Let’s go talk to him together.”
We can then facilitate a structured conversation between the children. For the most success, we want to ensure the conversation happens in a calm, neutral setting. Then we can encourage each child to express their concerns: “Theo, can you explain to Tristan what happened that upset you?”
It helps to remind both children to truly listen to each other and to ask the listener to repeat what they heard in their own words: “Tristan, what did you hear Theo say?”
In this process, we can help explore the root of the issue and see if there were any triggers that led to the unwanted behavior: “So I wonder what happened prior to Tristan throwing a stick at you. What could have caused him to want to do that?”
It’s important to allow both children to express their perspectives and repeat back what they heard.
We can also encourage the children to think critically about their motivations to guide everyone toward a resolution. Try questions like:

“What do you think I should do here?”
“What do you think should happen next?”
“What would help resolve this?”

In asking these kinds of questions, we are helping children consider their own motivations as well as how to make amends. This can help bring to light if they are seeking punishment or truly need help resolving the issue.

Children are also very sensitive to whether we are maintaining adult neutrality. Even if one child seems “more guilty,” we want to avoid taking sides so that the process is focused on understanding, communication, and relationship repair.

Helping Children Distinguish Between Tattling and Telling

Over time, we ultimately want children to build the skills to independently resolve conflicts, uphold expectations, and know when to get help for serious issues. As children develop trust in the fact that adults can be counted on to help as they form their own value systems, we can introduce them to the difference between tattling and telling.

What is Telling?

Reporting serious concerns (safety, harm, or bullying).

Seeking help when there is a genuine need for an adult’s intervention.

Example: “Someone is hurt,” or “I saw something dangerous.”

What is Tattling?

Seeking attention.

Trying to get someone in trouble.

Reporting minor issues that could be resolved independently.

Example: “She took my pencil!”

Feel free to download this visual guide to use as a discussion tool with children. It’s important to acknowledge that children often struggle to distinguish between tattling and telling. But with support, time, and intentionality, children can learn! They may even want to add to the list as they experience different instances of tattling or telling.

We want children to learn that safety and well-being are priorities while also empowering them to be able to problem-solve when issues arise. The goal is for children to recognize when an issue requires an adult’s help and how they can take responsibility in social situations. As adults, we can model empathy and accountability in this process.

We also invite you to visit our school to see Montessori conflict resolution strategies in action!

When at Wit’s End

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 11:00:05 GMT

Our children are hard-wired to test boundaries. They do this while simultaneously wanting assurance that they are accepted and belong. While this tendency may try our patience, it helps to remember that children just want to know that we can maintain both limits and connection.

Over the years, we’ve found four key approaches that, when used in parallel, can help re-establish relationships, provide clarity of expectations and routines, and help children feel understood and valued.

Mistaken Goals

Often, our children act out when their needs are not being met in some way. If we can understand what our children are trying to achieve through their behavior, we can address these underlying needs. The Positive Discipline model identifies how many behaviors stem from four mistaken goals: the desire for attention, the need for power, the hunger for revenge, and the assumption of inadequacy.

If children’s goal is attention, the coded message behind the behavior is "notice me" or "involve me usefully.” If the need is power, their behavior conveys that they need meaningful ways to contribute. If children are trying to get revenge, they are communicating they are hurting or need their feelings validated. When their goal is assumed inadequacy, expressed by giving up or wanting to be left alone, the message behind their behavior is a need for others to believe in their capability and show them small steps toward success.

We tend to have emotional responses when our children misbehave, and those feelings are the key to breaking the code of behavior. We recommend using this Positive Discipline Mistaken Goal chart . Use the first column to identify how we feel when faced with the behavior. The subsequent columns (such as how we tend to react and our child’s response) help hone in on the possible mistaken goal. Then, the chart also helps identify the possible beliefs behind the behavior, how adults may contrive, the underlying message, and proactive and empowering responses to shift the behavior.

Pausing and remembering that misbehavior is a form of communication can help us respond to our children in more supportive ways.

Playful Parenting

Play allows children to process and make sense of their lives. They need play, and as Lawrence J. Cohen, PhD, so eloquently explains in his book, Playful Parenting, children need the adults in their lives to play, too. Even though we may not feel like playing, by engaging in this way, we can create more closeness, cooperation, and confidence in our children.

When there is a particularly tricky situation that keeps arising–perhaps bedtime, getting out of the house, sharing with a sibling, or something else–using a “playful parenting” model can help. To do this, first, briefly discuss the challenge together during a relaxed time when everyone is in a good mood. This conversation should be non-judgmental and focused more on making observations. For example, “I’ve noticed that when it’s time to leave for school, you seem to get really stuck, and then I get angry because we will be late. Have you noticed that?” This can be a time for your child to share their perspective, too.

Then, with your child, try acting out the scenario in different ways: when everything goes well, when everything falls apart, with a new approach, etc. It’s also super enlightening and fun to try reversing roles. Have your child be the adult, and you be your child. Not only does this lighten the mood about a friction-causing moment, it can also provide both parties some insight into the other’s perspective. Plus, this playful approach strengthens the bond you have with your child.

Special Time

Another way to proactively cultivate a positive relationship is by scheduling “special time.” Our children need our undivided attention, yet so often, as parents, we are pulled in many directions. One way to address this is to commit to having five to ten minutes of one-on-one time with each child. Let your children know that this is when you will be with them one-on-one and 100%. If you have more than one child, each gets to choose what you both do together during that time, and it’s important to schedule separate one-on-one time with each.

Be sure to play anything they want during this time and commit to the time together. Children love this special time, and be forewarned, they tend to choose the activity we least enjoy! If this is the case, remember it is only for a short duration. Use a timer and stay committed to having the time each day. This undivided attention helps children feel secure and connected. The result? They are more cooperative with us and each other.

Let Routines Rule

If struggles arise around particular times of day (bedtime, mealtime, transitions, getting ready for school, etc.), shifting to a visual schedule can really help. The key is to collaborate (again during a relaxed time when everyone is in a good mood) with your child to create a visual schedule of what needs to happen during these typically challenging times of the day. For example, if bedtime is tough, brainstorm together about all the steps: brushing teeth, bath time, pajamas, picking out clothes for the next day, storytime, etc. Then together, you can create images, either by drawing them or taking photos of your child doing each step.

This visual schedule can be a checklist that is laminated so your child can use a dry-erase marker to check off each item they have completed, or pictures can be attached with velcro so they are movable (which allows room for the order to be changed if your child can reorder the flow of events). The idea behind this is to give children a sense of control and to also take the focus off of us reminding them of the next steps. When our children hear us giving constant reminders about what to do next, they can easily slip into resistance mode. Plus, by providing information through the visual sense (not just the auditory sense), a visual schedule helps children understand more concretely and remember the expected structure and sequence.

We’d love to hear how these techniques work for you! Parenting can be an emotionally exhausting experience. One of the gifts of these strategies is that they can also help you reconnect to the joy of raising these amazing (and challenging) beings! Also, let us know if you’d like to schedule a time to come visit in person . We love sharing insights and ideas about supporting children!

Unlocking the Magic of Language: Montessori Sentence Analysis

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 11:00:14 GMT

Did you know that the word "grammar" evolved from "glamour"? This linguistic connection reflects an ancient association between language and enchantment. When we introduce Montessori's sentence analysis work, we offer more than just a lesson—we present an enchanting gift!

We regularly witness children falling in love with language as they uncover its patterns and structures. At the elementary level, children possess a reasoning mind, an active imagination, and a deep need for communication. The Montessori sentence analysis activities appeal to these characteristics, helping children connect as they creatively discover the underlying patterns of our language.

Why Do We Teach Sentence Analysis in the Elementary?

Children are natural pattern seekers. They love to identify and understand structures in the world around them, including language.
We want them to fall in love with language. By engaging in hands-on grammar work, children develop an appreciation for the beauty of sentence construction.
Sentence analysis provides clarity. Understanding sentence structure helps children write with greater precision and confidence.
Analysis leads to synthesis. When children break down sentences, they gain the tools to build more complex and meaningful expression in their own writing.

What Sentence Analysis Involves

The elementary sentence analysis materials introduce a set of symbols (that correlate to what children have experienced with the Montessori grammar boxes and the symbols for parts of speech), along with color-coded arrows with questions on one side and grammatical names on the other.

When breaking apart the parts of the sentence, children first identify what brings the sentence to life: the verb (predicate). To identify the subject of the sentence, children ask the questions from one of the arrows emanating out from the action: Who is it that? What is it? By answering those questions, the children are able to determine the subject.

Let’s use a very simple sentence as an example: Josie jumped. The children first identify the action: jumped. They can underline this word in red and then can cut it out or tear it out in order to be able to place the word on the red predicate circle. Then they use the black arrows to answer the question: Who is it that jumped? Josie!

The subject emanates out from the predicate, reflecting standard English sentence structure. We then directly teach other sections of the sentence like direct and indirect objects. For example, Raphael planted a tree for his mom.

Once we introduce adverbials, children take off independently, excitedly creating long sentences by answering the different questions on the arrows. We also explore attributives, compound subjects and compound predicates, and even compound direct and indirect objects.

We introduce this work early in the elementary years, beginning with simple sentences and progressing to compound and complex sentences. Children first learn to analyze and name the parts of a simple sentence before moving on to more complex structures. However, because simple sentences are rare in authentic texts, once children are confident with the structure of a simple sentence, we quickly move to varied sentence types.

Children can write their own sentences on paper strips or rolls of paper (like adding machine rolls). Using this kind of paper encourages students to create longer, continuous sentences, reinforcing their understanding of sentence expansion and modification. The questions on the arrow guide children in both creating sentences and analyzing the parts of sentences. The focus is not on achieving 100% correctness but on engaging in the activity and thinking critically about sentence structure.

Where Do They Go From Here?

Children love to play with sentence analysis work! They might challenge themselves to create the longest compound sentence possible, or they might try to include all the adverbial phrases in one sentence.

To deepen their understanding, children can analyze sentences from various sources: their own writing, newspaper or magazines, read-aloud books, graphic novels, non-fiction texts, teacher-created sentences, and sentences from classmates. They love to create sentences for each other to analyze. Plus, student-generated sentences provide organic opportunities for individualized teaching moments.

Montessori sentence analysis serves as a gateway to advanced writing and grammar exploration. As children progress, they refine their understanding of sentence construction, enhancing both their reading comprehension and their ability to write with clarity and sophistication. Ultimately, children internalize essential rules of grammatical construction just by experimenting with creating, deconstructing, and sometimes even reconstructing sentences.

By engaging deeply with sentence analysis, children develop a lifelong appreciation for the structure and beauty of our language–the glamour of grammar! If you are interested in seeing how this gift continues to unfold as children grow through the Montessori program, contact us to schedule a tour!

Our Montessori Bookshelf: Autism Awareness

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 11:00:13 GMT

We are committed to building communities based on understanding, acceptance, and support. So, in honor of Autism Awareness Month, which is observed every April, we are sharing some of our favorite books with themes of understanding autism and appreciating neurodiversity.

We hope that in exploring these books together, you and your children can help dispel myths and misconceptions about autism, foster a more inclusive society, and recognize the unique strengths that neurodiverse individuals can offer.

Ali's Gifts: A Family's Experience of Autism Spectrum Disorder

By Livvy Tune

Told from an older sister’s perspective, this story highlights the importance of a family focusing on how to understand a child’s experience of autism (rather than worrying about what other people think). The book provides a lovely journey from the initial upset of people asking, “What’s wrong with your brother?” to celebrating uniqueness.

Amazing Me: A Kids Guide to Understanding Autism

By McKenzie Schneider, Illustrated by Sydney Saathoff

This book can be a good resource for a younger elementary-age child who is just learning about what it means to be a person with autism. The clear descriptions and examples of what autism means for the main character, Alex (who can be seen as either a boy or girl, depending upon the reader’s perspective), can also serve as a helpful reference for if and when issues arise (e.g. making friends, sensory overwhelm, etc.) and also for celebrating strengths!

Autism and Me: An Empowering Guide with 35 Exercises, Quizzes, and Activities!

By Katie Cook

When older children are ready to learn more about autism (either as someone who has autism or as someone who wants to be supportive), this is a great go-to guide. Full of real-life examples, interactive activities, and easily digestible information, this is a must-have positive and empowering resource. The book is mostly text, with a few illustrations and decorative elements woven in.

The Boy with Big, Big Feelings

By Britney Winn Lee, Illustrated by Jacob Souva

Written in rhyme, this picture book shows how some children might feel things more intensely. A boy’s emotions are illustrated in colorful swaths coming out of him in different situations. Eventually, by connecting with a girl who also has big feelings, the boy feels more secure about expressing his emotions, which helps others, too. Although not specifically about autism, this story can be a way to explore sensory sensitivities and big reactions to seemingly small issues.

He’s Not Naughty! A Children’s Guide to Autism

By Deborah Brownson, Illustrated by Ben Mason

This is a good resource for elementary-aged children who want to better understand autism. The pages are filled with text that feels handwritten and bold images that help make the point. Although the book feels like a stream of conscious sharing about autism, it actually starts with a table of contents, which can be helpful for referencing particular aspects of ASD (like making friends, smells, or routines). At first glance, the book feels overwhelming, but it can serve as a helpful reference for children with autism and their friends and family.

The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The Story of Dr. Temple Grandin

By Julia Finley Mosca, Illustrated by Daniel Rieley

Told in rhyming verses, this true story chronicles the life of a girl who was diagnosed with autism, struggled at school, but then who (thanks to supportive, understanding adults) went on to not only achieve incredible academic success but also to revolutionize how farms could be more compassionately designed for animals. The end of the book includes a note from Temple Grandin, tidbits and fun facts from the author’s interview with her, a well-designed timeline of Temple Grandin’s life, a thorough written overview of her life, and resources for further information.

Masterpiece

By Alexandra Hoffman, Illustrated by Beatriz Mello

Samuel, the main character, is obsessed with blue and creates a picture with all the shades of blue for a class project. The gift of this book isn’t necessarily the storyline or illustrations, though. Rather it masterfully tells a simple story that normalizes being a person with autism. From arm flapping, to wearing headphones, to needing the teacher to quietly connect about expectations, Samuel’s uniqueness is just gently woven into what the reader experiences.

My Brother Charlie

By Holly Robinson Pete and Ryan Elizabeth Pete, Illustrated by Shane W. Evans

This sweet, simple, and profound picture book is a must-have. The narrator tells her story and experience of her twin brother having autism. This true story is both instructive and heartwarming and includes a lovely explanation at the end about how to be supportive of those with autism.

Uniquely Wired: A Story about Autism and Its Gifts

By Julia Cook, Illustrated by Anita DuFalla

Although slightly visually busy, this picture book really conveys the experience of living with autism. A young boy shares his unique perspective on the world and gives easily digestible explanations for behaviors that can seem off-putting at times.

Wonderfully Wired Brains: An Introduction to the World of Neurodiversity

By Louise Gooding, Illustrated by Ruth Burrows

This is a super cool resource for children during their elementary years, as it answers all the questions about how our brains work and how brains can work in different ways! It’s easy to flip through and find fascinating facts or to use the table of contents to hone in on a particular form of neurodiversity. The book is rich in content but also very easily digestible, with small chunks of text and colorful graphics and illustrations.

We hope you enjoy these books as much as we have! Here is a printable copy of the list of books. We also would love to have you come to the school for a tour . Contact us to set up a visit!

Stages of Development Series: Maturity

Mon, 24 Mar 2025 11:00:13 GMT

This is the final post of a series focusing on each of the four stages (or planes) of development: birth through age six, ages six to twelve, ages twelve to eighteen, and ages eighteen to twenty-four. Montessori pedagogy calls for a big picture perspective that incorporates the fundamental principles of human development at each stage of development and how we can best provide for a developing young person in each stage.

A Path Toward Maturity and Contribution to Society

The journey of human development, as envisioned by Dr. Maria Montessori, is marked by four distinct planes. Each plane represents a different phase in an individual's growth, and the fourth plane, spanning from 18 to 24 years of age, is no exception. This phase, which Montessori refers to as Maturity, signals the culmination of psychological and physical growth and paves the way for young adults to step into the world as a fully formed individuals capable of significant contributions to society.

Characteristics of the Fourth Plane

The fourth plane represents a time when individuals reach the height of their development and begin to assume their role in society. Unlike the earlier planes, the psychological changes during this period are less dramatic and more internal, and the focus shifts to understanding oneself and the world beyond one’s immediate needs. Whereas the body completes its physical maturation, the mind embarks on the task of understanding how it can contribute to humanity.

In The Four Planes of Education , Dr. Montessori writes, “The individual should be the man who knows how to make his own choice of action having passed to perfection the preceding phases. He should be as a live spark and aware of the open gate to the potentialities of prospective human life and of his own possibilities and responsibilities” (p. 15). This encapsulates the essence of the fourth plane— young adults’ newfound ability to make independent choices while being aware of their potential impact on society.

In this stage, individuals are not merely focused on themselves but are also learning to engage with the world beyond their personal ego. The question that arises is not “Who am I?” but “What can I do?” This shift from self-centeredness to a broader, more collective view of life signifies the maturity that defines the fourth plane.

Conquest of Independence

One of the key aspects of the fourth plane is the conquest of independence, particularly economic independence. This phase marks a time when individuals strive to become self-sufficient within the larger society. Young adults move beyond the dependency of childhood and adolescence, assuming more responsibility for their own life, finances, and future.

This is a period when a personal mission begins to take shape. Young adults start to solidify their goals, whether academic, professional, or personal, and work toward them with a growing sense of purpose. Dr. Montessori believed that achieving economic independence was crucial, as it not only provides the means to live but also fosters a sense of autonomy and responsibility.

Observable Examples of Development

Physically, by the fourth plane, development is largely complete. The dramatic growth spurts of the previous stages have slowed, and young adults now have full mastery over their body. Health is typically stable, and there is an overall sense of well-being.

Much like the second plane, the fourth plane is also conducive to intellectual pursuits, particularly those that lead to specialization in areas essential for a future career. This is when our young adults are honing skills that will serve them in the professional world, whether through higher education, apprenticeships, or other forms of specialized learning.

The fourth plane is also a time when individuals, having developed a solid understanding of themselves, are ready to take on more significant intellectual and social responsibilities. This is when they truly start asking the big questions, such as, “How can I contribute to the world?” It is at this stage that young adults embark on the exploration of their "cosmic task," a concept Montessori introduced in the second plane, which refers to the idea that every individual has a unique role to play in the larger story of humanity.

The Role of the Supportive Environment

With significant internal growth happening during the fourth plane, the role of the external environment remains crucial. A supportive environment during the preceding planes can have a profound effect on how individuals move through this stage. If our young adults have been nurtured in an environment that promotes autonomy, responsibility, and respect for their capacity to make choices, they are more likely to enter adulthood with the skills and mindset necessary to thrive in society.

To prepare for their careers during this time, many young adults pursue higher education, either through university studies or vocational training. Alternatively, they may enter the workforce, beginning to take on professional roles that contribute to society. This is also a time when many young adults leave the family home and start families of their own, further solidifying their place in the world as independent adults.

Dr. Montessori, unfortunately, did not have the opportunity to explore this phase in depth. However, we can imagine a world where every individual has been given the best possible environment throughout the previous planes of development. In such a world, adults who emerge from the fourth plane are equipped not only with the knowledge and skills to succeed but also with a profound sense of responsibility toward the greater good.

An Enlightened Society

The ideal outcome of the fourth plane is individuals who not only seek personal success but also work toward the welfare of humankind. Young adults who have passed through the earlier planes of development with the support of nurturing environments can enter society with a strong social conscience, eager to contribute to the collective well-being of humanity. They see the interconnectedness of all people and seek ways to address societal issues and contribute to the common good.

Imagine a world in which all young adults, having been guided through the previous developmental stages, emerge from the fourth plane ready to play their roles in society—not only as self-sufficient individuals but as enlightened members of a larger human community. This vision encapsulates the Montessori ideal: a world where everyone has the potential to contribute meaningfully to the advancement of humanity as a whole.

The fourth plane of development is not merely a time for self-discovery but a time for self-realization and societal contribution. Young adults, secure in their independence, prepare to engage with the world in ways that transcend personal goals, focusing instead on broader responsibilities. By fostering an environment that nurtures growth and independence, we set the stage for a society composed of individuals capable of making meaningful contributions to humanity’s collective well-being.

Curious to see how attention to the characteristics and needs of earlier stages of development can support an enlightened society? Schedule a tour today!

Stages of Development Series: Adolescence

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 11:00:11 GMT

This post is the third installment in our series exploring four stages of human development from a Montessori perspective. The Montessori approach takes a holistic view of growth, recognizing the unique needs of young people at every stage—birth to age six, six to twelve, twelve to eighteen, and eighteen to twenty-four—and adapts learning environments to support natural development at each stage. By understanding these key phases, we can better nurture young individuals as they progress on their journey to maturity.

Adolescence (Age Twelve to Eighteen)

Adolescence is often seen as a turbulent stage in life, sometimes even labeled as dysfunctional or something to endure. However, Dr. Maria Montessori viewed this vital period of human development as a time in our lives that deserves respect and understanding.

In Montessori education, adolescence is honored as a time of transition, a phase of development that, in many ways, mirrors the first six years of life. Just as the early years are marked by rapid transformation and the shaping of the individual, adolescence marks the transformation from childhood into adulthood.

Adolescent Development

The third plane of development, which typically begins at age twelve and continues through the teenage years, is one of significant physical, emotional, and social transformation. This period is characterized by the onset of puberty, hormonal changes, and dramatic physical shifts.

Adolescents, much like children in the first plane of development, experience rapid change, but this time it is in preparation for adulthood and potential child-rearing. As a result, adolescents require more sleep and are more susceptible to health issues (e.g. acne, depression, and eating disorders).

A key focus during this stage is the conquest of social and economic independence. Humans on the journey to adulthood need to function in social organizations, which requires intellectual and social skills. Adolescents also need to experience how economic interdependency works and they want to learn about different roles in economic systems. To do so, they need the awareness and skills to contribute in meaningful ways.

Social engagement is how we function as humans. Economic contribution and interdependency is how we meet our needs. Adolescents are no longer passive observers of society; instead, they strive to become active participants and contributors. Like during the first plane, adolescents learn best through hands-on experiences that benefit society, which reinforces their desire to contribute in meaningful ways.

Adolescents as Social Newborns

Dr. Montessori often referred to early adolescence as the "newborn" stage of adulthood, highlighting the vulnerability and transformation that adolescents undergo. This period of rapid physical and emotional development mirrors the developmental intensity of the first years of life. Adolescents are not just growing in terms of physical stature but also in terms of emotional and social maturity.

Much like a newborn, adolescents are learning how to navigate the complexities of the world around them. They are developing a sense of self and finding their place in society. The challenge of the third plane is to help them build this self-confidence and self-worth, while guiding them through the emotional turbulence that often accompanies this stage.

Holistic Development: Physical, Emotional, and Social Growth

Montessori's approach to adolescence is deeply holistic. We emphasize the importance of addressing the adolescent's physical, emotional, and social needs, recognizing that these areas are interconnected and cannot be separated in the developmental process.

Physical Development

Adolescents undergo significant physical changes during this time, including hormonal fluctuations and rapid growth. Brain development continues with an oversupply of gray matter and pruning of neural pathways, which influences behavior and learning capacity.

Key physical needs include:

Engaging in physical activity and hands-on work
Maintaining a healthy diet
Ensuring adequate sleep

Emotional and Psychological Development

Adolescents experience strong emotional swings and are highly self-conscious. They are forming their identities and are very aware of peer perceptions. Balancing these emotions and navigating their evolving sense of self can be challenging.

Emotional needs include:

Opportunities to build confidence and independence
Safe yet challenging environments
Support in self-expression and identity formation

Social Development

Social connections become increasingly important during adolescence. Adolescents seek peer approval and loyalty and often engage in risk-taking behaviors as they establish their place within their social circles. They learn best through collaboration and social interaction.

Social needs include:

Opportunities for collaboration with peers
Mentorship from adults
Meaningful and relevant social engagement

Moral and Intellectual Development

Dr. Montessori emphasized the adolescent’s sensitivity to issues of justice and personal dignity. This stage is a critical time for developing a strong sense of fairness and the desire to contribute meaningfully to society. As they mature, adolescents begin to understand the value of their contributions to the world around them.

Though their intellectual development might seem secondary due to emotional upheavals, it remains essential. As their brains undergo significant rewiring and neural pruning, adolescents still benefit from intellectual opportunities and challenges, as well as strong moral foundations.

The Role of Work and Contribution

Just as it was in earlier planes of development, work remains a vital aspect of adolescence. Adolescents have a strong desire to contribute to society and have their efforts recognized. Through work and activity, adolescents bolster their self-esteem and gain a sense of accomplishment.

The educational model proposed by Dr. Montessori focuses on land-based work and cooperative community living, which provide ways for adolescents to engage in meaningful activities. This model supports adolescents’ physical well-being, fosters social development, and prepares them for economic independence. Through hands-on work, adolescents not only contribute to their immediate communities but also develop a sense of responsibility and understanding of the value of work.

Supporting Adolescents Through Their Development

To meet the developmental needs of adolescents, we need to offer supportive environments. Dr. Montessori envisioned a community where adolescents could live and work together, gaining both physical and emotional nourishment. Providing opportunities for physical activity, collaboration, and self-expression helps adolescents develop into confident, capable adults.

Adolescents need both freedom and guidance. While they push away from adults as they seek independence, they still require boundaries, structure, and mentorship. Adults play a critical role in supporting adolescents as they navigate this transformative stage.

Understanding adolescence through the Montessori lens allows us to appreciate this period as one of profound transformation. By honoring the physical, emotional, social, and moral development of adolescents, we can provide them with the support they need to transition confidently into adulthood. With a holistic approach that integrates meaningful work, opportunities for self-expression, and guidance from adults, adolescents can be empowered to become the capable, interdependent adults society needs. Visit our school today to learn more!

Stages of Development Series: Childhood

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 11:00:12 GMT

Understanding human development at each stage is crucial to fostering optimal growth. This belief forms the foundation of Montessori education, which is deeply rooted in the developmental needs of children.

This post is the second in a series that explores the four stages of human development: birth through age six, ages six to twelve, ages twelve to eighteen, and ages eighteen to twenty-four. Each of these stages, or planes of development, comes with unique needs and capacities, and understanding them allows us to better support children in their educational journey.

Childhood (Age Six to Twelve)

Unlike the dramatic changes seen in infancy and adolescence, the second plane of development (ages six to twelve) is often viewed as a period of relative stability. This phase serves as a critical time for children to build upon their early experiences while preparing for the transitions that will come in adolescence. Despite its importance, this period is sometimes overlooked in society, but it is essential for the development of social, intellectual, and emotional skills that will serve as a foundation for later life.

Key Characteristics of Elementary Children

At the core of this stage are several observable characteristics.

Physical Sturdiness and Stability

Children in this stage experience a steady period of physical growth. They lose their primary teeth and gain adult teeth. Their skin loses its baby softness. Their hair even gets coarser and darker. Their body becomes leaner and stronger, with the soft, rounded contours of early childhood giving way to a more defined physical form. Despite these changes, growth slows down compared to the rapid pace of the first plane. This time also brings greater stability in health and coordination.

Reasoning and Abstraction

While children in the first plane absorb information effortlessly and even unconsciously, the second plane is marked by a growing capacity for reason and abstraction. No longer content with simply absorbing facts, children seek to understand the underlying causes of things. They begin to ask “why” questions and develop the ability to think logically and critically about the world around them. Their imagination flourishes and they love being able to transcend time and space, mentally traveling through history or exploring possible futures.

Conquest of Independence

This is a time when children transition from sensorimotor learning to becoming intellectual explorers. The intellectual independence they gain during this phase fuels their studies of mathematics, history, geography, art, and music. Montessori classrooms provide opportunities for children to explore these subjects with the motto: “Don’t tell me. I’ll figure it out myself.” Their journey toward independence extends beyond the academic to include a growing capacity for social reasoning and moral judgment.

The Herd Instinct and Socialization

One of the defining features of children in the second plane is their social nature. Children at this age exhibit a strong "herd instinct"—the need to belong to a group and collaborate with peers. They begin forming micro-societies and creating their own rules, roles, and expectations. These experiences allow them to practice social interactions and develop their conscience. It’s worth noting that as adult-directed activities (e.g. afterschool sports and classes) increase, children have fewer opportunities to work out social dynamics independently.

Moral Development and a Sense of Fairness

As elementary-age children seek independence, they also begin to develop a sense of morality. Children at this stage are sensitive to fairness and justice, and are likely to voice concerns when they perceive inconsistencies. This is when we frequently hear, “It’s not fair!” This stage is about the exploration of right and wrong and the ability to question rules and authority. The drama that unfolds in the classroom is often part of this process, as children navigate the complexities of social rules and develop their moral code.

A Fascination with the Extraordinary

Second plane children are drawn to the extraordinary, whether in the form of superheroes, mythical creatures, or fascinating civilizations. Their imagination is sparked by the idea of powers beyond the ordinary, and they are eager to explore cultures and histories that seem larger than life. This fascination with the exceptional provides them an avenue for exploring concepts of heroism, strength, and the human condition.

A Supportive, Community-Based Learning Environment

In a Montessori classroom, children are encouraged to work both independently and in groups. As such, the prepared environment of the second plane is designed to foster collaboration while allowing space for individual exploration. Group activities allow children to develop their social skills, negotiate rules, and practice taking on different roles within a community. Through these experiences, they are able to form their own moral code and develop their identity in relation to the group.

Children in this stage also have a thirst for knowledge that goes beyond what is available in the classroom. Montessori education encourages “Going Out” experiences—trips beyond the school to explore the wider world. These excursions allow children to engage with real-world problems, develop planning and execution skills, and build a deeper understanding of the subjects they are studying. Through these experiences, children come to see themselves as active participants in the world around them.

Montessori referred to the educational experience in the second plane as "cosmic education." In this phase, children are introduced to the universe as a whole, with an emphasis on the interconnectedness of all life. The Montessori curriculum for this stage revolves around the Five Great Lessons, which invite children into discovering more about the universe, the formation of the earth, the coming of plants and animals, the arrival of humans, and the development of written language and numbers. From these lessons, all areas of study—botany, geography, history, zoology, language, and more—emerge, inspiring awe and gratitude for the universe and humankind’s place within it.

Support from Home and Community

While second plane children are eager to explore beyond the family and classroom, they still require the strong support of their home, school, and peer group. Social activities become increasingly important, as group work provides them with the opportunity to practice collaboration, moral judgment, and self-expression. A strong, supportive environment—both at home and at school—helps children navigate this important stage in their development.

Curious to see how a school environment can meet the needs of six- to twelve-year-olds while inspiring deep learning? Schedule a tour of our classrooms!

Stages of Development Series: Infancy

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 11:00:02 GMT

Imagine education from a fresh perspective—one that sees children not as empty vessels waiting to be filled but as whole individuals embarking on a lifelong journey of self-formation. From the moment of birth, children are driven by powerful internal forces that guide their growth and help them adapt to their unique time, place, and culture. This remarkable ability to evolve and adapt is a defining trait of our human species.

The Montessori approach to education is built upon this profound understanding of human development. Dr. Maria Montessori dedicated her life's work to observing how children grow and change over time, identifying key developmental stages that shape their path to maturity. Through her scientific observations, she identified four distinct planes of development, each with its own unique characteristics and needs.

In this four-part blog series, we’ll explore each of these four stages—birth to age six, six to twelve, twelve to eighteen, and eighteen to twenty-four—unpacking how Montessori education adapts to support children’s evolving needs at every phase of growth. By understanding these developmental stages, we can better support young people on their journey to becoming capable, independent, and fulfilled individuals.

Infancy (Birth to Age Six)

The first plane of development is an extraordinary period of psychological and physical growth. Newborns enter the world entirely dependent, unable to move or communicate. Yet, within just six years, they are walking, talking, and asserting their independence with intellect and will.

Characteristics of the First Six Years

During this transformative stage, children require ample sleep to support their rapid development. However, when they are awake, their curiosity knows no bounds. They explore their surroundings with boundless energy, using their senses to touch, smell, taste, hear, and examine everything in their environment.

Conquest of Independence

One of the primary goals during this stage is achieving functional independence. Children are eager to take care of their own needs and are naturally inclined to observe and imitate the actions of adults. The mantra of children at this stage is: “Help me do it myself!”

Sensitive Periods

Children in the first plane experience sensitive periods—windows of opportunity when they are uniquely receptive to acquiring essential skills.

Movement : Young children need movement to develop brain-body integration.

Order : They crave order to make sense of their surroundings, learning what happens and how objects are used.

Language Acquisition : This is a critical period for language development, during which children absorb words and speech patterns effortlessly.

These sensitivities drive children’s development, shaping their understanding of the world.

Observable Milestones

One of the most profound achievements in this phase is the acquisition of spoken language. Talking to newborns, for example, stimulates vocal cord development, and astonishingly, their vocal cords vibrate when adults speak to them. From being essentially mute at birth, toddlers can have a vocabulary of around 200 words by age two and an impressive 10,000 words by the end of this phase. This makes it essential to provide a language-rich environment during these formative years.

Physically, this period is one of monumental growth. Children progress from being immobile to sitting, crawling, walking, speaking, and independently eating. As adults, we must be mindful about supporting rather than hindering this development. We want to offer rather than limit growth opportunities for our children!

The Sub-Planes: Ages 0 to 3 and Ages 3 to 6

The first plane of development can be divided into two distinct sub-phases:

Ages 0 to 3 : Children’s development is largely unconscious, driven by innate forces. During this phase, children absorb the world around them and do so without any filters. It’s important during this time that adults respect children’s natural developmental path without imposing external motivations.

Ages 3 to 6 : During these years, children become more consciously aware of their actions and motivations. This is when we see the emergence of children’s willpower and the powerful drive to classify and understand their environment. Children become more conscious learners.

As they grow, children naturally identify patterns, similarities, and differences based on their experiences. They construct their understanding of the world from scratch, and active experiences in their environment play a crucial role in shaping their cognitive development.

Social Development in the First Plane

During their first three years, children form strong bonds with their primary caregivers and family, finding comfort in a small social circle. They prefer solitary exploration and engage in parallel play.

By age three, children seek a broader social experience beyond the family. They require opportunities to interact with peers and engage in community life, which fosters independence and social development.

Creating a Supportive Environment

Providing the right environment is crucial to supporting children during their early years. Key elements of an optimal environment include:

A Secure Home : A safe and loving home helps children build trust and confidence in the world around them.

Freedom to Explore : Children need space and opportunities to move and explore safely, both indoors and outdoors.

Language Exposure : A rich linguistic environment helps children build vocabulary and develop confidence in self-expression.

Participation in Daily Life : Involvement in practical life activities helps children develop independence and a sense of belonging.

Cultural Experiences : Exposure to family traditions, rituals, and cultural practices helps children adapt to their culture and understand their place within it.

As children develop over the course of this stage of life, they also benefit from being part of a social community and, in the process, learn valuable lessons about cooperation, sharing, and responsibility.

By understanding the characteristics and needs of the first plane of development, we can create environments that nurture children’s natural growth, independence, and exploration. We invite you to visit our schoo l to see for yourself how a prepared environment can meet the needs of our youngest children!

Mathematical Foundations

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 11:00:12 GMT

Whether we embrace math or not, humans have a tendency to think in patterns, quantify, and make logical connections. Some even say we have a mathematical mind! Young children also have this innate ability and inclination, so in Montessori, we take advantage of this propensity for mathematical thinking and offer learning experiences that provide an in-depth understanding of math even at a young age.

Organized into six general groups, the mathematical exercises in the Children’s House span from a foundational understanding of the numbers one to ten, to working with very large numbers and place value within our decimal system, to internalizing number facts, and even early work with fractions!

Numbers 1 to 10

Although learning the numbers 1 to 10 sounds simple, it actually involves the integration of several distinct concepts. The beauty of the Montessori materials is that they isolate each separate concept so that children’s understanding grows in progressive steps. This first group of exercises in the Children’s House aims to teach the names, symbols, quantities, and sequence for the numbers 1 through 10.

The youngest children first use the number rods, which are color-coded with alternating red and blue sections to designate the quantities of one through ten. As children work with the number rods, they solidify the concept of quantity as a single entity while also practicing one-to-one correspondence.

The sandpaper numbers help children learn the symbolic representation of numbers. After children master the sandpaper numbers and can easily identify numerals, we help them connect the number cards with the corresponding number rods. Additional materials–like the spindle boxes, cards and counters, and the memory game–help children progress from understanding quantity as a single entity to grasping how quantity can be a set.

Throughout this progression, we offer experiential exercises to help children learn the concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. At this stage, we don’t provide the vocabulary but rather give an impression of the concept of each operation.

The Decimal System

Once children have mastered the numbers 1 to 10 activities, they are ready to begin exercises with the golden beads. Because there are never more than nine in a given place value, and children already know the quantities and the symbols, they are ready to learn the hierarchy of units, tens, hundreds, and thousands.

As children set up the golden beads, the primary decimal system materials, they learn how to think through the process of each operation and the concepts of calculation. Are they putting quantities together or taking them apart and recounting the categories?

The decimal system work gives children knowledge of the mathematical processes and solidifies their understanding of the mechanics of the decimal system. We focus on helping children understand the process of each operation. We aren’t looking for the right answer. We want the child to understand the operations and what adding, multiplying, dividing, or subtracting means.

After children understand the operations with the golden beads, we offer other materials, such as the stamp game and dot game, to help them move away from a very concrete toward a more symbolic representation of the quantities. We offer word problems at the end of this series, which help verify whether children understand each operation's process.

Continuation of Counting

Through this group of exercises, children learn the name, symbol, and quantity of the numbers from 11 to 100, and consolidate linear counting up to 1,000. The work starts with the teen boards (11 through 19) and tens boards (20 to 100). We also introduce the colored bead stair, which gives a color-coded sensorial representation for quantities of one through ten, a pattern replicated throughout the Montessori math materials.

With the golden beads, children experience the difference between 100 and 1,000, by weight and geometrical representation. In continuation of counting, children lay out the bead chains and see the dramatic linear difference between 100 and 1,000. Children also use the bead chains to practice skip counting, which lays the foundation for further studies in multiplication.

We also make sure there is lots of counting in the classroom! Children can be taught to count by rote, but mental maturity helps them take the leap from rote counting to understanding quantities represented by numbers.

Exploration and Memorization of the Tables

Through a variety of materials–the addition strip board, addition snake game, subtraction strip board, subtraction snake game, multiplication bead board, bead bars, and unit division board–children have lots and lots of practice with the essential math facts. This concrete exploration establishes a visual understanding of what something like 5 x 6 looks like and helps children establish early neural pathways for memorizing these math facts.

After children use different forms of bead material to practice, they move into more abstract representations of quantity and eventually even use blank charts to test their memory.

All of the repetition in this exploration phase leads to memorization as children become aware of which combinations they know and which they don’t know. Eventually, after a lot of practice and repetition, children realize that it is faster to do the calculations mentally rather than with the materials.

As children reach the end of their primary years, they want to be more efficient. At precisely this point, they are ready to begin the last group of exercises, called the passage to abstraction.

Passage to Abstraction

In the exercises for passage to abstraction, children connect the skills and concepts from the previous strands of learning, and their knowledge base shifts from understanding the concepts experientially to understanding them logically.

With the small bead frame, children revisit the process of addition and subtraction. With the wooden hierarchy material, children get a sensorial and symbolic introduction to the quantities ten thousand, one hundred thousand, and one million. This material also prepares children for the large bead frame and experiencing the multiplication of large numbers with a single-digit multiplier. The racks and tubes material allows children to begin dividing with larger divisors and dividends. With all of this concrete experience working with larger quantities, children are well on their path to abstraction.

Fractions

The final material in the mathematical progression is fractions. In the Children’s House, we have already helped the youngest children explore fractions sensorially. They return to this material from a mathematical perspective to understand quantities smaller than one unit. In addition, children begin simple operations with the fraction material and start to explore the equivalence of fractions.

In the Children’s House, the progression we use for all of these exercises helps children deeply solidify their mathematical understanding. We first ensure children have strong concrete experiences, followed by more symbolic representations. After children associate the concrete and the abstract, we offer lots of activities for practice, repetition, and verification.

In the process, we support children’s growth in classification, comparison, and reasoning. We invite you to come see children’s mathematical minds in action. Schedule a tour today!

Who Owns the Problem?

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 11:00:03 GMT

Most of us have had the experience of a child walking into the room and proclaiming, with exasperation and desperation, “I’m bored!” Without even thinking, we begin to offer suggestions.

Despite our best intentions, this situation tends to not end well. Our brilliant ideas are often quickly refuted. We feel frustrated. Our children haven’t engaged. And we’ve missed an opportunity to help our children take responsibility.

What Does it Mean to “Own the Problem”?

It helps to think proactively about how to respond when our children face problems, choices, or situations. These aren’t necessarily the big issues, but rather daily moments that can help our children learn important coping skills that will be crucial in their lives.

At its core, figuring out who owns the problem is about determining whether we or our children are the ones who are primarily responsible for addressing an issue. For example, when our children forget to bring something to school (a coat, gym shoes, snack, etc.), it’s their problem to own and solve because they are directly impacted. Plus, they are also capable of problem-solving (e.g. borrowing a coat, talking to their teacher, asking if there is any food they can have for a snack).

Owning the problem helps children take more responsibility and learn from their mistakes. Whereas, if we rush to their rescue and bring anything that was left at home, our children learn that remembering to bring essential items isn’t really important because we take care of covering for them.

The Challenges

However, watching our children struggle can be heart-wrenching. We don’t like to see our children upset, in pain, or even frustrated. Often, without even thinking, we jump in and try to protect our children from whatever problem, conflict, or challenge they are experiencing.

In addition to this urge to rescue, we may also experience time constraints, diminishing patience, worry about how others will perceive the situation, doubts about our children’s capability, and even pushback from our children.

It may seem faster to tie our children’s shoes or clean their messy room than to wait for them to do it themselves. We may worry that our children won’t meet expectations with a school project or that teachers, other parents, or extended family members will judge the results if we don’t help. Or maybe we aren’t sure that our children will make the “right” decision or if our children are mature or skilled enough to handle a situation. We may even feel guilty about allowing our children to face the natural consequences of their actions, even though it’s a necessary part of learning.

The Value

All problems have owners. Being thoughtful about who owns the problem helps create a clear boundary between guiding our children and taking over their challenges, which is crucial for raising independent, confident, and capable individuals. If we take the time to think ahead about specific (and even recurring) situations, we can be prepared to empower our children to take ownership of the challenges they face, rather than automatically intervening.

It’s also important to remember that if we regularly take ownership of our children’s problems, we are inadvertently teaching our children that they are not capable. The result? Our children grow more needy and dependent on (and sometimes even more demanding of) adults.

If our children own the problem, we can let them handle the problem and provide support as necessary. This is a growth opportunity for us and our children!

Steps to Take

The next time our children express frustration or emotion in response to a problem they own, we can try a simple, three-step response.

Tell them what we see

When our children approach us, consider using detective skills to determine what emotion is at play. “It looks like you don’t know what to do right now,” or “It looks like you are disappointed,” or “It looks like you are feeling sad.” This simple first step provides acknowledgment and helps children accept that their feelings are normal and acceptable. For younger children, this also helps them learn to identify different emotions.

In addition to validating our children’s feelings, active listening shows empathy and helps us avoid jumping to solutions. For example, if the upset is about an interaction with a friend, we can try saying something like, “That sounds really frustrating. Tell me more about what happened."

Ask them what they can do

Next, we can act as a coach rather than trying to provide solutions. This requires listening closely to determine the root cause of their problem and helping them come up with a solution (without doing it for them).

For example, if facing the “I’m bored” statement, we can ask questions, “What do you think you could do on your own so that you would feel busy?” Even if they respond by saying, “I don’t know,” we can continue to focus on their ability to think through possibilities. Sometimes, even just replying with something like, “make believe you know,” grants them permission to use their imagination.

Additional types of questions to have mentally prepared can include:

“What do you think you could do to fix this?”

“How do you think _____ might react if you explain?”

“What’s the first step you could take?”

Offer to help if appropriate

Once our children have come up with a solution to their problem, we can offer to help without taking over and implementing the solution for them.

Sometimes our children might need support with generating ideas. It’s okay to brainstorm together, which is different than trying to come up with solutions for them. If we do offer brainstorming support, it’s important to let our children choose the best course of action. For example, if the problem revolves around forgetting to bring something to school, we can help with some scaffolding, “Let’s think of ways you have remembered to bring your instrument for band. What’s one technique you’ve used before that worked well?”

We can also offer support by providing access to tools or resources. For example, if the struggle involves organization, we can offer to provide a calendar or checklist and teach our children how to use this tool rather than organizing their assignments or chores for them. Role-playing can also sometimes help children practice the solution they’ve identified.

Ultimately, we want to set clear exceptions by letting our children know what is expected and giving them the responsibility to follow through. Asking what their plan is is a great way to shift the focus to their ability to solve the problem. The best part is that the more often we allow our children to solve their own problems, the more capable they become.

Are you curious to learn more about supporting children’s emerging sense of responsibility? Come visit our school!

An Explosion in Language Development

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 11:00:05 GMT

Almost 120 years ago, when Dr. Maria Montessori created the first Children’s Houses in the slums of Rome, she saw a curious phenomenon. Young children, who not that long before had been considered street urchins, developed a sense of pride in their work and soon were eager to read and write. In fact, Dr. Montessori tells a story about how the children and their parents begged her to teach them writing and reading, despite the fact that, at the time society didn’t think that children under six were capable of this type of learning.

Then Dr. Montessori did what she did so well: she observed the children, she identified what skills they needed, and she provided opportunities for the children to develop. The result? Dr. Montessori saw what she described as an “explosion” into writing and reading.

In Montessori, we support children’s progression (and “explosion”!) in three aspects of language development: spoken language, written expression, and interpretive reading.

Spoken Language

Because spoken language is the foundation for all work in the language area, we offer rich, full, and beautiful language for young children through a variety of activities to cultivate conversation skills. Our enrichment of vocabulary exercises focus directly on expanding children’s receptive vocabularies and cultivating children’s experience and intelligence. As we engage children in language games, we also help increase their listening skills as well as their comprehension. As part of spoken language development, we also take the time to listen to children’s own spontaneous efforts of expression, so that they gain confidence in speaking and feel that their thoughts have meaning.

Written Expression

The act of writing consists of two separate elements: composing and recording. Composing is the mental work–thinking about what to say. Recording is the physical aspect of writing. In the Children’s House, we prepare these two elements separately by offering exercises to prepare the hand for recording and exercises to prepare the mind for composing. Writing is having a known thought that goes from sound to symbol, a process that is much easier than the process of reading.

Because the development of the hand takes longer than the development of the mind, we use a material called the movable alphabet as a way for children to compose words before their hands are ready to write. The movable alphabet is a box containing the letters of the alphabet, essentially the building blocks of all the sounds in our language.

Interpretive Reading

In Montessori environments, unlike many traditional settings, reading is introduced after writing because the process of reading is cognitively more difficult. Writing is essentially an expression of thought. When we write something, we know what we are writing. When we read something, we don’t know what the author was communicating so we have to take the symbols, match sounds to them, blend them together, and then attach meaning to them. This is much harder to do.

While the hand needs to be prepared for writing, the eye must be prepared for reading. This includes being able to follow a left to right, top to bottom progression across the page. In addition, the eye must recognize that the symbols in our language are lines creating a shape. So we have lots of activities with the geometry cabinet, as well as other sensorial materials, to prepare children for this visual discrimination. We also use the sandpaper letters to introduce the phonemes of language through three senses: tactile, visual, and auditory. Through games with the sandpaper letters, children get to practice the trace of the letter through gross motor movement of the whole arm and hand, see the shape, and associate the letter sound with its shape and their own movement.

Once children progress from reading words (mostly nouns), to reading phrases and finally sentences and paragraphs, we offer activities to highlight how different words have different functions. These exercises also highlight the syntax or order of words (e.g. adjectives tend to come before the noun they are describing). Another set of exercises, called reading analysis, highlights the role or the order of parts of a sentence. In the process of understanding the components of our language, children are better able to interpret what the author is writing.

The Pattern of Human Language Development

The progression that young children go through – spoken language to written expression to interpretive reading – follows the pattern of early human language development. Early humans began with spoken language, then advanced into forms of writing (think of the first cave paintings and picture writing), and later moved into reading as a way to interpret the thoughts of others. How amazing that our young children do the same in a matter of years from birth to age six!

One of the joys of the Montessori learning environment is how language learning is woven into all aspects of the children’s experience. When we present dusting, for example, we model a left to right, top to bottom pattern, which prepares the eye for tracking words on a page. When children use sensorial touch tablets and the rough and smooth boards, they develop lightness of touch and a relaxed hand necessary for writing. Every time children grasp a knob of the knobbed cylinders, they prepare their hand for holding a writing instrument.

Through the sound game, children become aware of the fact that words are made of sounds and they begin to identify all of the sounds in a word and place them in order. Through the sandpaper letters and sandpaper phonograms, children associate the sounds of our language with their symbols. This is exciting work for the children because not only can they see the isolated symbols, but they can touch them, too! Through the moveable alphabet, children are able to write their thoughts even before their hand is ready to control a pencil.

The genius of the Montessori approach is that it breaks down individual skills and abilities so that children can practice them in isolation. So by the time children have mastered these individual skills, they seem to spontaneously know how to write or know how to read.

Once this explosion into writing and reading has occurred, then children are excited to refine their writing and access worlds of knowledge through reading. A new journey of discovery and learning begins.

We invite you to visit the school to learn more about the “explosion” in language development and the joyous journey that unfolds!

The Three R’s of Recovery: A Positive Discipline Approach to Mistakes

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 11:00:03 GMT

Do you ever feel annoyed by throw-away apologies? So often, our children pick up the habit of tossing out “I’m sorry” like a used tissue. Completely overused, the expression begins to feel devoid of worth. They speak the words, but it seems like they don’t actually feel a sense of remorse or regret, much less a desire to make amends.

In Montessori, we don’t insist that children apologize, especially right at the tail end of a heated moment. For goodness' sake, think about when we, as adults, are tired or hungry or stressed and make a snarky comment. We’re not usually feeling particularly sorry – more like ticked off and cranky! Later, after we’ve had time to take some deep breaths, or perhaps tend to low blood sugar, we often feel a deep sense of regret and desire to make things right.

Because our children tend to replicate what they see in us, it helps if we decide to first make sure we aren’t just using “sorry” as an easy way out. To really model a different approach, it helps to use the framework of the “Three R’s of Recovery” from Positive Discipline.

The Three R’s of Recovery

When we make mistakes, we have an opportunity to make amends and even learn from the experience. In Jane Nelson’s Positive Discipline work, the “Three R’s of Recovery” offer steps to follow after calming down. The first R stands for recognize , and with this, we verbally acknowledge our mistake and take responsibility for our actions. To do this effectively, we must also be sure to keep any hint of blame out of the picture.

So if we’ve snapped at our children and later cooled off, we might say something like, “I feel really bad about when I snapped at you. You don’t deserve to be treated that way.” Notice that these statements don’t weave in any know-it-all finger-wagging about things they did to push our buttons. Rather than blaming, we take responsibility for the choice we made in the moment.

Next, we can reconcile by apologizing. This can be as simple as just saying, “I’m sorry.” When we’ve really taken responsibility, the reconciliation comes from a genuine and heartfelt place. And children are so forgiving and understanding. Perhaps we could learn a few things from them in this regard!

Finally, the third R is for when we resolve the problem. At this point, we work together to find a respectful solution. After taking responsibility and reconciling, everyone often feels open and willing to collaborate. If the time isn’t right for a brainstorming session, it’s important to set and stick to a later date for problem-solving. When allowed to share ideas in a safe, respectful forum, children often can help come up with incredibly creative solutions.

The Benefits

When we try putting the “Three R’s of Recovery” into practice, our children are often able to be more mindful after their less-than-ideal moments. Our mistakes become less about what we did wrong and more about the kind of people we want to be.

Because mistakes are an opportunity to learn and grow, our relationships with our children often grow stronger as we practice recognizing, reconciling, and resolving together. Mutual respect increases, and trust in each other becomes stronger.

The Positive Discipline approach dovetails nicely with Montessori principles and practice. We’d love for you to visit our school to learn more. Contact us to schedule a tour!

Montessori and Real-World Learning: The Value of Micro-Economies in Adolescent Programs

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 11:00:06 GMT

Our adolescents are on the road to adulthood. Physically and psychically, they are no longer children. However, they are not yet adults. They are in between. As a result, adolescents are deeply interested in what adulthood means and strongly desire to figure out their part in society.

One thing everyone knows about adulthood is that adults work and (mostly) pay their bills. Of course, this is not all that adults do. We have roles to play in society. We have passions. We have tasks. We have hobbies. All of that contributes to the roles we play in an economic system. Although money is involved, economics is ultimately about our web of interdependence. Every one of us depends upon the work of others.

To try to understand their future roles, adolescents observe adults and are curious about how to make their way as adults do. Although our adolescents may not outwardly show this interest, they are watching us. They want to be brought into side-by-side work and are keenly interested in gaining economic independence.

What is Economics (from a Montessori perspective)?

Economics is how people interact with value, and in particular the production, distribution, and consumption of services and goods. Economic independence allows individuals to make some contribution of value to society. By producing something useful and exchanging it for something else, we are drawn together in a web of connection.

In Montessori adolescent programs, we provide adolescents with opportunities to grow food, build useful items, or share services of their choosing. They then experience someone purchasing what they have produced, allowing them to buy other goods and services with the money they have earned. Through experiences of production and exchange, adolescents get to practice living humanity’s interdependence. They begin to develop an economic personality and a sense of self-worth and dignity.

Micro-Economies as a Form of Production and Exchange

To provide real-life learning on adolescents’ road to independence, Montessori students get to develop and run micro-economies, which are small-scale businesses within the school community. These micro-economies help adolescents learn practical skills (like budgeting, planning, customer service, and teamwork), foster creativity and problem-solving, and encourage responsibility and accountability.

Micro-economies are a way for adolescents to practice production and exchange through activities like running a small farm and selling produce, creating seasonal crafts or baking goods to sell, or providing child care for school events. The work of adolescents can be seen as a microcosm of society because the production and exchange activities they undertake help illustrate the necessity of a division of labor.

Money and Morality

As a community, adolescents create rules around their micro-economies. Because adolescents have a sensitivity for justice, they are very interested in exploring money and its morality. As a result, they often grapple with questions like:

What is a fair price to charge?

Should we include our labor when pricing?

How can we do this ethically?

How should we treat our customers? Our suppliers?

How do we want to use our money to express our beliefs and values?

In figuring out the role money plays in their micro-economies, adolescents also practice bookkeeping, how to make projections, and when to invest money in community efforts. They can explore what percentage to keep to invest in their own economy and how much they can afford to give to others.

Developing Micro-Economies

As adolescents develop their small businesses, they must also explore the scale of their production and exchange. In doing so, we help them consider if the work is immediate, proportionate, and appropriate.

For example, a micro-economy should respond to the needs of the group and the place. If students return to school in the fall and the fields are full of food, they must figure out how to deal with the abundance of the harvest. The work also needs to fit the group of students' size and ability while also being grounded in the community rather than being manufactured or artificial.

Thus, adolescents need to consider what goods and services their community needs and whether they can meet them. For example, adolescents can determine if families can more easily attend school events if child care is provided, if coffee service would be a hit during morning drop-off, or if a farm stand or marketplace could offer goods that help families and their busy lives.

Long-Term Benefits

By offering opportunities for adolescents to participate in all the aspects of the production and exchange cycle–from creation to sale–each individual can find a multitude of ways to engage and learn new skills, apply interests, and contribute to the economic well-being of their community.

In addition, through meaningful production and exchange, adolescents build empathy and a service-oriented mindset. The experience of collaboratively creating and implementing micro-economies fosters a sense of purpose and belonging. Ultimately, this work prepares our young people to become active, contributing members of their communities.

By supporting these activities in a morally grounded way, we help our adolescents experience valorization. They realize they have something to offer and are initiated into an economic system that unites people. At the age when adolescents are starting their journey to adulthood, what could be more fundamental?

Really, though, it’s most powerful to see how Montessori offers real-world learning! We invite you to schedule a tour to learn more about how Montessori prepares our young people for a positive future.

Why do Montessori Classrooms Have Long, Uninterrupted Work Periods?

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 11:00:05 GMT

The Montessori method of education was born from Dr. Montessori's scientific observations as she explored how to support children’s optimum development. In her studies, Dr. Montessori found that children need a block of uninterrupted time to go through cycles of focus and consolidation. Children two and a half and older need at least three hours to move through rhythms of focus. Often, the most growth and meaningful work happens toward the end of a three-hour block of time.

The Flow State

We can think about this in terms of the current-day understanding of what it means to get into a flow state. Sometimes, people describe a flow state as “being in the zone.” It’s when we are so immersed in and focused on what we are doing that a sense of time and our surroundings disappears.

This concept of “flow” was introduced in the 1970s by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a psychologist whose studies of happiness and creativity led to his articulation of this highly focused mental state conducive to creativity and productivity. When Csikszentmihalyi’s grandchildren started going to a Montessori school, he was delighted to see how Montessori learning environments allowed young children to achieve this state of flow.

Long Uninterrupted Periods of Time

In order to get into their state of flow, children need about a three-hour block of uninterrupted time. Therefore, we have designed school and classroom schedules so that children can benefit from an interrupted morning work cycle.

Part of the morning routine involves children having enough time to greet their peers and go through their transition process without being rushed as they enter the classroom environment. When children are ready and in the classroom, the teachers (also known as guides) can focus on giving lesson presentations and supporting children as they start their day.

During the work cycle, children are engaged in a variety of activities–some they choose, some the adult guides them toward, and some individual or small group lessons. This opportunity to make choices of activities that have personal meaning and engagement provides several cognitive, emotional, and social benefits.

Benefits of the Work Cycle

When children can focus without interruption or externally driven transitions to another activity, they experience deep concentration. With all of the competing distractions in our world, this extended time to settle into their tasks and explore without pressure allows children to develop the “mental muscles” to sustain their focus.

Neuroscience shows that deep focus activates the prefrontal cortex, the brain area responsible for executive functions like planning, decision-making, and problem-solving. When frequent interruptions happen, the prefrontal cortex can’t engage fully, leading to fragmented thinking. Basically, when interruptions occur, the brain must reset and reorient itself, which can significantly impair learning and problem-solving. Plus, we know it takes time to transition into a focused state mentally, and shorter periods don’t allow this natural process to unfold.

Deep focus enhances memory retention, comprehension, and problem-solving skills. When children aren’t stressed by racing against a clock or knowing they will be pulled out of an engaging activity, they develop a more relaxed and open mindset. This mindset helps children retain their learning, approach challenges confidently, and solve problems more effectively. Children who concentrate deeply are also more likely to feel a sense of calm and satisfaction, which helps them manage their emotions more effectively.

In summary, Montessori’s uninterrupted work periods allow children to fully utilize their cognitive resources, making the learning process more efficient and satisfying.

Work Periods in Action

In her book, The Absorbent Mind, Dr. Montessori wrote about the profound benefits of deep concentration. She also observed that when children are allowed to work without interruption, they often become calmer, more focused, and more confident.

The list of benefits goes on and on! From promoting responsibility and time management to strengthening intrinsic motivation and curiosity, long, uninterrupted work periods have broad implications for children’s success as lifelong learners.

The teacher also plays a vital role in observing and supporting children during these work cycles so that children can be guided into healthy challenges, new learning, and necessary practice. Children learn that with the freedoms of this uninterrupted time, there are also clear boundaries and expectations. Thanks to the calm, respectful atmosphere of Montessori learning communities, work periods tend to have an ordered, busy hum.

Are you curious about the multifaceted benefits of long, uninterrupted work periods? We would love to have you visit and see them in action. Reach out today to schedule a time to observe.

Montessori Explained: Handwashing as a Learning Activity

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 11:00:01 GMT

Why do Montessori classrooms have a hand washing basin and pitcher when children can just access the sink? Isn’t this an antiquated experience?

To answer these questions, it helps to step back and explore why young children are drawn to an elaborate hand-washing process, the benefits of breaking down a series of steps, and what children are really accomplishing through the experience.

Practical life exercises provide the foundation for Montessori early childhood programs. These practical life experiences are foundational and significant for young children’s development. Yet they often don’t receive the appreciation they deserve, especially with the many academic benefits of the Montessori sensorial, math, and language materials.

To understand the value of practical life activities, we must understand the nature of young children, which Dr. Montessori did over 100 years ago.

Why Practical Life?

The exercises of practical life began to serve a practical need. Dr. Montessori had responsibility for children who were being destructive in a building in the slums of Rome. The proprietors needed to take care of the building, yet the children were unkept and out of control.

As a doctor, Dr. Montessori knew the importance of hygiene in preventing illness. So, one of the first things she did was provide water basins and cakes of soap. Then, Dr. Montessori showed the children how to wash their hands and faces.

What happened was unexpected. Once the children washed their hands and faces, they didn’t stop. They kept washing long after their hands were clean.

Dr. Montessori said the children repeated the activity as if driven by an imperceptible force. Instead of stopping them, like adults are apt to do, Dr. Montessori watched. She wanted to see what would happen. With her curiosity, patience, and powers of scientific observation, Dr. Montessori observed a need that went way beyond washing hands. From these practical beginnings came a very significant discovery for Dr. Montessori.

A Deeper Purpose

Dr. Montessori discovered the fundamental difference between work as the adult experiences it and work as the child experiences it. While work for the adult brings on fatigue, work for the young child is energizing. This is because children under age six are in a period of self-construction. They are developing their intelligence, memory, language, will, and movement.

Young children are motivated to interact with their environment to develop these essential aspects of themselves. Their goal is self-construction! Adults often don’t recognize this vital urge young children have to work. So typically, adults stop children from doing something because the action seems too tiring, too complicated, too messy, or because it will be more efficient and faster for adults to do it themselves.

But something deep within is propelling young children to this kind of activity. So, in our prepared environments, we offer motives of activity that will match children’s developmental needs. One of these essential experiences is hand washing.

The Benefits of Hand Washing as an Activity

In addition to the typical handwashing at a sink, Montessori toddler and primary classrooms also include a hand washing station with an apron, a basin and pitcher, soap, hand and drying towels, a bucket, and sometimes even a nail brush or hand lotion when appropriate.

We break down each step of washing hands: wetting our hands, washing with soap, rinsing, drying our hands, cleaning the wash area, drying the area, and restocking any necessary supplies.

In the process of filling a pitcher with the appropriate amount of water, pouring the water into a basin, and emptying the basin into a bucket to take back to the sink, children practice crucial gross motor skills that help them with equilibrium and crossing their midline.

As they learn how to get the fronts and back of each hand wet and lather each finger, their palms, the backs of their hands, and their wrists, they refine their visual motor coordination and fine motor skills.

The hand-washing exercise also helps children develop a sense of order through a logical sequence of activities. Practicing this sequencing lays the foundation for children’s future ability to handle sequences that aren’t as logical, especially as they move into work with mathematical and language materials.

A Love for the Process

Young children love this care of self activity, which involves being able to access and use water in a purposeful way. They can often be found repeating the process over and over. Children can also become very focused on the drying process and show remarkable attention to detail as they take care to wipe up any drips or spills.

As children master these steps, we introduce additional challenges, like using a nailbrush to clean nails or applying lotion when their hands are clean and dry.

The process is lovely to observe, and we invite you to schedule a visit to see how hand washing helps children with the vital process of self-construction!

Supporting Children's Social Lives

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 11:00:01 GMT

We’ve all experienced it. Those days when our children come home feeling the sting of a recess exclusion, a series of slights from a friend, or some other social discontent. They unload their hurt onto us, and we feel heavy with the weight of their pain.

Childhood is a time of profound social development. Our children are navigating their social lives, and learning how to handle social struggles is a process that can ultimately build resilience, empathy, and problem-solving skills. Social challenges are a normal and essential part of childhood development. But that doesn’t make the process any easier (especially for us as parents!).

Letting the Process Unfold

When our children come to us and unload their latest story of social exclusion, teasing, or friendship drama, it is important to make sure they feel heard. This means our job is to reflect back what we hear in an empathetic way, while also acknowledging any hurt or complex feelings. In practice, this may sound something like, “Wow, it sounds like you were feeling really hurt when your friend stormed away from you during the game at recess.” Our children need to know that they can vent and that we will listen.

Avoid Getting Too Involved

We are hard-wired to want to shield our children from pain. As a result, instead of just listening and acknowledging, we can tend to hold onto our children’s hurt feelings and may even feel compelled to intervene.

Unfortunately, our intention to alleviate the pain can often have unintended consequences. Sometimes, our intervention may be that we regularly check in with our children about the social dynamic. For example, the next day asking, “How did it go with your friend during the game at recess today?” We don’t realize that our children have often moved on from the previous day’s hurt. Childhood friendships and social interactions ebb and flow multiple times a day.

But when we keep harking back to hurt, we inadvertently do what psychologist Michael Thompson calls “interviewing for pain.” In doing so, we refocus our children’s experience on one incident they have likely mostly forgotten. Each day, when we ask again about that friendship or social interaction, our children either realize that this topic really gets our attention and/or begin to think of themselves as victims.

Support Problem Solving

Instead of “interviewing for pain,” we can ask questions that support our children’s problem-solving skills. So, after acknowledging the hurt feelings when our children first share them, we can plant some problem-solving seeds, “I wonder how you are going to handle a situation like this in the future.” Or, if we are really concerned about our child’s emotional or physical safety, we can check in about what they need, “This seems like a serious situation. Do you feel like this is something that needs to be communicated to your teacher? How can I support you in getting some help?”

Non-interference doesn’t mean neglect or ignoring something serious. Instead, we are focusing on encouraging our children to talk about their feelings without solving the problem for them, offering perspective or guidance only when asked, and observing from a distance unless safety is at risk.

If we recognize red flags (such as ongoing bullying or harmful behaviors), we can step in thoughtfully by collaborating with our children to find solutions, which may include consulting with teachers or counselors if necessary. Ideally, this is done with our children’s awareness so they aren’t blindsided by others knowing what they shared with us, especially if they thought they were sharing it in confidence.

A Developmental Necessity

Ultimately, our children learn to navigate the complexities of human relationships through their own experiences. The ups and downs of social interactions are opportunities for growth in emotional resilience, conflict resolution skills, understanding social boundaries, empathy, problem-solving, and independence and confidence.

Think about the many benefits. Social setbacks, such as disagreements or feelings of exclusion, help children cope with disappointment and bounce back. Arguments and misunderstandings teach children how to resolve conflicts constructively. Through trial and error, our children learn to negotiate, apologize, and compromise—skills essential for healthy relationships throughout life. They learn about boundaries and how we all impact each other in different ways, leading to insights into different perspectives and feelings.

Social challenges push children to think creatively about how to navigate tricky situations. Each successful navigation of a social challenge reinforces our children’s belief in their ability to handle similar situations in the future. This builds self-esteem and independence and helps our children realize they don’t always need an adult to solve their problems.

By stepping back and allowing children to experience and work through these situations on their own, we give our children the space to develop essential life skills. The key is to provide a supportive environment where children feel safe to share their feelings and seek advice.

A Foundation for the Future

Rest assured, our children have an amazing ability to learn and grow from social experiences. By not interfering in our children’s social lives, we show a tremendous act of love that empowers them to build the skills they’ll need for lifelong social success.

Remember, childhood social interactions lay the foundation for future relationships in school, work, and personal life. Navigating these early challenges helps children develop teamwork, compromise, and emotional intelligence skills that will benefit them throughout their lives. Our children need us to let the process unfold, avoid getting involved, and support their problem-solving. In doing so, we are sending our children an important message that we believe in them and their ability to handle challenges.

Interested in learning more? Schedule a visit to see how our classrooms support healthy social learning.

Our Montessori Dictionary

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 11:00:04 GMT

We recognize that Montessori education can have some lingo that might need a little explanation. So in this Montessori Dictionary post, we’re going to focus on a few terms (some familiar, some perhaps not so familiar) that apply to both the early childhood years and beyond.

When possible, we’ve included some quotes from Dr. Maria Montessori and we encourage you to take a look at her work. Dr. Montessori was a woman well before her time and her books, such as From Childhood to Adolescence and To Educate the Human Potential, can be a source of insight and inspiration!

Grace and Courtesy

Grace and courtesy is an essential aspect of Montessori environments and supports children as they develop social relationships. Grace is how we move through the space around us, and courtesy is how we treat each other.

In the Montessori primary classroom, grace and courtesy is considered one of the areas of practical life. For example, adults give lessons on how to interrupt, how to accept an offering, how to offer help, or how to introduce oneself. These lessons are offered in small groups and the technique used is role-playing. Little social scenarios are acted out and provide a model for behavior that is situational. Like all other learning activities, grace and courtesy lessons are practiced and repeated. They provide a respectful way of learning expectations and aiding social skills before they are needed.

Grace and courtesy is never offered as a form of punishment or correction. We make sure children don’t experience embarrassment by being corrected by adults on the spot, as this makes children feel disrespected and not safe. Dr. Montessori reminds us of this in The Secret of Childhood: “I have come to appreciate the fact that children have a deep sense of personal dignity. Adults, as a rule, have no concept of how easily they are wounded and oppressed.” In time, if we offer these grace and courtesy lessons, and give children a safe place to practice, children will eventually perform these skills independently.

Human Tendencies

Human tendencies are unconscious, universal drives that support our adaptation to our particular time and place. All humans are born with innate needs and drives and are wired to adapt to their environment. The human tendencies – to orient, explore, order, abstract, imagine, calculate, work, be exact and repeat, perfect oneself, and communicate and associate with others – help aid this adaptation.

Dr. Montessori alluded to human tendencies when she wrote about the inner drive she observed in children and how this drive helps individuals construct themselves to develop into maturity: “Their behavior led us to become aware of a fundamental truth, namely that the child works for his own inner development and not to reach an exterior aim and that when he has done this work he has not really developed a special ability but he has developed something in himself.”

Prepared Environment

The Montessori environment is carefully prepared so that children can satisfy their human tendencies and thus develop to their fullest potential. The prepared environment takes into consideration what children need at their particular stage of growth, and as individuals on their own trajectory of development. The prepared environment consists of the physical and psychic aspects of the environment, of which the adult is a key part.

Through interactions in a prepared environment, children can construct who they are as human beings. As they go through this process of self-construction in their environment, children learn, grow, adapt, and create. The prepared environment is part of the triad of the child, the environment, and the adult, all of which are interconnected components.

Sensitive Periods/Sensitivities

Dr. Montessori was first and foremost a scientist and she was interested in what was happening prior to observable signs of human development. She was curious about what was going on in the mind before the skill manifested itself. For example, she wanted to know what was happening during the many months prior to children speaking their first word.

Without the high-tech tools that neuropsychologists and psychologists now have to measure brain activity, Dr. Montessori had to rely upon observation. She watched children, took notes, and made charts about what they did. As a result, she discovered that a particular object or aspect of the environment would have an irresistible draw for children. This attraction would last for some time. Children would keep going back to the same activity or element of the environment and would be continually drawn to it. Then the day would come when it held no more interest and something new would be attractive.

Dr. Montessori observed this phenomenon over and over again, which led her to believe that there must be something innate in children that was driving this interest. Building upon the work of biologists, Dr. Montessori adopted the term, sensitive period, to describe transitory periods of psychic development. Beyond the Montessori world, sensitive periods are now referred to as critical periods or windows of opportunity.

What does a school look like that focuses first on grace and courtesy, human tendencies, a prepared environment, and sensitive periods? Schedule a tour to see for yourself!

What Do We Do About Discipline?

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:00:03 GMT

We often get asked the question, “How do you handle discipline issues?” We love this question because in Montessori we think about discipline from a different lens.

We start by being curious because misbehavior is a form of communication. Children want to do well and do the right thing. So what are they trying to tell us when they misbehave?

Unmet Physical Needs

Children often misbehave due to unmet needs. At a very basic, physical level, this might be due to being hungry, tired, or overstimulated. So we look at children’s environment and what could change to better support those needs. Perhaps the problem is due to missing their sleep window and being overtired? Or maybe there’s a need for a more protein-packed breakfast so as to not fall apart mid-morning. It might be that a room full of people is causing too much sensory input and a little time in a quieter space or fresh air is just what’s needed.

Unmet Emotional Needs

Other times children might have unmet emotional needs. Dr. Jane Nelson provides an excellent overview of unmet needs in her Positive Discipline work. Positive Discipline aligns well with Montessori because both are based in teaching children respect, responsibility, and problem-solving skills.

In Positive Discipline, Dr. Nelson outlines unmet emotional needs and categorizes these as four mistaken goals. The essence of Positive Discipline is that children develop behaviors in response to feeling disconnected or powerless in certain situations, so they unconsciously use four strategies to try to get their needs met. Unfortunately, these strategies tend to backfire because the behavior isn’t effective! So our goal is to support children in learning new ways to meet their needs.

Mistaken Goal #1: Attention

The first mistaken goal is attention. We see this when children show behaviors like whining, interrupting, or causing disruptions of some sort. They are seeking attention but can’t yet distinguish between positive attention and negative attention. So when adults respond with annoyance, irritation, or even by giving in, we are inadvertently reinforcing the attention-seeking behavior and children’s underlying belief that they only belong when they have our attention (even if our attention is based on frustration!).

A way to help children meet this need is to offer positive attention, encouragement, and connection at times when they aren’t showing misbehavior. Another proactive approach is to find engaging and meaningful tasks for children to do, which helps provide them with a sense of belonging and connection.

Mistaken Goal #2: Power

When we, as adults, feel angry or challenged in response to children’s behavior, that’s usually a sign that the mistaken goal is one of power-seeking. This kind of behavior can quickly escalate into power struggles, defiance, or even other ways to exert control such as through tantrums or arguing. When children have an unmet goal of power, they have an underlying belief that they can belong only when they are in control or when they can prove that no one can boss them around.

We can support children who have this unmet need by practicing collaborative problem-solving during times when things are already going well. In the moment of challenge, we can avoid power struggles by offering limited choices in a firm but kind way.

Mistaken Goal #3: Revenge

One of the more confusing forms of misbehavior is when children do things that seem intended to hurt others, such as hitting, name-calling, and other destructive actions. When acting this way children are demonstrating that they don’t feel loved so they will hurt others as they feel hurt. What’s tricky is that this behavior often leads to others feeling hurt and wanting to either distance themselves or retaliate.

In order to address this mistaken goal, we need to focus on repairing the relationship and over time addressing the underlying hurt. Empathy and restorative practices help in the process of healing emotional wounds. This mistaken goal requires us to get genuinely curious without any form of accusation or disapproval.

Mistaken Goal #4: Assumed Inadequacy

When children give up easily, withdraw, avoid challenges, or refuse to try, they may be operating under the belief that they belong only by convincing others not to expect anything from them. Our reactions may include feeling helpless, giving up, or even taking over tasks our children were expected to do.

An alternative approach is to encourage small steps toward success and to focus on effort over outcomes. Over time, by breaking up tasks into smaller, manageable parts, and providing side-by-side support without taking over and doing the task for them, we can help children develop more confidence and belief in their abilities.

Shifting our Thinking

So when thinking about misbehavior, we shift our approach to first consider what physical and emotional needs children are trying to communicate. Then we focus on long-term solutions while practicing kindness and firmness. Consistent encouragement, respectful communication, and proactive planning help us address what might typically be seen as “discipline issues” so we can guide children toward healthier behaviors. Part of this includes helping children begin to understand their own needs, learn how to communicate respectfully and establish healthy habits and boundaries.

Do you want to learn more about how school can nurture children’s emotional well-being and their sense of belonging? Schedule a tour to see how we create environments of mutual respect and cooperation!

A Sprinkling of Holiday Ideas

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:00:03 GMT

We have seen how children feel more grounded and cooperative when they have a role to play. Thus, whenever possible, it’s helpful to find little (and sometimes big!) ways for children to help with holiday preparations. Children’s active participation helps them develop important life skills and also helps them better adapt to changes in holiday rhythms and routines.

We wanted to share a few ideas on incorporating Montessori principles into holiday celebrations and time with family this holiday season. Above all, we advocate for keeping the holiday season calm and joyful! So, we offer this sprinkling of options during a time when we have a lot going on in our lives and with our families. If even one can help sweeten your time together, fabulous!

Children’s participation can take a variety of forms. Choosing meaningful activities that don’t cause more stress and strain is important. Here are a few of our favorites!

Holiday Decorating

If your family enjoys decorating, consider creating a child-sized decoration station, perhaps with a small tree or table at your child’s height. They can practice hanging ornaments, placing candles, arranging decorations, and generally having a hand in creating their own festive space. Of course, if it feels right, they can also add to the general household decorations!

Gift Wrapping

When preparing gifts for family and friends, consider setting up a simple wrapping station with materials appropriate to your child’s age and abilities. They can help tape, cut paper, add ribbon, decorate tags, or even add colorful scribbles to butcher or white paper. Child-decorated wrapping paper tends to be a family favorite! Plus, the skills involved with wrapping encourage fine motor development! Older children might appreciate step-by-step instructions on measuring the wrapping paper, folding it around a gift, and taping it securely. The youngest ones might appreciate a simple process of placing items into fabric gift bags and tightening the drawstrings.

Baking and Cooking

Allowing children to participate in creating, baking, and decorating holiday treats often provides a huge sense of pride and accomplishment. There are all sorts of simple, manageable steps in this process, from pouring remeasured ingredients into a bowl, to kneading dough, to using cookie cutters, to adding icing or sprinkles. It’s nice to have child-sized tools like small spatulas, whisks, and rolling pins whenever possible.

Setting the Holiday Table

Children can also help create or select a centerpiece for the table. If possible, they can even use natural or found items. A little collecting walk may uncover natural beauties, like pine branches or pinecones. Table-setting is a big part of the Montessori experience, so placing utensils, napkins, and dishes is a natural way to involve children in getting ready for guests or a meal! Children like learning the correct placement of each item, and table setting is a great opportunity to reinforce counting and one-to-one correspondence.

We recommend modeling for younger children how to carry one item at a time, for example, making multiple trips to get one fork and then the next. Once children learn this process, they can be quite independent and thus can stay focused and busy as they go back and forth. If time is of the essence, an adult can bring a tray of forks to the table for children to place at each setting. Older children prefer to find more efficient ways to manage the process!

Making Handmade Gifts or Donation Decisions

We can help our children learn about the importance of giving and gratitude by involving them in decisions about charitable giving or donations. They can help pick out toys or clothes or assist in preparing gift baskets for families in need. We can also support our children in making handmade gifts, which can foster their creativity and thoughtfulness. Depending upon the intricacy of the process, handmade gifts can range from simple crafts like beaded jewelry or friendship bracelets to hand-drawn cards or framed artwork to homemade ornaments or decorations created from clay or salt dough. Ultimately, the goal is to encourage generosity and thoughtfulness while giving children a sense of accomplishment in gift-giving.

Simple, Predictable, and Calm

Young children are especially sensitive to routines and changes to routines, so whatever you choose to do, remember to manage holiday overwhelm by keeping activities simple, maintaining predictable routines, and cultivating a calm space.

By involving children in holiday preparations, we can create meaningful memories and promote independence, responsibility, and creativity. Plus, children appreciate hands-on experiences and real-world activities.

Schedule a tour if you’d like to learn more about how we cultivate these skills at our school!

Materials Spotlight: The Wooden Hierarchical Material

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 11:00:04 GMT

The Wooden Hierarchical Material takes up a great deal of space in our primary and elementary classrooms, and for good reason! This key math material helps children understand the hierarchy of numbers and physically represents units through millions.

The Concrete Material

The Wooden Hierarchical Material comprises cubes, prisms, and squares that vary in size and color according to the different place values they represent. Units are green. Tens are blue. Hundreds are red. This pattern continues throughout the families or categories, so unit thousands are also green, ten thousands are blue, hundred thousands are red, and then unit millions are green. Units are represented as cubes, tens as prisms (or a line of ten units), and hundreds as squares (constructed from ten tens side-by-side). Due to this repeated pattern that is reinforced through shape and color-coding, children can visualize the structure of our decimal system.

The Presentation to Children

When we present the Wooden Hierarchical Material, we first connect with other math materials children have used, like the golden beads and the stamp game. In this way, children can build upon their prior knowledge of place value and how 10 of one category are exchanged for one of the next category (e.g. ten units become one ten).

The material is constructed to reinforce the relationship between base-ten numbers in concrete form. As we place the blue ten bar to the left of the small green unit, we remind children how when ten units get together, they make a ten. We also point to the little green marks on the bar and use the unit to count that ten of the units make up the ten bar. Young children love double-checking this correspondence!

We repeat this process to show how ten of the blue ten bars correspond to the ten sections on the red hundred square. Then how when 10 hundreds get together, they make a thousand. When we place the green thousand cube to the left of the red square, we leave some extra space between them because we are starting a new family (or category). This green thousand cube is units of thousands, and we can continue the process with tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands. Children love getting to the green unit of the millions cube and often want to try to imagine or represent ten million, hundred million, and beyond!

The Many Benefits

Because children can physically explore how ten of the thousand cubes make a line that represents 10,000, just like ten of the unit cubes make a line that represents a 10, they develop a strong understanding of the hierarchical value of numbers and their position in the decimal system. Similarly, they can experience how ten 10,000s make up a 100,000, and ten 100,000s make a million! This physical manipulation helps them better grasp abstract mathematical concepts, such as the process of exchanging, exponential growth, and the concept of powers of ten.

As children develop their number sense, the Wooden Hierarchical Material strengthens their understanding of large numbers. The repetitive and visual nature of the material helps solidify children’s mental image of numbers and place values, making future math concepts easier to grasp.

Children’s Continued Work

When children are first introduced to the Wooden Hierarchical Material, we often play games, asking volunteers to show particular items (e.g., “Can someone show me the 10,000?"). In this way, we activate children’s reasoning minds and draw their attention to connections within the material. Once we ensure that the quantities and names are clear, children often like to explore the material further by considering what comes next after one million, making a connection to geometry (point, line, plane/square), measuring, and even labeling the material with the numeric symbols and written names for the different quantities. Children love to quiz each other as they place the cards showing “one million” or “1,000,000” on the correct item.

Montessori in Practice

This work is great fun for our oldest primary children and youngest elementary students. They love to lay out the materials, explore the relationships, and label the quantities with numeral cards. Children develop an intrinsic love for mathematics in this self-directed learning and discovery process.

The Wooden Hierarchical Material is one of many ways Montessori education helps children develop a deep, intuitive understanding of numbers, place value, and mathematical relationships.

Visit our school to learn more about how Montessori supports strong math skills!

Our Montessori Bookshelf: Life on Earth

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 11:00:01 GMT

As children approach their elementary years, they can truly access the power of their imagination. As a result, they begin to ask big questions and want to explore through space and time. One way to support this big thinking is to provide resources they can explore. We love to find books that children lose themselves in, and that support deep learning.

We’ve found the following books particularly engaging, especially as children begin to grasp the vastness of time, the interdependency of all living things, and how human life is a continuation of much that has come before. For those children who have spent time working with the Timeline of Life, these books will reinforce concepts while offering new doors to open!

Continental Drift: The Evolution of our World from the Origins of Life to the Far Future

By Martin Ubce

The dance of the continents throughout the earth’s history provides a structural overview of this incredible resource. The mix of types of illustrations, including images from the Natural History Museum in London, support the engaging text. This is a very large book, and rightly so! While Continental Drift can be a resource for students’ research, it is also just a delight to read due to the author’s ability to make complex topics quite accessible.`

Evolution: The Story of Life

By Douglas Palmer, Illustrated by Peter Barrett

Although the beginning of the book has a great deal of helpful introductory and background information, children will most appreciate the one hundred illustrated site reconstructions based on fossil data. These two-page spreads provide a visual of what life may have looked like from a strelley pool 3460 million years ago in what is now considered Western Australia to a late Carboniferous ice age 299 million years ago in what is now Karoo Basin in South Africa to the big-game hunters of Folsom, New Mexico 10,500 years ago. With a color-coded timeline across the top of each of the 100 illustrations and specifics about each scene detailed below, children pour through this resource, making it well worth its hefty weight!

Forgotten Beasts: Amazing Creatures that Once Roamed the Earth

By Matt Sewell

With 45 lushly illustrated forgotten creatures and accessible paragraphs about each, this is a wonderful resource for children wanting to start prehistoric life research or just peruse particular pages. Each life form listed also has a key for their size, weight, diet, and the period they lived. Sewell’s stated intention is to bring these often lesser-known beasts of our past into more bright and colorful detail as paleontologists theorize they were probably not “muddy brown or boring green” and he does so quite well!

In the Past: From Trilobites to Dinosaurs to Mammoths in More Than 500 Million Years

By David Elliott, Illustrated by Matthew Trueman

A collection of short poems about creatures from the Cambrian Period (544-505 million years ago) to the Quaternary Period (1.8 million years ago to the present), this sweet book can inspire young people to think about prehistoric life from a new perspective. With just the right touch of humor and science, the poems provide illuminating information and fresh perspective, while the illustrations fill the page and expand the reader’s senses. Plus, the notes at the end of the book provide a launching point for children who want to learn more!

Life: The First Four Billion Years: The Story of Life from the Big Bang to the Evolution of Humans

By Martin Jenkins, Illustrated by Graham Baker-Smith

This incredibly large book is full of information and is the perfect resource for young people who have big questions about life on Earth. The illustrations balance a deep sense of mystery with scientific details, and this book embodies the magnitude of the story of our planet. It is a must-have for those interested in exploring everything from the primeval seas to the various giants who rose and fell as the dominant rulers of the land and air.

Life on Earth: The Story of Evolution

By Steve Jenkins

This uncomplicated yet scientific story provides stunning watercolor cut-paper collage illustrations. It can be shared as a picture book with a story-style narrative explaining the evolution of what we know about life on Earth. Those wanting more details can rely upon the smaller caption-style text that follows a more chronological timeline and offers more information and examples that support the overarching narrative. This is an excellent introduction to broad concepts!

Prehistoric Actual Size

By Steven Jenkins

For young people looking for a simpler source of prehistoric information, this picture book relies more on images with just the right amount of accompanying text to capture our imagination. The life-sized illustrations help young readers visualize the Baryonyx claw or the spiny shark's size. Super fun for any age!

The Story of Life: Evolution is Amazing!

By Anne Rooney, Illustrations by Nat Hughes

Chock full of content, this book is one children will want to spend some time exploring. Organized chronologically, the sections focus on scientific concepts and major themes as life evolved. To reinforce critical ideas, circles of text hone in on particular examples, such as “adaptation in action.” The captivating and playful, yet thoroughly scientific, illustrations fill each page and bring rich information to life. This book can serve as a reference for children to return to again and again.

We hope these resources serve not only as a subject of study but also a source of wonder and inspiration. As children immerse themselves in the rich tapestry of life's history, they develop a deep sense of connection to the natural world and a profound respect for all living beings. Here is a printable list of the book titles for you.

We invite you to schedule a tour to see how children embark on a lifelong journey of learning and discovery!

Gratitude: Why We Celebrate the Unsung Heroes

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 11:00:06 GMT

As children move from early childhood into their elementary years, they become very attuned to heroes. In fact, in Montessori we call this “hero worship,” and we consider it an amazing opportunity!

Our elementary-age children are figuring out their moral compass, which partially sparks this strong attraction toward heroes. Often, we see children become focused on sporting personalities, movie and television stars, singers, and sometimes even teachers! Children may even choose to emulate a classmate or slightly older peer.

Understanding the Self & the Group

As children use their imaginations and look toward heroes, they are really thinking about how to actualize their own potential. Thus, they become very observant of others. They begin to recognize individual strengths and apply them to their own practice society, community, and family. Children invite each other to work based on their strengths and then they feel seen. In this process, children begin to recognize that the strength of the group is their own strength. Hero worship drives all kinds of prosocial development.

Thus part of hero worship is stepping into leadership roles in the community and learning how to lead and how to follow. Our children experience the joy of belonging to the group and being part of something together. In this hero worship, we see the cultivation of cooperation and collaboration.

All Kinds of Heroes

Children of this age are also incredibly open to stories of history's great innovators and heroes. So we introduce a variety of heroes through books, songs, storytelling, and casual observations. Montessori children love to lean into research and want to explore the histories and stories of their heroes.

In this process, we emphasize how heroes are all around us! How can we show gratitude for those who deliver our mail or help us when we’ve gotten hurt?

As our children explore these heroes and fall in and out of admiration and emulation, it’s important to remember that while we can’t control our children’s choice of friends or heroes, we can offer lots of different options. In this process, we make sure to provide exposure to non-typical heroes, including unknown heroes.

In the various stories we tell in our Montessori curriculum, we often emphasize how we will never know who those first humans were who did all sorts of important things like picking up a burning branch after a lightning strike and figuring out how to save and use fire, creating a hole in a small bone and using it as a needle, discovering how to save seeds and plant them, or leaving cave paintings to share a message. As we explore early human history and children discover that there are so many unknown heroes, we always pause to offer some gratitude for those who discovered and created so much.

Elementary children look up to power, strength, and beauty, in whatever form that occurs, and this isn’t always in the form of a human hero. There were the first plants that began to cling to the land and adapt to life out of the water, the Carboniferous amphibians whose fins eventually became legs, tiny cells each with its own job so that the body runs smoothly, and leaves that work like food factories for plants.

Giving Thanks to All Kinds of Heroes

With our children’s tendency toward hero worship and their admiration for heroes of different kinds, we can also help our children understand what they value in a hero. Often our children recognize and respond to stories of people (and non-human entities!) who overcome hardship, endure loss, and sacrifice for others. We also draw their attention to the fact that one does not need to be important or famous to be a hero.

In this season of gratitude, let’s remember to celebrate many different kinds of heroes and offer our thanks for how they have contributed (or continue to contribute) in varied ways. We also thank you and hope you’ll schedule a time to observe our gratitude-filled classrooms in action!

Nurturing the Whole Child: How Montessori Balances Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Growth

Mon, 18 Nov 2024 11:00:02 GMT

One of the gifts of Montessori education is that we can truly focus on the whole child —cognitive, social, emotional, and physical. Our approach is not just about academics but also about nurturing life skills, emotional intelligence, and social relationships.

The Montessori approach to child development revolves around the understanding that children are naturally curious, care deeply about others, and can be intrinsically motivated. When provided with the right environment, children can deepen both their love for learning and their appreciation of and care for the community.

Prioritizing the Prepared Environment

One of the keys to balancing social-emotional learning with cognitive and physical development is prioritizing the impact of a prepared environment. In Montessori, a prepared environment is a place specially designed to appeal to children’s sensitive periods for learning, as well as their core human needs and tendencies. When designing these prepared spaces for children, we work to ensure children feel safe and supported so they can reach their potential. The Montessori-prepared environment is a place where children can feel at home as they develop their inner selves and outer skills.

Our carefully prepared Montessori classrooms are calm and orderly, foster independence and decision-making, and provide varied opportunities for peer interactions in mixed-age classrooms. The result is that children can develop their emotional regulation skills in child-centered spaces.

Opportunities for Conflict Resolution

In addition, we weave in opportunities for conflict resolution. This means we actively model and support children as they learn to communicate their feelings through words. In addition to promoting self-awareness through identifying and naming emotions, we also teach active listening, problem-solving, and techniques for self-regulation (from deep breathing to using calm-down spaces).

Adults serve as mediators and guides rather than arbitrators and judges. Through guided discussions, we help children think reflectively about social interactions, practice respectful communication, facilitate peaceful solutions, and model how to handle conflict. Ultimately, we want to empower children with tools they can use even if an adult isn’t present!

Respect for Others

One key to this is cultivating respect for others’ perspectives and patience for alternative approaches. Because children work together in a variety of ways through their care of the classroom environment and small group projects or lessons, they develop a deep sense of compassion and empathy. Our mixed-age groupings and peer-to-peer learning activities promote collaboration and mentorship. So, in addition to the adults, older children also serve as models of emotional regulation and conflict resolution for younger peers. The result is that Montessori children develop a deep tolerance for and appreciation of difference.

Deep Appreciation for Community

Children thrive when they have a sense of community and belonging. So, we promote inclusivity and respect for diversity within the classroom. The Montessori curriculum includes a range of activities that encourage group cohesion and empathy-building, which leads to trust and respect among our students.

The long-term benefits of Montessori’s focus on social-emotional learning and conflict resolution are that children develop lifelong social skills such as a deep sense of empathy, effective communication with various people, and the ability to cooperate with grace and goodwill.

The Montessori method nurtures social-emotional learning and equips children with essential conflict-resolution skills they can use in their classroom communities and social interactions outside of school.

Do you want to learn more and perhaps even support these practices at home? Schedule a visit today!

Materials Spotlight: Animal Story Cards

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 11:00:03 GMT

Children adore animals! Our elementary students (and even some older primary students) often love to start researching animals. To capitalize upon this interest and use it to build the base for more in-depth research skills, we have a set of materials called the Animal Story Cards. These picture and story cards introduce animals that live in the region. They are comprised of a few folders with pictures and text that get rotated throughout the year.

The collection of cards includes a large picture of the animal in its natural environment, a large text card with general information about the animal, and then a series of smaller images and matching text cards that show and detail information about the animal’s habitat, how it protects itself, its natural diet, how it reproduces, and how it cares for its young.

This material helps children begin to classify and organize their zoological awareness of native animals. We also try to gear the stories to the needs of the animals with which the children may have had first-hand experience so that the activity reinforces their prior knowledge.

Information in the folders draws children’s attention to certain aspects of animals’ lives and the interconnections of animals through various food chains or predator/prey relationships. Each folder focuses on one animal and contains picture cards and text material relevant to that animal’s basic needs.

As we rotate the cards throughout the year to provide exposure to various animals, we also ensure the selected animals have contrasting qualities (e.g., a mammal, a bird, an amphibian, etc.).

In addition to providing a base for future research skills, this material also increases children's awareness and knowledge of animals that live in the surrounding environment, highlights differences among animals, cultivates an appreciation for animals, and provides an interesting reading activity.

When we present this material, we gather a small group of children and place the large picture card in the center of the rug or table. Often, we start with a little story about the animal, and as we tell the story, we introduce the related smaller picture cards as they become relevant.

We only have three or four of these animal stories in the classroom so that the children can use this material as a model for their own research and work. Ultimately, we want children to turn to books in the classroom or the library for further information. Those in the early stages of reading and research often enjoy drawing the animal and a picture of what it eats, how it cares for its young, etc.

So the youngest children can access the text and practice their reading, we sometimes have one-word labels that can work in place of the text cards. Early readers can access the easier text and place the one-word labels underneath the matching pictures.

We encourage children to share the story of the animal we introduced to others in the class, explore the other folders, and try to match the pictures and the different text cards. Sometimes, children get excited about making an animal story set of their own. This activity can result in a great deal of concentrated work!

As children use the Animal Story Cards, they begin to also realize that animals have fundamental needs just like humans do!

We’d love for you to visit the school to see this and the many other ways we cultivate an appreciation for the natural world. Schedule a tour today!

Exploring Montessori Together: Family Events and Learning Opportunities

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 11:00:04 GMT

Many of us didn’t grow up with Montessori. As a result, we often find ourselves drawing upon a great deal of trust. We may intellectually understand how this unique method supports our children and their development. Still, we don’t always have the experiential knowledge to explain how and why it works!

We recognize that life is pretty scheduled, and we also want to provide you with information that can help you navigate others’ questions and queries (as well as your own!). Plus, we know that the more involved you are and the more opportunities you have to be connected to what we do, the more your child will benefit from Montessori’s child-centered approach!

Goals for Family Education Events

We have some goals in mind as we design parent and family education events. We want to deepen your understanding of Montessori philosophy and practice. We want to work together in partnership, and we often hear that families want to better understand how Montessori can be implemented at home. We are excited to help with this, especially knowing that when we are all aligned, we can work together to foster independence, responsibility, and self-discipline in our children.

Supporting Your Child’s Development

Our hope is that as you learn more about what we do and as we learn more about what you do, we can use a shared understanding of Montessori principles to support your child’s development both in and outside of school. Understanding developmental stages through a Montessori lens often leads to children feeling a stronger sense of belonging and connection because they feel understood and supported. This can translate into easier day-to-day interactions, better collaborative problem-solving, a long-term love for learning, and an increase in confidence and independence.

Partnership in the Parenting Journey

We want to help build a strong home-school partnership. Through consistent and varied communication and learning opportunities, we hope to create a collaborative environment and opportunities for meaningful dialogue. Parenting is a tough job, and we want to ensure you know you aren’t alone on this journey! Through different platforms, we aim to address common misconceptions and help you feel good about answering questions that come up at family gatherings and neighborhood events!

We value an engaged community, and we want to support your connections with other Montessori families. Sharing experiences and challenges with like-minded parents helps us all stay afloat during the ebbs and flows of raising children. We want our Montessori community to provide both emotional support and practical advice.

Ultimately, we want you to better understand Montessori so you can be an effective advocate for your child’s education and so you can feel prepared for the transitions your child will experience throughout the different stages of their life.

Upcoming Events

We hope you can join us for the following upcoming events! We value your participation and your partnership!

Materials Spotlight: The Montessori Bells

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 11:00:01 GMT

Music is a form of language. Because our young children effortlessly absorb language, we, of course, provide them with opportunities to express themselves musically! One key material we use for this is the Montessori Bells.

The bells are perfectly tuned, each designed to deliver a distinct, pure tone when gently played with a mallet. Also aesthetically pleasing, the bells invite children into the world of music. This helps children develop a keen ear for pitch and tone, while encouraging an appreciation of musical instruments and expression.

The Montessori Bells

In our primary classrooms, the Montessori Bells are easily accessible on a specially designed wooden stand or table, each bell arranged in order according to its pitch.

There are two sets of 13 bells. One set has black and white stands and is set up in the back to serve as a control and is arranged like a piano keyboard (the white bells represent whole notes, while the black bells serve as the sharps and flats). The other set of bells has stands of natural, varnished wood, so we call them the brown bells. Each brown bell is paired with a white or black bell, and these 13 pairs of bells comprise the chromatic scale beginning at middle C.

The bells sit on boards that also serve as guides. The brown bells rest on a pattern of black and white rectangles corresponding to the keys of a piano.

Playing One or Two Bells

After our youngest children have learned how to care for materials and have had plenty of experience discriminating sounds with our sound cylinders, we show them how to play a single bell. This is a multi-part process: how to carry the bell, use a mallet to gently strike the bell to make a tone, appreciate the sound the bell makes, use a damper to stop the tone, and return the bell to its proper place in the set.

Returning the bell to its proper place prepares children for future work of pairing and grading the bells. So, we take time to model how to check that the tone of the brown bell matches the corresponding white (or black) bell behind it.

Once children learn these steps, they can select any of the brown bells to play. Eventually, we also show children how to choose and play two different brown bells. This experience helps children focus on the fact that the two bells look the same but sound different. Then, upon returning the bells to the set, children also get to work on finding where each brown bells goes (because there are two empty spaces) by matching the tone of the brown bells to the white or black bells in the back.

This may seem like quite an elaborate process for just “playing a bell or two.” However, we carefully break down each step so that even our youngest children can learn how to use this delicate instrument with precision while also beginning to hone in on the slight variations in each bell’s pitch.

Pairing

When we observe children’s success with this initial process, we introduce the challenge of pairing. This experience begins with the adult letting the child know in the lesson that the bells are on their boards in a particular order. We play up the brown bells and down the white bells so the child can hear the gradation and experience the impression of the C scale. Next we model how to remove four brown bells from their boards, mix them, and place them in an open space off to the side.

While showing this process, we reflect aloud how we could match the brown bells to their pairs when we had just two bells. We point out that we can use the same technique to find the matching pairs of the bells we just mixed up and moved to the side.

We start by moving one of the brown bells to a space in front of the first empty white space (always working from left to right). We play the white (control) bell and then the brown bell. If they sound the same, we move the bell up onto the white space on the board. If they sound different, we slide the bell to the right to be in front of the next empty white space and we repeat the process until finding the brown bell’s match and location. When all the brown bells are paired, we again play up the brown bells and down the white bells to check they are in the correct order.

Once we finish modeling, we select the same four bells, mix them to the side of the workspace, and invite the child to pair the bells. We stay long enough to see successful matching of the first bell, then we fade into the background and observe. If the child is successful, we remove the same four and invite the child to do it again. If the first round was successful, we invite the child to remove all the brown bells and pair them!

Grading the Diatonic and Chromatic Scale

After children can pair all eight bells successfully, we introduce grading. This time, children learn how to put all the brown bells in order by paying attention to the degree of difference between each tone. This time, rather than using the white control bells to determine the order of the scale, children mix up and play the brown bells, using their awareness of the change in pitch to compare and reorder the bells. This requires children to have an acute awareness of each tone and how they differ. We start with just the white bells which represent the whole notes, and later introduce mixing in the black bells to make the chromatic scale (with sharps and flats).

Language Material

After children have successfully paired and graded the diatonic scale, we also introduce the “writing and reading” component of the bells. Children learn the symbols and names for the pitches and match the pitches with their notes.

When writing in language, we have thoughts we want to express and we can write them down. Composers have melodies in their heads and they write those melodies by using the notes of the staff.

We use beautiful staff boards with small wooden circles so that children can learn how to place the notes on the staff and eventually even write their own music, similarly to how they write with the moveable alphabet. Like with spoken language, children first explore through writing and then reading melodies.

Musical expression is woven into our primary classrooms. Schedule a tour to hear for yourself!

Taking a Look at Homework

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 11:00:02 GMT

Many of us grew up with some form of homework, so it can feel a little strange when our Montessori kids come home without it. In fact, we may start to wonder what our children are missing by not having homework.

Perhaps some worries have crossed your mind: Don’t my children need additional practice to help improve their retention? Doesn’t homework help reinforce concepts learned in school? Doesn’t homework serve as a tool for teaching responsibility, self-discipline, and time management?

Let’s lean into these questions to explore what happens in Montessori classrooms and whether homework meets children’s developmental needs.

Do our children need additional practice to help improve their retention?

Unlike our youngest ones, who love endless repetition (it can be hard to read that favorite book one more time!), once our children reach the elementary years, they crave variety. Thus, the key is to provide lots of different kinds of opportunities for practice. For example, in Montessori classrooms, we have SO MANY ways for students to practice their multiplication facts: the large bead frame, bead bars, bead chains, multiplication board, checkerboard, and bank game, just to name a few.

We find that children love to practice and challenge themselves. So should we assign practice for them to take home? Author and researcher Alfie Kohn spent years reviewing the available research (as well as interviewing parents, teachers, and students), and he sums up his findings with the following statement: “Homework is all pain and no gain.” In fact, in studying the research, Kohn found that having and doing homework during the elementary years does not improve learning. That being said, in high school there is a small correlation between homework and test scores, although no clarity about whether doing the homework leads to higher test scores.

We’ve also found that when children are engaged and loving their varied practice at school, requiring that they continue the practice at home can actually backfire. For example, when children are made to do academic work at home, we see that they are less likely to engage with similar learning activities at school. That being said, when children are excited about their learning and initiate continuing at home, we encourage and celebrate this extension of their work!

Does homework help reinforce concepts learned in school?

We want children to see themselves as life-long learners. One way we support this is to avoid the dichotomy of home versus school. Learning doesn’t stop or start at the classroom door! Perhaps at school, a child is suddenly passionate about sea turtles. We explore how this learning can extend into the community: visiting a local aquarium for a real-life encounter, finding sea turtle books from the local library, watching a sea turtle documentary, etc. Some of this could happen through going-out trips from school and just as easily could also be something the child’s family embraces to support the learning experience.

Home learning (rather than preassigned homework each night) is meaningful and relevant. Just as an adult might be motivated or excited about a project at work and want to continue some of the process at home at night or over the weekend, we want our students to realize that their learning has no bounds of time or space! This could work in the other direction, too. Maybe a child asks a question at home one night about how stars are formed, which leads to a deep dive at school into types of stars, galaxies, and even chemistry.

This understanding that learning happens throughout all the aspects of our lives is a hallmark of Montessori education. We emphasize deep, hands-on engagement with varied kinds of learning materials. Our curriculum is designed to support an explosion of imagination and curiosity. Children can ask questions, explore, and work through big concepts at their own pace.

Does homework serve as a tool for teaching responsibility, self-discipline, and time management?

Montessori education is grounded in a deep respect for young people. Our unique approach is designed to cultivate responsibility, self-discipline, and time management skills. Montessori classrooms provide children with the freedom to choose their work, but within a structured environment and framework. This freedom is tied together with responsibility and teaches students to make well-informed choices about how they spend their time and what tasks they prioritize. Through one-on-one conferencing and daily adjustments, classroom teachers provide guidance and reflection that empowers students to think about their own learning process, including what parts could use more attention.

Instead of relying on external rewards or punishments, Montessori emphasizes intrinsic motivation. Students engage in activities because they are interested and find satisfaction in completing them, which nurtures self-discipline. Plus, children work at their own pace without direct competition. This allows them to focus deeply on their tasks, developing concentration and persistence, which are core aspects of self-discipline.

Ultimately, there is work to be done and sometimes even deadlines to meet. As we experience in the adult world, if we have procrastinated, lost focus, or just had to tend to other things, the work doesn’t go away, and sometimes we have to bring it home to make sure we get it done. The same applies to Montessori students. Sometimes they will need to bring some work home to meet a deadline or work through a challenge that needs more attention.

Guides may also work with older students to create individual learning plans so that they can more consciously plan their day or week to meet their goals. We scaffold this skill so our young people can learn how to incorporate goal setting, planning, and time management into their lives.

In a supportive way, we integrate choice, autonomy, and responsibility into students’ daily routines. The result? Montessori students feel empowered, take ownership of their learning, and have the gift of devoting afternoons and evenings for rest, family bonding, and exploring personal interests.

Interested in seeing for yourself how all of this works? Schedule a tour today!

Milestones in Montessori

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 11:00:07 GMT

In Montessori education, we look at milestones for babies and toddlers through three key lenses: movement, language, and social/emotional development. Each child progresses at their own pace, so while the sequence of milestones is common, the timing varies. Here’s a brief guide to supporting your child’s unique journey as they grow into remarkable young people.

Movement Milestones

Physically, our infants and toddlers are experiencing rapid and intense changes. They are interacting with the world through movement and their senses. In Montessori we call this the time of the “unconscious absorbent mind” because children are absorbing everything around them with no filter. Through movement, they begin to make sense of their environment, family, and culture. When it comes to movement, we focus on three primary areas: myelination, equilibrium, and hand development.

Myelination

Newborns' movements are initially reflexive, like sucking and grasping, but they become more controlled as the process of myelination takes place, which allows electrical signals to pass more quickly from the brain to the muscles.

To support this development, give your child plenty of freedom to move. Keep them out of restrictive devices like car seats and carriers as much as possible and let them reach, grasp, and struggle a bit on their own. These natural movements are essential for building strong neural connections.

Equilibrium

Gross motor skills help children develop equilibrium or balance. Babies start by lifting their heads, rolling, and eventually sitting upright. Tummy time plays a crucial role in helping them develop strong neck and torso muscles, which are the foundation of movement.

By 12 to 18 months, most children begin walking and carrying objects. Over the next couple of years, they refine their balance and coordination, running, climbing, and jumping with more confidence. Encouraging these movements is key to their physical development.

Hand Development

Fine motor skills also emerge in the first few years. What starts as reflexive hand movements soon evolves into deliberate control. Babies initially use a raking grasp, which eventually becomes a precise pincer grasp around nine months.

From 10 to 18 months, children gain more control over their hands and fingers, learning to point, stack blocks, and scribble. By age three, they can easily use utensils for feeding and can pick up small objects between their thumb and forefinger. Offering your child opportunities to practice these fine motor skills—like playing with blocks or drawing—boosts this essential area of development.

Language Milestones

Just like movement progresses from slithering to creeping to walking, language skills progress from babbling to talking. Movement and language development move in parallel until about six to eight months of age, at which point one may dominate while the other often plateaus for a bit and then takes off a little later.

Language development follows two threads: expressive and receptive language.

Receptive Language

Receptive language is how our children understand the language around them. Our babies love hearing the voices of caregivers and they pay attention to faces. Eventually, around four to six months, they begin to understand specific words, like no, and the meaning behind tones of voice. This is also when they begin to play social games, such as “peak a boo.”

Over the next few months our little ones start to understand simple commands and gestures, which evolves by about 12 months to understanding instructions and going or pointing to familiar objects when named. From 24 to 36 months, toddlers are typically able to follow two- to three-step instructions and understand spatial concepts like “in,” “on,” and “under.”

Expressive Language

Expressive language involves how children communicate with the world. Early expressions come through body language and crying, which later evolve into cooing and babbling. Between four and six months, our babies vocalize pleasure and displeasure, babble with consonant sounds, put vowels together, and even try to repeats sounds they hear. In the six to eight month range, our little ones continue babbling and start to drop unused language sounds for the native language(s) they hear.

From eight to ten months, their babbling incorporates consonant-vowel combinations (e.g. “ba, da, ma”) and differentiated babbling may start to resemble real words. They will also begin to use more gestures such as pointing, waving, and reaching to show their interests, needs, and even things they do not want. From 10 to 12 months, this kind of babbling continues and they may even combine gestures with words.

After 12 months, we begin to see an explosion of expressive language with vocabulary expanding at an impressive rate. They start by using single words, usually nouns, and this may include using one word for several objects. Then between 18 and 24 months, our children are acquiring eight to twelve new words a month, and after about 50 words this increases exponentially. This is also when we hear children use two-word phrases with nouns and verbs.

By the time they’re three, our little ones can use pronouns, ask questions, and string together sentences to communicate their needs and experiences.

Emotional Milestones

Emotional development, the ability to understand and express emotions, is largely shaped by a child’s social relationships. During their first year, babies begin to notice emotions in others and respond to social cues. They may express their own needs and show interest in caregivers. By two or three, children can regulate their emotions better and express a broader range of feelings.

To support emotional growth, it’s important to maintain a calm, consistent environment. Show warmth and affection, encourage the expression of emotions, and teach strategies for managing big feelings like frustration or sadness.

Social Milestones

Social development enables children to form positive, rewarding relationships with others. In their first year, babies are focused on bonding with caregivers. They’re learning how to engage, gain attention, and participate in simple social interactions.

By 12 to 24 months, children start engaging in back-and-forth interactions and begin developing empathy. Parallel play—where they play alongside others but not directly with them—often evolves into cooperative play by age two or three. At this stage, children start sharing, taking turns, and communicating more effectively with peers.

You can nurture social growth by modeling healthy relationships, reading your child’s social cues, and facilitating interactions with other children.

Healthy Development

Our infants and toddlers are going through a dramatic change in terms of a sense of self and their attachments. It’s important to remember that children follow a common sequence in their development, but not always a common timing. We offer these milestones as a reminder for how to remove obstacles to children’s development, while also supporting their own unique path as they grow into amazing young people. You are also welcome to schedule a visit to our school to see how we support our youngest students as they develop in amazing ways!

Facing Frustration & Flipped Lids

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 11:00:03 GMT

You’ve experienced the scene before. All is quiet and calm. The kids are playing outside. Maybe you are even focused on something you’ve wanted to do for a while. And the next thing you know the door slams open and everyone comes in, teeming with frustration.

At first, you may try to piece together the details: a game, something stolen, someone who felt excluded, others defending their territory. Removed from the situation, you can probably see the dynamics at play: someone felt left out and wanted to belong but didn't know how to ask, so they do something that gets them some negative attention.

Feeling Disconnected

Our children don't necessarily use the most constructive ways to let us know what they need. Rather than say, "I feel disconnected, and I need some extra love and attention," they are more likely to hit or throw tantrums or, as they get older, say or do mean things to get us to notice. In our imaginary scene, a child who wanted to belong decided to take something to get the other children to pay attention.

In situations like this, other kids typically don’t respond well. They get defensive and usually respond with a fair amount of their own fury. When children retaliate, they aren’t thinking about any consequences of their actions, much less about another child's motivations! Even if we try to listen and have a conversation about what happened, children will often tend to become inflamed again.

Shifting Gears

This is when it is helpful to remember that we can shift gears to help children understand what is actually happening in their brains! Ideally, we find something that children can relate to and that changes their focus.

A pet reptile is an excellent option. “So you remember the gecko we saw at the pet store? She has a very basic response. If threatened, she has three options: to fight, to freeze, or to flee.” From there, we can explain how we all have a very reptilian part of our brain, the amygdala. When we feel threatened, we tend to go back to basic responses: fight, freeze, or flee.

Flipping Our Lid

We also have our frontal lobes, which allow us to think more logically and consider other options. Despite having a rational part of our brain, it is easy to do what Daniel Siegel has termed "flipping our lid."

We can show children what this is like by representing our brain with our hand. When we curl our thumb into our palm it is like the amygdala, a primitive part of our brain essential for basic functions. The amygdala is our alarm center and responds from a place of instinct. Then we can curl our fingers over our thumb so they can represent the frontal lobes of our brain, which help us with self-control, empathy, and decision-making.

When we get upset, we can "flip our lid." Our fingers (representing our frontal lobes) fly up and are out of commission, leaving our thumb (representing our amygdala) exposed. When this happens, we tend to act from the more reptilian part of our brain.

Getting Curious

When we provide this model for children, they often focus intensely on how our brains function. Yet there is still a challenge: What should we do when we are intensely upset, have a flipped lid, and are in the midst of a challenging moment?

It helps to really sit with the question with our children and lean into a place of curiosity. What if we had a plan for when we get into these kinds of moments? What if others around us were able to do this, too? What if our communities, our governments, and our countries were able to manage flipped lids? What kind of world would we experience?

When given the opportunity to explore options together, our children tend to rise to the occasion. They might decide to use each other for support when they feel overwhelmed by feelings of anger or frustration. They might also begin to think more about others’ needs and how to help them feel more included. Our children are so capable of moving from a place of not knowing to taking initial steps to figure out their own plan of action. While our children won’t have all the answers, we can help them carefully consider how to manage themselves in the face of challenges.

Curious to learn more about how we help children we confront frustration, recognize the need to belong, and even just manage overstimulation? Schedule a tour and see for yourself how Montessori helps us all grow in beautiful ways!

Materials Spotlight: The Grammar Boxes

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 11:00:02 GMT

One of the best parts of a Montessori education is that learning is so much fun! We provide hands-on activities and experiences that engage children’s hearts and minds and help them grasp abstract concepts and master complicated skills.

For example, when we introduce grammar in elementary, we use the Grammar Boxes, a set of materials that involve reading, interpretation, acting, art, movement, pattern-finding, and even poetry. The result is that grammar becomes an experiential and joyful process that children get to play with and even embody. Grammar work in Montessori elementary classrooms is also a group activity, which our gregarious elementary-aged children absolutely love.

The Materials

The Grammar Boxes comprise an array of colorful materials that easily take up a whole shelf in the classroom. Like so many Montessori materials, they use color coding to help children establish stronger neural pathways to identify parts of speech and their function in sentences.

Each of the eight grammar boxes has one large compartment that holds cards with sets of phrases and sentences, as well as smaller compartments for one-word cards. The cards are different colors for each part of speech: article (tan), noun (black), adjective (brown), verb (red), preposition (green), adverb (orange), pronoun (purple), conjunction (pink), interjection (yellow).

Children experience the name, symbol, and function of each part of speech in a multi-sensorial way, maximizing their opportunity to acquire real and deep understanding.

The Activity

We start with little games to introduce the part of speech. For example, we provide commands, like skip, run, hide, hum, and so on, to experience the role the verb plays. Next, we select the grammar box and filler box to match the part of speech. Children fill the grammar box with the various cards, and then they choose one of the sentence cards and read the sentence. Using the one-word cards, they build the sentence by looking through the smaller compartments in the grammar box to find each word.

In the preposition grammar box, one of the sentences states, “Lay the pen with the pencil.” When children look for each of the words, they will find that “pen” and “pencil” are on black cards because they are nouns. “Lay” is on a red card because it is a verb. “The” is on a tan card because it is an article. The new type of word – “with” – is a preposition. Children build the sentence and then act it out.

The next sentence on the card is exactly the same except for one variation. “With” changes to “behind” so the sentence reads “Lay the pen behind the pencil.” So children keep the constructed sentence but just change the one card. They act out the sentence again, experiencing how changing the preposition changes the sentence in a certain way. The final sentence on the card reads “Lay the pen beside the pencil.” This acting out and playing around with what happens when one-word changes provides a sensorial experience of the parts of speech.

We also share key phrases that highlight the function of the part of speech. For example, when working with pronouns, we’ll state, “This kind of word stands in place of a noun.” The children come to appreciate how words do important work just like they do. As a result, they experience an inspired interest in the functions performed by different words.

Continued Exploration

Once children have mastered this first step, the Grammar Box materials offer multiple forms of follow-up to promote deeper understanding.

Symbolizing

We link each part of speech with a color-coded symbol. For example, nouns are represented by black triangles and verbs by red circles. Children love to “symbolize” the grammar box sentences, as well as sentences they have written or even sentences from books. This practice is essentially an early form of sentence diagramming and children begin to notice visual patterns in the structure of sentences.

Quizzing

We can also play a little game to quiz children on the parts of speech and their functions. One form of this is to cover all the smaller, labeled compartments with color-coded paper. We might prompt the children, “What is the name of the word that told you the action?” They’ll call out “verb!” And we reveal (or they will check) the answer by removing the red slip.

Transposing

When we move words around in a sentence or phrase, the meaning may remain essentially the same, change dramatically, or be lost entirely! So, with the grammar box cards, we play around with shifting the order of the words in the constructed sentences and phrases. This highlights the importance of word order in our language and also opens up some creative thinking about poetic phrases (which often enlivens the imagination of young poets!).

Reading Commands

Children also love using the command cards that accompany each grammar box. These cards encourage dramatic interpretation and build reading comprehension. Children interpret nuances as they explore gradations in vocabulary and eventually even how subtle shifts in vocabulary can impact meaning or interpretation.

Extensions

After children learn key grammar language and concepts via the Grammar Boxes, we initiate a deeper study into classifications within each part of speech. For example, a study of the verb moves to an examination of the differences between action and linking verbs, a study of voice and mood, and an exploration of the tenses.

Extension work also includes more complex and detailed written work, a study of synonyms, further exploration of ideas presented in the introductory work, and research related to the parts of speech and the history of our language.

Elementary children love the extraordinary, the peculiar, and the unusual. Carefully selected words in the Grammar Boxes help spark this fascination, drawing the children into a study of the science of their language.

Although work with the Grammar Boxes helps children learn about and understand the functions of the different parts of speech, the lessons also demand a great deal of active and physical expression and thus support children’s powers of expression.

This is what “reading comprehension” really is. We can observe the quality and sophistication of children’s understanding by the precision with which each child carries out the actions required by any particular grammar box text.

The Importance of Grammar

A good grasp of grammar empowers us to communicate and interpret others’ communication with greater clarity and understanding. Thus, our goal is to help each child wield their language with accuracy and power. Grammar work in elementary invites a rich vocabulary and fosters an expansive use of our language in all of its expressions.

Grammar work is an exciting, fun, and intellectually stimulating activity in Montessori classrooms. Schedule a tour today to experience this in person!

Grammar the Montessori (Fun) Way!

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 11:00:02 GMT

The study of words, grammar, is all about understanding how words function and how they relate to each other in a sentence. In essence, grammar represents the rules that we use, either consciously or unconsciously, as we speak and write. And in Montessori classrooms, grammar is incredibly fun!

In early childhood, children effortlessly absorb the language(s) in their environment, including the grammatical conventions people around them use. So in our primary classrooms, we first offer a series of games to introduce children to the functions of words.

The Games

The games provide a sensorial experience of the function of each part of speech. For example, when we invite children to the “article game,” we play around with asking for items using either the article “the” or “a” depending upon if we are thinking of a definite object (like the laundry basket) or an indefinite one (like a red pencil, which could be any of the red pencils in the classroom).

Or with the “preposition game,” we give commands using prepositions (words that show relationship) such as: “Put your hands on your stomach.” “Put your hands under the chair.” “Put your hands behind your back.” Each time we only change the preposition, so that children experience what happens when we change that one word.

Children also love the “verb game” and the “adverb game” because they get to engage in all sorts of actions that can get more and more complex depending upon the series of commands from “run” and “skip” to “walk loudly” or “tiptoe angrily” to multi-step requests like “Walk to a friend. Say hello to the friend. Come back to me. Tell me the friend’s name.”

Our primary children consider these games to be delightful and often request them again and again!

A “Feel” for Language

Eventually, children in our primary classrooms move on to grammar-based activities that involve a great deal of reading. Using little paper slips and objects, we present a variation of the grammar games that isolate the different parts of speech and help children intuit the patterns in our language. We write words and phrases on the paper slips, children read them, and label different objects or items in the classroom. We also begin introducing symbols for each part of speech.

For example, by the time children have learned about nouns, articles, and adjectives, we can introduce conjunctions as words that connect. We can write little slips for individual objects (“a green pencil,” “a red pencil,” “a pink pencil”). The children collect those pencils and we connect them with a pink ribbon. We also highlight the word that connects each of the objects (“and”) by writing it in red. Finally, we add each of the symbols that represent each part of speech.

Because children of this age are very tuned into syntax, they quickly develop a “feel” for how words are used in sentences. A great example of this is how young children might say, “I runned as quickly as I could.” Just through experience, they are able to identify how past tense is formed by adding “ed” to the verb. All that is needed next are opportunities to learn about how some words don’t follow that particular rule.

Systematic Study

In the elementary years, we embark on a systematic study of the different types of rules, such as those that direct the formation of the past tense. In addition to learning about suffixes (such as “ed”) that affect tense, elementary students learn about auxiliary verbs and even study the mood and voice of verbs. The children also discover that our irregular verbs have a historical origin. In fact, many of the seeming inconsistencies of our language have a fascinating historical story!

For that reason, whenever possible in elementary, we link grammar to history. The word grammar, for example, comes from the ancient Greek term grammatike tekhne, which means “art of letters.”

As we embark on “the art of letters,” our elementary children dive into several disciplines, including morphology (the structure of words), syntax (the arrangement of words), phonology (the pronunciation of words), semantics (the meaning of words), and etymology (the history of words). We distill these disciplines into three main areas: word study, parts of speech, and sentence analysis.

The Grammar Boxes

In next week’s blog, we’ll highlight a deeper exploration of how one material, the beloved Grammar Boxes, connects these key areas of study. In addition to helping children understand how words have a function to perform and how the sequence of words and surrounding words determine the function, the Grammar Boxes also support the study of words and lay the foundation for sentence analysis.

Our grammar lessons and presentations are quite lively and involve a great deal of activity. We’d love to have you schedule a visit to come see this grammar work in action!

Keeping the Big Picture in Mind

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 11:00:09 GMT

As parents, we want the best for our children. It hurts when they encounter setbacks or challenges. When they experience frustration or failure, we want to fix things so they don’t suffer.

Lessons Learned

However, physical and even emotional discomfort is a significant part of how we grow and learn. In fact, mistakes and failures have a number of benefits including an increase in self-confidence, creative thinking, problem-solving, and patience.

When children learn that they can overcome obstacles, they build self-confidence and are more willing to challenge themselves in new activities. In addition, when children can experiment and have room for error, they can explore and create new approaches, which leads to flexibility and expansive thinking.

Success requires time and continuous effort. When children aren’t afraid of failure, they understand that progressing isn’t always a straight line. Rather than being afraid and giving up when faced with difficulties, children are more willing to take a circuitous route, try different directions, or experiment with diverse options. This process also helps children develop logical thinking skills and the ability to solve problems confidently.

Home-School Partnership

So that our children can reap these benefits, it helps if we stay in communication about challenges that may arise. Whether social, emotional, academic, or intellectual, it’s inevitable that our children will experience some level of difficulty at some point in their school years. Our hope is that we can work as partners to identify any challenges or areas of discomfort, and also provide the structure, freedom, patience, and confidence to allow kids the opportunity to struggle.

In Montessori, we are well-trained to observe children, balancing both a deep awareness of developmental milestones and the knowledge that individual children have their own pace and trajectory as they develop as young humans. We recognize that some children may need additional support and we also want to make sure we aren’t rushing in too soon to rescue them, which can lead to a decrease in self-confidence and resilience.

A partnership between home and school means that we ask you to trust the process while also staying in dialogue with us about your hopes and fears for your child. Conversely, we commit to communicating what we observe about your child’s progress and areas for growth.

Over the many years of schooling and parenting, we’ve found that an investment in longer-term learning and growth necessitates tolerance for some shorter-term disappointment.

Communication Road Map

Good communication is the heart of positive partnerships! To that end, we offer some tips for cultivating and maintaining this long-term relationship in support of your child(ren). First and foremost, we rely upon timely communication and yet also want to respect everyone’s busy lives. If something comes up, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us to share what is on your mind. We want to better understand what your child is experiencing or any concerns you have.

We also ask that you consider a big-picture perspective. If your child complains about something bad happening, take a deep breath and acknowledge that they might need to let off some steam or just feel some big emotions. Listen without judgment and reflect back on what you hear. Once they are done, you can ask if they want some help solving the problem or communicating with someone at school.

It helps to think about how to set the stage for your child to be their own self-advocate. If they want help, you can offer to brainstorm solutions, draft an email together, or even role-play how to handle the situation differently. Often, though, our children just need to let out their upset or frustration so they can move on with their day. They need us, as parents, to be a safe place to vent.

When or if you do contact the school, please let us know if your child is aware that you are sharing your concerns or observations so we can approach the situation with the utmost respect and care.

It’s also important to remember that as adults, we are constantly modeling for our children. Approaching even challenging circumstances with thoughtfulness, care, and goodwill shows our children how they can tackle tough situations with grace.

Long-Term Goals

When we talk about what we want for our children, we often discover some common themes. We want our children to be adaptable, kind, and hard-working. We want them to be creative and confident in their own abilities. We want them to be self-reliant and independent, while also collaborating with others and learning from those with different perspectives. We want them to live peaceful lives, celebrate present moments, and have a sense of purpose.

While we don’t want to see our children struggle, one of the most important things we can offer them is the chance to confront and work through challenges. We commit to being your partner in this process. Please schedule a visit to the school, observe the classrooms, and connect with us about how we can work together!

Our Montessori Bookshelf: In Honor of Grandparents Day

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 11:00:02 GMT

Grandparents (and “grandfriends”) are such valuable parts of our children’s lives. In honor of Grandparents Day (September 8) and the desire to use the whole month to do “grand” things, we’re sharing our favorite picture books that highlight the value of connection between grandparents and their grandchildren.

We hope your children and their grandparents can perhaps share some time together, or at the very least that your children can read these books with you and reflect upon what they value about their grandparents. Maybe after reading these stories, grandparents and grandchildren can share and create their own stories together!

Berry Song

by Michaela Goade

With mystical illustrations that are also grounded in botanical bounty, this book shares the joy of a child’s connection with her grandmother and weaves it together with the power of sharing traditional ways of honoring the land and its gifts. After responsibly harvesting food together, the child and her grandmother cook and feast and share. And the seasons change and the story continues as the girl takes her little sister’s hand to begin the process again. The extensive author’s notes are also incredibly powerful and worth savoring.

Drawn Together

by Minh Lê, Illustrated by Dan Santat

“Sometimes you don’t need words to find common ground.” This book perfectly illustrates this tagline. The story even starts without words, just images in the comic or graphic novel style of getting dropped off at his grandfather’s house. We see all the ways they don’t connect and yet when the boy decides to pull out some paper and draw, the grandfather gets his sketchbook. A whole new world opens up between them, and the narrator begins to use words to share the experiences of grandfather and grandson. The illustrations both show contrasting generational and cultural experiences and how a shared love for drawing can bridge a divide.

I Love Saturdays y Domingos

by Alma Flor Ada, Illustrated by Elivia Savadier

Two sets of grandparents offer two very different sets of cultural experiences, which are lovingly depicted in this story of how a young girl appreciates her Saturdays and Sundays. With Spanish carefully woven throughout the storyline, especially to show the contrast between Saturdays y Domingos (and Sundays), we encounter the joy and delight of different traditions and daily routines. By the end of the book, the two sides of the family come together for the girls’ birthday and demonstrate the significance of togetherness.

Kiyoshi's Walk

by Mark Karlins, Illustrated by Nicole Wong

In addition to being a lovely portrayal of how a wise, quiet grandfather helps his grandson discover his own answers to his questions, this book is an excellent introduction to haiku. The story begins with Kiyoshi watching his poet grandfather compose a haiku and wondering aloud where poems come from. His question leads grandfather and grandson on a neighborhood exploration full of wonder, connection, new poems, new questions, and ultimately profound insights.

Nana in the City

by Lauren Castillo

A Caldecott Honor book, the story begins with a young boy coming to visit his Nana in the city. He finds the place too loud, busy, and scary, so his Nana promises to show him how wonderful the city can be. While he sleeps, she knits him a red cape for him to wear and feel brave during their excursion throughout the city. With a newfound perspective, he is able to see the extraordinary and why his Nana wants to be there (and how he can look forward to visiting again!).

The Ocean Calls: A Haenyeo Mermaid Story

by Tina M. Cho, Illustrated by Jess X. Snow

With a stunning use of color, The Ocean Calls reminds us of the power of patience and how traditions are passed from one generation to the next. Dayeon longs to be a treasure-hunting mermaid like her grandma, yet also holds deep fear from a previous experience in the ocean. Her “what if” questions are calmed by her grandmother’s calm presence and reminder about haenyeo tradition. Although subtle, the book also visually shares the power of a community of women serving as support.

Time for Bed, Old House

by Janet Costa Bates, Illustrated by AG Ford

It can be a treat to sleepover at a grandparent’s house, but it can also be scary, too. So Isaac’s grandfather takes a different approach, leading Isaac on a tour through the house to “put it to bed.” They move slowly and quietly. They dim the lights. They draw the blinds. And they check on all the sounds. The cozy illustrations make you feel right at home and some include a perspective that makes it feel like you are in the room, too. The best part is how the story shows the arc of how Isaac takes ownership of the process and as a result, feels safe and secure.

The Truth About Grandparents

by Elina Ellis

If you are your children are in the mood for some fun-loving frolic, this book is just what you need! The child narrator introduces their “really old” grandparents (plus their “wrinkly faces” and “funny teeth”). While the words on the page state one thing that the narrator has heard about old people, the illustrations show the child’s experience sharing adventures and all sorts of fun with their grandparents. Full of zest and joy, this book can’t help but bring out some smiles (and maybe even some ideas of fun things to do together!).

When Lola Visits

by Michelle Sterling, Illustrated by Aaron Asis

With simple illustrations, the story focuses on the scents of summer, including all the smells and experiences that are part of a grandmother’s summer stay. The repeating refrain of “summer smells like” weaves together a whimsical, wispy nostalgia, while also showing how different traditions “like kalamansi pie and fireworks on the Fourth of July” can come together in powerful ways for young children. The book also brings together the contrasting feelings that can arise when the beauty of summer ends and the promise of a new school year begins.

Where Are You From?

by Yamile Saied Méndez, Illustrated by Jamie Kim

This is a perfect book for when children feel stumped by the question, “Where are you from?” The main character asks her Abuelo. What he shares is both beautiful and inspiring, reminding his granddaughter, and perhaps all of us, of the places and ancestors who are so much a part of who we are. But this expansive answer doesn’t satisfy his granddaughter who wants to know where she is really from. His answer captures the essence of who she is and where she is from and establishes the power of personal love and ancestral connection.

We hope you enjoy these books as much as we have! Here is a printable copy of the list of books. We also love to have grandparents and grandfriends come to the school for a tour. Contact us to set up a visit!

Montessori 101

Mon, 02 Sep 2024 11:00:02 GMT

As the school year gets into swing, we thought it would be helpful to review some key elements of Montessori education and how what we do supports children’s development.

The Montessori method focuses on children’s important process of constructing themselves into the amazing humans they are becoming. Respect for this process of self-construction, along with a prepared environment that supports the development of self-discipline and freedom within limits, forms an entire system wherein children develop independence, creativity, character, awareness of their own learning style, and skills for self-advocacy.

The Prepared Environment

Dr. Maria Montessori pioneered this understanding of the effect of the environment on human development. In Montessori prepared environments, children benefit from carefully designed spaces that meet their developmental needs at each stage of their lives. The materials in the classrooms offer young people keys to their development. In addition to the beautiful physical environments in Montessori, the prepared environment includes a community of children and trained adults.

Individualized Instruction

We focus on the fact that learning starts with the child. Montessori guides observe children’s interests and abilities and use those observations to create an environment in which children can really flourish. This requires a comprehensive knowledge of child development, keen observation skills, and awareness of how to adjust according to where individual children are in their process of learning and growth.

The Montessori Guide

The Montessori guide needs comprehensive training and a new way of thinking to focus on individualized instruction. An integral part of the Montessori approach is that the guide must respect each child’s process of self-construction and provide opportunities to help children develop their potential. An extended relationship over time in a multi-age classroom enhances the guide’s ability to be effective in this role.

Multi-Age Groupings

While every child works at their own level, younger children learn through the observation of older children and older children reinforce their own learning by helping younger children. Older children also have opportunities to develop leadership skills while serving as role models. Our communities emphasize and encourage cooperation and social responsibility. As children develop social and academic relationships with others of various ages, a strong community develops. The multi-age group allows for natural socialization far beyond what is found in homogenous age grouping.

The Toddler or Infant Community

Our youngest children are working toward a number of goals of self-sufficiency. In order to learn to make sense of the world, infants and toddlers need permission to explore, clear and logical limits, natural and logical consequences, positive role modeling, opportunities to make choices, and consistent procedures and ground rules. During this critical developmental time, children are able to extend their concentration through independent choices, purposeful activities, opportunities for repetition, and time for completion. They also benefit from exposure to grace and courtesy, group experiences, and positive attitudes toward new things. The learning materials in the Toddler Community include extensive language exposure, practical life activities, sensorial exploration, and gross and fine motor development.

The Children’s House or Primary

Designed for children two and a half to six years old, our primary program nurtures children’s individual development while offering them an experiential understanding of the value of interdependence. The classroom community also provides a carefully curated array of choices for individual activities that aid children’s work of self-construction.

The Montessori guide helps children develop their ability to choose freely, sustain focused and concentrated attention, think clearly and constructively, resolve conflicts peacefully, and express themselves through language and the arts. Through the active development of their will and the satisfaction of their authentic needs, children develop self-discipline and become connected in a socially cohesive way.

Areas of activity at the Children’s House level include practical life, sensorial organization, language, mathematics, and cultural subjects. The extensive sets of Montessori materials in each of these areas are designed to appeal to children's deep interest and inspire repeated activity. Because children of this age absorb so much effortlessly, they can take in vast amounts of information and grasp sophisticated relationships and principles wholly and effortlessly.

The Elementary Program

The Montessori philosophy continues in elementary and provides an unparalleled opportunity for growth in this new period of life. Children of this age have immense powers of imagination and creativity and are trying to understand themselves as social beings. The elementary environment provides an appropriate balance of freedom and responsibility and an expansive curriculum to support children’s curiosity and problem-solving so as to prepare them for the challenges of the future. The elementary program encourages a mature sense of justice and fairness, reinforces oral and written communication, provides cyclical experiences in all academic content and skills, and fosters the development of imagination and creativity.

The curriculum expands the sense of order that was nourished in the early childhood environment to study the order of the universe. Life is interrelated. Lessons dovetail between such subjects as geology, botany, history, language, math, and geometry. One of the goals of the program is to inspire children to explore ideas and interconnections, while also developing an understanding of their individual learning styles, needs, and goals. The Montessori interdisciplinary approach to elementary education supports children as they view the world, and even the universe, with a continued and intense sense of wonder.

The Adolescent Program

This program provides opportunities for adolescents to gain self-knowledge, belong to an accepting community, and learn to be adaptable while empowering them with academic competence and a vision for their own future. In all academic subjects, students do personal and group work integrated by overarching themes. The focus is on asking large questions, researching, interpreting, and connecting all of the disciplines.

Adolescent students apply and integrate all subjects through hands-on work that is connected to their greater community. They engage in elements of work on the land as an economic enterprise through the care of plants and animals, the maintenance of simple machines, and the understanding of land use. They also participate in local internships, class businesses, and community service. Because creative and physical expression is key during this stage of development, we offer adolescents multiple ways to explore different forms of self-expression. The adolescent program is designed to usher healthy, self-confident, well-prepared young adolescents into the next phase of their development.

A Strong Foundation

Our mission is to prepare children for life. All children are naturally curious and love to learn. We support this innate drive by providing environments that meet children’s developmental needs, creating a staff of loving and well-prepared adults, and building a community of families that actively support this mission. We celebrate each child’s individuality and help them discover how they can best contribute to our world and culture. This unique model offers children an incredible gift of independent thinking, self-assurance, inner discipline, and a love of learning. Schedule a tour to learn more!

Materials Spotlight: The History Question Charts

Mon, 26 Aug 2024 11:00:03 GMT

In Montessori elementary classrooms we offer key lessons that unlock doors to exploration and learning. One of these fundamental materials is the History Question Charts. Although they seem relatively simple, the History Question Charts inspire deep thinking about the land and culture of different people, offer children scaffolding for building their research and essay writing skills, and lead to a variety of creative explorations.

Designed in collaboration with Dutch historians Professor Romein-Vershoor and her husband Jan Romein (who were famous for promoting the publication of The Diary of Anne Frank), the History Question Charts serve as a compelling guide for children’s explorations and research into the past.

The History Question Charts

The five color-coded charts each provide a set of questions focused on a broad topic relevant to any civilization. Under each question is space for children to collect their responses. The charts also have additional blank sections for questions children might think of on their own.

The green chart explores overarching themes of the natural world. Children use this chart to explore the terrain, flora, climate, and fauna, how and where water was found, and how, when, why, and from where humans and fauna came to the area.

The brown chart focuses on human activities and encourages children to explore how humans use the land, decorate possessions, dress, and eat. In addition, the chart includes questions about tools and techniques, construction of buildings and for what purpose, and general production.

The gold chart highlights intellectual and spiritual achievements through questions about the people’s language for speaking and writing, the number system, art and music, religious beliefs literature, and sciences. This chart also explores holidays, rituals, and ceremonies, as well as how people decorate themselves and why.

The orange chart is centered on how humans live their daily lives, asking questions about the care and education of children, form(s) of government, social structures of groups, forms of trade, cultural games, the administration of justice, roles of family members, and care of the sick and poor.

The blue chart explores relationships within the group and with other groups, including interactions with “foreigners,” if groups engage in wars, travel, exploration, or migration, and how trade and interactions with others happened and with what outcomes.

Research Skills

There are multiple ways children can use charts to engage in research and learning. They can focus on one or two questions or use a selection of questions drawn from a combination of charts. Sometimes, focusing on one chart can lead to an in-depth investigation of a particular aspect of a culture or place.

The charts are often sized so that children can use index cards to compile their answers to the questions and then place the index cards on the blank spaces below each question. To scaffold this work, we can also provide pre-made color-coded cards with answers to questions about a particular time and place (e.g. Ancient Egypt) so that children can get a sense of the type of information they can glean through researching the questions.

As children become more adept at taking notes from their research, the charts provide a way to organize the information into paragraphs and even multi-paragraph essays about a culture. If children use index cards to take their notes, they can begin to organize the information to provide the structure of a paragraph or essay. Because the charts provide a visual form of organization, they help children experience a more concrete approach to constructing their written work. Often through the experience of using the History Question Charts to compile and organize their research, children discover that composing essays is easier than they may have initially thought!

Follow-Up Explorations

As children use the History Question Charts, their investigations often inspire all sorts of follow-up activities. Sometimes children extend their study of different civilizations or cultures by setting up a trip to a museum, trying out some ethnic cooking, or inviting an expert to the class for a Q&A. Children also love re-creating a culture’s art or representing aspects of what they’ve learned through a craft or display. Sometimes children like to create a series of pictures with written captions that can be assembled into a booklet or presented in the form of a timeline. Those with a more dramatic bent may create short skits or plays to perform for their peers.

Although the initial presentation of the History Question Charts is relatively brief, this material offers the potential for ongoing, in-depth work as children investigate different civilizations. We invite you to schedule a tour to come see how this material leads to a delightful appreciation of history!

A Healthy Relationship with Work

Mon, 19 Aug 2024 11:00:04 GMT

As adults, our relationship with work is rather complicated. We pay others who have more expertise, more time, or more willingness to do work that we don’t know or want to do. We invent machines to work for us. We often aim for expediency and efficiency. We value our non-working time, like vacations, personal time, and leisure. We think about retiring early. Recently in history, there has also been a notion that we should find work that is the most fulfilling, makes use of our gifts, and follows through on our passions.

The Value of Work

However, the truth is that we, as humans, need to work to thrive. Often we find a sense of purpose, meaning, and connection through work. Those who have retired know how it feels to drop out of the social organization of productive human activity and perhaps wonder about contributing to the community, group, or society.

We establish our identity through work and, in the process, contribute to a complex web of interdependent activities we share with others. We provide service to others, and this gives us a sense of belonging. What we do to accomplish our purpose in life is our work.

“Joy, feeling one's own value, being appreciated and loved by others, feeling useful and capable of production are all factors of enormous value for the human soul.” – Dr. Maria Montessori, From Childhood to Adolescence

Purposeful Work

Appreciating the varied types of work we do in our lives to care for ourselves, to care for others, and to care for our environment, is not something we are particularly practiced at doing in our culture. Yet in Montessori, we prioritize these three pillars: care of self, care of others, and care of our surroundings. We recognize that children gain deep satisfaction through work that has purpose. They want to feel and be useful!

Work that is purposeful or meaningful comes from an internal drive, while also being connected to the environment and to others, which leads to a sense of responsibility. For our youngest children, this can be as simple as noticing that laundry needs to be folded or that snack needs to be prepared and then wanting to play a role in getting that work done. Older children may feel compelled to share their research or discoveries with classmates.

Adult Work vs. Children’s Work

In her observations of children, Dr. Maria Montessori began to see how the work of adults differs from the work of children. While adults work to minimize effort and make our external environment better meet our needs, children use their environment to develop their internal capacities. Because children’s work is their own development and self-construction, their work doesn’t follow the same patterns, look the same, or have the same outward manifestations as adult work.

More often than not, adults do not recognize children’s work for what it is, which can result in a kind of conflict between adults and children. Often adults try to keep children away from any adult work because children can seem to get in the way.

According to Dr. Montessori, this is primarily due to the complexities created by modern life. There was a time in human history when children’s need to self-construct through their own activities was more naturally and easily met by just being around as adults worked to secure food, build shelters, or make tools. This work was more immediate, concrete, and apparent. Children could observe, explore, imitate, and little by little participate in adult work.

But the work of modern humans is more complex and abstract, making adults’ work more inaccessible to children and thus making the presence of children often an interruption, distraction, or nuisance. As a result, children are often separated from the everyday work of adult life.

The Importance of Self-Construction

By nature, children are compelled to do work that ensures their own development. Children’s work is the work of self-construction. Often this work even feels like play!

In Montessori, we recognize the fact that children are forming who they will become as adults. Thus to fully support children’s work of self-construction, we offer children purposeful activities so they can learn how to contribute meaningfully to their communities. Our youngest children slice fruits and vegetables that are served for snack. They arrange flowers to make the classroom more beautiful. They sweep the floor and wipe the tables. As children get older they take on more responsibilities, from taking care of dishes to answering the phone, to running class meetings to organizing trips.

Beyond caring for themselves, each other, and the environment, we also help children develop a healthy relationship with intellectual challenges. Because the purpose is self-construction, rather than external rewards, children love to lean into learning. They see mistakes as opportunities for growth. They want to gain mastery. They delight in self-improvement.

Montessori children grow into adults who understand the value of work in its many forms. To see how this happens, come visit our school! We love to share what we do.

Back to School in Five Steps

Mon, 12 Aug 2024 11:00:01 GMT

We hope you are enjoying this last stretch of summer! As the school year approaches, we wanted to suggest some ways you can help your child (and yourself!) prepare for the transition back to school.

Encourage Mealtime Independence

Food preparation and meals are important parts of our daily lives. At school, children will be involved with preparing food, setting the tables, pouring water to drink, and cleaning up after themselves.

So we recommend practicing this at home! Children can be part of preparing the table and then clearing the dirty dishes after the meal. We recommend having a clear routine for cleaning up, which can include putting dirty dishes in the sink, dishwasher, or a dish tub after eating. We also encourage the use of regular cups and glasses for meals and snacks, saving a water bottle for when in the car or on walks. Younger children can be encouraged to use silverware to feed themselves. By eating family style meals sitting at the table together, you can also model and practice good table manners.

Older children can be involved with setting the menu for meals and even helping with grocery shopping. They can start to map out what they want to pack for lunch and be part of the process of getting their food ready in containers and everything into their lunch box. This also helps children have ownership and buy-in about what they are eating.

We also recommend that your child have food containers that are easy to open and close. Going to the store and having your child try opening different kinds of containers is a great way to find some that work well!

Think About What to Wear

Because younger children are becoming independent with their dressing and undressing, it helps for them to practice these skills at home. Even young toddlers are capable of doing quite a lot of taking off and putting on different items, and they love to do things for themselves. We recommend giving your child the time and encouragement to do things for themselves, including taking shoes off, pulling pants up, unzipping jackets, and so on. Choosing clothing and shoes that are easy for your child to put on and take off is a big help for the transition to school.

Older children can gather their belongings to make sure they have everything ready for the first day of school (and every subsequent day!). They can check the weather to determine appropriate outerwear and shoes, practice setting out their clothes the night before, and prep items needed for after-school activities.

Prepare a Goodbye Routine

To be ready for the first days of school, we recommend preparing your child (and yourself) for what drop-off will look and feel like. It can be helpful to drive by the school and casually notice with your child(ren) where drop-off will happen. As adults, the more clear we are about the routine, the more secure our children will feel.

Short and sweet transitions are key. The longer we linger the harder it is for our children to recalibrate and settle into the classroom. To that end, figure out your goodbye process ahead of time. Perhaps it is one hug and two kisses, plus a wave goodbye. Whatever you decide, stick with it. Our children are hard-wired to test our limits and they will want to figure out if they can negotiate two hugs and a wave goodbye then more hugs. However, if that negotiation is successful, they actually feel less secure because then they can’t rely upon a predetermined plan.

To help ensure the goodbye plan is a success, practice! While at home and when everyone is in a great mood, suggest a game of pretending you are doing drop-off at school. Remember (or create) the goodbye routine and then act it out together! Take turns being the adult and the child (children love getting to be the adult). Playacting is a fun way to work through what can be a stressful few moments.

By establishing clear and firm routines, we help our children develop trust and confidence. If we feel hesitant or unsure, our children absorb those feelings. So we want to exude assuredness!

Adjust Schedules

If our children have been staying up later during the long days of summer, it helps to gradually shift bedtimes and establish a consistent routine. Rushed mornings tend to be more difficult, so putting some additional effort into getting enough sleep and having plenty of time in the morning can really help the transition back to school.

Although earlier mornings can be tough, children do so much better when they can get to school with enough time to settle in. We recommend trying to come on the early side of the arrival window so that children aren’t overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of last-minute or late arrivals. Coming late can also mean that they miss out on some of the benefits of the Montessori work cycle.

We recommend a gradual transition to the school year schedule. If children have been going to bed later, start easing into a bedtime that is earlier by using 15-minute increments over a series of days. Easing into the new schedule is more helpful than just hoping for the best on the first day of school.

Check-In

We all tend to feel more secure when we feel prepared. To that end, we recommend reviewing the handbook , checking supply lists, labeling your child’s items, and asking us any clarifying questions! It can also be nice to reach out with a friendly email to your child’s guide(s) to touch base about the best way to communicate with each other.

As always, please let us know if you need anything or have any questions. If you are curious to see more about how we help children transition into Montessori, schedule a visit!

Why Try? The Impact of Screen Time

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 11:00:02 GMT

Let’s face it. Parenting is hard. And frankly, things seem so much easier when our children are occupied with an iPad, phone, or similar device. Plus, they need skills for the digital world. And that’s how kids connect today, right?

So much pulls us toward more tech time for our children. But is this really what is best for their development? A study from August 2023 found that screen time for one-year-olds leads to developmental delays in communication and problem-solving when the children are aged two and four.

The impact continues as our children get older. Jonathan Haidt explains the high costs of a phone-based childhood in his book The Anxious Generation—How The Great Rewiring Of Childhood Is Causing An Epidemic Of Mental Illness. The first section of the book outlines the decline in teen mental health and well-being since the smartphone took over our lives. Haidt argues that this new technology, along with parental overprotection, has shifted our children’s lives from play-based experiences to an unprecedented state of fragmentation, disconnection, and even deprivation.

It’s interesting to hear children’s thoughts on this topic, too. When asked, kids are pretty self-aware of the impact screen time has on their lives. They speak about how they can be disconnected from others when they are on their devices and how getting outside actually helps them feel better. Young people also recognize that screen time can lead to crankiness, headaches, and even not-great sleep. They can identify “video game brain” and how hard it is to come out of that state. Young people are self-aware enough to notice how it’s easy to fall into an expectation that screen time will soothe a bad day but that in reality, it doesn’t and how taking a walk would be so much better.

Families whose children participated in Screen-Free Week from May 6 to 12 shared some lovely results. During that week, their children were kinder, better able to regulate their emotions, and more present in what they were doing. Children reported reading more, spending more time with their family, and reveling in being outside.

So what do we do? Our lives are so intertwined with technology that breaking already established habits can seem insurmountable.

One first step is to be open with our children. For younger children, this can be as simple as setting limits and stating that things will be changing. Our little ones rely upon us to set the routine. They will test us, of course, because they need to know if we are going to hold true to a limit. But the process is pretty straightforward: decide to limit screen time and stick with the plan.

Our older children will appreciate some genuine conversation, which means also listening to their thoughts and concerns. When they feel heard and their opinions valued, young people can be pretty open to hearing adults’ perspectives. Through thoughtful conversation, we can explore options for reducing screen time. The next step is to try it out. Treat the process as a collaborative experiment, with the intent to come back together and discuss what worked and what was challenging.

If moving toward less screen time seems daunting, also remember that we can call upon our community! Make a commitment with other families and find ways to support each other. Publicly state your intent and goals. Share successes and challenges. Plan screen-free playdates and organize experience-based outings.

Our children deserve the best we can offer them during these crucial developmental periods of early childhood and adolescence. Yes, giving them an iPad or phone, letting them watch videos, or giving in to another online game can give us a little respite, but are these choices really serving our children well?

For additional support and resources, visit:

The Anxious Generation

Screen-Free Week

Screen Time Action Network

Please also feel free to contact us. At our school, we prioritize a play-based childhood and are happy to share more about what we do!

A Healthy Relationship with Feedback

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 11:00:02 GMT

In Montessori, we want children to embrace mistakes as opportunities to understand how to improve. Our goal is for children to understand that feedback is important for knowing what still needs to be done and what still can be learned.

What does feedback look like in Montessori classrooms?

We take care to cultivate a culture of feedback. Even at the early childhood level, we start this approach with a gentle noticing that allows children to begin to develop some self-assessment.

For example, when we see that someone has left their chair out, rather than reminding and instructing by saying something like, “Push in your chair,” we offer an observation, “I see that your chair is out.” By making a neutral observation, we provide children with the chance to notice and make a choice. They can make their own realization: “Oh, I forgot to push my chair in!” As a result, children can have agency in the process.

In social situations, we can use similar reflections. When someone is unkind to a peer, we might say, “It looks like your friend/sibling/classmate is feeling hurt.” We can also wonder aloud: “I wonder what would help them feel better. Should we check?” Or “Would you like some help checking in with them?”

Ultimately, children want to do the right thing. But when we overinstruct or always dictate what should happen, we deprive children of the opportunity to develop their own inner drive to make the right choice and follow through with action.

How does Montessori support self-assessment?

Many of the Montessori learning materials are “self-correcting” or have a built-in “control of error,” which means children can tell if they have done an activity inaccurately and try again without an adult needing to intervene. In our primary classrooms, the sensorial materials offer an excellent example of how the materials help children assess their own mistakes. If the largest cube isn’t used at the base of the pink tower, and then the next largest is placed progressively after, the tower won’t be stable. If the last knobbed cylinder doesn’t fit in the last space in the cylinder block, it’s clear that the pieces need to be rearranged.

Because the materials are designed to give feedback, children begin to learn early on that they can recognize, understand, correct, and learn from mistakes. As the materials get more advanced, children are able to use answer keys to check and correct their work. They can use control cards to see if they have used labels or identification markers accurately. Children are able to take control of their own learning and not rely on adult correction or judgment. The result? Children are motivated to try new things and take risks in their learning.

How does this approach work with more advanced academics?

As children get older and need feedback on essays or other work, we are careful about how we frame our responses. We recognize that our responses can significantly impact motivation, self-esteem, and a love of learning. Therefore, rather than emphasizing failure with red marks and X’s, we emphasize areas for growth.

A focus on growth can start with noticing what is right. For example, perhaps an elementary-aged child is working through a series of geometry lessons and has tried to abstractly determine the area of different shapes. By noticing what has been mastered, we are providing feedback about areas of strength: “Wow! You really aced a number of questions about area. You must feel really confident with calculating the area of squares and rectangles!”

Recognizing what is going well sends a message that students’ efforts are valuable and that their hard work toward mastery has an impact. It’s important to note that this is slightly different than praise. Rather, we are highlighting success instead of focusing on failures. It’s a subtle shift but one that makes a huge difference.

In addition, we ensure that any feedback offers room for students to revise and improve their work. Whether children are working on honing an essay or mastering long division, we ensure that they have the chance to incorporate the information, repeat or revise their attempts, and move toward mastery.

In reality, children love checking and discussing their own answers! Their conversations about mistakes, corrections, and revisions are the place where really fruitful learning often happens. Older children typically enjoy debating and discussing wrong answers with each other. In the process, Montessori students begin to understand mistakes as a place to explore and grow, which ultimately strengthens their critical thinking skills.

Why is a healthy approach to feedback beneficial?

The authors of Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well researched feedback and found that learning how to receive feedback effectively is key to healthy relationships and our professional lives. We want our students to develop a healthy and positive relationship with feedback so they understand that feedback is a gift that allows us to become better as people and at what we do.

Montessori children develop confidence and self-sufficiency through work with self-correcting materials, thoughtful space for revision and mastery, and intentional messaging from adults. They learn to appreciate opportunities for critical thinking and problem-solving.

We invite you to come see how children embrace opportunities for growth and mastery. Schedule a tour today! We’d love to hear your feedback!

Cultivating Mindfulness Part 2: Resources

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 11:00:03 GMT

Elizabeth Heller’s mission is to empower children and teens to self-manage emotional and physical wellness with the evidence-based tools of breathwork, body movement, and journaling. Elizabeth recently shared resources for using mindfulness in our families and with our children.

You have shared a lot about mindfulness, movement, and journaling. What resources can you recommend?

First, you are your greatest resource. You know more than you think you do! Using tools to connect with your inner knowledge is the most important resource. You can do this with a simple practice of pausing to notice any body sensation or feeling, without judgment and taking three to five breaths. Even one breath makes a difference.

Noticing is really about listening and paying attention. Researchers (and anyone who uses it) know that social media is a practice of distraction and disconnection. I believe children need to find their inner creativity and imagination long before they are bombarded with images of other people’s ideas and truths. We can learn to count, know colors, and learn the seasons and the alphabet without screen time.

I suggest trying different family activities like:

exploring the library by making a ‘treasure hunt’ for information on whales, or basketball, or the moon
teaching kids to read paper maps and then drive places without the GPS (the destination could be a place for a picnic, mini-golf, or a museum)
walking outside often and inside when the weather is uncooperative
breathing together before a meal or on the way to school
doing a one-word check-in before transitions or after to notice and share what you are feeling in the moment,
and, of course, reading with your kids or as a family.

It’s really about mindful attention, connection, and limiting distractions in order to enhance the connection to the self, others, and the world.

Having a journaling practice also helps, so using the Kids Super Journal or Teen Super Journal is an effective and fun way for kids and caregivers to practice mindfulness in minutes a day in their own creative way. Any guide that encourages self-exploration with pen and paper is a great way to explore who we are day-to-day because we are always changing.

Tell us more about the Super Journals.

The Kids Super Journa l and Teen Super Journal are 70-day activity books that empower kids and teens to self-manage their emotional and physical wellness with the evidence-based tools of breathing, moving, and journaling. Each of the seven chapters has a “Mindfulness Menu” with fun and simple breath practices and body shapes for that chapter. Each chapter has 10 journal days based on a theme like Building Strength, Feelings Are Like the Weather, Love, and Gratitude.

Each journal day includes a breath and movement option, a feelings report and body sensation check-in, a fun journal prompt, and a positive activity. The journals are designed to help kids and teens create a mindfulness habit in just a few minutes a day. And with tools kids can use immediately and for a lifetime.

Breathing, moving, and journaling require no special training or equipment and are effective right out of the box. Kids and teens can use the books on their own with no special training or adult help necessary. That makes them a wonderful tool for home use and use in schools and mental health organizations and they are being used more and more in all those settings.

I have heard from dozens of adults who have used the Kids Super Journal for themselves and love it. Men and women. And the most common thing they say when they read about the tools in the Super Journals is ‘Oh, is this mindfulness? I can do this.’ The format works for anyone! Simplicity and consistency are key to creating a wellness habit. The Super Journals help kids and teens (and adults) do that.

Also, it’s important to remember that the key to mindful journaling is to simply write down whatever you notice at that moment. Spelling, grammar, punctuation, and pretty prose do not matter. You don’t even have to answer the prompt if you want to write or draw about something else. There is no right or wrong way to journal and there should also be no pressure to share. Journaling can only be effective if we feel free to express ourselves without anyone else reading or seeing what we journaled.

Are there ways families can have this kind of experience together?

In addition to breathing together and physical activity together, creating a journal jar as a family is also a great practice and as an option for kids to choose on their own.

To create a journal jar, find a big glass jar or jug. As a family, everyone writes down journal questions on slips of paper. It helps to choose a theme and include questions about feelings. Then put the papers in the jar.

Every day at a designated time (like before or after dinner) have kids take turns choosing a question from the jar. Put a timer on for five minutes and everyone (including adults) can journal their response. Drawing counts as journaling so small children can also participate.

Keep the Journal Jar in an accessible place along with markers and paper so kids and teens can use it whenever they want to. You can also read a question aloud and share your thoughts together as a family.

Can you give some examples of how people have implemented these practices?

Older students have shared that they wished they could have learned about mindfulness when they were younger because they thought that would have really helped them have a better high school experience.

I’ve also had some teachers decide to use the Super Journals for themselves. One music teacher said, “It was luxurious to spend those five minutes or so every morning with myself on those pages.”

It’s important to remember that curiosity is everything. If we start with curiosity we can say to our child, “I notice you are running in circles. I’m curious.” Start there. Then the next step is to teach our child to be curious. With this, there is a place to find a response versus a reaction and most importantly learn something in the moment by staying in connection.

We will always be in connection with other humans, so modeling is so important. We are teaching kids how to be connected and participate in the world and how to help other people do the same. This way we are setting up children to have cohesive relationships, which is the foundation of a healthy, joyful life. With breathing, moving, and journaling we are giving kids tools to self-manage their lives – their emotional lives, their physical lives, their social lives – and explore them.

What is so beautiful about humans is who we are inside. That is our uniqueness. The more we understand who that is and how to express it, the more we grow. That is what is beautiful, fun, and interesting as we move through the journey of living!

Cultivating Mindfulness Part 1: A Conversation with Elizabeth Heller

Mon, 15 Jul 2024 11:00:01 GMT

In our busy lives, how do we stay grounded and present for our children? Why is it important that we do so?

We recently explored these questions with Elizabeth Heller, a mindfulness expert, best-selling children's book author, certified yoga and meditation instructor, journalist, podcast host, and mom. She is the author and co-author of eight books for and about children, as well as a contributing author to four parenting books. Her most recent books are Kids Super Journal and Teen Super Journal.

Elizabeth shared her thoughts about how mindfulness can support our parenting, our own lives, and our children’s futures.

Thank you for connecting with us! As we all know, parenting is hard work! How do you see mindfulness helping in our families and with our children?

We do like to say parenting is ‘hard work’ don’t we? And I find it useful to flesh out what we mean when we say ‘hard work.’ What I believe we often mean is that parenting is a daily practice of staying present with children as they grow, make mistakes, ask questions, choose, and explore their world. I am speaking about the difference between responding to children rather than reacting. And doing so with curiosity and connection and non-judgment. It takes attention and purposeful effort (which is the ‘hard work’) to act as a guide and teacher over a disciplinarian. And teaching is what parenting really is all about.

This is where mindfulness comes in. Mindfulness has become a bit of a buzzword, but it just means paying attention to the present moment without judgment. The non-judgment is key. Once we start judging ourselves, our children, or anyone, we are no longer in a mindful state and are more likely to find ourselves reacting impulsively instead of staying present with what is happening, settling our emotions and making a thoughtful choice.

There is so much wonderful science out there about the benefits of breathing, moving, and journaling—like improved emotional regulation and behavior, increased self-esteem and self-confidence, stress and anxiety reduction, boosting immunity and brain function, and increased engagement and meaning in the classroom. And these benefits begin from the first mindful breath, journal entry, or mindful body movement.

What I really love about all of this is how kids and teens light up when they realize there is something they can do to create their own wellness by simply breathing, moving, or journaling. Once they know there are tools they can use to support themselves, they use them. That’s the practical magic of mindfulness.

Where do you suggest families begin?

It’s like that cliché about ‘putting on your oxygen mask before assisting others with theirs.’ Parents and caregivers can first take care of themselves by establishing their own mindfulness practice. I love breathwork, body movement, and journaling as a place to begin. These tools don’t cost money and are universally accessible to adults and kids. If you can breathe (which, of course, we all can), you can reap the benefits of mindfulness.

For example, before you get out of bed in the morning, pause and notice any body sensations you might have. Keep noticing the sensation and breathe slowly in and out of your nose three to five times. That’s the golden ticket: putting on your oxygen mask first. It doesn’t require an hour of time. It can happen in a few breaths. The key is a daily, consistent practice. Consistency matters more than the length of time.

You can help kids–at any age–use this practice too. I have taught mindfulness, breathing, and yoga to kids as young as 14 months old with tremendous success. Introduce this when things are going smoothly. You can say: “I learned this amazing thing and I want us to experiment with it. It’s a way to pause and notice things before we make choices.”

Find something (like the weather or a body sensation you are noticing) and say, “I notice I feel a warmth in my heart. I am happy to have breakfast together. I am going to breathe three times and notice my happy warmth.” Then model the breathing and ask if your child would like to try it.

Don’t force the breathing. Just guide kids to try it out and share what they notice.

Once we establish the practice for ourselves and with our kids, everyone can learn to pause, notice, breathe, and then make a choice. We can use our breath anywhere and anytime during the day as a tool to self-manage emotions. You can try this practice on the way to school, before a meal, or before and after brushing your teeth!

Mindfulness is about more than making the day run smoothly. Caregivers and children are learning to notice who they are and what they need at any moment. We are learning to ask for help, practice healthy and open communication, and establish a process for staying connected to each other and to ourselves no matter what body sensations or feelings are present. Plus, teens are more likely to communicate with caregivers later if they have been practicing these tools early on in their development.

What are some priorities or practices that you uphold for yourself or in your work with children?

Mindfulness is a way of life for me. I had a traumatic and abusive childhood. When I was eight years old, I instinctively picked up a pen and journaled a few sentences about some big feelings that came up for me in a ballet class. It was so empowering to express my feelings and be connected to myself in this way, that I have never stopped journaling. I was also an athlete so I was moving my body all the time and reaping those benefits. And the final piece of my mindfulness puzzle came when I left my martial arts practice due to an ACL tear and started yoga.

The combination of all three—purposeful breathing, body movement, and continued journaling–is for me, a powerful, beautiful way to experience life inside and outside myself. These tools have made me a better communicator because I have the practice of managing my body sensations during challenging conversations. I also absorb the beauty of the moment and share what I notice about others’ beauty. It’s like magic. It’s why I am so dedicated to sharing these practices with families, schools, adults, and kids.

Based on what you know about Montessori principles and practice, how do you see your work with mindfulness and journaling connecting with or supporting what happens in Montessori schools and in Montessori families?

I think about the four “c’s” – curiosity, connection, creativity, and confidence.

We start with curiosity, so our first reaction is curiosity, not anger or yelling. We can notice our feelings: “Oh I feel anger right now. That’s interesting.” We can notice that and be curious. Or we can ask our child, “I’m curious. You were supposed to set the table. What happened?” Our assumption might be they don’t care or they weren’t paying attention, but there might be something else that is important. So it starts with learning to be curious, about the world, about others, and about the self.

Then if you are curious, the next practice is connection. Curiosity can sometimes be unsettling. So kids can learn to connect to themselves first in order to be present and connected to a person, nature, classmates, or to the learning that is happening. If you have a practice of taking a breath, moving your body, and journaling you can stay connected and explore what you need. This can happen with one or two breaths, 5 minutes of journaling, or a quick walk outside. Over time, it becomes almost automatic. Maybe you need to get help, try again, or take a break. In Montessori, children have this gift of being able to meet their needs as they explore learning.

If you have curiosity and stay connected, then you are making space to be creative and try new things. When these three “c’s” are firing, it’s just confidence all over the place.

Children have so much wisdom. Montessori really values learning how to explore the world and yourself in it to learn how to grow and contribute. With mindfulness tools, children can develop the confidence to try new things, make mistakes, learn, and grow. This becomes a powerful, beautiful cycle for being a lifelong explorer in this world. And it all begins with a mindfulness practice for exploring the self.

Our Montessori Bookshelf: For Summer Adventure

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 11:00:06 GMT

Summer should be a time of adventure! Remember back to your own childhood, when summer days seemed to stretch on endlessly? Now, our children are so scheduled that they rarely get to navigate the neighborhood, traverse through the forest, or splash along a stream bank. Yet more and more research shows the importance of unstructured time in nature.

To encourage some summer outdoor adventure, we suggest settling in with your child to explore The Lost Book of Adventure from the notebooks of the Unknown Adventurer. Although this book is ideal for elementary ages and up, younger children can enjoy the illustrations and may even appreciate having adults read some of the snippets and sections scattered throughout the book.

To begin, it’s worth noting that by design this book has a sense of mystery and magic to it. While it’s chock full of practical advice and stories from the field, The Lost Book of Adventure’s origin story is an invitation all on its own.

The compiler and editor of the book, Teddy Keen, was on his own adventure in a remote part of the Amazon when he came upon an abandoned shelter. Upon some investigation, he and his friends uncovered a rusty metal container. Inside the container was a slew of notebooks, journals, and sketchbooks – a compilation of some unknown person’s adventures, wonder, and knowledge from all around the world. According to the story, there was also a letter addressed to two young family members with a reminder: “Be good, be adventurous, and look after your parents.”

After years of restoration, compiling, and editing, The Lost Book of Adventure not only shares this unknown explorer’s beautiful (digitally remastered) artwork but also offers practical tips and invitations to begin your own adventures in your backyard.

Although organized into thematic sections—camping, rafts and rafting, creating shelters, exploration, and general useful knowledge—the book is a kind of journey from cover to cover. It invites exploration of its pages. You want to discover the next illustration, caption, short narrative, or snippet of advice.

However, the book also serves as a kind of reference guide. How do you go to the bathroom in the woods? How can you make a bedsheet hammock? How do you climb a mountain? You can flip to just the content you need.

Woven throughout are little stories – from a sandstorm in the desert to a failed attempt to create a raft – that make the whole book accessible in a sweet and personal way.

The effect is that adventure feels accessible. Yes, some of the anecdotes involve emperor penguins in Antarctica or a bike adventure through Africa. Yet somehow the book balances an allure with just enough concrete tips, tools, and tricks to make it all seem doable.

If you are interested in learning more, visit The Unknown Adventurer website . Above all, though, use this summer to create some little family adventures. If you need some ideas to get you started, we offer the list below (and this printable version ).

See how many of these activities you can do with your child(ren) before the summer months slide by!

Climb a hill or a mountain.
Explore a new hiking trail.
Walk, bike, or skate along a bike path.
Canoe or raft on a local river.
Explore a nature area near your house.
Climb a tree.
Learn how to use a compass and map to find your way.
Learn how to pitch a tent.
Learn how to make a fire.
Cook breakfast outdoors.
Make sandcastles on the beach.
Make mud pies.
Search for invertebrates in seaside rock pools or woodland streams.
Build a fort or lean-to in the woods.
Spend some hours making dams and bridges on little streams.
Try catching frogs.
Try catching fireflies in a jar.
Learn how to identify some constellations.
Find the North Star.
Learn where north, south, east, and west are in relation to your home.
Watch the Perseid meteor shower (which peaks August 11-12).
Build a birdhouse.
Ask someone to teach you how to whittle a piece of wood.
Name local birds in your neighborhood (use binoculars, bird songs, etc).
Learn the names of the trees on your property or in your area.
Collect something and make a little museum (e.g. shells, rocks, feathers, etc).
Keep a nature journal.
Dig for worms.
Go fishing.
Go for a night hike with a flashlight.
Pick fresh berries and bake a pie.

Imagination, Creativity, and Fantasy: A Montessori Perspective

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 11:00:07 GMT

So what’s the deal with Montessori and fantasy? Does Montessori encourage creativity? What about imagination? Don’t children love make-believe?

A lot of the questions we hear like this often emerge due to some misconceptions about the relationship between Montessori philosophy and concepts of fantasy, imagination, and creativity.

What is imagination?

Imagination allows us to visualize things that aren’t present or haven’t been experienced directly. We use our imagination to be creative, solve problems, generate ideas, and explore possibilities. Our imagination allows us to take in information and organize it in new and creative ways. Imagination is a central aspect of childhood. As children shift from early childhood into their elementary years, they are able to use their imagination almost like a superpower to explore ideas and concepts throughout time and space.

What is creativity?

Creativity is how we generate new ideas, sometimes in artistic ways. It allows us to come up with original concepts or solutions, often because we are thinking about something in a new or different way. Creativity also helps us transform ideas and approach problems from a unique perspective. It is cultivated over time through exposure to different kinds of sensory input and appropriate freedom and support for creative expression.

What is fantasy?

Fantasy is a diversion from reality. It is the realm of make-believe. We use our imagination to create fantasy because it involves things that are impossible or improbable. But unlike imagination, which can encompass a wide range of ideas, fantasy is focused on the extraordinary and the fantastical. When thinking about or immersed in fantasy, we do not worry much about reality.

One misconception is that Montessori doesn’t allow fantasy. To explore this, we should also recognize that there is self-generated fantasy and imposed fantasy.

Pretend Play vs. Adult-Generated Fantasy

Children love to engage in pretend play, a self-generated form of fantasy. Often, in pretend play, children explore roles they see in real life by pretending to be in those roles. It’s pretend for them, but they are working out what different roles mean. Whether pretending to play school or house or creating a construction scene with excavators, this is young children’s way of processing the world around them.

Where pretend play can become confusing for young children is when they have seen different kinds of fantastical things that seem real, such as Superman jumping off a building or a normal boy turning into Spiderman by being bitten by a spider.

Young children are still distinguishing the line between fantasy and reality. It’s worth noting that even if our young children can repeat back that they know something is real or pretend, a true cognitive understanding of the difference doesn’t fully form until children developmentally shift into their elementary years. This is why we sometimes see children trying to get bitten by a spider so they can become Spiderman, or trying to jump off the top of the stairs so they can fly like Superman.

As adults, we have a tremendous responsibility to allow children to create their own fantasy rather than imposing fantasy on them. For example, superheroes, fairy tales, and fictitious animated characters are adult-created fantasy. When we impose fantasy on our children, even if they like it, we are inadvertently depriving them of the opportunity to develop their own imagination. If children are in awe of adult-created fantasy, their creative expression often becomes more limited because they are trying to recreate something others have imagined.

The Real World is Amazing

From birth to about age six, children effortlessly absorb everything about the world. They are like sponges! This is the time when we want to introduce children to all sorts of exciting information. The options are almost limitless: species of mammals, names of flowers, land and water forms, countries in all the continents, types of clouds, pollinators, geometric solids, types of triangles, and the list goes on.

Children are fascinated by the natural world. They gain so much inspiration from their sensory explorations and interactions in their environment. Neurologically, young children are developing mental order and categorization for all their future understanding. We want to give them real information so that they have a solid foundation for their imagination and creativity to truly soar.

If we introduce children to fantastical, unreal things during the early years of their development, we divert their learning from what is amazing and wondrous about the world. In the process, we also create unnecessary confusion. For children who are still learning to discern the difference, the world of fantasy can be disorienting and even, at times, frightening.

As adults, we understand the difference between reality and fantasy, and there are times when we enjoy the diversion into the world of fantasy. For our youngest children, let’s give them the gift of building their understanding of the truly remarkable world around them. By doing so, we help them lay the foundation for a rich imaginative, and creative life.

Curious to see more about how Montessori inspires creativity and imagination? Schedule a visit to our school . We’d love to connect with you!

What does assessment look like in Montessori?

Mon, 24 Jun 2024 11:00:01 GMT

So often we get asked how Montessori guides assess children’s work and progress without relying on quizzes, tests, or grades. If we remember that Montessori is about learning for life, we can flip this question and ask, how does assessment work when we move outside school walls and step into the world of work? In our work environments, do we have tests and grades? If so, how do they help us grow and improve in what we do?

Interestingly, a 1999 document “An Employer's Guide to Good Practices” from the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration, has a whole chapter on issues and concerns with assessment, including the “limitations of tests in providing a consistently accurate and complete picture of an individual's related qualifications and potential.”

Before we dive into how we can get an accurate and complete picture of skills and potential, let’s first think about traditional forms of assessment and how they are designed to monitor students’ learning.

What do tests, quizzes, and grades really measure?

Rather than a measure of how much students have learned, grades tend to measure how good students are at getting good grades. If we want students to have curiosity and intrinsic motivation to understand, it’s important to first recognize that grades inhibit that process. Rather than concentrating on learning, students’ focus becomes on doing what it takes to get a good grade.

When students are preparing to take a test or quiz, they are trying to anticipate what will be asked. In the process, they are trying to fulfill external expectations. Often after the exam is over, students lose interest in the content because their relationship with the material is about learning certain information to achieve a grade or pass the exam.

It’s important to thus recognize that grades don’t measure students' effort, creativity, grit, compassion, sense of place in society, character, capability, or even intelligence.

Grades do measure students’ ability to memorize and anticipate what will be asked. With that in mind, students do need to show some knowledge and skill when taking an assessment. While we hope that grades measure how well students have mastered central concepts, the very act of administering a test and assigning a grade means that the outcome is based more on how well students take the test rather than how much they actually learn.

What if we designed assessments that provide a more accurate reflection thinking and problem-solving?

So it’s worth thinking about what we actually want to assess. Do we want students to just acquire new content knowledge or be able to apply this knowledge to new or existing situations? Do we want to see if students can produce something that demonstrates their understanding of the content or skill? Do we want to assess their writing ability, speaking skills, creativity, collaborative process, or organization?

If we focus on authentic assessments, we are asking that students apply what they have learned to a new situation, or perhaps we are requiring them to use some judgment to think about what information and skills are relevant and how they can be used. Similar to how adults are “tested” in work or personal life, often authentic assessments are tied to a real-world or complex situation.

In addition, authentic assessments offer students the opportunity to rehearse, practice, consult resources, and get feedback so as to refine what they are doing. Students can be innovative in this process and as a result, are often extremely self-motivated.

In Montessori classrooms, authentic assessments may take the form of:

Role-playing or performing a historical event and exploring what might have happened if things during that time period had changed.
Drawing a diagram of how a process works and showing what happens if a variable changes.
Creating an advertisement or brochure to highlight qualities or review something learned.
Writing a diary entry for a real or fictional character.
Composing a poem, play, newspaper article, or persuasive letter to share important concepts.
Writing a letter to a friend explaining a problem or technique.

Montessori students love demonstrating what they have learned in creative, authentic ways. They present to their peers. They grapple with concepts. They even sometimes teach younger classmates.

But how do teachers keep track of this learning?

In addition to authentic assessment, Montessori guides are also using their extensive training in observation techniques to understand students’ learning process, steps toward mastery, and needs for support. This is called formative assessment.

Formative assessment is a continuous, low-stakes, responsive process. This means that students are getting feedback and information while their learning is taking place. Through observation, the teacher is gauging students’ progress, determining what has been effective, and identifying what could be improved in the learning process. There are no grades involved, however the goal is mastery of the skill or content.

In a Montessori classroom, formative assessment can look like:

The guide observing students during a lesson presentation and during the students’ independent follow-up work.
Student reflection in work journals.
One-on-one conferencing with the guide and the student.
Discussion and review of content or skills.
Students informally or formally presenting their work.
Student self-evaluations.
Students correcting their mistakes and reflecting on what they learned from those mistakes.

Formative assessment doesn’t have to be teacher-driven. In fact, in Montessori classrooms, students are often getting feedback and information about their learning from the classroom materials, many of which are designed to help children learn from their mistakes as they check their own work.

Formative assessment is a collaborative process that happens “with” students rather than “to” students. Montessori students and guides partner to get to know their strengths, interests, and needs. Because this is an ongoing, collaborative process, the guide and students can make small, immediate, impactful decisions to support well-being, learning-goal achievement, and self-efficacy.

What are the results?

When students experience authentic and formative assessment as integral aspects of their education, they become self-directed learners because they are active agents in their learning process. This translates to agency in other environments and throughout life.

In Montessori classrooms, we focus on getting an accurate and complete picture of children’s skills and potential. Schedule a tour to learn more about what this looks like in action!

Developing Body Awareness

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 11:00:03 GMT

We know that our youngest children are sensory-motor learners. They are learning constantly through their movement and sensory input. Think about babies and how fascinated they are with their own hands and feet – moving, touching, looking at them with wonder and delight. This experience gives them feedback about their body, so they can identify what makes up themselves and what is external in the world.

What is Body Schema?

Body schema is the internal awareness we have of our body and the relationship of our body parts with one another. It’s essentially a perception of where our body ends and the external environment begins.

Our senses and movements are key to this awareness. When newborns feel the sensations of clothes on their bodies or when something touches their skin, these experiences give an awareness of body boundaries.

Why is the Development of Body Schema Important?

The development of body schema helps build the idea of the essence of ourselves. To have a positive idea of who we are and what our essence is, we need to have positive experiences both physically and psychologically. When children get feedback from their environment, they develop their ideas of their body scheme and ultimately their self-image.

A healthy development of body schema and self-image leads to the unity of mind and body. When our children start any kind of movement, they need the coordination of their mind and body. And to achieve more deliberate and precise movements, they need clear awareness of all of their body parts.

How Does Body Schema Develop?

Body schema is developed through sensory experiences and movement and this begins in utero! By 12 weeks unborn babies can feel the amniotic fluid, umbilical cord, and their hands in their mouth. After birth, newborns’ body schema develops more intensely through ways that we feed, handle, hold, bathe, change, and massage them.

In their first year of life, children experience dramatic changes to their body schema as they move from lying down, slithering, crawling, standing, and then walking. We thus want to offer our infants lots of opportunities to freely explore so their body schema can adjust through new accomplishments.

As children move into toddlerhood, early childhood, and middle childhood, their body schema continues to develop, but much less rapidly. However, once our children reach adolescence, they experience dramatic body changes which lead to the development of a new body scheme. For this reason, adolescents benefit from various forms of exercise and physical expression so they can develop better awareness and control of their bodies.

How Can We Help?

We want to give children activities that encourage them to use their maximum effort. This begins with the motivation to slither and crawl, then progresses to carrying items while walking upright, pushing wagons, jumping, and so much more! When our little ones use their whole body in effortful ways, they are fully present and aware of their bodies and their movements.

We can also help by using correct language for body parts. When we are giving our babies and toddlers a bath, or supporting them with getting dressed, we can playfully and positively name each body part: I’m washing behind your knee. Push your heel down into your shoe. I’m pulling the sleeve over your elbow. As children grow older we can play games of imitation where they can mimic others’ body positions. Children love games like Simon Says which provide a playful way to hone in on body awareness. Obstacle courses are great for older children.

What Should We Avoid?

Children need so many opportunities for movement! However, we rely so much on car seats and other containers that we can inadvertently hinder our babies’ development of body schema by limiting their ability to move freely. We can take them out whenever possible and let them be on a blanket on the floor.

It’s also helpful to ensure children have clothing that promotes movement and allows children to use their hands and feet. In our worry about newborns scratching themselves, we cover their hands at a time when they most need to explore this amazing part of their body and develop an awareness of how their hands and fingers move in the space around them.

When babies have prolonged use of pacifiers, they can also begin to feel like the pacifier is part of their body, which leads to great upset when the pacifier isn’t available!

The key is to remember that children need sensory feedback to develop a healthy sense of where their body is in space and how they can move their various body parts in coordinated ways. This leads to a mind-body connection that builds a healthy self-image.

What is the Result?

When children have these formative sensory-motor experiences with their bodies, they develop a strong trust in the world and themselves. The self-confidence that emerges leads to a healthy integration of mind and body and an accurate and positive perception of body scheme and self-image. Ultimately this leads to a positive attitude towards life!

If you’d like to learn more about how we support this development, visit our school . We love sharing what we do!

Looking Deeper: Understanding Needs Behind Behaviors

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 11:00:03 GMT

Now that we are transitioning into the summer months, it’s a good time to take stock of some family dynamics. Usually when thinking about how things are going, we focus on children’s behaviors. Yet reflecting upon ourselves and our actions can also be a helpful first step.

First Look at Needs

Psychiatrist Rudolf Dreikurs has explored how human behavior has a purpose. Sometimes we are aware of the purpose and sometimes it is unconscious. Through his work with children, Dreikurs described how to understand behavior by first acknowledging the needs a person is trying to fulfill.

At the most basic level, we all need food, sleep, love, and protection. Certainly, if children (or adults) are starting to act out in some way, the first question to ask is if they are hungry, tired, or not feeling well. Once those basic needs are met, we can consider what else might be at play.

As humans, our need for belonging, connection, or significance is a strong force. If we don’t feel loved or accepted, we may do something (often unconsciously) to get affection or attention, maybe lash out to get even with whoever doesn't seem to be noticing these needs, or perhaps even retreat into a discouraged mode.

Understand Mistaken Goals

Dreikurs identified how many behaviors stem from four mistaken goals: the desire for attention, the need for power, the hunger for revenge, and the assumption of inadequacy. If our goal is attention, the coded message behind the behavior is "notice me" or "involve me usefully" If we need power, our behavior sends the message that we need meaningful ways to contribute. If we are trying to get revenge, we are communicating that we are hurting or need our feelings validated. And when we assume inadequacy by giving up or wanting to be left alone, the message behind the behavior is that we need people to believe in us and show small steps toward success.

Although Dreikurs focused on children, the principles apply to us all. When we "act out," what are we trying to communicate to those around us? First and foremost, we should check and see if our basic needs are being met. Are we taking time to breathe? Are we eating nourishing food? Are we getting substantial sleep? If we are taking care of our basic needs, we can reflect upon what else might unconsciously be motivating our actions. Do we need someone to notice our efforts? Do we feel powerful in our lives? Are we doing work that matters? Are we holding onto a grudge? Are we discouraged?

Practice Self-Acceptance

Children need the adults in their lives to peer behind their behavior, consider underlying causes, and provide empowering support. As adults, however, we often need to do this for ourselves first. At the heart of the process is self-acceptance. We need to love ourselves unconditionally and give ourselves the time and space to attend to our unconscious motivations.

One of the first acts of loving kindness we can do is take care of ourselves, notice our own needs, and patiently honor our efforts. When we are clear about our own needs, we can then be more effective in interpreting our children’s unmet or unspoken needs.

Examine the Clues

Once we have given ourselves some grace, we can better pause and notice what might be behind our children’s behavior. If we’ve considered our own unmet needs, we can have more empathy for what might be unconsciously motivating our children.

A key to this is to see what emotions we feel when our children act out in some way. The Positive Discipline approach, which is based on Dreikurs’ work, offers a helpful tool called the Mistaken Goal Chart .

When our children display some sort of bothersome or upsetting behavior, we can use this chart to hone in on three significant clues that let us know what our children actually need.

The first clue can be found in recognizing what emotions our children’s behavior brings up for us. Do we feel annoyed and irritated, angry and challenged, hurt and disappointed, or hopeless and inadequate?

The next clue is how we react to the behavior. Do we coax? Give in? Fight back? Retaliate? Give up? Try to over-help?

The third clue is how our children respond to our reactions. Do they stop temporarily but then resume the behavior? Does the behavior intensify? Is there retaliation? Or just passivity?

Peel Back the Layers

By using the Mistaken Goal Chart, we can begin to peel back the layers and start to understand what beliefs may be underlying children’s behaviors. This process helps us also look at how we may be contributing to the behavior and what the coded messages mean. Once we understand all of those pieces we can shift our responses so as to better empower our children in proactive and helpful ways.

Rather than falling into unconscious patterns this summer, let’s first consider and acknowledge our own unspoken needs and proactive ways to take care of ourselves. Then, let’s take the same compassionate approach with our children. Often, we all just need to feel a sense of belonging, connection, and significance. Here’s to creating that together this summer!

As always, please also feel free to schedule a visit . We love connecting about all things children and child-rearing!

Our Montessori Bookshelf: The Parent Corner

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 11:00:01 GMT

This summer is a great time to carve out a little adult time and disappear into some good books! While we certainly advocate for some mindless escape, we also recognize that all the extra time with family might mean you’d like some parenting resources, too!

With that in mind, we’re sharing a few of our recent favorite resources for parents and caregivers. While these aren’t specifically Montessori books, they are so aligned with what we do that we just had to share!

Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans

by Michaeleen Doucleff

While in the midst of parenting a feisty toddler, NPR correspondent, Michaeleen Doucleff was covering medical stories in remote areas of the world. An exhausted and slightly strung-out new mom, Doucleff noticed distinct differences in the parenting practices of cultures she visited and those she was trying to uphold in her home in San Francisco. So she shifted gears and immersed herself, with her two-year-old in tow, in three cultures — the Maya, the Hadzabe, and the Inuit, all of which excel in instilling confidence, kindness, and helpfulness in their children.

What Doucleff experienced and learned as she lived with families in these three cultures is quite simply profound. She saw firsthand how her host families interacted differently with her daughter, Rosy, who blossomed as a result. As Doucleff began to internalize different parenting practices, she also found that her relationship with Rosy transformed.

It’s worth noting that none of the cultures Doucleff experienced are frozen in time: the families have smartphones, children have plenty of screen time, junk food exists, and the kids still have to get out the door to get to school on time. However, a significant difference that Doucleff found is that the families’ parenting is grounded in thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) of years of tradition that support the gentle and kind growth of helpful, self-sufficient little humans.

One of the most endearing parts of the book is Doucleff’s vulnerability in sharing her parenting challenges. So often we want to keep those parenting fails tucked away within the confines of our home, and feel mortified when they rear their heads in the drop-off line or at a play date. Doucelff shares the messy details with honesty and in the process inspires a whole new level of compassion for what it means to parent in the Western world where we don’t necessarily have easy access to our extended families, a wide social safety net, and long-standing traditions that support our parenting journey.

With an engaging narrative flow, Hunt, Gather, Parent offers a clear organization of four core elements that comprise a common thread of what Doucleff calls a universal (non-Western) approach to parenting. Plus, in each section, she offers practical steps for trying out these different elements, including ways to “dip your toe” into the approach, as well as ways to “jump in.”

While Doucleff wrote the book to explore how to better connect with and support her toddler, the concepts and advice apply for all-aged children (and even work for teens and pre-teens!). The results are stunning. Even just dipping your toe into a few strategies is transformative.

If there is one book to make sure you read this summer, this is it!

13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don't Do: Raising Self-Assured Children and Training Their Brains for a Life of Happiness, Meaning, and Success

by Amy Morin

So often we want to rescue our children, clear the path for their success, and ensure they are happy. But in the process, are we helping them develop the internal skills they will need throughout life?

After experiencing a series of personal tragedies, Amy Morin, a clinical social worker, psychotherapist, and foster parent, began thinking about what helps people be resilient. Ultimately this led to her book, 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do. As people read her book, she heard time and time again that readers wished they had learned the skills of mental strength and resilience from an early age. So she created this incredibly helpful guide for parents and caregivers.

Each chapter is devoted to what to avoid so that good, healthy habits can be cultivated. The 13 things mentally strong parents don’t do are:

They Don’t Condone a Victim Mentality
They Don’t Parent out of Guilt
They Don’t Make Their Child the Center of the Universe
They Don’t Allow Fear to Dictate Their Choices
They Don’t Give Their Child Power Over Them
They Don’t Expect Perfection
They Don’t Let Their Child Avoid Responsibility
They Don’t Shield Their Child from Pain
They Don’t Feel Responsible for Their Child’s Emotions
They Don’t Prevent Their Child from Making Mistakes
They Don’t Confuse Discipline with Punishment
They Don’t Take Shortcuts to Avoid Discomfort
They Don’t Lose Sight of Their Values

To make it manageable, Morin provides real-life examples and breaks them down to examine any underlying problems and key issues. She also provides a little self-reflective opportunity for readers to take a look at how these issues might come up in our personal and parenting lives, before then examining why we might be falling into some unhelpful patterns.

With a better grasp of what we are doing and why, Morin helps us look at how each approach can affect our children in the long run and what we can do instead. Every chapter is full of concrete techniques and steps, as well as troubleshooting guidelines and common traps. To drive the message home, Morin recaps each of the 13 points with what is and isn’t helpful.

If you need a straightforward, easy-to-digest guide to changing some parenting habits, this is the book for you!

No More Mean Girls: The Secret to Raising Strong, Confident, and Compassionate Girls

By Katie Hurley

Many of the books written to address the “mean girl” dynamic are geared toward pre-teens and teens. However, in her work, child and adolescent psychotherapist, Katie Hurley, observed more and more of this “mean girl” dynamic starting as early as age three. Even though they are in the midst of these interactions, our young girls don’t necessarily have the skills to cope with such sophisticated social challenges.

Recognizing that these difficult topics can also feel overwhelming for parents and caregivers, Hurley breaks down the components of how we can support our young girls in a variety of ways. In addition to digging into the bigger concepts – such as developing healthy friendships, distinguishing between likability and popularity, building an authentic self, having a voice and expressing yourself, and developing leadership skills and social responsibility – Hurley weaves in two key ways to practice concrete support through sections she calls “Parent-Teacher Conference” and “Girls Can!”

The Parent-Teacher Conference boxes offer key points to digest, look for, or try. They are incredibly helpful as touch-points throughout the book and offer an easy-to-access way to flip back and reconnect with essential elements of each chapter. The Girls Can! sections provide games and activities to try with the girls in your life, as well as ways to introduce concepts we might not be used to talking about.

While this is primarily a guide for parents of girls ages three to thirteen, so much also applies to our boys, especially those who are perhaps more sensitive. Incredibly practical and chock full of what to do, this is the type of book in which you’ll thoroughly dog-ear the pages!

We’d love to hear what you think of these books! Please reach out to schedule a visit and we can talk more about parenting challenges and how we can support you.

An Expansive Experience: Music in Montessori

Mon, 27 May 2024 11:00:01 GMT

In Montessori, music is both interwoven into the curriculum and its own area of study. Like with the other subjects in Montessori, music begins sensorially, isolates difficulty through key lessons, and engages children in spontaneous forms of expression.

Sensorial & Connected Experiences

In our Toddler and Children’s House classrooms, we first offer sensorial experiences and impressions related to music. We encourage listening and awareness, perhaps hearing the snap of the snaps of the dressing frame or noticing the delicacy of the sound when placing a glass vase on a tray. The sound cylinders also help children distinguish fine gradations of softness and loudness. In the Silence Game, children become attuned to the many types of sounds around them when they sit quietly and listen.

Children are also able to link music and movement through the rhythm work in walking on the line activities, as well as simple activity rhymes, chants, and a wide repertoire of songs. In fact, we sing with the children every day because singing together is a powerful community builder!

We also offer children opportunities to listen to the music of various cultures. They love the challenge of identifying instruments by the sounds that they make, too.

Keys to Music

We use the bells in our primary programs, and the tone bars in our elementary classrooms, for music literacy (the reading, writing, and playing of music), as well as music theory, including notes, scales, chords, rhythm, melody, harmony, and form.

With the lovely Montessori bells, children begin to discriminate pitch by first playing individual bells, and then pairing and grading according to pitch. Next, they move on to naming the pitches and matching the pitches with their notes. Eventually, children learn the placement of the notes on the musical staff, as well as how scales and melodies can be written with notes on the staff.

In elementary classrooms, the work continues with the tone bars, as children learn about the degrees of the scale, intervals, the sequence of major scales with sharps and flats, key signatures, transposition, and the naming and notation of minor scales.

In Montessori, music is not a separate subject, only to be taught in a separate room by a specialist teacher. We want music to be an integral part of the daily life in the learning environment. As such, the Montessori music program provides keys to music that can be presented by any trained Montessori teacher regardless of musical background.

A Form of Language

Ultimately, music is a language of communication. Because music is a language, we think about music development as we do children’s language development and honor both the “spoken stage” and “written stage.”

Within the spoken stage, we may observe children picking away at bells or tone bars, striking notes without any apparent purpose. We treat this activity with respect as it represents the babbling stage of music.

The children eventually sing and play (on the Montessori’s bells and tone bar materials, as well as other instruments) and later they write and read music. Just like with the moveable alphabet for language, children can use a moveable alphabet for music notation to be able to write their own compositions. At this point, we often see children explode into music performance and notation, just as they explode into writing and reading.

While the bells and tone bars are used for many purposes, including work with music notation, they are first and foremost musical instruments and children love incorporating songs into classroom performances and sharing.

Expansive Program

In our primary and elementary communities, the music program is vast and includes music appreciation and history, singing, movement/dance, rhythm, pitch, intensity, timbre, form, style, listening, instrumental work, music theory, and the science behind the music.

By isolating difficulties and providing various preparation of skills, even our young children come to extemporaneous and spontaneous composition.

Music is part of culture and thus we want to ensure that our children have contact with the world of music. The future musicians among them will connect to their life’s path and their life’s work at an early age! Even those who don’t go on to study music develop an appreciation for and understanding of this important part of human culture.

We’d love for you to hear this harmony for yourself! Please reach out to schedule a tour!

A Summer Path to Independence

Mon, 20 May 2024 11:00:01 GMT

Has your child ever vehemently resisted the idea of summer camp? Perhaps between not knowing anyone and having to try new things, they may think the experience is just short of sheer torture!

In the face of our kids’ resistance, it can be hard to insist on our children’s engagement in a summer camp experience. But it’s important to remember the very real benefits of having broader social experiences, stretching in new ways, and trying new skills.

Offering Clear Support

In these moments when our children resist, it’s important to both acknowledge their feelings while also staying firm about what will happen. Often they have an underlying desire to take on a new challenge, and maybe are even experiencing some frustration, perhaps with their own fears and uncertainties.

The process is a bit like what happens with infants on the cusp of crawling. They rock back and forth on their hands and knees, sometimes crying in exasperation. They want to crawl, to move toward some interesting object on the floor, but seem to feel unable to make that first move.

A Path Toward Independence

From birth, our children are on a path toward independence. When they are very young we can clearly see the stages, from being held in arms to sitting, then from sitting to crawling to walking. We witness them begin to babble and then talk. With each new skill, our children develop self-confidence and learn what they are capable of achieving.

The more children have the opportunity to confidently explore their environment, the more they master developmental tasks and establish new skills, all of which help to support a widening sense of independence.

The urge to become independent is strong. As adults, we can be supportive of this natural process, even when our children are entering into activities that feel challenging and even initially unattainable.

Letting Go

If you are exploring summer camp as a step toward independence, be sure to check out Dr. Michael Thompson’s book, Homesick and Happy: How Time Away from Parents Can Help a Child Grow. Thompson clearly outlines how important it is for our children to have their own experiences, especially those that are not under parents’ purview.

This letting go can take great effort for both children and their parents. “Every child has to practice being independent,” reminds Thompson, “and every parent has to practice letting his or her child be independent.”

In order to achieve independence, children need to be able to experiment with what they can do and be able to accurately judge their own limitations and abilities. The summer camp experience, whether overnight or day programming, offers children this chance to push their limits, without worrying about varied reactions from parents.

Their Own Experiences

Thompson conducted hundreds of interviews with campers and former campers for his book, Homesick and Happy, How Time Away from Parents Can Help a Child Grow. Overwhelmingly, children described how their camp experiences helped them realize how strong and competent they really are. Thompson reminds us of the importance of being away from home and out of parents’ loving, yet sometimes overbearing, watchful eye. “When children are away from their parents, they do not have to view their own life and achievements through the lens of my-athlete-father-standing-on-the-sidelines-watching-me or my-mother-is-worried-that-I’ll fail. When a child is on his own, the experience is his alone, the satisfaction belongs only to him and he does not have to filter it through what his parents think and feel.” When in a summer camp program, children can fail, learn, and succeed on their own terms.

With an engaged and expanded learning environment that is often extremely experiential, camps help our children realize new abilities and different ways to deal with challenges, which helps them feel more competent and capable. As a result, they build up their problem-solving skills and sense of agency.

Opportunities Abound

In addition, our children get to form healthy new relationships, with peers and friends, as well as adults who are not their parents. In a summer camp atmosphere, children get to practice social skills in a relaxed environment and with adult leaders who can offer different kinds of guidance.

In addition to introducing new people and activities, camp experiences help children learn about their strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes, all of which help them form a strong sense of identity. Finding their strength, as well as making hard-won progress in areas of difficulty, helps children build self-esteem and identify worthwhile hobbies and interests that they can continue to pursue as they get older.

Often children’s response after the camp experience speaks to their awareness of claiming their space and being aware of a parental reaction. For example, one eight-year-old, after the first day of camp, told her camp counselor: “Don’t tell my mom, but summer camp is really fun.”

This summer, let’s offer our children the opportunity to face something that might at first feel uncomfortable, but that offers them so much.

The Power of Color

Mon, 13 May 2024 11:00:02 GMT

When you look inside a Montessori classroom, you’ll notice the general attractiveness and warm quality of the room. As you peruse the environment, you may also notice the array of colorful materials on the shelves and how they stand out in contrast to some of the neutral feel of the rest of the room.

These colorful learning materials are designed for beauty so that our young children will be drawn to them. However, this isn’t the only reason Montessori materials have distinct colors. The color-coding also helps with organization and structure in the learning environment, and perhaps even more importantly, plays an important role in facilitating children’s cognitive development and learning.

Creating External and Internal Order

In our toddler and primary classrooms, practical life—activities like scrubbing a table, cleaning a window, watering a plant, or creating a flower arrangement—are set up so that all of the objects for a particular activity are arranged by color. This way young children can rely on color cues to know what objects go together and to independently access supplies, like getting a dry apron.

Sensorial materials often use color to help isolate a quality and help children develop their perception. For example, when discriminating dimensions with the pink tower, all of the cubes are the same shade of pink. Color-coding is also used to help children pair two identical sets of materials, like when matching sounds with the sound cylinders.

These forms of color-coding help children with both the order in their surroundings and also in constructing an internal sense of order.

Integrated Throughout

The color-coding gets even more interesting as children move into more academic subjects, like language, mathematics, and even geography.

When our primary children begin to use puzzle maps, they start with the continent map, a two-dimensional representation of Earth, and the continent globe, which shows the planet as a sphere. The puzzle map and the globe show the continents, and each is painted a distant color: North America is orange, South America is pink, Europe is red, Asia is yellow, Africa is green, Oceania is brown, and Antarctica is white. As children begin to learn the physical representation of each continent, they also associate a color with that continent. All other learning materials that involve the continents–such as picture packets, information cards, or booklets–maintain this color scheme.

In the math materials, children learn to associate a quantity with both the number of beads represented and the color of those beads. The beads are the same size but change only by the number on the bead bar and the color. So a ten bar is always constructed of ten gold beads, a nine bar with nine dark blue beads, eight with brown, seven with white, six with light purple, five with light blue, four with yellow, three with pink, two with green, and one with red. This color scheme is consistent throughout all the math materials that use the bead bars, from the simplest lessons in the primary to advanced cubing and cube roots in the elementary and beyond.

Similarly, there is clear and consistent color coding in other materials and concepts, such as with the hierarchy of numbers to designate place value or the role of different parts of speech with the grammar materials.

Strengthening Neural Pathways

While this color coding does continue to help with organization and structure, now the color also helps children with their cognition and memory. Color has long been used as an effective tool in marketing, through brand recognition, consumer attitude, and purchasing decisions.

How the brain processes color impacts our children’s attention, comprehension, and retention. Dr. Maria Montessori may not have had all the current-day studies at her disposal, but she did recognize the power of color in the learning process.

We now know that color connects neural pathways and integrates different forms of intelligence, which allows learners to construct more consolidated meaning and make deeper cognitive connections with content.

When learning the quantity of six, children count the six light purple beads on the bar to determine the quantity of six. At the same time, neurologically they are creating pathways in their brain for quick and easy recall when they see the light purple bead bar so they can immediately think “six” in the future rather than having to count the beads.

Later, when children start to use the bead bars for advanced work with compound multiplication, the distributive law, squaring, cubing, and so much more, the neural connections they have are strengthened by both a clear and concrete understanding of the quantity and the associated color.

Leading to Abstraction

The color-coding in math, language, and other subjects, also helps children move from the very concrete to more abstraction and symbolic representation.

Because they learn to associate nouns with black equilateral triangles and verbs with red circles, as children analyze sentence structure they can begin to parse out the subject and predicate by using those two color-coded shapes and eventually even just the color.

With the understanding that our decimal system place values have associated colors–units are in green, tens are blue, hundreds are red–children can better conceptualize the pattern in the numerical hierarchies because unit thousands are also green, ten thousands are blue, hundred thousands are red, and then unit millions are green, and so on.

This color-coding also helps when we move into operations with larger numbers and quantities. When children move from very tangible representations of a bar of ten beads to represent ten and a square of one hundred beads to represent a hundred, they use small color-coded tiles with just the color and number. Thus children can manipulate a blue tile with 10 printed on it and a red tile with 100 printed on it, and (thanks to the neural pathways established) fully understand what those tiles represent as they add, subtract, multiply, and divide.

A Powerful Aid

The power of color is fully integrated throughout Montessori classrooms and provides an amazing aid to children’s cognitive development. In addition to helping memory and learning, the color brings beauty and appeal to our learning environments while also supporting children’s independence!

We recommend coming to see this for yourself. There are so many examples of how color brings learning to light. Schedule a tour today!

Walking on the Line

Mon, 06 May 2024 11:00:01 GMT

Our young children are developing their body control, concentration, and equilibrium. So in Montessori, we intentionally provide opportunities for them to practice these skills.

Dr. Maria Montessori was especially curious about helping children acquire equilibrium. She developed the “walking on the line” exercises after observing children's interest and delight in walking on curbs or along any line they could find.

What is Walking on the Line?

We first start by creating a designated place for children to practice the balance, control, and focus needed to walk along a line. The “line” is often in the shape of an ellipse and can be in the classroom, another indoor space, or even outdoors. The line can be temporary (e.g. chalked on the ground), slightly more enduring (e.g. created with fabric or electrical tape on the floor), or painted onto the surface for a more permanent line.

Walking on the line is a favorite activity and although it is mostly found in primary classrooms, elementary children also enjoy walking on the line challenges, too!

Preliminary Activities

The first activity on the line is simply walking on it with natural steps. That being said, we start with preliminary exercises to help children master small components to ensure success when multiple children are involved.

The first stage is learning how to come to the line. We introduce a signal (e.g. one drumbeat) and show children how to put their toes on the line and face towards the center when they hear that signal. Then we play a short game with the children. We might have them hop inside the line, then use the signal as an indication to come back to the line, or go for a walk and come back to the line, take a step backward and come back to the line, and so forth. All of this is to practice hearing the signal and coming to the line in the designated way.

When children can do this consistently, we may introduce another challenge. This time, with a new signal (perhaps two drumbeats), children learn how to make space so they can spread out on the line without touching their neighbors.

With this mastered, children are ready to learn how to turn to face the same direction. We often need to assist so children learn how facing the same way means looking at the back of their neighbor’s head (rather than at another student’s eyes). This new skill requires a new signal (e.g. rubbing the drum)!

Learning and practicing these various preliminary activities can take a series of days or even weeks. We take our time, rather than rushing the process, as children find delight with each component. Once they know all three signals, children love playing a game that incorporates coming to the line, making space, and turning to face the same direction.

Walking to a Beat

With these foundations in place, we introduce walking to a beat. Children know how to come to the line, space themselves out, and turn to face the same direction. Now they try to walk on the line with each step corresponding to the beat of the drum. When the beat stops, they stop. This is quite a challenge for our little ones, but also great fun.

As always, we make a game of the experience. We may offer little suggestions, or points of interest, to aid in their success. If we notice little feet moving off the line, we can suggest that children “follow the line” if. Or we may challenge them with different kinds of instructions: walk with your whole body, hold your chin up, relax your arms, or keep your body very still.

We also try to model a natural heartbeat rhythm for the children to walk to. When the beat stops, we teach the children to stop and turn to face the inside of the ellipse.

Walking with Changing Rhythms

When children are walking consistently to a beat, we let the children know we may change the beat and they can change their steps to follow the beat. We start with the natural beat, then introduce different modulations, from speeding up, coming back to a natural rhythm, slowing down, to coming back to the original beat. We always end with the natural rhythm, for it brings children back to a place of calm.

Equilibrium Exercises

With equilibrium exercises, we introduce challenges such as walking on the line heel to toe or carrying objects such as beads on a string, a container of water, an object on a tray, or a sphere on a spoon. Sometimes children try to walk carrying a bean bag on their head without the bean bag falling as they walk. As an added challenge, children can try turning their heads to the right and left.

We also introduce ways for children to adjust to a changed center of balance. In a “follow the leader” method, we start by walking with hands at our side, but then change and move them in the air, or on hips, or even hands on shoulders. While these adjustments may seem simple for adults, continuing to walk heel to toe while making these movements can take a lot of concentration and balance for our young ones!

Rhythm Exercises

When children have made good progress with their equilibrium, we can help them turn their attention to walking on the line with music. We may use the bells, tone bars, or prerecorded music, so children can walk on the line when they hear the music and stop when the music stops. We eventually introduce different types of music that inspire different types of movement, from walking to marching to galloping or skipping.

Alternating between the types of music helps children become attuned to how their movements change according to what they hear. We always end with a slow, sedate walk on the line to bring everyone’s heart rate and energy level down.

Movement as Expression

With all of the walking on the line activities, children begin to become more aware of what they can do with their bodies and as a result, develop more conscious control of their movement. Ultimately movement is an essential component of human expression. To see more about how these kinds of movement activities help children’s development, please be sure to schedule a tour to visit our school!

Materials Spotlight: The Timeline of Life

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 11:00:00 GMT

Nothing quite captures the imagination of elementary-aged children more than the Timeline of Life. Developmentally our six- to twelve-year-olds can start creating temporal order and timelines are a perfect way for them to visually explore and understand the passage of time.

We share timelines as a key part of the Montessori Cosmic Education curriculum, through which we provide a holistic understanding of the universe, Earth's history, and humanity's place within it. The Timeline of Life is the first in a series of prepared timelines in Montessori elementary classrooms and it provides a series of engaging activities designed to help children grasp the vastness of time, the interdependency of all living things, and how human life is a continuation of much that has come before.

Presentation & Introduction

When we first present the Timeline of Life, we often share it in panoramic form, unrolling the timeline as we tell an overarching story. But one of the gifts of the timeline is that it can be used in multiple ways! We can also focus on one panel of the timeline and explore the pictures from a particular period or epoch, provide information about one specific organism across the timeline (e.g. the development and decline of the trilobites), delve into details about one picture on the timeline, or even just explore the various symbols, terms, and conventions used in the timeline.

Our presentation of the Timeline of Life can be a combination of a historical overview of the progression of life through the ages, an examination of the influence that life has had on the non-living parts of the world, and a corresponding examination of the influence that the non-living parts of the world have had on living organisms.

These presentations provide the children with the opportunity to sequence details of the story of life on Earth while also offering almost unlimited opportunities for more in-depth research throughout their years in the Montessori elementary classroom.

Highlights & Possibilities

The timeline visually illustrates several major milestones of life on Earth, including:

how life forms arose in the oceans,
the appearance of multi-cellular organisms,
the evolution of creatures with a spinal column and backbone,
how some plants and animals began to move onto the land,
the appearance of land-based plants with roots and stems,
how amphibians were succeeded by reptiles (who placed the water that their eggs required inside the eggs),
the emergence of flowering plants,
how birds and mammals were better able to deal with variations in the temperature around them and devoted more care to their young, and
how humans, with neither fur nor feathers, sharp teeth or claws, could use their hands, heads, and hearts to adapt to their environment.

After presenting Timeline of Life basics, we return to the material repeatedly to explore more details and offer new avenues of investigation. We might introduce more of the creatures on the timeline, the names of the eras and their etymology, the red lines showing linkages through the timeline, or the visual cues demonstrating the timing of the ice ages. We might explore the rising of mountain ranges, the deposition of salt and coal, the shapes of land masses throughout prehistory, the rise of flowering plants, and creatures (like the horseshoe crab) that appear now as they appeared in those ancient times. The Timeline of Life can inspire children to explore fossils and fossilization, and even embrace aspects of organic chemistry! As children become more sophisticated in their thinking, we present new facets of the timeline.

Children also enjoy using a blank timeline to see if they can recreate the Timeline of Life by placing loose pictures held in a folder or container for each era. When all of the loose pictures are correctly placed, the result matches the Timeline of Life. As a result, children often use the blank timeline to test themselves on how much they remember.

Children are often inspired to set up little Going Out trips to learn more about something on the Timeline of Life or create scale drawings of the massive and minute creatures they learn about from the timeline. Children also love to share their discoveries through carts, dioramas, models, and booklets.

Awe & Wonder

Above all, the Timeline of Life helps children grasp the wonders of deep time and the complexity of life that surrounds us wherever we look. They are fascinated by how long the earth went with no life to just how long it has taken for life to develop from proto-organisms to complex mammals.

In Montessori elementary classrooms, the Timeline of Life is not merely a subject of study but a source of wonder and inspiration. As they use the timeline, children are immersed in the rich tapestry of life's history and as a result, develop a deep sense of connection to the natural world and a profound respect for all living beings.

We invite you to schedule a tour to see how children embark on a lifelong journey of learning and discovery through hands-on experiences with materials such as the Timeline of Life!

Our Montessori Bookshelf: The Power of Plants

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 11:00:01 GMT

In Montessori, we want to ensure that children are immersed in the wonders of the natural world and biology is interwoven into daily life through experiences and more formal lessons.

Certain themes permeate our study of biology, one of which is the fact that all forms of life have needs, which must be satisfied if the organism is to be able to survive and reproduce. A top priority is the need for food. This is one way we distinguish plants from animals. Plants can make their own food. They have to satisfy their needs wherever they grow.

Our presentations help children appreciate how alive plants are! We want to help children identify the miraculous powers of plants, which leads to explorations of plant anatomy and the functions of parts of plants. Often children are then inspired to cultivate and care for their own plants.

Children are captured by the beauty and power of the plant world. Because they often love to pour through botany books, we’re sharing some of our favorites. We hope these books inspire more investigation, exploration, and perhaps even some home-based growing and gardening!

Flowers are Calling

By Rita Grey, Illustrated by Kenard Pak

This book is an excellent introduction or companion to Montessori lessons on the story of the flowers, parts of the flower, and how flowers ensure pollination. Grey weaves together a lovely narrative of what creatures do or don’t respond to flowers’ calls. The simple rhyming storyline appeals to the youngest children, while specifics about adaptations of particular flowers and pollinators can spark the interest of older investigators. The end of the book offers an invitation to children to look again at the flowers before them and offers insights into what children may see–color, pattern, shape, smell, and time of opening–and what those means in terms of the types of pollinators the flowers are trying to attract.

From Seed to Plant

By Gail Gibbons

Although seemingly simple in its illustrations and text, this picture book provides an excellent overview of multiple botany lessons we explore in Montessori classrooms: from pollination to seed dispersal, parts of a flower to parts of a seed, and more! This is a handy reference book for young children and a perfect introduction to complex concepts. Plus, a seven-step “From Seed to Plant” project at the end of the book is a perfect activity for young botanists.

Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas

By Cheryl Bardot, Illustrated by Jos. A. Smith

Although in picture book form, this is an excellent introduction for more advanced thinkers and budding scientists who are curious about genetics and/or botany. The story follows the life of Gregor Mendel, a curious young boy who, despite great obstacles, was able to continue his studies and eventually conduct elaborate experiments to better understand how species pass on genetic traits to their offspring. This fascinating story of perseverance and exactitude also overlays nicely with a study of botany. The author’s note at the end is worth a read, too!

Harlem Grown: How One Big Idea Transformed a Neighborhood

By Tony Hillery, Illustrated by Jessie Hartland

This true story by the founder and director of Harlem Grown provides an inspiring reminder of the power of people coming together to create change. A trash-filled lot across from a school gets transformed into a community garden. Little details in the story, like the protagonist’s wilting plant, offer a reminder that it’s possible to try again, with bountiful results! Additional resources at the end of the book offer steps for starting a garden anywhere, as well as websites and additional books for both children and adults.

Jayden’s Impossible Garden

By Mélina Mangal, Illustrated by Ken Daley

Sometimes it is the power of many that makes a difference and sometimes it is the power of a few. This story is about one boy who believes that there is nature amidst his city streets, how he finds someone who feels the same way, and what they create together by paying attention to the little things that bring them joy. The result? They highlight the beauty around them and can show others the magic of nature, right in the middle of their city. For children inspired by this story, there are instructions at the end (which require a bit of adult support) for inviting nature into our lives through recycled crafts, such as a coffee container planter and milk jug bird feeder.

Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life

By Molly Bang and Penn y Chisholm, Illustrated by Molly Bang

With classic Molly Bang vibrant colors, this picture book brings the complexity of how photosynthesis connects the energy of the sun and all living things on Earth into a format that even young children can enjoy. The text provides a perfect balance of being accessible to all ages and yet rich enough with scientific concepts to appeal to elementary learners. For those especially keen on the science, the authors provide a complete breakdown of the concepts with each idea connected to thumbnail images from pages throughout the book. And if that weren’t enough, the book provides a meditative, heart-centered message that can help readers feel both grounded in themselves and connected to the universe.

Miss Rumphius

By Barbara Cooney

Although not specifically about botany, this inspiring tale is a must-have for any home library. A little girl shares the story of her great-aunt Alice (or Miss Rumphius), a story with an underlying message of how one person can make the world more beautiful. After many worldwide adventures, Miss Rumphius realizes she can help the wind and birds spread lupine seeds. So she does. One of the most beautiful aspects of this story is how it weaves together the cycles of life with how we can inspire the next generation to continue making the world more beautiful, in whatever ways we can.

Plants that Never Bloom

By Ruth Heller

An excellent follow-up to The Reason for a Flower, this book explores the magical world of fungi, ferns, algae, and more. It references the ancient nature of some of these non-flowering plants and also the peculiar exceptions, such as gymnosperms. This picture book provides a wonderful launching pad for further studies of the plant world!

The Reason for a Flower

By Ruth Heller

In her rhyming prose and vivid illustrations, Heller takes us on a lively journey through the purposes and practicalities of flowering plants. She artfully blends text and image, while ensuring the information is precise and accurate. The Reason for a Flower is a wonderful companion to any study of flowers and at the very end plants a seed (pun intended) for the companion book, Plants that Never Bloom.

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt

By Kate Messner, Illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal

From the creators of Over and Under the Snow, this picture book takes young readers on a seasonal journey through the seen and unseen of a backyard garden. While a child and her grandmother tend the soil, enjoy their harvest, and shift with the seasons, a whole host of organisms also do their work down in the dirt. This is a great way to introduce the interconnectedness of life and how humans are amongst many amazing creatures doing beautiful work. The end-of-book details about all the animals illustrated throughout the pages are an amazing bonus, too!

We hope these books inspire some outdoor exploration. You can download a printable list of these titles for your next visit to the bookstore or library. Also, if you’d like any inspiration for how to incorporate botany studies into your child’s life, come visit our school . We love to share more about what we do.

Let’s Go Outside: Benefits for Our Children (and Ourselves!)

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 11:00:01 GMT

Our world–and as a result our children’s world–is increasingly dominated by screens and schedules. As such, the importance of reconnecting with nature has become more important than ever.

Dr. Maria Montessori believed in providing children with an environment that encourages exploration, independence, and self-discovery. Central to Montessori philosophy is the concept of the prepared environment, where every element is thoughtfully designed to support a child's natural development. Nature, with its infinite wonders and stimuli, serves as the ultimate prepared environment, offering boundless opportunities for social interaction, emotional regulation, and self-awareness.

Social-Emotional Benefits of Outdoor Play

As humans, we are biologically designed to be outdoors. E.O. Wilson described this predisposition to connect to nature as the “biophilia hypothesis.” Numerous studies outline quantifiable benefits to being out of doors. Business Insider even offers “11 Scientifically Proven Reasons You Should Go Outside.”

For children, spending time outdoors promotes emotional well-being and resilience by providing opportunities for risk-taking and self-discovery. In nature, children can push their boundaries, overcome obstacles, and learn from their mistakes.

Think about the very act of climbing a tree. In addition to practicing courage and perseverance, children have the chance to trust their instincts, assess risks, and develop confidence in their abilities. The result? Children develop a sense of agency and self-efficacy, laying the foundation for healthy emotional development and positive self-esteem.

Another profound social-emotional benefit of outdoor experiences is the opportunity for unstructured play and peer interaction. In the natural world, children are free to engage in imaginative play, negotiate conflicts, and develop essential social skills. Whether building forts, climbing trees, or playing games, outdoor play fosters cooperation, communication, and empathy as children navigate social dynamics and collaborate with peers.

Time in Nature Promotes Self-Regulation

Time in nature also helps us heal. The children’s book, When Sophie Gets Angry – Really, Really Angry by Molly Bang offers a reminder about the power of going outside when we need to find some inner peace. In the story, Sophie, a young child upset by a sibling interaction, runs outside. Dis-regulated and angry she runs and runs until she can't run anymore. Then she cries. She climbs her favorite tree and the wide world comforts her.

When children hear this book, they hang onto every word, as if soaking up Sophie’s experience. Yet how often do we let our children slam the door, run outside, and seek solace in nature? How often do we, as adults, do this?

One reason why we can find solace in nature is due to being immersed in a unique sensory experience. From the soothing sound of rustling leaves to the calming sight of flowing water, the outdoors provides a multisensory environment that promotes relaxation, stress reduction, and emotional grounding.

Cultivating Inner Calm and Interconnectedness

By spending time in nature, children have an opportunity, like Sophie, to connect with their inner landscape while being immersed in an external landscape. This process cultivates a sense of belonging, purpose, and interconnectedness. As children explore natural ecosystems, observe wildlife, and experience the cycles of the seasons, they develop a profound appreciation for the beauty and complexity of the natural world. This sense of awe and wonder instills a deep sense of stewardship and environmental responsibility.

In Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods, he coins the phrase “nature-deficit disorder” to describe the costs of our alienation from nature. Think about your children. Do you see a difference after they’ve spent time outside? Maybe it’s the fresh air, or the room to run, or just the possibility they find in a corner of a grassy field. Think about yourself and the difference in your feelings when you take the time to be outdoors, even if only to take a stroll down the street as the day shifts to dusk.

In this age of trying to provide our children with the best opportunities, shouldn’t we be giving them more time outside? This spring is an excellent time to pay attention to those opportunities for children to connect to their place and just be outside. If you need fresh ideas for the children in your life, and even for yourself, Richard Louv’s recent book, The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life: 500 Ways to Enrich Your Family’s Health & Happiness, is an excellent resource.

A Collective Responsibility

We have a collective responsibility to ensure that our children have ample opportunities to explore, discover, and connect with the natural world around them. By prioritizing outdoor experiences in education, we support children's social-emotional well-being, resilience, and sense of connection with nature and each other.

The Montessori approach to education emphasizes the vital role of the outdoors in children’s development and we invite you to visit our campus to learn more about the symbiotic relationship between Montessori principles, time in nature, and the profound benefits of outdoor experiences.

Setting up a Montessori-Based Space at Home

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 11:00:01 GMT

As parents, we want to nurture our young children's growth and independence. Because Montessori philosophy centers on supporting children’s natural development through a carefully prepared environment, we can turn to Montessori principles to help us create ideal home spaces for our toddlers.

Understanding the Montessori Philosophy

At the heart of Montessori is the understanding that children are active, self-directed learners. Dr. Maria Montessori observed how children thrive intellectually, emotionally, and socially when provided with a nurturing environment and the freedom to explore. A Montessori room embodies these principles by offering a space where our toddlers can engage in purposeful activities, make choices independently, and develop essential life skills.

Their Developing Personality

The interrelation between children and their environment is vital, as experiences in the environment help form our children’s personalities. During the first few years of life, children are forming an incredible number of neural connections and there is a continual feedback loop between a child’s genetic code and the environment.

A child’s genetic code determines how they interact with their environment, and then their interactions influence how the genetic code is expressed. As children interact with their environment, mental pathways form. Patterns in the brain are established and repeated experiences have a larger impact. Ideally, we want our children’s neural pathways to be healthy patterns of emotion and thought.

As such, our toddlers’ space should have both boundaries and opportunities that help them develop a healthy sense of security, order, and engagement.

Practical Tips for Creating a Montessori Room at Home

Choose the Right Furniture

We can begin by selecting furniture that aligns with our toddler's needs and capabilities. Opt for child-sized pieces such as low shelves, a small table and chair, and a low bed or mattress on the floor. These elements empower children to navigate their environment with ease, promoting a sense of autonomy and confidence.

Create Inviting Spaces

Designate distinct areas within the room to cater to various activities and interests. A cozy reading nook outfitted with books at eye level encourages literacy and quiet reflection, while open shelves with a few manipulative toys invite exploration. Be sure to also have ample space for movement. Try getting down to your child’s level to see how the space looks and feels from a child’s perspective.

Simplify and Declutter

Embrace minimalism in a toddler's room by paring down to the essentials. Make sure that each item has a designated place and that part of the routine is returning the item to where it goes. This cultivates your child’s sense of order. Over time, gradually rotate toys to help maintain interest and engagement.

Promote Independence

Foster your toddler's burgeoning independence by arranging the room to facilitate self-care and autonomy. Install a low mirror to aid in dressing and grooming activities. Provide accessible storage solutions for clothing and personal belongings. Incorporate a step stool in the bathroom to allow your child to practice handwashing, toothbrushing, and general self-care.

Include Natural Materials

Infuse the room with elements of nature by incorporating toys made from natural materials and limiting the amount of plastic and battery-operated items. Look for natural items that stimulate children’s senses and foster a deeper connection to the natural world. Opting for sustainable and eco-friendly options also promotes environmental stewardship.

Prioritize Safety

In order for your toddler to navigate the space independently, you’ll want to feel assured that the room is meticulously childproofed to eliminate potential hazards. Anchor furniture to the wall to prevent tipping, secure cords out of reach, and regularly inspect the room for any safety concerns.

Follow Children's Lead

Above all, honor your toddler's unique interests, preferences, and developmental pace. Observe their interactions with their environment and adapt the room accordingly. If you see them wanting to climb on a table or shelf, offer safe alternative climbing options. By tailoring the space to their evolving needs and abilities, we support their developing curiosity and engagement. In this process, they develop a sense of agency and self-confidence that will serve them well throughout life.

Creating a Montessori-inspired room at home doesn’t have to be hard! Plus, by thoughtfully curating the environment to align with your toddler’s developmental needs and interests, you lay the foundation for a lifetime of joyful learning and exploration. Embrace simplicity, foster independence, and above all, cherish the wonder and curiosity that define childhood. In a safe, inviting space created especially for them, your toddler can thrive, flourish, and become the best version of themselves.

If you would like some inspiration, come visit our school to see how we create spaces for young children that cultivate curiosity, independence, and a love for learning.

A Subtle Art: The Beauty of the Montessori Three-Period Lesson

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 11:00:01 GMT

In Montessori education, we have a subtle art for connecting children to new concepts, a technique we call the Three Period Lesson. This structured approach is designed to introduce and reinforce new concepts in a way that works with children’s natural learning tendencies. It consists of three distinct phases, each serving a crucial purpose in the learning process.

The First Period: Naming

In this part of the lesson, we focus on helping children create an association of the item or sensorial perception with its name. This is basically a statement of vocabulary, but its simplicity should not disguise the great importance of this period. Proper execution is vital to success and as such Montessori guides execute this part of the lesson with extreme exactitude. We take great care to avoid any peripheral information which would serve only to cause confusion. The emphasis here is on clear articulation and repetition, allowing children to absorb the information through auditory and visual cues.

If the lesson is focused on sensorial perception, we first help a child awaken that sense before giving any vocabulary. For example, if we are introducing a very young child to the vocabulary for temperature, we use a set of thermic bottles. We first isolate the hottest and coldest of the bottles. We feel the “hot” bottle, invite the child to feel it, and state: “This is hot.” Then we have the same procedure with the cold bottle, first feeling, then stating: “This is cold.” If necessary, we may repeat the experience, associating the bottle with its attribute: “Hot….Cold.” We take great care in pronouncing the vocabulary or attributes clearly and distinctly so that children can easily absorb the vocabulary. We also make sure to avoid any additional descriptions or explanations.

The purpose of the first period is to help children connect the sensory data stored in the right hemisphere of the brain with its precise language, stored in the left hemisphere of the brain. This neural connection fixes the perception in children’s minds and provides an index to the sensorial impression, making it accessible to the conscious mind.

The Second Period: Association

In this phase, we focus on having children recognize the object in correspondence to the language. It is a way for us to see if a child has been successful in the association of the perception with its name as presented in the first period. In the second period, we use the vocabulary in a series of lively and fun declarative commands that encourage repetition.

For example, if presenting large and small with a cylinder block, we might ask: “Which one is large?” “Which one is small?” “Put the large one here.” “Put the small one here.” “Show me the large one.” “Point to the small one.” This activity has a game-like feel and offers children the chance to repeatedly hear the vocabulary and associate it with the corresponding attribute or object.

During this period, we do not ask children to recall the vocabulary. Because there is active participation that reinforces the association between the name and the object or concept, this period is about reinforcement. It is the longest of the three periods and is the most important one in terms of serving as an aid to children’s memory. Every time a child hears the vocabulary and associates it with the corresponding attribute/object, it activates the necessary synaptic connections in the brain and strengthens neural pathways.

If a child is not successful in the second stage, we have two choices: return to the first period or gracefully end the lesson and offer it again another day. It might be that a child just needs more time to work with the materials sensorially. Regardless, if the child isn’t experiencing success at this stage, we recognize that we need to re-associate the sensory impression with the name. We don’t point out the error to a child, though, because that only serves to embarrass the child or cause them to feel defeated. Nor is it helpful to continue on with the lesson, for if the associations are not happening, more repetition would only serve to cause further confusion.

The Third Period: Recall

This last part of the lesson is just a quick test and serves as a verification that a child has successfully retained the association given in the first period. For the first time, we no longer provide the vocabulary, and instead, the child must produce it from their memory. We simply ask: “What is this?” If the child can successfully answer, then we can verify that the association has been created. If the child is not successful, we end the lesson by repeating the first period. This is not done as a means of correction, but to ensure the child leaves the material with an accurate impression.

Once the Three Period Lesson is over, we allow children to continue working with the material. Often we see that they have renewed enthusiasm for the material after making these new mental associations.

A Powerful Approach

By following this structured approach, we provide children with multiple opportunities to engage with new information and reinforce their learning through repetition and active participation. This approach is powerful and effective for three main reasons:

Respect for the Child's Learning Pace

The three-period lesson respects the individual pace of each child's learning journey. By breaking down new concepts into manageable steps, we cater to the diverse needs and abilities of children.

Promotion of Active Engagement

Through interactive questioning and hands-on activities, the Three Period Lesson encourages active engagement and participation. Children are not passive recipients of information but rather active participants in their learning process, leading to deeper understanding and retention.

Facilitation of Meaningful Connections

By associating new concepts with real-life objects or experiences, the Three Period Lesson helps children make meaningful connections between abstract ideas and concrete examples. This approach fosters holistic understanding and lays the groundwork for future learning.

Above all, the beauty of the Three Period Lesson lies in its simplicity and effectiveness. The technique is subtle yet consistent, the lessons are brief yet powerful, and the language is precise yet expansive. Ultimately, the Three Period Lesson empowers children to become active learners, capable of exploring the world with curiosity and confidence. We invite you to schedule a tour to come see this technique in action!

Why Do Our Children Do What They Do?

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 11:00:02 GMT

The scene may feel familiar. We sit down for a family dinner. Our youngest starts tapping their spoon against a bowl, fascinated by the sound it makes. Our middle child begins asking a series of questions: “What does it mean to get an education? Why do people go to school? Why was Malala shot? Why are there wars?” The oldest starts getting frustrated with the other two, wanting them to follow directions and have their dinner places in order.

In that chaotic moment before dinner, it’s easy for exasperation to take over. As adults, we might sometimes wonder what in the world propels our children. Really, what are they thinking when they try making holes by poking the table with a fork?

Innate Human Tendencies

We are born with innate human characteristics. We are hard-wired to explore, work, connect, and communicate. We crave order in our surroundings. We imagine possibilities. We create. We need to orient to what is around us, move our bodies, and wonder about the how and why. These human tendencies are unconscious, universal drives and they are at play from birth.

Thus, the newborn has familiar landmarks when hearing their mother’s heartbeat. If allowed to be on the floor, the infant will rotate their body and move in amazing ways. This drive to move propels babies into scooting, crawling, and eventually coming to that upright position that allows them to use their hands and explore the environment.

We recognize these needs in our infants, yet that vital life force is powerful for older children, too. When our child is exploring the noise of the spoon against the bowl, they aren’t trying to aggravate us. They are just exploring cause and effect, and delighting in the auditory result.

Awareness of Internal Drives

When we take time to remember that children are compelled by basic human tendencies, we can begin to explore those tendencies and, as such, help our children become their best selves.

Our home and learning environments can provide children with a sense of order. Knowing where one’s things go and how to help contribute to a task provides children with a sense of security and belonging. Just think about the feeling of uncertainty you can get when you visit someone’s home and don’t know whether to take off your shoes, where to hang your coat, or even how to be useful. By making sure our children feel welcome and purposeful and providing consistent routines, we help children develop an orientation to the world around them.

We can prepare our children for routines and offer accessible spaces that allow them to participate in the functioning of the day. They can help set the table, feed the cats, gather the laundry, prepare their lunches, and so much more. By participating in a meaningful way, they feel significant and ultimately more confident.

Our children’s constant questioning merely comes from a need for intellectual exploration. These big questions speak to their newfound mental ability to ponder expansive ideas about the world. As our children venture into new territory, either physically or intellectually, they benefit from opportunities to test their ideas and make connections to what they already know.

As social beings, we have to learn ways to collaborate effectively. The earliest humans had to cooperate to survive. An older child trying to force cooperation may just need some light support to find a way to communicate and connect with younger peers or siblings, rather than lapsing into exasperation.

Supporting Development

Human tendencies are unconscious, universal drives that support our adaptation to our particular time and place. We are hard-wired to adapt to our environment! The human tendencies – to orient, explore, order, abstract, imagine, calculate, work, be exact, perfect oneself, and communicate and associate with others – help aid this adaptation and really our ability to become our best selves.

In Montessori, our classrooms and curriculum are designed with these human tendencies in mind, with particular attention to how these innate drives manifest themselves at different stages of development.

We work to recognize, honor, and support innate characteristics in children so that we aren’t obstructing their important development. When supported in this way, our children can reach new heights. Come visit our school to learn more!

Six Steps to Problem Solving

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 11:00:01 GMT

So often when we are bumping up against frustrating behavior from our children, we forget that one very effective way to work through the challenge is to include our children in the process!

Step 1: Identify the Issue

The best way to approach this is to first identify the challenge. Perhaps your child is having a hard time getting ready in the morning. Or maybe you are experiencing bedtime struggles. It might be as seemingly small as cooperation with brushing teeth. Or the issue may revolve around food: packing foods your child will eat, being willing to engage during dinner time, or eating a hearty breakfast before heading to school.

Whatever the problem, first identify it in one simple sentence. Hone in on exactly the challenge or conflict, so it’s easy to state clearly.

Step 2: Ask For Time to Talk

Then you’ll want to find a time when everyone is in a mellow mood, perhaps feeling particularly happy, or even just well-fed and rested. At this point, it’s important to check in with your child by asking something like: “Is now a good time for us to talk?” Or “I’d like to brainstorm with you. Is now a good time?”

It’s best to be at your child’s eye level and/or get together in a comfortable place that encourages connection. Then state the problem as simply and clearly as possible. It is especially important to avoid guilt, blame, shame, and exaggerations. One way to frame the conversation is to start with something like: “I have a situation that I want your help with.”

For example, if your child has been struggling with leaving the house on time in the mornings, you might try stating: “I’ve noticed that our mornings have felt stressful and rushed.”

You can then share the impact or how you feel: “As a result of rushing, I feel anxious and then start to get impatient and a little grumpy.” Followed by what you want: “I’m hoping we can figure out a new routine for our mornings so we can leave the house on time.”

Step 3: Listen to Your Child’s Perspective

After stating your take on things, it’s important to allow your child the space to share how they feel and what they want. All too often, we push our agendas, our perspectives, and our needs onto our children without opening up space and listening to what might be going on for them.

By sharing your perspective without accusation or insistence, and then asking for their feedback and needs, you are demonstrating that you are committed to a collaborative approach. After your child has shared what is happening for them and what they need, you can explore if brainstorming possible solutions could help.

Step 4: Brainstorm Together

If brainstorming seems helpful, get a piece of paper and create a list of ideas or solutions. If your child is younger, you can do the recording. Regardless, free up each other’s thinking by not criticizing or rejecting any ideas during this brainstorming process. Let your imaginations run free. If possible, try to model some “out of the box” thinking and make the process as fun as possible. It’s even okay to get a little silly: “I know! We could invent a robot that puts on your coat and gloves for you!” Offering encouragement can help, too. “That’s a great idea. I never thought of that.” Or “Oh, that gives me another idea!”

It’s important to not go into this process with a hidden agenda. Children are attuned to when we just want things to go our way. In the process of being open to ideas, you’ll likely find some unexpected solutions. Whenever possible, it’s also helpful to generate ideas in which both parties can win.

Step 5: Cross Items off the List

Once you’ve generated a list of possible solutions, go through the list together. Give your child the opportunity to first cross out any ideas that won’t work for them, and you can do the same. In this process, you can both talk about why particular ideas will or won’t work from your particular perspectives. After crossing out ideas, you’ll be left with some options. Together you can pick one of the suggestions, or a combination of ideas, as a solution to try.

Step 6: Test it Out

Emphasize that you can both agree to try the idea and then come back together in about a week to see if it is still working. You can write the agreement on a fresh sheet of paper and, if appropriate, both sign the paper to show a commitment to trying this new idea. Be sure to also thank your child for their cooperation! Be sure to also follow through with checking in with each other after trying out the solution for a week. If it isn’t working, review the list together and see if there is another idea worth trying.

Creating an agreement ahead of time model’s respect. The result? Our children feel more willing to cooperate because the process has been collaborative.

Curious to learn more about how to include children in a problem-solving process? Schedule a time to come in to observe and talk more!

The Importance of the Kindergarten

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 11:00:00 GMT

Many public school systems offer kindergarten, and many parents are curious about this transitional year. Why should your child stay in Montessori for the kindergarten year?

Learning for Mastery

Montessori schools are intentionally structured utilizing a three-year cycle. There are many great benefits to this, but one of them is to provide third year students with opportunities that they will not have in other environments.

Having spent the previous two years learning a multitude of skills in their classroom, the third year is about mastery. The Montessori curriculum is a series of carefully developed lessons and materials that are meant to cycle back to a culminating experience during the final year.

All that time spent grasping knobbed cylinders, tracing metal insets, and practicing sandpaper letter formation? The kindergartner uses all that knowledge as they begin to write with paper and pencil.

The years of early mathematical preparation? Now they get to use the golden beads (or perhaps the stamp game material) to learn to add and subtract numbers into the thousands (yes, as kindergartners!).

Montessori’s early focus on teaching children sounds in lieu of letter names leads many children to begin reading by the time they are in kindergarten.

Children as Independent Leaders

Not only do guides observe children mastering these skills independently, but the children have the chance to teach to others. Educators across many settings will agree that once the student becomes the teacher, we can surmise that true mastery has been attained.

So while your kindergarten child is teaching younger children how to do something, they are showing us just how well they know how to do it. Not only that - they are gaining confidence in a truly authentic way. No one needs to tell the child how well they are doing because they feel it themselves.

When children teach children, it’s not just about knowledge being shared, but also about cultivating world citizens. Teaching each other is an act of kindness, and a way for children to practice helping others around them.

Fueling the Spark

In Montessori classrooms one of our greatest tasks is to keep the fire burning inside children’s minds. We structure our work so that children may follow their passions and learn deeply about things that matter to them. We see each child as an individual and think one-size-fits-all educational approaches tend to extinguish the joy of learning.

Instead of drilling facts into children, we place materials before them so that they may discover the truths of the world themselves. Rather than asking them all to do the same thing at the same time, we value their choices and trust their educational process. It is the guide’s job to keep them on track, but they offer children the freedom that lets them deeply explore the learning that calls to their souls.

Five Key Differences Between Montessori and Conventional Schooling

Navigating Sibling Dynamics

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 11:00:00 GMT

As parents, we want our kids to get along. Yet sibling dynamics can vex even the best of us. We cringe at how much our children can hurt each other, then melt when we see them treating each other with kindness. Their fights can drive us crazy, causing us to worry about whether they will like each other as adults.

Fortunately, we can implement strategies to prevent problems between siblings, set the stage for healthy interactions, and practice some techniques for managing conflict in the moment.

One of the first steps is taking time to understand our children, ourselves, and the situation. Without taking time to assess these three aspects, we often end up interfering in sibling conflict, which may stop the fight in the moment but that may also inadvertently increase competition and misunderstanding.

Check-In with Ourselves

When conflicts arise, it helps to first check in with our own feelings. Having awareness of our mental and physical responses allows us to practice self-regulation. We can breathe in deeply through our nose and our mouth. We can pause before responding. We can even express our emotions: “I’m realizing that I’m not feeling very calm right now. Because I’m starting to feel upset, I’m going to take a minute to try to regain some control.” Our children don’t need us to get on the roller coaster!

Describe and Empathize

Another technique to help in the moment is to describe what we see and to empathize. When we describe what we see in a non-judgmental way, we help our children become aware of what they are doing. This allows them the opportunity to choose if they want to continue. The real key is to do this in a neutral way: “I’m noticing that both of you seem to really want to sit on the bean bag chair. Sometimes it can be hard to both want the same thing.”

Examine the Hidden Beliefs

When children exhibit behaviors, they have unspoken beliefs behind that behavior. To better understand our children and these beliefs, can start to reflect on any hidden messages. Some questions to consider include: Do our children feel like they need to win, be first, have an item, etc. to be significant in the family? Are they trying to determine their place in the family? Do they feel wronged in some way and want to cause hurt back to others? Do they feel they are being treated unfairly? Are they trying to fight back to have a sense of justice? Is fighting a way to assert power in the situation?

We don’t need to have answers to the questions but rather recognize that our children might be operating based on some mistaken beliefs. It’s important to remember that what happens to us isn’t as important as the beliefs we have about what happens to us. Our children just want to belong and feel significant and might need some support in developing new beliefs to feel accepted and important.

Shift the Beliefs

One way to shift their thinking is to practice putting children in the same boat. When we take sides in an argument or conflict (for example, by reminding an older child to be kind to their younger sibling or assuming wrongdoing in some way), we reinforce competition or hard feelings between siblings. Instead, we can give our children a choice or hold both responsible. If something has been broken, both can be involved in making repairs or amends. If they are fighting in the car, we can pull over and explain that we’ll be happy to get going again when they have resolved their conflict or have decided to stop arguing. If tattling is a regular occurrence, we can empathize and wonder how they will solve the problem together. We can also make sure we aren’t setting up situations that cultivate jealousy or competition by forcing sharing or putting one child’s needs before another’s.

Provide Special Time

Another way to help our children feel belonging and significance is to schedule special time. Our children need our undivided attention, yet so often as parents, we are pulled in so many directions. One way to address this is to commit to having five to ten minutes of one-on-one time with each child. Let your children know that this is time that you will be with them 100% and that they get to choose what you both do together during that time. Even if it is that activity that you just can’t stand, remember it is only for a short duration! Use a timer and stay committed to having the time each day. This undivided attention helps children feel secure and connected. The result? They are more cooperative with us and each other.

New Skills

Ultimately helping our children navigate sibling dynamics involves teaching new skills. We can help our children learn how to express themselves kindly and firmly, perhaps even practicing how to share concerns during family meetings. We can involve our children in finding solutions through problem-solving strategies. We can emphasize the value of different perspectives and needs by appreciating each child’s unique qualities and building gratitude into our routines.

What we model and promote in our families helps set the stage for how our children navigate not only sibling relationships but their interactions in the world. If you’d like to learn more about how we cultivate respectful, cooperative relationships and help children learn how to resolve differences with respect and kindness, come visit our school!

The Impact of Grace and Courtesy

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 12:00:03 GMT

In Montessori, we emphasize two words on a pretty regular basis: grace and courtesy. But what does grace and courtesy really mean? How are they an essential part of Montessori classrooms? And what role do they play in supporting the development of social relationships?

What is Grace? What is Courtesy?

Let’s first isolate each word. Google’s Oxford Languages defines “grace" in two parts: 1. simple elegance or refinement of movement, and 2. courteous goodwill. Courtesy is defined simply as: the showing of politeness in one’s attitude and behavior toward others. Stated another way, grace and courtesy comprise how we move through the space around us showing respect for ourselves and others.

Grace & Courtesy Lessons

In our toddler and primary classrooms, grace and courtesy are considered to be part of practical life learning and we devote significant time to grace and courtesy lessons. For example, the adults give explicit instruction on how to walk around someone’s work on the rug, how to wait your turn, how to offer help, how to tuck a chair under the table, or how to introduce oneself. These lessons are offered one-on-one or in small groups and we often use role playing as a technique for exploring the skills.

We are very careful about how we introduce grace and courtesy to children. If we see something that needs to be addressed, we try to avoid confronting the child in the moment and we never offer grace and courtesy lessons as a form of punishment or correction. We are careful about this because children are often embarrassed when corrected by adults on the spot. When this happens, they can feel disrespected and not safe, and thus much less likely to perform the act on their own accord.

In the Older Years

As children enter their elementary and adolescent years, our approach shifts slightly. Elementary-age children are more focused on their social interactions and are learning how to navigate the ups and downs of friendships. As such, much of the grace and courtesy work at this level provides children with tools for communicating directly and respectfully, sharing perspectives thoughtfully, and even being discreet about something potentially embarrassing. In addition, they are learning how to interact with the broader community as they arrange visits or interviews, conduct themselves according to the norms of different communities, and explore how to be a host or be a guest.

The Goal

The goal in Montessori education is that these acts of grace and courtesy aren’t rigid expectations, like insisting that children say please and thank you. Rather, they become part of how children want to be and interact. Dr. Montessori is quoted as saying: “…the essential thing is that [the child] should know how to perform these actions of courtesy when his little heart prompts him to do so, as part of a social life which develops naturally from moment to moment.”

Like all other exercises in Montessori prepared environments, we offer opportunities to regularly practice and repeat grace and courtesy skills. Because these experiences are part of the normal functioning of the day, they provide a respectful way for young people to learn expectations and for adults to provide scaffolding and assistance for social skills.

The Results

In time, as we offer these grace and courtesy opportunities and give children a safe place to practice, our young people eventually perform these skills independently.

When you visit our school, you’re likely to see two young children sitting together one patiently showing the other how to tie their shoes. Or perhaps if you observe in a classroom, a couple of students might ask if you would like them to serve you tea or water.

Our children bring a sad classmate a tissue or rush to assist when someone has a spill. They tuck their chairs under tables so others don’t trip over them. They carefully place a tray upon a table. They greet each other and adults in the hallways. They hold the door open when they see someone coming their way.

In the process, Montessori children move beyond the basic niceties and think deeply about their impact on those around them. We’d love to show you this in action! Schedule a tour to see the ways that grace and courtesy help children recognize themselves as caring individuals within a supportive community.

Materials Spotlight: The Geometry Cabinet

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 12:00:01 GMT

Nestled on a shelf in Montessori primary classrooms you’ll find a small wooden cabinet with six to seven slim drawers. It may not look like much from the outside. Even when you slide out one of the drawers, you’ll just see six wooden square divisions each with a wooden inset with a small knob in the center. As you continue to pull out the different drawers, you’ll discover that each wooden inset is a series of geometric shapes: circles that vary in diameter, rectangles with the same height but varying in width up to the square, different triangles, regular polygons, quadrilaterals, and curved figures.

This is the Geometry Cabinet, an important and well-used material in Montessori primary (and elementary) classrooms. With a multitude of uses, this material serves to help children not only enhance their visual and muscular memory, it also provides a foundation for advanced geometry work as well as preparing children’s hands for writing.

The Foundation for Geometry

First and foremost, the geometry cabinet introduces plane geometry. Often, you’ll see a demonstration tray on the top of the cabinet. This tray contains insets of the equilateral triangle, square, and circle. These three shapes form a foundation in geometry: the circle calculates angles, the triangle constructs, and the square measures area.

Another fun way to think about these three shapes is in terms of polygons. The equilateral triangle is the polygon with the least possible number of sides. The circle can be thought of as a polygon with infinite sides. The square represents the rest of the polygons. Of course, this is something Montessori children get to explore in their elementary years. In the primary classroom, we use this demonstration tray to introduce how to use the geometry cabinet trays and insets, as well as to provide children with the first impression of the three fundamental shapes in geometry.

A Tactile Experience

One of the first things we do with the geometry cabinet is demonstrate how to use the knob to pick up the shape with the non-dominant hand and then trace the whole perimeter of the shape with the index and middle fingertips of the dominant hand. We also show how to trace the outline of the aperture that the shape fits into. This careful, meditative action is designed to both give children a tactile impression of the shape and to help them develop the fine motor control necessary for writing.

Once children have this experience with a few shapes, they move on to tracing and matching the shapes from a whole drawer and then even mixing up the shapes from multiple drawers to trace and match into their aperture. When children get good at this process, we introduce taking away the visual sense by wearing a blindfold!

From Concrete Objects to Abstract Symbols

We also introduce sets of cards for each geometric shape. In the first set, the figure is filled in completely. In the second set, each figure has a one-centimeter wide outline. In the third set, each figure has a one-millimeter wide outline. Children select an inset shape and go through the stack of the first set of cards until they find the one that matches the shape. Then they place the inset exactly onto its matching card.

By placing the inset shapes onto the cards with thick to thin outlines, children are learning how an abstract symbol can represent a concrete object. This is preparation for reading! If children can recognize and distinguish between a trapezoid and a parallelogram, they will be more likely to be able to distinguish two other shapes like a cursive b and a cursive z. When children have a lot of experience recognizing shapes, they will be more able to recognize the shapes they encounter in letters because symbols are shapes defined by lines. Think about the progression of abstraction from a filled-in trapezoid, to the outline of trapezoid, to the letter A.

Rich Language

As children are working with these shapes, we also revisit the material to introduce vocabulary. Even the youngest children are learning the names of quadrilaterals (rectangle, square, rhombus, parallelogram, isosceles trapezoid, right-angled trapezoid), curved figures (circle, oval, ellipse, quatrefoil), triangles (equilateral triangle, right-angled isosceles triangle, acute-angled isosceles triangle, obtuse-angled isosceles triangle, right-angled scalene triangle, acute-angled scalene triangle, obtuse-angled scalene triangle), and polygons (pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon, nonagon, decagon). Because young children absorb this language effortlessly, we offer them the exact names. Rather than just “triangle,” Montessori children learn how to differential triangles based on their angles and sides. They can just as easily name an acute-angled scalene triangle as they can an ellipse.

Memory Games

We also use the Geometry Cabinet to play a series of sensorial games that help children perfect their perceptions and make their mental classifications conscious.

In the first memory game, the geometry shapes and their apertures are mixed up between two locations in the room, far enough apart to allow more time for children to hold the memory of the shape as they move through various potential distractions to find the match. The second game is a little harder because the shapes are placed in scattered locations around the room. When children go to find a specific shape, they must retain the impression in their memory for a much longer time and not be distracted by the other images they are receiving. In this process, children are exercising their skills of memory and recognition.

The third memory game is one in which children try to find an object in the room that has the exact match of the shape. This experience allows children to move from working with the geometric qualities in their isolated form in the material to helping discover the qualities of the shapes in the world around them.

The final game is a group experience with one of the trays containing one type of shape that changes in dimension, such as the six circles with increasing diameter, or the six rectangles with increasing width. In this game, the children work together to show the sequence of gradation in the shape. In a more difficult version of this game, children take their piece and experience it (look at it, touch/feel it, etc.) and then put the shape behind their backs. They then try to lay out the pieces in the correct order of size without seeing each other’s shapes!

Multiple Benefits

While the main purpose of the Geometry Cabinet is to help children develop the visual discrimination of shapes (an important skill used in learning and especially reading), there are so many other benefits. The activity of tracing their fingers along the edges of the shapes and frames helps prepare children for using a pencil to make the shapes that form letters. Grasping the knobs helps them refine their pincer grasp. They learn important vocabulary and also increase their concentration and fine motor control.

A simple material with so many benefits, the Geometry Cabinet is a material worth coming to see. We invite you to visit to experience first-hand how children interact with this foundational geometry material. Schedule a tour today!

We Can Serve as Guides

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 12:00:03 GMT

As adults, we often step into particular kinds of roles with children. We can be parents, aunts, uncles. We can be coaches, mentors, teachers. Each role has a set of expectations, often with an unspoken rule that the adult knows best and that children will learn from us.

Yet the roles adults can play in children’s lives can be much more nuanced. We can facilitate, suggest, model, and observe. The world can teach and the adults can serve as guides in a process of learning and discovery.

Be Curious

In the Positive Discipline approach, adults guide growth and learning by asking “curiosity questions.” The key is not to rely on scripted questions but rather to be genuinely curious, perhaps asking questions like:

How do you feel about what happened?
What were you trying to accomplish?
What did you learn?
How do you think you might use what you learned?
What ideas do you have for solutions?

Avoiding the question “why?” is also important as it can sound accusatory and can lead to a child feeling defensive.

Sometimes a young person in our life is struggling, perhaps lashing out verbally or doing everything they can emotionally hurt others. If we can wonder what might be behind their behavior, we can shift our approach. We can also be curious about what we want or need in the interaction. For example, sometimes when a young person is struggling, we just want to know how we can help that person feel better. If that is the case, we can ask the question full-heartedly: “What can I do to help you have a better day?”

Shift to Support

When we shift our roles and think about how to learn more about what our children are feeling, thinking, and exploring, we become meaningful guides. Rather than dispensing information, we can help children make discoveries. This is an essential part of what Montessori teachers do each day in our learning communities.

For example, elementary-aged children often make amazing connections in their learning. An elementary student can be ecstatic due to a discovery about the periodic table, as recently happened with a young learner: “Look!” she exclaimed. “Gold has the symbol Au, because the Latin name for gold is aurum. Au for aurum!” Because this young person had discovered this connection on her own, the knowledge was so much more invigorating and inspiring than had an adult instructed her about etymology and periodic table symbols.

Honor the Process

In How Children Learn, John Holt describes children’s process of learning: “The child is curious. He wants to make sense of things, find out how things work, gain competence and control over himself and his environment, and do what he can see other people doing. He is open, perceptive, and experimental. He does not merely observe the world around him. He does not shut himself off from the strange, complicated world around him, but tastes it, touches it, hefts it, bends it, breaks it. To find out how reality works, he works on it. He is bold. He is not afraid of making mistakes. And he is patient. He can tolerate an extraordinary amount of uncertainty, confusion, ignorance, and suspense.”

Children naturally want to figure out the world and themselves. Thus, we can be thoughtful guides through this remarkable world of ours. We can entice. We can inspire. We can show possible paths.

In our Montessori classrooms, we recognize the incredible power in children’s process of experimenting, observing, making mistakes, and experiencing the world around them. Rather than serve as the experts dispensing knowledge, we act as guides.

Curious to see how the role of adults can shift? Schedule a tour to see how we support children in nuanced ways.

Our Montessori Bookshelf: Cultivating Emotional Intelligence this Valentine’s Day

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 12:00:03 GMT

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and it’s a great time to highlight social-emotional skills. A great place to start is empathy. Showing care and compassion is critical in relationship-building and forming strong connections. The cornerstones of empathy are being able to understand and appreciate others’ perspectives and having a shared emotional response.

Books are a tremendous tool for helping our young people develop social-emotional skills. One analogy for why this is the case is how books can be mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. When we see our lives reflected in the pages of a book, the book is like a mirror of our experience. When we view lives and stories that are different from our own, books are like windows that allow us to see new vistas. When we feel transported into the story and feel empathy for the characters, books become sliding glass doors that allow us to step into new worlds of understanding.

To celebrate the social-emotional opportunities this Valentine’s Day offers us, we are sharing some of our favorite books that cultivate emotional intelligence. We hope you can share them with your children and explore how they are like windows, mirrors, or sliding glass doors!

Anh’s Anger

By Gail Silver, Illustrated by Christiane Krömer

Big emotional reactions can be hard to understand. This story helps illustrate how anger is just one part of us. If we can give that part the attention it needs, we can take care of the feeling rather than letting it control us. This story also shows the power of adults staying calm and controlled in the face of big feelings. Illustrated with handmade collages, the images create a textured representation of Anh’s experience. Note: Due to having the anger characterized as an external monster, this book is most appropriate for children aged five and up.

A Book of Feelings: Starring Sam, Kate, and Fuzzy Bean

By Amanda McCardie, Illustrated by Salvatore Rubbino

This story starts with two children, their dog, the love in their family, and the emotion of feeling happy. Then through the ups and downs of changes, arguments, loss, and more, we travel through a variety of emotions that emerge in children’s lives. Although the text and images are simple, the content moves into the complexity of what we can feel in our lives. The author shares some helpful questions to explore at the end of the book and an index identifies which pages highlight the different emotions: angry, cross, embarrassed, frightened, grumpy, happy, hurt, jealous, loved, loving, nervous, sad, shy, and upset. This is a book that can be revisited many times as children grapple with different feelings.

Because Brian Hugged His Mother

By David L. Rice, Illustrated by K. Dibble Thompson

With one act of kindness at the beginning of the day, Brian initiates a domino effect of good feelings and actions. Each act leads to different kinds of positivity which then leads to more kind actions! This is a great book to share to counteract when children get caught up in a cycle of negative feelings and actions. The best part is how all the goodness returns (like good karma!) to Brian at the end of the day. And because Brian goes to sleep feeling loved, he wakes up feeling great, which sets up the day to start with another lovely act of kindness!

Bravo Anjali!

By Sheetal Sheth, Illustrated by Lucia Soto

All too often girls are navigating how to balance doing something well with being liked. In this story, Anjali is shining in a traditionally male space, which brings taunts and disdain from her closest friend. Fortunately, an older girl reminds Anjali to never dim her light which helps Anjali stay true to her passion. In the process, she inspires a younger girl to see what is possible. This story is also an excellent one to share to help children understand what can be behind unkind behaviors and how it is possible to make amends after not-so-great choices.

A Friend Like You

By Frank Murphy and Charnaie Gordon, Illustrated by Kayla Harren

This celebration of friendships highlights the multifaceted nature of connecting with people and how we gain so much in the process. If you have young people in your life who are discovering what it means to make friends and, perhaps even more importantly, what it means to be a friend, this is a must-read. The vivid, diverse, and inspiring illustrations bring this book to life and also offer a vision of what is possible in this world!

Jabari Jumps

By Gaia Cornwall

With sweetness and simplicity, this book follows a young boy’s excitement and nervousness about jumping off a diving board. With support from his dad, Jabari works through some helpful tools for managing his feelings. The reassurance that it is okay to feel a little scared (plus ideas for how to help that feeling shift into something positive) is helpful for our little ones (and even for us as adults!).

Listening with my Heart: A Story of Kindness and Self-Compassion

By Gabi Garcia, Illustrated by Ying Hui Tan

So often children’s books focus on everything going right. Yet how we handle ourselves, including our self-talk, in the face of disappointments and mistakes is important for emotional regulation. This is a story of Esperanza’s day: from her excitement about her part in the play, to her awareness of spreading love and kindness, to her heartbreak when she feels like she’s ruined the play, to her realization that we also need to be loving and kind to ourselves. This story can be read again and again, during good days and days that stink. The resources at the end of the book are also incredibly valuable for helping our children develop self-compassion and positive self-talk.

The Many Colors of Harpreet Singh

By Supriya Kelkar, Illustrated by Alea Marley

Change is hard for children. When Harpreet Singh’s family moves, he has to leave the place he knows. As a result, the colors he uses to express himself fade into a white, colorless, shy need to not be seen. However, one small connection to a classmate changes everything for Harpreet. This story is an excellent reminder of the power of friendship and the importance of small acts of connection. The author’s note at the end also provides a window into why Harpreet’s patka (a specific style of turban for young boys) represents important values of equality.

My Cold Plum Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood

By Tameka Fryer Brown, Illustrated by Shane W. Evans

Navigating the ups and downs of family life can bring up all sorts of feelings. The shifting colors of one boy’s mood come to life in the jazzy prose of this book: from a gloomy gray when brothers get pushy, to gentle green from a little sister’s smile, to racing red to get home before dark. Despite the challenges, everything comes full circle as the family comes together. A bonus to this book is that the author is a Montessori mom!

Ruby Finds a Worry

By Tom Percival

This is a helpful picture book for young children who are struggling with any kind of worry or anxiety. The concept of a “worry” is materialized as a little fuzzy blob that grows over time and becomes ever-present for Ruby as she goes about her days. And the more Ruby worries about her worry, the larger it grows. Finally, Ruby encounters a boy sitting alone with his own worry. As Ruby and the boy express and share their worries, they realize that their worries shrink to the point of non-existence! Note: Due to having the “worry” externalized in a fantasy-based way, this book is best for children aged five and up.

Sometimes I Feel Like a Mouse: A Book About Feelings

By Jeanne Modest, Illustrated by Robin Spowart

Simple and straightforward, this picture book demonstrates feelings through similes. The text is large and clear with the emotion words highlighted in colors that coordinate with the feelings. This is a great introductory book for our younger children and helps set the stage for identifying and naming how we feel at different times.

When Sophie Gets Angry–Really, Really Angry…

By Molly Bang

This Caldecott Honor Book is a must-have. Molly Bang uses color and image to show the shift into surprise, hurt, and then intense anger at the unfairness of an interaction with a sibling. A volcano ready to explode, Sophie slams the door and runs straight into nature. It is here that cool colors begin to ease and soothe. She finds a place of calm that allows her to reenter her home with love.

We hope these books offer you and your children new ways to explore the many aspects of our emotional lives. You can click here to download a printable booklist . We also invite you to schedule a tour to see how social-emotional learning is woven into the fabric of Montessori classrooms.

The Capstone Years

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 12:00:00 GMT

There are key times in children’s lives when they can consolidate emerging parts of themselves before moving into a new area of growth and change. Two significant times of change for young people are around age six and then again around age twelve, the kindergarten and 6th-grade years. Both biology and Montessori theory offer insight into why these are significant times in children’s lives.

Montessori’s Planes of Development

Dr. Maria Montessori believed that children’s work is to construct the adults they will become. This is really important work! Adults can support children’s own self-construction, but not actually do it for children. Children are able to accomplish self-construction through their own activity and interactions with the environment.

Dr. Montessori’s observations of this self-construction led her to develop a theory of four planes of development. When looking at children’s development from a scientist’s point of view, Dr. Montessori found that development did not occur steadily but rather occurred in phases or planes. Dr. Montessori considered that the change in children, as they moved from one plane to another, was so profound that it resembled a rebirth.

Each plane or phase of development lasts for approximately six years: infancy (0 to 6), childhood (6 to 12), adolescence (12 to 18), and adulthood (18 to 24). The turning point around age six is when children are moving from infancy into childhood, and similarly, around age twelve they move from childhood into adolescence.

Biological Changes

Biologically, considerable hormonal changes are happening during these two transition times in children’s lives. While our society generally recognizes the biological shifts that happen as young people move into adolescence, we are less well-versed about what happens in our six-year-olds.

It doesn’t take much, though, to realize change is afoot! Think about what we see in terms of dramatic physical changes around age six: their teeth start to fall out, their hair gets coarser, they lose that baby-soft skin, and they start to become leaner and lanky. Similarly, our twelve-year-old’s are on the brink of adolescence, another period of dramatic physical growth and change.

However, there can be a gap between these physical signs of maturity and the cognitive and emotional development happening for our six-year-olds and twelve-year-old’s. Often children at these ages are moved too quickly into an environment that both doesn’t meet their needs and doesn’t honor the internal growth that still needs to occur. When this happens, they lose the environmental stability that allows them to develop a deeper sense of self-confidence and to truly consolidate the intellectual and emotional skills they have been developing over the previous years.

Capstone Years

In Montessori, we recognize the importance of these transitional years and intentionally design our learning communities to support young people during this time. The six-year-olds and twelve-year-old’s are the oldest in their classroom learning communities. They know the routines and expectations, they have secure relationships, and they get to help others who are newer to the classroom communities.

Because they aren’t trying to assimilate into a new environment, our six- and twelve-year-old’s can serve as leaders for their mixed-age classrooms. They can focus on challenging work and big personal achievements. By being with their younger classmates, they can see where they have grown and how they got to where they are now.

These are the capstone years, the final piece to complete the critical building-up that has been happening during the previous formative years. The level of mastery allows our young six-year-old and twelve-year-old leaders to integrate their social, emotional, and intellectual selves.

During these capstone years, children gain a sense of self-confidence and self-satisfaction from their ability to successfully navigate the bigger projects that were beyond their capabilities in the earlier years. Plus, they do so in a community of adults and peers who have shared in their learning experience over several years.

By having the opportunity to integrate their learning in a safe, stable, and secure environment, our young learners can do their important work of self-construction. We invite you to visit our classrooms , so you can see for yourself the significance of these capstone years.

Trust the Process: Montessori as an Intentional Approach

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 11:00:10 GMT

In Montessori, we focus on supporting children’s intellectual, emotional, social, and academic growth. A scientist first and foremost, Dr. Maria Montessori was interested in creating optimal learning environments so that young humans could reach their potential with as few adult-created obstacles as possible.

Thus, in Montessori, we think differently about the role of the adult and even how learning materials are used. One of the adults’ roles, for example, is to put children in touch with activities so that children can learn through doing. With this experiential approach, children can use their hands, engage through movement, and even make mistakes. The adults are not the dispenser of information or even the right answers. Rather, we help children learn how to learn, which includes understanding themselves as learners, figuring out how to use failure as a starting place for growth, and exploring the process as much as coming to an end product.

To achieve this, the Montessori method has a very intricate approach that relies on providing children with building blocks over the course of their educational journey. Montessori guides engage in an individualized, long-term process of introducing children to a series of skills and information, all to help children experience ah-ha moments. We know that when children discover something for themselves, they own that information deeply. Sometimes we’ve seen children feel like they are the first discoverers of a new piece of knowledge, a linguistic tool, or a mathematical trick.

For example, when children are learning the process of compound multiplication, we move them through a series of activities that connect their prior knowledge of place value, patterning they have experienced for years through different Montessori materials, and a color-coded system for quantities. As they work through steps that show how compound multiplication works, children often realize that they can take shortcuts rather than putting out and exchanging various colored bead bars on a material called the chequerboard. Once they start taking these “shortcuts” they are demonstrating that they have internalized the steps for multiplying multi-digit numbers. Sometimes in this process, children feel like they are discovering a fabulous secret or have invented a new mathematical method. However, we know that they are taking the necessary steps to abstractly compute the answer in a compound multiplication problem.

One of the gifts of a Montessori education is that children have the opportunity to discover so much in their own way and in their own time. Rather than rote learning or memorization, children are given the chance to make connections. Through multiple learning experiences, these connections become interconnections that create complex neural pathways that often show up later in life. There is a reason why a Wall Street Journal piece coined the term “Montessori Mafia” to refer to a number of former Montessori students who have gone on to become what could be called tech titans and engaged innovators!

If this process of discovery isn’t happening for some reason, Montessori guides are trained (and the materials are designed) to provide scaffolding so that children can still build upon prior knowledge and make progress toward mastery. Even so, sometimes extra support is needed and when this is the case, collaboration is key. Montessori works most effectively when there is a strong alignment between home and school. So, if a child needs some additional help or outside services, we work to coordinate with a tutor or support person so that everyone is working in alignment.

If you ever want to show your child a shortcut or introduce some outside-of-school practice, we request that you take a moment to check in with your child’s classroom teacher. It might just be that your child is on the brink of discovery. They could be at the culmination of years of carefully designed preparation. They might be just about to make an important connection or realize a significant insight. And when someone is on the edge of understanding, it is a tremendous gift to allow them to have their moment!

We thank you in advance for appreciating the intricacy of our approach and for connecting directly with us if you want to explore how to support your child(ren)’s learning. And of course, if you are interested in more about what happens when children can discover the process for themselves, we’d love to show you! Schedule a tour to see how Montessori students own their knowledge in powerful and profound ways.

In Support of Spoken Language

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 11:00:02 GMT

Our children’s early years are essential for developing strong language skills. So, in Montessori, we pay particular attention to how we support young children’s receptive and expressive language development.

The exercises we use to enhance children’s spoken language development don’t have a large physical presence on the classroom shelves because many are games or conversations. But the integration of these spoken language activities into a prominent part of children’s daily experience in our Montessori classrooms.

The Purpose

Young children are expanding their vocabulary at an astonishing rate: from recognition of about 50 words at age one, to about 1,000 words by age three, to at least 10,000 words by age five! We know that children absorb language effortlessly, so in Montessori we provide children with expansive vocabulary enrichment through a series of mindful oral language exercises.

We also recognize that the adult is the most important language material in the classroom, so we use precise language whenever we are communicating with children. We offer rich, full, and beautiful language because we know we are providing an essential foundation for children.

Our Favorite Activities

We keep oral language alive and lively through a variety of purposeful activities.

Classified Picture Books

We choose wordless picture books that focus on a theme that is familiar to children or that are classified around a sequence (e.g., Amanda’s day). In the classroom, we sit down with one child and take a “picture walk” through the book to help the child interpret the picture clues. The adult doesn’t tell what is happening and rather asks the child about what they see. This process not only helps children develop their expressive language skills but also sets the stage for future reading and story interpretation.

True Stories

When we tell true stories, we invite a group of three to five children to join us. Sometimes we use little cultural artifacts or objects as we share stories about everyday life, or we offer little snippets about geography, art, music, biology, and geometry. The key to these stories is that they are based in reality and are not fictional stories. In sharing these stories, we offer children interesting and rich language, as well as spark their interest and imagination!

The Question Game

For this activity, we gather a small group of children who have a common experience. Then we ask a series of questions about that event. Being mindful to solicit answers from a variety of children, we focus on asking questions that can form a sequence and illuminate details. We then summarize the story based upon the children’s responses.

Because children live in the moment and often don’t remember what happened yesterday, we try to do this activity on the day the common experience occurs. In addition to modeling how to tell a story and how to create complete sentences from one-word answers, we are also providing preparation for creative writing by taking an event and structuring it sequentially and highlighting details.

Conversation at a Picture

To engage children in this activity, we invite a small group to a piece of artwork on display and start a conversation about what the children observe in the picture. We focus on using “w” questions such as: What do you see? Where do you think they are? Why do you think…etc. We keep eliciting conversation by asking more questions: Do you see anything else in this area? Do you notice anything else about this scene? When the conversation begins to fade, we summarize the observations in a small narrative or story.

Reading Literature

We work to read quality children’s literature every day! When we do so, we highlight the book’s title, the author, and the illustrator. Under the age of six, children live in the present and are trying to adapt to the world around them. Because they are still too young to distinguish between fantasy and reality, we make sure to choose books that are grounded in reality.

Reciting Poetry

When reciting poetry, we do so from memory. We recite poems over a series of days and, just like with singing, children learn the poems by themselves and love to recite them. Children also absorb phonetic skills from any onset rhyme. Popular nursery rhymes support children’s process of learning to read!

Objects in the Environment

This activity is actually a series of games that follow a “listen and do” type format. After gathering a group of children, we explain that will say something to do and when a child hears their name, they get to do that action. We start with simple, one-step commands: Touch a shelf. Stand by a window. Walk around a table. We then progress both in complexity in terms of the types and categories objects as well as by offering double commands: Find a friend and shake hands. Choose a book and place it on a table. Play a bell and hum a tune. While quite fun, these games also have the added bonus of helping children develop their auditory memory.

Classified Pictures

For this work, we have collections of pictures representing categories of objects (types of transportation, furnishings, appliances, playground equipment, etc.), as well as cards with illustrations of geographical, geometrical, biological, and scientific terms (parts of a flower, land and water forms, polygons, etc.). When doing this activity with a child, we first name the classification (“These are all fruits.”) to help establish mental order. Then we play a little game to teach the vocabulary for the items pictured on the cards.

The Sound Game

The sound game helps children become aware of the phonemes in our language. We collect ten known objects on a tray and play an I Spy type game that isolates the beginning sounds of the objects, then later the ending sounds, and eventually the sounds in the middle of the words. The whole purpose of this game is to help children become aware of the sounds that make up words.

Spoken language activities are the foundation for children’s receptive and expressive vocabularies. In addition to enhancing their vocabulary and providing an overarching structure for future work in writing and reading, engaging children in language games also helps increase their listening and comprehension skills. Above all, we take the time to listen to children’s own spontaneous efforts to express themselves, so that they gain confidence in speaking and feel that their thoughts have meaning.

Come see (and hear!) all this spoken language work when you schedule a visit . We love to share what we do!

Our Montessori Bookshelf: In Honor of MLK Day

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 11:00:02 GMT

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! In Montessori, we work to uphold the values of Dr. King. Both humanitarians, Dr. King and Dr. Montessori upheld a dream for humanity and believed reverently that peace could be realized.

In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in 1964, Dr. King asserts: “Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”

In Education and Peace , Dr. Montessori states: “An education capable of saving humanity is no small undertaking; it involves the spiritual development of man, the enhancement of his value as an individual, and the preparation of young people to understand the times in which they live.”

Both Dr. King and Dr. Montessori recognized the profound personal shift required to support a societal shift toward peace and equity. To support this work, we offer some of our favorite books that highlight the legacy and vision of Dr. King.

Child of the Civil Rights Movement

By Paula Young Shelton, Illustrated by Raul Colón

The author, daughter of civil rights leader Andrew Young, shares a simple yet profound view of what it was like to live through the household experience of organizing, marching, and forming community. From the child-like “ah ha” moment of realizing Jim Crow wasn’t a bird to overhearing dining room conversation among some of the great civil rights leaders, this story brings the movement home to children. The “More About the People in This Book” section at the end is a helpful reference, too!

I Have a Dream: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Forward by Coretta Scott King

This presentation of Dr. King’s inspired speech from August 28, 1963, is all the more stunning with an overlay of paintings by fifteen Coretta Scott King Award or Honored artists. In addition to a short biography of Dr. King, the book also includes the African-American artists’ statements about their pieces. This is a perfect book to both read aloud and use to explore how art tells a story.

Let the Children March

By Monica Clark-Robinson, Illustrated by Frank Morrison

Told from the perspective of a young girl in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, the poetic verse of this story begins with Dr. King's call to action. Inspired and determined, the girl and her brother realize the children can march even if their parents can’t. The book is filled with hope, as well as images that don’t shy away from the pain and horror of the police response to the march. Moving and powerful, this story is an essential one to share. The Afterword and Artist’s Statement at the end are also helpful for older readers, as well as the creative timeline of events that spans the endpapers.

Martin Rising: Requiem for a King

By Andrea Davis Pinkney, Paintings by Brian Pinkney

A powerful collection of what the author calls “docu-poems” accompanied by rich sensorial images provides a narrative of the days and events leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death. Older children who have some knowledge of Dr. King’s life and legacy and who have perhaps begun exploring poetry will no doubt appreciate the artistry of Martin Rising. The author and artist's reflections at the end provide additional options to explore – performing the narratives aloud, searching for repeated visual symbols, and creating a play. This work of art is a must-have!

Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

By Doreen Rappaport, Illustrated by Bryan Collier

Collage illustrations combined with actual quotes from Dr. King carry the reader (or listener) through the rhythms of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life. From his early childhood days to his ministering to the long years of protest, this picture book flows powerfully through the arc of Dr. King’s “big words.” A perfect introduction to Dr. King for young children, the book’s simplicity makes the messages all the more resonant.

Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968

By Alice Faye Duncan, Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

Nine-year-old Lorraine Jackson’s story of the Sanitation Strike in 1968 is both moving and informative. The book merges both the appeal of a picture book, the organization of a short chapter book, and the beauty of short poetic verse, and the level of detail is most suited for elementary ages. Dr. King’s profound influence is woven throughout the story, including the impact of his assassination and the reminder that “freedom is never free.”

My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers Growing up with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

By Christine King Farris, Illustrated by Chris Soentpiet

Dr. King’s sister shares the story of their childhood, including the silly and the serious. Her firsthand account captures not only the joy of siblings growing up together, but also how formative experiences can set the stage for our future. This is a beautiful account to share with children of all ages and a powerful reminder of the potential each of us has to do something great in the world.

My Dream of Martin Luther King

By Faith Ringold

Artist, Faith Ringold, weaves together art and story as she recounts a dream she had of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. While not a precise historical sharing, the story does provide plenty of opportunities for conversation about the Civil Rights Movement. For reference, there is also a timeline of Dr. King’s life at the end of the book, as well as suggestions for activities to help children explore and reflect on what they've learned.

Pies from Nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott

By Dee Romito, Illustrated by Laura Freeman

This true story is a perfect illustration of how one person leaning into their strengths can have a big behind-the-scenes impact. Georgia Gilmore, a cook, heard about Rosa Parks’ arrest and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. She heard Dr. King speak and she decided she could “help the best way she knew how.” She made food and lots of pies and used the money to secretly support the bus boycott. The story continues with challenge and progress (and even Dr. King’s encouragement!). There is even a bonus recipe at the end for Georgia Gilmore’s Homemade Pound Cake!

We hope these books inspire you and your children as they have inspired us. We especially love how many of the books illustrate how meaningful change happens when many people are working together. You can click here to download a printable booklist. If you explore any of these books with your children, let us know what you think! We also invite you to schedule a tour to see how we work toward peace and equity.

“Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative

change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.”

–Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Social Benefits: The Elementary Years

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 11:00:02 GMT

It is easy to focus on the academic benefits of Montessori education. In fact, an August 2023 meta-analysis of 32 studies highlights how students in Montessori programs, in comparison to students in traditional schools, show higher performance in language, math, general academic ability, and executive functioning. Clearly, the Montessori method has a powerful impact on student performance. Academic vigor, though, isn’t the only thing that matters in our children’s lives.

The social-emotional benefits of a Montessori education are also incredibly significant. This is especially apparent at the elementary level when children are figuring out who they are as social beings. The near-peer learning in mixed-age Montessori elementary programs helps our young people develop their collaboration strategies, problem-solving skills, and conflict-resolution techniques. Plus, Montessori environments support what our children are going through developmentally. We are working with human nature, rather than against the strong forces that drive our young people.

Collaboration

At the elementary age, it is all about the “we” because children of this age have a strong gregarious nature. They want to do things together and thus group work is an integral part of Montessori elementary classrooms. In the process of working together on projects, elementary students practice important communication skills and learn how to lift each other up in their group work. We want elementary children to know that collaboration will take us further than competition, so we help children learn how to spurn each other on in supportive ways.

As they develop these collaborative skills, each individual comes to recognize not only the power of the group, but also what it means to belong to a group in a meaningful way. As children experience themselves as part of a group, they are engaged in important social construction.

Practice Society

This social construction can be seen as the way that elementary-age children begin to practice what it means to create societal structures. In Montessori, we sometimes think about elementary communities as “practice societies”.

It is “practice” because children are engaging in something they haven’t already mastered, which means they aren’t going to be good at it at first! We recognize that children need to work at creating their “practice society” and there will be gradual improvement. This also means that there will be mistakes, including conflict and hurt feelings. In Montessori communities, we have the time and space to support children as they work through this process. We value the importance of this social development!

The word “society” comes from the Latin root for companion. Thus, being in society implies having friendly associations with others. We want elementary children to find joy in associating with each other. During the elementary years, children benefit from real jobs that contribute to their community and begin to appreciate how to make sure everyone gets their needs met collaboratively. So, we support children in this work of forming a society based on joint cooperative work in a positive, productive environment.

Hero Worship

Elementary children look up to power, strength, and beauty in whatever form that occurs. Because they look toward heroes, we use the elementary years to introduce a variety of different types of heroes (even non-human ones!).

In looking toward heroes, children are thinking about how to actualize their own potentials. They become very observant of others. They love to research and look into the histories and stories of their heroes. They begin to recognize individual strengths and apply those to their own practice society, community, and family. They even begin to invite each other to work based on their strengths. As a result, individual children begin to feel truly seen. Eventually, they even begin to recognize that the strength of the group is their own strength. Hero worship drives all kinds of prosocial development.

Part of hero worship also involves stepping into leadership roles in the community, which means both learning how to lead and learning how to follow. Rather than just acquiesce, Montessori students develop a joyful obedience. They find joy in belonging to the group and being part of something together.

Building & Solidifying Skills

In the process of working with peers of varying ages, children make connections with different types of people and realize that learning can happen from those who are both older and younger! Through connection and conversation, children practice their patience, listening skills, and communication strategies. As classmates engage collaboratively on both projects and classroom responsibilities, they learn how to work toward one goal, lean into each other’s strengths, prioritize tasks, and organize their time. Part of this happens because in mixed-age elementary classrooms, students don’t have the stress of comparing themselves to peers of the same age. They have space and time to develop their skills, collaborate based on interests, and practice what they have recently mastered.

We see much of this social and emotional growth in how Montessori children interact with people both in school and out in the broader community. Because they have had the experience of adults as partners and allies, we see that Montessori graduates know how to seek help, ask questions, and generally converse with people of all ages.

But don’t just take our word for it! Come visit our school to see how our students are developing and practicing the social-emotional skills that lead to their success as thriving, whole people in the world. Schedule a tour today!

Why Intrinsic Motivation Matters

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 11:00:04 GMT

Think of a time when you did an activity because you wanted to do it–maybe weeding your garden, reading a book, taking a walk, or rearranging your bedroom. Your motivations arose entirely from within you. You likely felt pure joy or satisfaction in the very act of what you were doing. In these activities, you may have also felt a sense of meaning or purpose. Or maybe you felt like you were accomplishing something positive. This is the experience of intrinsic motivation. Stated another way, intrinsic motivation is when we engage in a behavior because it is personally rewarding rather than for an external reward or to avoid punishment.

Now contrast that experience with when you feel like have to do something. Let’s imagine the same activities, but the impetus for doing them was different: weeding because you were stressed about the neighborhood association expectations, reading an assigned book because you got roped into a book club, taking a walk to keep up with a workplace exercise challenge, or rearranging furniture to make your house more attractive to a potential buyer. When you are motivated by extrinsic factors, rather than those from within, the experience is different.

Why Intrinsic Motivation Matters

In Montessori, we work to help children develop their intrinsic motivation. But why do we care so much about intrinsic motivation?

There are three main elements of intrinsic motivation: being able to act independently, feeling that one’s efforts matter, and developing satisfaction from the experience of mastery. We want our children to have these three experiences as they move through learning and life. When we are intrinsically motivated, we think and act with a sense of our growth potential and how we can have a positive impact on the world.

In Montessori environments, rather than handing out punishments and rewards, we encourage children to find and connect to internal motivations. In doing so, children develop a sense of autonomy, purpose, and mastery, all skills that contribute to high emotional intelligence.

In addition, intrinsic motivation is connected to having a growth mindset. When children have a growth mindset, they understand that they can learn from mistakes and that their abilities can evolve and grow. This leads to a willingness to embrace challenges and to see failure as an opportunity to learn. Some describe this as having cognitive hardiness, which is when we are motivated to work hard, try again, and incorporate new learning when facing challenges.

Extrinsic Motivators are Everywhere

All too often, children have a barrage of extrinsic motivators in their lives: from the seemingly positive external incentives like verbal praise (“good job!”), sticker charts, and grades, to more negative methods like punishments, time outs, and verbal reprimands.

Alfie Kohn, author of Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes , explains how incentives can seem to work in the short run, but that the strategy ultimately fails and can even cause lasting harm.

Research shows that extrinsic motivators work for the short term but that they don’t produce long-term change. For example, Mary Budd Rowe, from the University of Florida, found that students who were generously praised by their teachers responded to questions in an unsure voice, backed off from an idea as soon as an adult disagreed, were less likely to persevere with difficult tasks, and didn’t regularly share ideas with peers. Joan Grusec, from the University of Toronto, discovered that young children who received frequent praise for displays of generosity tended to be slightly less generous on an everyday basis than other children were.

Likely this backsliding happens because every time children hear “good sharing” or “good job” the actions they were doing become something that aren’t important in their own right. Rather their actions become a means to an end: getting praise. The actual value of the action becomes usurped by the adult response. In addition to creating praise junkies, we can actually rob children of the opportunity to have satisfaction and meaning because of what they have done. When we doll out external motivators, we encourage children to look to adults for approval or attention.

Lifelong Benefits

When children are intrinsically motivated, they want to do well because it’s the right thing to do or feels personally satisfying. As a result, they develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments. Furthermore, when facing bad days or setbacks, intrinsically motivated children can persevere. They are able to get back up when they feel knocked down. With this kind of cognitive hardiness, children are able to believe in themselves. They are confident in their abilities. These skills can last a lifetime and help our children find true success in the world.

Curious about what this looks like amongst a community of learners? Come visit the school and see how Montessori children use their intrinsic motivation in powerful ways!

Creating Family Rituals

Mon, 25 Dec 2023 11:00:03 GMT

During this time of togetherness, we have an opportunity to create family and holiday rituals with our children. In his book, Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living , anthropologist Dimitris Xygalatas explains how rituals provide balm for our anxieties, encourage our connections with each other, and help us find meaning in our lives.

Our children depend upon rituals, too. In fact, rituals provide our children with an awareness of family identity and positive experiences that help them cope with stress. When we have rituals in our lives, we can draw upon those connective times and rely upon an internal sense of having a web of support rather than feeling alone.

Rituals also help our children develop a growing sense of themselves as a member of a greater whole which promotes positive developmental outcomes. Plus, rituals can be great fun!

If you need some ideas for new rituals this holiday season, we thought we would share a few ideas.

Craft (or Re-Craft) Cards Together

Repurposing holiday cards is a fun way to go back through the greetings your family received and extend the spirit of the season. Children can cut out pictures from the cards, or even cut off the half without writing. These pieces can be pasted onto a blank piece of paper or card stock to create a collage or new card. The half-cards can also be used as post-cards with a brief note or thank you jotted on the undecorated site.

This low-cost activity not only offers children a way to creatively express themselves, but it also can provide practice with several fine motor skills. If your child is not yet writing, they can dictate their message. Older children can learn how to make a homemade envelope and even practice writing the mailing and return address.

If children are really enjoying this process, they can also send homemade greetings to the nonprofit Cards for Hospitalized Kids for distribution (just be sure to check the site for guidelines, especially regarding glitter!).

Sing Together or Compose a Song

Music is a powerful way to cultivate togetherness and belonging. When we sing (and dance!) together we build trust and empathy, while also alleviating stress. The holidays offer so many opportunities for creating music. If you aren’t keen on traditional carols or songs of the season, another fun option is to gather different music-making tools, like different-sized bells or even glasses with different amounts of water in them. Experiment with gently shaking the bells or tapping glasses with a pen or similar item to create a little melody. If everyone likes the tune, play around with adding some words to describe a funny part of the day, tell a story of the holiday, or share about a favorite food!

Cook & Bake Together

Time in the kitchen is always a wonderful way to create some holiday memories. With extra time during days off, you can really revel in the experience of gathering ingredients, measuring, mixing, decorating, and even getting sudsy during the clean-up.

Young children might enjoy dipping pretzels or peppermint sticks in melted chocolate and then (before the chocolate hardens) twirling them in sprinkles. Or you have a favorite cookie recipe for the holidays. Your children can help make a batch and then package the cookies with a fancy bow to deliver to neighbors or to those working over the holiday (like firefighters, police officers, hospital staff, etc.).

Listen to or Share Stories Together

Storytelling captures our imaginations and transports us to other times and places. During the holiday season, we can create special moments when we come together and share stories, memories of past years or stories from our own childhoods. We can invite our children to share their stories, too! This kind of story time could be an opportunity to read treasured picture books aloud. Even older children will delight in the opportunity to revisit old favorites.

We can also create a scene like that of the days when families would gather to listen to a radio drama. Make it cozy and special with pillows, soft blankets, and special snacks. Bring the Alexa (or another device) to the center and listen to an audio story. Sites like Story Nory or Light Up Your Brain offer short pieces (roughly 5 to 10 minutes long) if you want to warm up to the story-listening experience!

Become a Tourist in Your Town

With all the holiday lights, it’s a wonderful time to have everyone get into pajamas, take a thermos or to-go cups of hot chocolate, and take a neighborhood driving tour with plenty of stops for sipping cocoa. For some added fun, you can rate favorite front-yard displays, create a scavenger hunt, or try to fill out homemade bingo cards . Playing some holiday music also helps set the mood.

Rituals are a significant part of our human experience and offer us ways to ground ourselves and form connections. As the holiday busyness subsides, let’s use these days together to connect with our children and create new family memories. Please also share your favorite rituals. We’d love to hear from you!

Babies to Toddlers: Communication for Connection

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 11:00:00 GMT

Our ability to communicate through language is a key part of what makes us human. Indeed, it is language that binds together communities and provides the communicative power for people to work together.

As these human connections and civilizations developed, language has played a significant role in how the human mind has developed. This powerful force begins to arise before birth and significantly impacts our developing children.

Prenatal through Birth

In utero, the baby’s auditory system begins working quite early. A 13- to 14-week-old fetus is already listening to sounds. Thus, talking to a baby while in utero is extremely important not only for providing the baby with familiar points of reference after birth but also for providing the unborn baby with the opportunity to develop their auditory skills.

After birth, the newborn is able to recognize the mother’s voice and shows an awareness of human voices over other sounds in the environment. Babies’ brains are designed to not only perceive speech sounds but also to discriminate and categorize many diverse phonemes (individual sounds of speech).

Two to Three Months

During the first two or three months, the baby’s cries are a form of early communication, and biological changes in the baby allow them to begin modulating their sounds. With some physical changes maturing by around three to four months of age, babies engage in lots of experimentation. They will begin cooing and gurgling, which then eventually develops into babbling. They can clearly produce vowels and do so in an almost joyful way!

Thus, as adults in the baby’s life, we should respond to these vocalizations with interest, to begin a back-and-forth dialogue that provides the baby with feedback and engages their interest in communicating more.

Five to Seven Months

Next, the baby will begin to produce consonants and later put together a string of syllables. Between five and seven months, babies begin to play around with sounds. Now they aren’t just expressing their physical and emotional state of being, and instead are experimenting with sequences of all sorts of sounds, including consonants. Between seven and eight months syllables emerge in their babbling and by the end of the first year they will create more variation that starts to mimic sentence format.

As the child discovers their ability to produce sounds, they experiment with various possibilities and joyfully exercise these abilities. They will also begin to notice how certain sounds (like mama) can cause delighted responses in adults.

This give-and-take in communication elucidates another aspect of language development. Not only is the child learning how to produce language through sounds, they are also learning that sounds, especially when put together in certain ways, have meaning. Babies begin to find patterns in the stream of spoken language. By the time babies are nine months old, they are able to do more than just notice sounds; they are able to hear sequences of sounds.

Nine to Twelve Months

From nine to twelve months, babies enter an exciting period of identifying more words in the language stream, wanting to communicate and share, remembering units of sound that form words, and beginning the early stages of actually pronouncing words. As a child enters this time of intentional communication, it is worth noting that their understanding of language is more progressed than their ability to produce language.

In this phase, a child will often use one word over and over, perhaps to communicate different things. This is a critical time. When we respond to a baby or toddler’s intention to communicate, we give a message that legitimizes these attempts to communicate, thereby empowering the child to keep trying. How we respond to an emerging communicator in fact determines how successfully the one-year-old will be able to communicate.

“Babies at nine months whose mothers followed the baby’s lead, who responded to what the baby was interested in, had larger comprehension vocabularies at thirteen months.”— How Babies Talk: The Magic and Mystery of Language in the First Three Years of Life

12 Months and Beyond

The period from 12 to 20 months (about 1 and a half years) is marked by remarkable growth in vocabulary. Although new words seem to accumulate slowly and with effort in the first part of this phase, there reaches a point at the end of this period of growth in which new words emerge daily and effortlessly. This is when children have an explosion in their awareness of and use of nouns, and is a valuable time for the young toddler to be introduced to a meaningful and rich vocabulary.

After a toddler learns about 50 words, there is a tipping point, and their vocabulary development takes flight. After about 20 months (about 1 and a half years), the child experiences an increase of hundreds of new nouns, prepositions, verbs, and adjectives, as well as the use of grammar and parts of speech. The almost two-year-old is learning new words at an astonishing pace: approximately nine new words a day, which is 63 new words per week.

Their use of phrases lengthens and becomes more complex as the child in this phase quickly acquires all the basic rules of syntax. The other remarkable aspect of this language development is that the child is able to understand that a leaf is a general term for a variety of types of leaves, whether maple leaves, willow leaves, oak leaves, etc. As toddlers add words to their vocabularies, they are actively sorting and categorizing the words.

This is when our little ones begin to describe not only their surroundings, but also their own emotions and responses to different stimuli. From eighteen to twenty-four months, the toddler uses simple sentences for self-expression. The turning point is when the child is able to refer to themself in the first person, rather than the third person.

With this increased sophistication, the older toddler begins to use language in a more practical and social way. Language is used to accomplish goals and the child becomes more aware of the pragmatic use of language.

This pattern of language development is predictable, although with some typical ranges in terms of the child’s exact age of mastery of each stage. With only a few slight differences based on particular languages, the general pattern of developing language fluency is the same.

Humans are hard-wired to communicate, and thus connect and collaborate. The interactions and support we provide to the child from before birth and through these sensitive first three years are instrumental. Visit our school to see the power and potential of providing a rich language environment!

The Interdependencies Cards

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 11:00:02 GMT

In Montessori, we talk a lot about independence. Yet interdependence is another vital aspect of our humanity and a key part of Montessori learning communities.

All of us depend on the help of other people. We are social beings and we evolved to be interdependent with our fellow human beings. None of us exist in isolation.

Interdependence is woven into how our classrooms operate and at the early elementary level we also have a material that provides children with a window into how humans depend upon each other.

The Interdependencies Cards

To introduce this material, we start by gathering a small group of children and asking about a recent meal or their favorite foods. When someone mentions bread, or perhaps the adult offers that they ate toast that morning, we ask where the bread came from. Together the group follows the trail of origin of the food, exploring questions like: And where did the supermarket get the bread? Who baked the bread? From where did the baker get the flour? Finally, the trail leads back to the farmer.

As a group, we marvel at how many people it takes to bring bread to us. If the children are interested, we continue with other food or breakfast items, always arriving at the beginning when the farmer has planted the seeds.

At this point, we often go to the shelf and get the first set of Interdependencies cards.

Where do we get our food from?

These cards provide a physical representation of the group’s discussion of the origin of our food. Because someone bought their bread at the supermarket, we place the “shopkeeper” card. We continue explaining how the shopkeeper bought the bread from the baker, placing the “baker” card to the left of the shopkeeper card. We continue the process until the array is complete: the farmer - the miller - the baker - the shopkeeper.

We comment on how many people are involved in the process before asking another question: How does the miller get wheat from the farmer?

The children discuss and we explore how the farmer needs some way to get the wheat to the miller. Perhaps a truck is used, or maybe a train, but some form of transport is needed. We then place the cards to represent that transportation and repeat for other producers.

Then we suggest thinking about the baker a little more. We explore if the baker needs help and can discuss adding a dough maker, oven tender, and packager around the baker card.

If the baker needs help, then likely the miller, farmer, and even the transporters need help, too! All these people work together to bring us our bread. What would it be like if we had to do it all for ourselves?

These interdependency exercises bring awareness to children in a developmentally appropriate way. Though the materials are quite simple, the children feel great satisfaction from using their reasoning minds to make the chain of production and human work apparent. The cards also help the children order the sequences we discuss.

Production & Exchange

At another time we use other sets of cards to explore what farmers produce, who depends upon the farmer, and who the farmer needs. When children have worked with these different sets of cards and explored the interconnections, we can use the cards to introduce how goods are exchanged among people and how the medium of exchange today is money.

We introduce this concept by thinking about how people generally can’t just trade what they produce. The baker, for example, won’t want shoes every day that the shoemaker needs bread! Thus, people invented money, which is exchanged instead. So, when the shoemaker needs bread, she gives the baker some money, and receives some bread in return!

We continue in this manner, discussing various exchanges and visually representing the connections by drawing colored lines between the different producers to show how there is a complicated network of goods flowing from person to person and of money flowing in exchange.

Additional Services

Once children appreciate this initial introduction to economic exchange, we explore how each of the people on the cards also needs services like police, roads, water supply, garbage collection, libraries, and health services.

We talk about how people got together and decided to 'chip in' to pay for these services. Then in the center of the array of cards, we place a card showing a red bowl. We draw a green line to the bowl card and talk about how each person pays some money to a central collection agency. This money is called 'taxes', and the government uses tax money to provide services.

Young elementary students are often fascinated by this work and like to lay out the cards to show different models. Even older elementary students have ah-ha moments as they begin to understand economic concepts and the idea of what taxes represent. Sometimes children even want to make a set of interdependencies cards of their own for some product they choose. At other times children extend the work by organizing Going Out trips to a bakery or a farm.

Although the material we use to highlight interdependencies is relatively simple and seemingly unsophisticated, it is quite important. Plus, elementary children find the work intriguing and love the message the material conveys.

Curious to learn more or see this kind of work in action? Schedule a tour to visit our school. We love to share what we do!

Family-School Partnership

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 11:00:00 GMT

Our children really thrive when home and school environments work cooperatively, communicate well, and share similar educational values and expectations. When families devote sincere effort to learning about Montessori principles and how to reinforce these at home, there are positive effects. We want to partner with you in support of your child!

What does a home-school partnership look like in action?

In order to reinforce and extend your child’s experience at school, we recommend exploring how to support your child’s independence and problem-solving, staying up to date with school-home communication, and learning about positive-based discipline.

Supporting Independence

To support independence, it’s important to remember that even the youngest child can engage in real-life activities around the house. They can help set the table, fold the laundry, feed any pets, and tidy a room. Older children can contribute to home life by participating in household chores such as loading and emptying the dishwasher, putting away groceries, gathering trash/recycling, preparing simple meals, and more elaborate pet care.

In this process, we want to provide children practice with self-care skills. This can range from putting on their own shoes, to picking out their clothes for the next day, to planning and packing their lunches. Providing children with these opportunities builds independence, confidence, and life skills. Even with very young children, the Montessori approach is “help me to do it myself.”

We also want to give our children the opportunity to overcome challenges. They might struggle to get their shoes on at first. Rather than swoop and just quickly do it for them, we can break down the steps and offer some simple verbal guidance: open the velcro first, pull here, open the straps, slide your toes into the shoe, push down, etc. With older children, this scaffolding may take the form of brainstorming how to communicate with friends about a social misunderstanding, or offering to draft an email together to the teacher to share what has been upsetting your child. When we provide support for problem-solving rather than “fixing” a problem, we help our children build self-esteem, their sense of purpose, and the determination to master life skills.

Communication is Key

Although staying up to date with communication seems like a simple step to staying in partnership, lives get so busy! To prioritize our children’s educational experience, we can take some simple steps to make sure we are in alignment and not working at cross purposes.

At the core, we want to maintain respectful, direct, and active communication with each other. This can be as simple as communicating with your child’s guide(s) in a timely manner about significant changes or events in your child’s life. Life outside of school has an impact on your child’s classroom experience, and communicating with your child’s guides will allow them to better support your child during times of transition or challenge.

Although conferences offer a lovely opportunity to collaborate, please remember that you don’t have to wait until regularly scheduled conferences! Please share observations and concerns about your child or their classroom experience directly with the child’s lead guide. Doing so allows the adults at school to be more responsive to your child’s needs in a timely manner. We want to know your thoughts and feelings sooner than later!

Another good step is to familiarize yourself with the handbook each year. It’s easy to think it only requires one read, but it’s worth revisiting the handbook annually to review school policies and remember important procedures and expectations. Similarly, reading communications from the school and classroom is an effective way to stay current about any updates or changes and to build a trusting partnership with your child’s classroom guides.

We want to hear and understand your perspective. We also want to share how we work to uphold the mission and vision of the school and Montessori pedagogy in a way that balances individual needs with community needs. Communication is key!

Practice Positivity

We work hard to model respect and positivity. To support this, we ask that you also model respect for your child. This can take the form of practicing positive discipline (read more about this on the Positive Discipline website).

Practicing positivity can also mean assuming the best intent. For example, if misunderstanding or conflicts arise, either at home or at school, as adults we can demonstrate respect. We can work toward resolution with graciousness and model being open to hearing another’s perspective. Children are watching and listening. If we speak of community members in positive terms, even if there is a concern or disagreement, our children will learn how to approach potentially tense situations with thought and care.

Thank you for being willing to understand and support the school’s policies, stay in communication, support independence, and serve as a role model for all children. We appreciate it when families are willing to learn about and trust the Montessori model of education. This awareness helps us work together to collaboratively support children’s development most effectively. Children thrive when they experience their home and school environments as being in sync!

One of the best ways to learn more about the Montessori experience is to observe. Schedule a tour ! We would love to connect!

Our Gifts to Children

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 11:00:02 GMT

The brain of a young child works differently than the brain of an adult. Sensorial experiences shape children’s brains, forming neurological webs that last throughout their life.

The fact that our interactions with young people help shape their future selves opens up an incredible opportunity. Each experience can be a gift. Often the simplest moments can carry the most meaning.

During the rush of this season, we have the opportunity to slow down and really be present with the young children in our lives. By being open to the wonder and delight our children experience, we gain new perspective while also giving the best gift of all: our total attention.

This may mean taking a deep breath and momentarily turning off the chatter of the to-do list, squatting down to a child’s eye level, smiling, and just listening or seeing what they want to share. A helpful holiday mantra can be: Talk less. Listen more.

In addition to giving our full attention, whether for 20 seconds or 20 minutes, we can also offer to teach a young person a new skill. The key to these teaching moments is to focus on each distinct step so the skill is simple and attainable. Even very young children can be involved with tasks like setting the table, wrapping gifts, and tending to simple household maintenance. They appreciate being involved with routine activities and they want to contribute in a meaningful way.

Dr. Jane Healy, author of numerous books, including Your Child’s Growing Mind , reminds us that children need the opportunity to repeatedly practice activities that seem second nature to adults: “Self-help skills and household jobs are very important for the child to master–help your child, but encourage him to do it himself even if the job isn’t done exactly your way!”

When encouraging or supporting a child in trying a new skill or participating in a new task, be sure to take the child’s perspective into account. Showing how to do something is often the most effective and verbalized instructions can be kept to a minimum. In fact, it is best to not talk while showing something and to not show something while talking! This allows the child to focus on absorbing one kind of sensory input, thus keeping the information clear in their mind.

These kinds of ordered and clear experiences are key to a child’s development. “Impressions do not merely enter his mind; they form it,” explained Dr. Maria Montessori a physician turned educator who spent intensive time observing children, making scientific notes, and thus coming to an enlightened understanding of childhood development.

Dr. Montessori observed how children respond positively to organization, both in terms of expected routines and physical space. Current research, such as that comparing the HOME inventory (Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment) to longitudinal information collected in the Bayley Mental Development Inventory, shows that organized environments lead to higher intelligence scores.*

We all know that the holiday season throws our routines and even our physical settings a bit askew. With this in mind, children benefit greatly from adults in their lives maintaining a calm sense of order during this busy time.

In order to create a calm, ordered environment, we ourselves need to have balance and clarity in our own lives! Staying present in the moment, breathing deeply, and ultimately taking care of our own needs allows us to offer our best selves to the children around us.

What we offer to our children, in terms of our presence, special activities, or toys, can provide opportunities to aid their development. During this time of gift-giving, for example, we can provide objects that have an intelligent purpose and help children contribute in a meaningful way to the order around them. Child-sized, yet real, items are particularly valuable: cooking tools, building tools, yard tools, and even mops and brooms.

Children don’t stay young for long, and the early years are extremely formative. In her book, Understanding the Human Being: The Importance of the First Three Years of Life , Silvana Quattrocchi Montanaro explains the significance of a young child’s experiences: “Everything that comes from the environment is received, processed and stored in the brain cells with no effort using a form of unconscious absorption. This intense mental activity is always going on, even in prenatal life, and it characterizes ‘the absorbent mind’.”

For those interested in learning more about optimal environments for these “absorbent minds,” schedule a visit to our school. We can share more about setting up home environments that best support child development and show how our learning environments are specifically designed for neurological growth.

Knowing that the young children around us are absorbing everything about their surroundings, this season let’s give them our attention, meaningful ways to contribute to daily tasks, and a calm, ordered environment. As a result, we’re helping some remarkable young people as they develop into capable, caring young adults.

*For more information on this research, check out the book, Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius by Angeline Stoll Lillard.

The Stereognostic Sense

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 11:00:00 GMT

In Montessori toddler and primary classrooms, we offer specially designed materials to help young children refine their senses. In addition to the five senses—tactile (touch), visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), olfactory (smell), and gustatory (taste)—we also support children’s stereognostic sense.

What is the stereognostic sense?

The word stereognostic comes from the Greek words “stereo” which means “around” and “gnosis” which means “to know.” Having a stereognostic sense means being able to identify the shape and form of a three-dimensional object, and therefore its identity, through tactile manipulation without any visual or auditory input.

“They are very proud of seeing without eyes, holding out their hands and crying, ‘Here are my eyes!’ ‘I can see with my hands!’”
– Dr. Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method

Children develop a mental picture of an object through the use of touch and movement. This tactile and muscular experience allows them to recognize an object by feeling and palpating without seeing or hearing the object. Everything we touch helps form a memory.

Young children are absorbing everything, so the more experiences they have with objects and parts of their environment, the more accurate their perceptions will be. Thus, the combination of language (naming objects), the tactile experience, and muscular memory provides children with a more complete and precise understanding of the world.

Mystery (or Stereognostic) Bags

In our toddler and primary classrooms, we have special “mystery bags” or “stereognostic bags” to support the development of children’s stereognostic sense. These drawstring bags contain objects children have already encountered in their environment. We make sure children know the names of the objects, too.

The first bag we introduce has a set of four to six objects that belong to a classified group, such as kitchen utensils, art supplies, bathroom items, etc. These are real items that children have used in their lives.

The next bag has four to six general objects that are not grouped in any category (e.g. a comb, rock, sponge, funnel, cloth, etc.).

The third bag has three to four pairs of objects that are very different from each other.

The Experience

When we introduce each of these bags, we first show how to carry the bag and invite the child to take the bag to a table. We then carefully demonstrate how to open and close the bag and give the child a turn to try opening and closing. Next, we peek inside the bag and remove one item at a time, naming each object as we remove it from the bag and place it on the table. We also give the child a turn to feel each item. When all the objects are removed from the bag and lined up on the table, we name one and invite the child to place it in the bag. We repeat this until all the objects are back in the bag.

Then the fun begins! We explain that we are going to reach into the bag to find an item. Putting both hands into the bag (and without looking in the bag) we feel around and grasp an object. With some enthusiasm, we say the item’s name before we remove the item. Then we take the item out of the bag and show it to the child. Often the child watching takes great delight in the fact that we were able to name the object before seeing it. We repeat with the other items and then invite the child to try. When using the bag with the paired objects, the only difference is that we select one item, name it, remove it from the bag, and then try to feel for the matching item.

We regularly rotate the items in the bags so children have lots of opportunities to feel for what is in these “mystery bags”. Children find the experience to be absolutely delightful!

The best part is that when children try to recognize an object through touch alone, their brain receives the sensorial input and then forms a three-dimensional image that provides a more complete understanding and precise perception of the object.

“When the hand and arm are moved about an object, an impression of movement is added to that touch. Such an impression is attributed to a special, sixth sense, which is called a muscular sense, and which permits many impressions to be stored in a ‘muscular memory,’ which recalls movements that have been made.”
– Dr. Maria Montessori, The Discovery of the Child

The stereognostic bags are just one example of the many carefully designed materials we introduce in Montessori classrooms. We always love to have you come visit to see or experience these sensorial delights firsthand. Schedule a tour today!

The Origins of Language

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 11:00:02 GMT

Dr. Maria Montessori felt that in order to support children’s development of language, we first need to appreciate the evolution of language. In fact, the language today’s children use is a culmination of language evolution from the dawn of humans.

Languages have expanded and grown to match the complexity of our cultures. Because language is changing and evolving, children create their language as it exists in their environment. Although a child born thousands of years ago had no less potential for developing language than a child today, our languages have grown in fullness and complexity.

Evolution of Spoken Language

Although we don’t have any records documenting the beginning of spoken language, we can imagine that certain experiences or events drove humans to produce different sounds. Over time these utterances likely became internalized and came to represent an experience.

Language is necessary for humans to work together cooperatively. In his memoir, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood , Trevor Noah relates his experience growing up in South Africa, where there are at least thirty-five indigenous languages, eleven of which are official languages. As someone who speaks seven different languages, Noah experienced first-hand how language can bridge divides: “Language, even more than color, defines who you are to people.”

Early humans developed language as a means of communication, but humans were isolated into small tribes or clans. Each group developed their own agreed upon communications. As populations increased and migration happened, communities came into contact. Some words got shared. Some new words were created. Etymology gives us the histories of the roots of words, and as such, historians can study the evolution of language and human migration through words and their roots.

The vocabulary of any language is related to the culture of that community. For instance, the Eskimo language has 27 different words for snow, while Hawaiians have no words for snow. Languages constantly evolve as new experiences emerge in our culture. Currently, we can see this in how words are added or removed from the dictionary. A couple of decades ago, for example, “Google” was not a verb!

Primitive spoken languages were primarily nouns interspersed with some adjectives, verbs, prepositions, and conjunctions. Primitive languages actually sounded a lot like how young children speak. As cultures evolved and became more complex, languages evolved their own vocabulary, grammar, and syntax.

Evolution of Written Language

At some point, humans also developed symbolic language as a way to record their thoughts. These records began as pictures, such as the cave paintings that date from over 30,000 years ago. In the beginning, the pictures were realistic and over time became more symbolic, moving from pictograph alphabets to phonetic alphabets. With a phonetic alphabet containing a limited number of symbols, people could begin to create any word. The birth of the alphabet greatly simplified the writing system. As civilizations evolved, expanded, and became more sophisticated, the expansion of language in written form became more universal.

The roots of modern American English reflect the diversity of the culture. While the English language originated in Britain, the Romans added a Latin influence and the French Saxons and Anglos added their own influences. As colonists came to America from different countries, they brought their language to a place where the Native Americans had their own languages. All of these influences were incorporated into American English.

This diverse history of the language is what makes it complicated and full of exceptions. Some words retained their original spelling while others were adapted and modified. This varied origin story explains why we can have a sound represented in so many different ways. Just think about the sound “sh” which can be represented in: shock, sugar, emotion, charade, social, and tissue.

Once humans developed a writing system as a way of recording thoughts, another skill had to be acquired — reading. If writing is recording our thoughts, reading is interpreting the thoughts of others.

Development of Language

Just as the evolution of writing and reading happened with humans, there is just as much magic, mystery, and power that happens when each child learns to read. In our prepared environments, we offer children the keys to their language because we have a deep appreciation for the origins of language itself. By understanding the history of language, we can better appreciate what children are accomplishing when they acquire these skills.

Our exercises for language are not designed to teach language directly, but to offer support to children’s developing personalities. The method we use in our classrooms evolved from Dr. Montessori’s discoveries about how children learn. What resulted is a revolutionary method that is in harmony with the child’s developmental needs. Children can learn to write and read without even realizing that it is happening.

We welcome you to observe this development of language in action in our classrooms. Schedule a tour today!

Collaborative Problem Solving

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 11:00:01 GMT

So often, when we get really upset with our children, the first thing we want to do is solve the problem. Tell them what needs to happen. Take control. Sometimes even become a bit dictatorial!

In those times of frustration or anger, our rational thinking tends to take a back seat to our emotions. We forget what might be happening in our children's internal (and sometimes external) lives. We rush ahead instead of taking the time to help guide our children.

Yet our children look to us for assistance and support. When our children are struggling, they need us to show compassion, patience, and empathy.

Changing Our Perspective

Dr. Ross Greene, a clinical psychologist and author of Raising Human Beings , among other publications, makes an impassioned plea on his website, Lives in the Balance , asking adults to recast how we think about challenging behavior. When children are behaving in challenging ways, Dr. Greene explains, it is "because they're lacking the skills not to be challenging. If they had the skills, they wouldn't be challenging.”

Dr. Greene also emphasizes two vital themes to better support our children. "Kids do well if they can," he states, and, "Doing well is always preferable to not doing well.”

If we wholeheartedly embrace the fact that our children want to do well if they can, we can take what Dr. Greene calls a “dramatic departure from the view of challenging kids as attention-seeking, manipulative, coercive, limit-testing, and poorly motivated. It’s a completely different set of lenses, supported by research in the neurosciences over the past 30 to 40 years, and it has dramatic implications for how caregivers go about helping such kids.”

How can we help?

It's worth noting that all children at some point demonstrate challenging behaviors. So how do we, as adults and caregivers, help children with these challenges?

The first step is to think about what difficulty a child is facing. The challenging behavior arises because of a difficulty. Listing specific difficulties helps us shift our thinking away from the behaviors that can cause us frustration.

Next, at a time when the behavior isn’t happening, we can find a time to connect and make sure it's a good time to talk. At that point, we can state what we've observed: "I've noticed it's been difficult for you to finish breakfast before we need to leave for school.”

The Empathy Step

Then (and this is key) we ask, “What’s up?” or “What’s going on?”

This statement of a non-judgmental observation, and then an invitation to share, initiates what Dr. Greene calls the Empathy Step. The Empathy Step is an information-gathering process in which we really try to understand the child's perspective and experience. We listen without reacting and ask questions or reflect back answers in order to peel back the layers of what is really going on for the child in those moments of challenge.

During this time of reflective listening and questioning, it's essential that our child is heard, really heard. All too often, we try to jump in too quickly with advice or solutions, without giving enough time and space for our young person to share valuable perspectives and insights. Just this process of listening can be incredibly healing. If a child isn't used to us really listening, or we aren't used to asking questions rather than offering solutions, check out this cheat sheet for how to get to the heart of the matter.

Assuming our child has been able to share what's really going on in those moments of challenge, we summarize what is distressing to them and share our own concern. For example, "I understand, and my concern is that I feel stressed and anxious when we are rushing to get out the door in the morning." We then invite our child to work together with us to find a solution that can meet everyone's needs.

Being Heard and Validated

When using this process with children, it’s often the case that we sometimes don’t even get to the last steps of stating a concern and initiating a collaborative problem-solving process. Sometimes it makes sense to listen to what our child has to share about what is going on and then let that really settle. Sometimes just the process of being heard is significant enough for shifts to occur for our child, as being heard helps them feel validated.

In those moments of frustration or upset, let's try to slow ourselves down and remember that the child in front of us wants to do well. Our job can be to listen and empathize. And in doing so, we can support that young person in solving problems, learning new skills, and becoming a more whole human being.

Please schedule a tour to come visit our school and see how collaborative problem-solving works with children. We’ve found that it can also be helpful in our interactions with adults, too!

Halloween, Montessori-Style

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 11:00:00 GMT

Whether we are excited about the delights of Halloween or reluctant to face the excess of sweets, the holiday is upon us! In Montessori, we try to approach holidays as an opportunity to learn more about culture, which includes understanding the history as well as related traditions. As with other aspects of culture, we also think about how to give and show respect in a way that is developmentally appropriate. Above all, we keep in mind what makes sense for each child.

Teach the History

How did Halloween begin? This is an excellent time to explore the origin of Halloween with your child. Young children appreciate a very simple explanation that is linked to the rhythm of the year. For example: “Around this time, when the nights are getting longer and darker, different cultures have different ways of marking this shift from summer into winter. In our culture, one way people have celebrated the change of seasons is by dressing up and visiting neighbors.”

With older children, it’s fun to do a little research together into Halloween’s ancient Celtic origins. Telling a little teaser story can spark some interest in learning more. For example: “Did you know that Halloween began over 2,000 years ago? It wasn’t called Halloween then, though. Its name was Samhain (pronounced ‘sow-in’), which means ‘summer’s end.’ Back then winter was a dangerous time, so people got together to face some of the superstitions and fears, and also to play games and eat together before winter began. Let’s see what else we can discover about this celebration and traditions over time!”

If you are interested in learning more with your children, here are some helpful links for collaborative research:

The Origins of Halloween Traditions

This History of Halloween for Kids

Halloween History for Kids: Six Facts They Should Know

Practice Grace & Courtesy

It’s not often that we march up to multiple houses and demand treats! As such, we want to be thoughtful about how we introduce the practice of trick-or-treating to our children, uphold our family values, and model showing manners while having fun.

Young children will likely benefit from some demonstration before they jump into the experience. Role-playing with a family member, friend, or neighbor can set children up for success before they are in the awkward situation of standing before a stranger uncertain about what to do (or not do).

With older children (and their friends if they are trick-or-treating as a group), it’s also helpful to collaboratively review expectations such as walking on people’s sidewalks rather than marching through yards, only approaching houses with porch lights on, the protocol for knocking and/or ringing the doorbell, how to politely respond or engage when someone comes to the door, and what to say as you leave (e.g. “thank you” or “Happy Halloween!”). In addition, Halloween is an excellent time to review road safety around crossing the street and checking for cars.

Remember Developmental Appropriateness

Our young children are still distinguishing between what is real and what isn’t. As such, Halloween can be an exciting and yet sometimes disorienting time. Our language can help. Just like with toddlers when we say, “This is a picture of a giraffe” rather than “This is a giraffe” when we present a language card with a giraffe image, during Halloween festivities, we can be specific about how we talk about people in costumes or even decorations. For example, we might say, “Oh look, there is a person dressed up in a witch costume!” rather than “There is a witch!” Or we might offer some explanation if our children are hesitant, “Those bat and spider figurines hanging on the porch look so real, but when I look more closely I see how they are made of plastic. Can you see that, too?”

If fears do arise, acknowledge your child’s feelings, let them know it’s okay to feel scared, and make sure they feel heard and supported. The last thing we want to do is minimize our children’s fears. Sometimes this means making some modifications to the Halloween plans. Ultimately, we want to make sure the festivities are fun for our children. This might mean considering other options, like decorating pumpkins versus dressing up like zombies. Low-key or autumn-themed activities might be best if children are feeling anxious or fearful.

However your family chooses to celebrate the season, remember we have an opportunity to model respect and thoughtfulness, as well as the importance of having some fun! Let us know what you love to do this time of year. We would love to hear about your family’s favorite autumn and Halloween traditions!

Materials Spotlight: The Color Tablets

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 11:00:01 GMT

Young children are constantly absorbing information about the world around them! Some of it is very concrete, while some is abstract.

Color as an Abstraction

Think about the color red. Red as a quality does not exist in nature. Red can be represented in physical things, but you can’t bring “red” to another person. We can find a red apple, a red street sign, a red flower, but we can’t find just red. Red is an abstraction.

In Montessori environments, we are mindful of how we introduce young children to these kinds of abstractions. We try to represent the intangible quality in a physical form and to isolate it so that children can really focus on the quality and the language connected to that attribute. Every variable is held constant except for the one characteristic to experience and explore. We do this to give children the clearest, most precise images we can.

These materials that we use to introduce the abstract concept of color are called the color tablets because each color is represented on a tablet. The tablet with red looks exactly like every other tablet in our color box, except for its color. Each tablet has the same size, weight, and shape. The only variation is the color. This materialized abstraction allows us to put “red” in the child’s hands to experience and explore. The Montessori color tablets are organized into three boxes.

First Color Tablet Box

The first color tablet box is composed of three pairs of color tablets: red, blue, and yellow. These primary colors represent the extremes of color. With this first box we awaken children’s sensory awareness by introducing how to pair the matching color tablets. There are two of each variable and children find the mates. Cognitively it is easier for children to notice sameness than difference.

In this first stage, we also demonstrate how to handle the material and how to experience the sense. If a child can’t distinguish the extremes of the set, we get important information about their sensorial perception. Sometimes the child isn’t successful at this first stage because they aren’t yet comprehending the concept of sameness. Thus we must be very careful to let children know how we are pairing the items by finding the matching the tablet that looks exactly like the one we have selected first. This isn’t just random pairing, but rather is based upon a specific perception. Often children don’t spend too long with this first box of color tablets, although some young children will be drawn to the simple beauty of the three primary colors.

Second Color Tablet Box

With color box two, the focus is still on finding similarities, however, there are more variables. For example, color box two has primary colors and secondary colors, as well as brown, grey, black, and white. This adds more variables for children to search through to find the match and thus requires them to use a finer level of discrimination. When we add more variables, the differences between them become smaller and not as extreme. This challenges children’s exactness and precision.

Third Color Tablet Box

The third box of color tablets is divided into seven or eight compartments each with a gradation of one color from dark to light. Children begin using this box when they have been successful pairing with more variables because grading by shade requires a higher level of discriminating difference. Children’s attention has to be focused on a slight unit of difference. Is the blue just lighter than the last shade of blue? This is cognitively much harder!

Just these three steps are not enough to ensure the maximum amount of depth of experience with the materials. Thus, we extend work with the color boxes by offering language and memory games.

Language Extensions

After children have some experience with the material and we observe that they are successful in consistently pairing two colors together, we offer children language to accompany the abstraction. Language fixes the sensorial quality in their minds and aids memory and recall. We don’t want to give language to images that are not clear, because that confuses children. When children are successful pairing colors, we offer the names of the colors. Then when children are successful in grading the shades of a color, we offer the comparative terms (darker than, lighter than) and superlative expressions (darkest red, lightest red).

Memory Games

Memory games help children discover sensorial qualities in the world around them. In the first memory game, children put one set of the paired color tablets in one location and the second set in random order somewhere else in the room. The trick is to have the second location be just far enough away so as to allow enough time for children to retain a memory of the color. To play the game, children place a “memory marker” next to one of the color tablets lined up in the first location. They then hold that color, such as “red”, in mind and walk to the second location. There they find the red tablet and bring it back to place it by its mate. Children then move the memory marker to another color tablet and continue.

When children are successful with this, they can try a harder variation of this game in which they use a tray to place the second set of color tablets in scattered locations around the room. When children go to find the matching color tablet, they must retain the impression in their memory for a longer time and not be distracted by the other things they see as they walk around the room.

Children can also play a game of matching each color tablet to a material in the classroom. For this game, children use the memory marker to indicate which color tablet they are using. They then study the color tablet, leave it on the rug or table, and then search the environment for an object that has the same exact shade of the color. When they find the object, they bring it back and place it next to the selected color tablet.

Keys to the World

If we think about the world of color, we realize there are an infinite number of colors, shades, etc. We don’t give children every color of the world. We give the keys: the primary colors, then the secondary colors, then black and white, and a few other colors. Every other color is made from those keys!

The color tablets are one of the more lovely and inviting materials we use in the Children’s House or primary classrooms. Come visit our school and see how young children internalize these kinds of abstract concepts and, in the process, develop a refined sensorial ability!

Our Montessori Bookshelf: Captivating Chemistry

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 11:00:01 GMT

In Montessori classrooms, elementary students are able to study every fascinating thing under the sun (and beyond!). Montessori children are exploring the world, not the inside of a textbook.

That being said, there is structure to the Montessori learning environments as we provide the room for young people to explore threads and interconnections as they consume everything they can about the universe. In this quest to understand the physical world (past and present), children find themselves in the realms of astronomy, physics, meteorology, geology, and chemistry.

We thought we’d share some of our favorite books that support children’s fascination with the chemical world. While most of these books are most appropriate for elementary ages and up, younger children might also enjoy a few of them.

Chemistry for Curious Kids: An Illustrated Introduction to Atoms, Elements, Chemical Reactions, and More!

By Lynn Huggins-Cooper, Illustrated by Alex Foster

This is a helpful reference book for children who are just starting their foray into chemistry, as well as those who are further along in their understanding. Although the book is organized into chapters–States of Matter, Chemical Building Blocks, The Chemistry of Life, the Periodic Table, In the Lab, and Chemicals All Around Us–it’s quite easy to flip to different pages and peruse what draws your interest. The pages are chock-full of beautiful, colorful illustrations that draw attention to key concepts and the easy-to-access texts makes even dense information understandable.

Every Day, Chemistry

By Julia Sooy, Illustrated by Bonnie Pang

This picture book takes us on a little journey through a child’s day and how chemistry is part of just about everything we do. Younger children will enjoy this book’s engaging illustrations, while also taking in foundational information that will inform their elementary years. Older children can benefit from the big picture context of how chemistry doesn’t just happen in a laboratory, and is rather an essential aspect of life. The last few pages of the book provide some easy to access explanations about the difference between chemical reactions and physical changes.

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Elements: The Powers, Uses, and Histories of Every Atom in the Universe

By Lisa Congdon

After some introductory pages, this book dives into a visually appealing investigation into each element on the periodic table. The simple yet powerful illustrations accompany fascinating descriptions for hydrogen through fermium. Accentuated with little standout tidbits–like the element category, year discovered, who discovered by, and fun facts–the information is clear and easy-to-read and includes amazing historical details. Young researchers will love this book!

The Kitchen Pantry Scientist: Chemistry for Kids: Homemade Science Experiments and Activities Inspired by Awesome Chemists, Past and Present

By Liz Lee Heinecke

More than just a random collection of science experiments, this book offers a thoughtful expedition through time, highlighting 25 chemists from ancient history through today. Moving in historical order, each overview of a chemist is accompanied by a lush illustration and fascinating facts, as well as a step-by-step way to have a hands-on experience with the concept or their work. This book is a must have for kids who both love history and science!

The Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Chemistry

By Jane Wertheim

This reference book is jam-packed with information and illustrations. For those who want to keep digging into the details, the bottom of each page references which pages to go to for more details about a term or concept. This higher-level reference book will definitely appeal to visual learners and provides excellent review or jumping off points for further research.

Women in Chemistry

By Mary Wissinger, Illustrated by Danielle Pioli

We want our children to ask questions about this world, and this book encourages just that! A girl’s question, “What is the world made of?” takes us along a path of inquiry that artfully weaves in women’s contributions to chemistry, foundational information about matter to ribosomes, and ultimately the power of curiosity. This book not only serves as an excellent introduction to chemistry, but also way to center female scientists!

You can click here to download a printable booklist . If you explore any of these books with your children, let us know what you think! We also invite you to schedule a tour to see how children at our school learn about advanced concepts in a way that appeals to their interests and curiosity.

Honoring Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 11:00:01 GMT

Hopefully, we have all been hearing and sharing more Land Acknowledgements, which recognize and honor the Indigenous Peoples who are the original stewards of the lands on which we now live. Acknowledging the land we occupy is by itself a small gesture. Yet this first step of showing respect and support can become more meaningful when coupled with informed action, authentic relationships, and work toward reconciliation.

To help ourselves and our children become more aware, informed, and accountable, we can start by sharing stories about the present-day life and culture of Native Peoples, celebrating indigenous activism, and learning about the history of the people whose land we live on.

All too often our children have unconsciously absorbed harmful stereotypes about Indigenous Peoples or that Native Americans only existed in our country’s past. Thus, we need to be very intentional about providing current, accurate, and respectful information on Indigenous Peoples’ Day and throughout the year.

Show Representation

Mainstream culture often presents native peoples as fierce, war-like, and to be feared, or sometimes in a more romanticized, puristic way. Children absorb these kinds of stereotypes through sports mascots, books, movies, and even place names. Non-native authors sometimes also unintentionally reinforce stereotypes or conflate different tribes’ cultures and histories.

Countering these messages takes conscious work.

An easy way to begin is by infusing our home and school libraries with books that show native people living in our current time period. Young children cannot distinguish between the past and the present and showing Native Peoples in current day settings disrupts the false narrative that Native Americans are a “people of the past.” One of the best sources we’ve found is Rebekah Gienapp’s list of indigenous children’s books.

In addition to reading stories and sharing books with more accurate representation, we can also incorporate books, art, and music created by American Indians. If you’d like some sources to help begin this journey, check out:

Native American Musicians We Should Know

Embracing Contemporary Native American Art as Contemporary Art

Why Study Native American Literature

Project 562: A multi-year national photography project dedicated to photographing over 562 federally recognized Tribes, urban Native communities, Tribes fighting for federal recognition, and Indigenous role models

Meet Indigenous Speakers and Learn How They’re Keeping Their Languages Alive

Through their own words, music, performance, and advocacy, Native American and Indigenous artists share important insights into their hopes, fears, traditions, and stories. In the process of taking in more respectful representation, our young people can offer more acceptance and experience more genuine appreciation.

Focus on Your Community

We can also accompany our children on a journey of learning about the original people who lived on the land we now occupy. This investigation is most suitable for children as they enter their elementary years, as it means digging into some history. In this process, we can help our children appreciate how there are multitudes of Native American nations and that each has their own language, culture, history, and traditions. As we learn about the Native Peoples of our place, we can then be more specific as we talk about native culture. For example, “This book is about the Mohican people.”

An amazing interactive resource that can help children also appreciate geography through a cultural lens is the Native Land Digital map: https://native-land.ca/ . Because the map does not show political boundaries, children can visually discover some of the fluidity of native territories and languages. The site also provides links to local Native American nations for more information.

Celebrate Activism

As we learn more about and honor our Native Peoples, it’s important that we and our children are also aware of indigenous struggles and victories. We can start by introducing one of the many movements for native rights . We can also find local events that feature Native Peoples and then ideally support those events that give back to the Indigenous community.

As we learn with our children, we can also explore ideas for making reparations. The Land You Live On: An Education Guide by Native Land recommends first honoring a nation by taking the time to learn how to pronounce a nation’s name correctly. Three options listed in The Land You Live On are:

Respectfully ask someone from the nation.
Check the nation’s website for a phonetic pronunciation on their “About” page, an audio recording of their name, or videos that include people saying the nation’s name.
Call the nation after hours and listen to their voicemail recording.

The Native Land Education Guide also encourages thoughtful reflection in order to make Land Acknowledgements more meaningful. Helpful questions provided include:

Why is this acknowledgment happening?
How does this acknowledgment relate to the event or work you are doing?
What is the history of this territory? What are the impacts of colonialism here?
What is your relationship to this territory?
How did you come to be here?
What intentions do you have to disrupt and dismantle colonialism beyond this territory acknowledgment?

On this Indigenous Peoples’ Day, let’s commit to having a greater consciousness and disrupting false narratives throughout the year. In this process, we can help our young people feel more empowered to provide support and take action!

The Power of Three

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 11:00:00 GMT

In Montessori, the number three shows up a lot! We have the three-hour work cycle, three-year age spans, the three-period lesson, and the three-stage learning cycle. While there is considerable spiritual significance to the number three throughout human history, in a Montessori context, the importance of these threes is grounded in scientific observation of human development, characteristics and needs during different stages of growth, and how our brains synthesize information.

If you are curious about the three-hour work cycle and three-year age spans, check out some of our past blog posts.

This time we are going to focus on the learning process and how the three-period lesson and three-stage learning cycle meet young people’s needs for internalizing and synthesizing new information.

Three-Period Lesson

The three-period lesson model came from Édouard Séguin (1812-1880), a physician and educator known for his work with children with disabilities. Séguin used the three-period lesson to help children make an association between an object and its corresponding term.

The three-period lesson captivates young children and rouses interest. Dr. Maria Montessori began to use three-period lessons to help young children connect language to the perception of an idea, and ultimately create a permanent acquisition in their memory. There are three discrete stages to this approach.

The First Period: Naming

This first stage of the lesson is when we introduce vocabulary and help children make the connection between their experience and the language. In this first stage, we want to isolate both children’s impressions and the matching word.

At the infant and toddler level, we start with real objects or small replicas. With young children, we have about four objects in a basket. We pick up one object and name it. We then allow a child to have a turn feeling the object and having their own sensorial experience of the item. In the process, the child brings together the name and their sensorial experience. We continue this with each object, saying the name multiple times. For example, “This is the _____. You can feel the _____. You can place the ____ here.”

We also use a similar process for introducing vocabulary through language cards which have a picture of one isolated object on the card.

As children get a little older, we start introducing language for more abstract concepts. For example, if we are introducing tactile experiences, we offer children two different tablets that are identical except for one feature: one has rough sandpaper on it and the other has smooth paper. We feel the rough tablet and say: “It is rough.” Then the child feels the rough tablet. We repeat the same process for the smooth tablet.

The Second Period: Recognizing

This is the longest part of the lesson because we want children to have many experiences with the object or quality and its name. We rearrange the objects or cards and then ask children to place them in different locations or to point to a particular one. We might ask, “Which is rough?” Or say, “Place the _____ on my hand. Place the ______ here.”

We approach this second stage in a playful, game-like way although the goal is to cement the concept in children’s memory. If children make a mistake, we do not correct. Instead, we merely reinforce the correct vocabulary: “You handed me the picture of the cheetah.”

The Third Period: Remembering or Recall

We ask children aged three and older to recall the name that corresponds to the object by isolating the object or image and asking for its name: “What is this?" If children aren’t able to remember, we just try the three-period lesson again on another day.

We don’t use this third stage with children younger than age three because they might not yet be ready to produce the sound. Plus, this request for recall isn’t a great idea to use with children when they are in their oppositional stage (around age two)!

The Elementary Years

Elementary-aged children engage with new material in a similar, yet more sophisticated way. The learning process echoes the three-period lesson but isn’t exactly the same.

The first period involves a presentation by the adult, which can include the great stories, impressionistic charts, materials, experiments, and demonstrations. The focus is on introducing specific concepts, activating student interest, and providing a big-picture view before going into specific details. Rather than being vocabulary-based as with younger children, these lessons are intended to introduce elementary students to the wonder of the universe. In this first period, the adult gives only what is absolutely necessary for the lesson, so the students can move into their own exploration.

The second period is the longest part of the learning activity and is an exploratory phase of learning when students freely choose follow-up work. We want to see how far children can go with what they have learned, so the second period offers repetition with variation and encourages extension and elaboration of original concepts. Once they have done extensive work, students have reached the third period.

During the third period, the adults are discreetly and indirectly assessing children’s learning. Through conversation and observation, adults can see if the students can recognize the concept and perhaps apply it to a new or novel situation. Unlike with younger children, there is no expectation for students to perform or produce evidence of their learning. The onus is on the adult to observe and gather data that will help direct future lessons and even re-presentations.

In Adolescence

A similar learning cycle also exists in the Montessori adolescent community as a way to support learning, development, and self-creation for teens.

Similar to what happens in the elementary, this first stage is a lesson or experience offered by an adult. It is an invitation to work and contribute to community needs by addressing a specific, concrete issue. In the first stage, adults can also elicit student input by asking adolescents for options and choices about the work they want to do and how they want to do that work.

During the second stage, students engaged in freely chosen work that is activated by interest or a recognition of a need in the community. The adults are there for guidance as adolescents work with skills and ideas and begin to consolidate them. This stage can include research, experimentation, inquiry, data collection, discussions to enhance collective understanding, physical and practical work to accomplish a task, and consultation with experts. Throughout the second stage, the adults are looking for what draws students into the task, what keeps them working, and what drives contribution to produce, think, and question.

In the third stage, adolescents can offer what they learned by giving back to their community. Unlike in the elementary years when the adults are discretely observing for understanding, now there is an expectation that adolescents can produce a product at the end of their work. This sharing of knowledge and understanding is both a consolidation of concepts and skills, and a way to acknowledge that the work exists within the context of community. Products of the third stage can include a demonstration, publication, or implementation.

While these three stages take on slightly different forms from infancy through adolescence, the goal is the same: to effectively support young people as they integrate their learning. Come visit our school to see the power three!

The Absorbent Mind

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 11:00:01 GMT

Unlike other species that are born with a predetermined set of behaviors, human babies are born with a set of potentials. When a child is born, we have no idea if they will be a master musician or a creative chef. It’s pretty amazing when we think about it! Children are constantly creating the skills they need to become contributing adults.

Dr. Maria Montessori observed children from a scientific lens and over time she concluded that this kind of creative work could only happen with a mind that was different from the conscious adult mind. She realized that children’s minds operate in a fundamentally different way. In The Absorbent Mind , Dr. Montessori states:

“The child has other powers than ours, and the creation he achieves is no small one; it is everything. Not only does he create his language, but he shapes the organs that enable him to frame the words. He has to make the physical basis of every moment, all the elements of our intellect, everything the human being is blessed with. This wonderful work is not the product of conscious intention.”

Well before brain scans, Dr. Montessori discovered so much about how children’s brains function and she termed this special mental functioning, the absorbent mind. Her book, The Absorbent Mind , was one of the last books she compiled.

The words Dr. Montessori used to describe the child’s absorbent mind were chosen deliberately. The word absorbent implies “taking in” and integrating into the whole. What is absorbed becomes a part of what is doing the absorbing. Children take in their experiences and impressions which become part of the structure and content of their brains.

“Impressions do not merely enter his mind; they form it. They incarnate themselves in him. The child creates his own ‘mental muscles,’ using for this what he finds in the world about him. We have named this type of mentality, The Absorbent Mind.”

The absorbent mind is a superpower of children from birth to around age six.

Because children under six are absorbing everything in their environment, our actions need to reflect what we expect. If we want children to sit at the table to eat, we need to sit at the table to eat. If we want children to talk with quiet, calm voices, we need to talk with quiet, calm voices. If we want children to carry one item at a time, using both hands, we need to do so, too. The key is to model this behavior at all times. Children are absorbing indiscriminately. We may not think they are looking, but they are taking it all in!

We can share an example of this from a Montessori classroom. Once upon a time, a tall toddler teacher would always squat down in front of the low shelves to select a material to show a child. After squatting down, she would pick up the item she wanted to show. Although all the toddlers were at the right height to easily take the item, the teacher noticed that they would walk to a shelf, squat down, and then pick up the material. Even though this movement was much more difficult for the toddlers, they had unconsciously absorbed the steps the teacher had demonstrated: walk to the shelf, squat down, and pick up what you want.

So in our Montessori environments, we are very careful with how we move and what we do. When the adults want a snack, we follow the same procedure as the children. We wash our hands, use a plate, and sit at the snack table. Doing what we expect the children to do also gives us a wonderful opportunity to see how the process can be improved. By having snack and cleaning up after ourselves, we can experience the process. Are the dustpans easy to access and in a place that makes sense? Do the spray bottles work well for spraying and wiping the table? What parts of the process feel cumbersome? What flows well?

We can also look at our school and home environments from our children’s perspective. Sometimes it helps to even kneel or sit on the floor and look at a room from a child’s height. What do they see? What stands out from their vantage point? Is the space welcoming and beautiful? What attracts attention?

Our young children’s brains are hardwired to effortlessly absorb what is around them. Because our children are full of potential, we want to provide them with the best! Let’s start by taking a look at ourselves and our children’s surroundings. As we think about our children’s absorbent minds, we can work to provide them with clear, consistent images as we move through our days.

If you would like to learn more, please schedule a tour . We love to share how we support children as they are discovering what is possible!

Moving Away from How Was Your Day?

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 11:00:01 GMT

When we pick up our children from school, it can be so tempting to ask, “How was your day?” Often the responses are pretty lackluster.

As adults, we can likely relate. If a partner or friend asks about our day, our responses may be along the lines of fine, good, tiring, okay. Sometimes we just don’t feel like rehashing the day!

For children, there can also be an element of not always having the language to explain what they did or experienced. In Montessori environments, this can be even more challenging. How can a young child describe the sensorial experience of carrying each block of the pink tower to a rug and creating a geometric tower of cubes based on the decimal system? Or convey their emerging conversation with a friend during community lunch? Or relate their delight in discovering that ten 10s create a hundred square?

As children get a little older, they are also starting to grapple with figuring out their relationships with peers, which involves so many social nuances. Younger elementary-aged children are still seeing these relationships in black and white. So their descriptions of the day may be pretty two-dimensional: someone was mean or nice, the day was good or bad (usually based on an interaction with a friend), etc.

It can be hard for children to talk about their experiences at school. However, if we shift our approach, we can often get more insight into our children’s experiences.

Ideally, we focus on connection first. When we see our children at the end of the school day, we can greet them in a way that conveys how happy we are to see them. They may be tired, need to fall apart a little, have a snack, or just have a little time for rejuvenation. Allow a little loving space. Each child has a different way they feel fueled, loved, seen, and held. That first moment isn’t an ideal time to ask about the day because our children are transitioning into being back in our care. Plus, there is a lot going on during that transition!

Later, when our children have settled into being with us or at home, and hopefully have had a snack or a little time to decompress, we have a chance to connect about the day. However, a word of caution: questions like, “How was your day?” or “What did you do today?” are so open-ended, they can also feel overwhelming to children.

Instead, when we focus on starting a conversation rather than digging for information, our children are more likely to open up. They also need to feel that we are completely present for their responses, which means putting down our phones, not focusing on getting everyone into or out of the car, or not being involved in something like preparing dinner. It helps when we can show with our body language that we are really listening.

In those times when you are ready to explore a conversation, we recommend trying some other kinds of questions. Here are 40 of our favorites. The first five work best for younger children.

What made you feel happy today?
Who did you play with today? What did you do together?
Who did you sit with at snack/lunch today?
What made you feel sad today?
What was your favorite activity today?
Did everyone have someone to play with today? Who played together?
Who brought the best food in their lunch today? What was it?
What was your favorite thing in your lunch box?
What games did you play at recess?
What is the most popular activity at recess? Is it something you like to do? Why or why not?
Did someone get in trouble at school today? What did they do?
What did you notice today that other people probably didn’t see or pay attention to?
What is something you did today that you’d love to do every day?
How did someone fill your bucket today? Whose bucket did you fill?
What made you feel worried today?
What made your teacher smile? Did anything make your teacher frown?
What were you grateful for today?
If one of your classmates could be the teacher for a day, who would you want it to be? Why?
What is your class or teacher’s most important rule?
Who do you want to make friends with but haven’t yet? Why?
What did you learn about a friend today?
If aliens came to school and beamed up three kids, who do you wish they would take? Why?
What did you do today that was helpful?
When did you feel most proud of yourself today?
What rule was the hardest to follow today?
Which person in your class is your exact opposite?
Who is the friendliest person in your class? What do they do to be friendly?
What did you do today that was creative?
Did your teacher read to the class today? If so, what was the story or book about?
What was the high point of your day? What was the low point?
Was anyone in your class absent today? Do you know why they weren’t there?
What is something you heard that surprised you?
What is something that challenged you?
What is something that you were super good at today?
What compliments did you get (or give) today?
How were you brave today?
If you could change one thing about your day, what would it be?
How was your day different than yesterday?
What superpower would have come in handy today?
What are you looking forward to tomorrow?

After a snack, over dinner, on an afternoon walk, or before bed, try starting conversations with these kinds of questions. Notice that most of them can’t be answered with one word.

In addition, we can also provide our own responses, which provides a model for our children and gives them some scaffolding as they are thinking about how to answer. For example, “At lunch today I sat with someone who just started working with me. We talked a lot about going hiking and I shared some of my favorite hikes.” Or “When I was about your age, we loved playing capture the flag. One of my favorite memories of this game was when…” Sharing parts of our day or some of our own school memories not only shows that we are interested in conversation, but it also gives our children a guide for how to begin.

Let us know how it goes to first connect and later start conversations with open-ended questions. If you have any conversation starters that you and your children especially love, please share them! You can also download this printable of our favorite 40 questions to keep handy for those opportune moments.

Family Challenge: Support Young Lunch Packers!

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 11:00:02 GMT

At the start of this new school year, we’ve been thinking about how to offer ideas for integrating Montessori learning at home. With this in mind, we'd like to present you with a family challenge. You can think of this challenge as your homework. Even though we don’t really assign homework in Montessori, we do like to collaborate to help children develop their skills and confidence!

Children in Montessori settings do a lot of food preparation. Food preparation is a big part of their practical life experience at school and a big part of becoming functionally independent in the world. So, our challenge is this: Rather than taking on the sole responsibility of preparing lunches for our children, let's make a commitment to move toward helping our children become their own lunch packers!

Seems Daunting?

Maybe you already have a quick and easy routine for packing lunches. Or maybe it feels a little bit like a drag you stumble through every day. Regardless, preparing lunch is a part of our daily lives. Many of us try to fine-tune lunch packing to make it as efficient and painless as possible. The thought of including our children in that process may at first seem completely overwhelming and impossible.

We recognize the challenge may feel uncomfortable, but bear with us! Not only does helping our children learn how to pack their own lunches help prepare them for important life skills, it also supports their Montessori experience in a pretty significant way. Plus, all too often we see children open up their lunch at school and complain that the food is something they don’t like or want. The side benefit of having children be part of the process is that they have some responsibility and accountability for what they bring. If it's food they helped choose, prepare, and/or pack, they know what they have!

Let’s break down the steps for supporting children as they learn how to prepare their food, pack their lunch, or even just be part of even putting items in their lunch bag or box. Keep in mind that this family “homework” challenge can even start with toddlers!

Shop Together

A wonderful way to enlist children’s involvement is by including them in some part of the shopping experience. Young children can be part of selecting certain food options off the shelf and putting them in the cart. Older children can help make a grocery list, figure out the cost of different items, and keep track of what is needed while in the store. Even a little bit of involvement in picking out lunch food options helps children have a sense of ownership and control.

Choice within Limits

In order to have a balance between wants and needs, it’s worth also weaving in some conversation about balancing different food groups and having plenty of healthy options. Some families have success with collaboratively creating a list of different choices within each food group. Decide as a family what you prioritize then list various options from food groups (e.g. grains, vegetables, fruit, dairy, and protein). It can help to create a visual guide so even young children can see what their choices are when thinking about what to plan for and purchase.

Accessibility

After coming home from the grocery store, children can be part of putting away the items they will be using to prepare and pack their lunches. Accessibility is key. Having a designated spot for lunch foods helps with the packing process. Low cabinet shelves or even low drawers work well. If possible, also find an easy-to-reach space in the refrigerator for perishable items.

It can help to have clear containers so children can easily see their options. For example, after purchasing grapes, children can help wash them, remove the grapes from their stems, and then place the ready-to-eat grapes in a glass or plastic container to store in the refrigerator. Similarly, carrots can be washed, cut, and stored in water in a see-through container. If this system works for your family, even non-perishable items, like crackers, can be removed from their packaging and placed in a clear storage container with other accessible lunch foods.

Easy to Make & Easy to Eat

Young children tend to love having small portions with lots of variety. So when preparing food, think about how children can help with this step. They might like to help cut a sandwich into mini-sandwiches, peel and section a clementine, or slice some cucumbers. With a variety of different choices, children can try combining foods in different ways. They might like to sample a piece of cheese with their apple slice or see how cream cheese tastes on a cracker. Older children can create their own wraps, roll-ups, or sandwiches or choose some dinner leftovers to put into containers for the next day’s lunch.

When children are part of preparing food, there can be some mess involved. It’s good to allow a little time and space for spills to happen. We can show children how to clean up after themselves, while also remembering that the youngest children won’t necessarily be able to clean it all up themselves. When we collaborate in the process, we are helping our children learn how to do it themselves. Whatever path makes sense for your family, just remember that when children are part of the preparation process, they are more invested in trying and eating a variety of foods.

Plan Ahead

Because mornings can be rushed, it often helps to do a little planning ahead of time. Some families like to use the weekend to map out a lunch menu with their children. This can be posted in an easy-to-reference place in the kitchen. When it’s time to get the foods ready or put them in lunch containers, children can just look at the lunch plan for that day. Some families go as far as collaborating with their children to get as many lunch foods as possible ready over the weekend so that their kids can just put that day’s items into their lunch bag or box each morning. Other families might set up a routine so that children are part of emptying and washing their lunch containers when they get home from school and then can use that time to get their lunch set up for the following day. Children may even like to get their lunch packed the night before, store the whole lunch bag in the refrigerator, and then just grab the lunch and go in the morning.

Your kids are more capable than it may seem! Although the process may feel overwhelming at first, remember that you are helping your child learn valuable life skills and reinforcing their Montessori education. If you’d like to come visit the school to see children’s food preparation in action, schedule a tour . We would love to support you with this Montessori challenge!

The Significance of Being on Time

Mon, 04 Sep 2023 11:00:01 GMT

As we start the school year, we want to connect about a really crucial part of Montessori learning environments and how it affects your child, as well as the community as a whole.

First, it helps to remember that we are constantly working to ensure the Montessori learning environment is supporting your child’s development. To do this most effectively, we observe. In our observations, we are looking at what is working for children (and what isn’t).

These observations may lead to some changes. For example, we might adjust the arrangement of the furniture so that there is a better flow of activity in the room. Or we might recognize how an individual child needs a little extra time to watch friends before starting any activity. Sometimes we might realize that, as adults, we are walking around too much and distracting the children, so we slow down and take a few moments to sit calmly.

While much of the Montessori learning environment depends upon observing so we can make modifications to what we do, there is one aspect that is really sacrosanct: the three-hour work cycle.

Three-Hour Work Cycles & the “Flow State”

Dr. Montessori was a scientist and the Montessori method of education was born from her observations of children and how to support their optimum development. She even graphed patterns of activity for individual children and classroom communities. In her scientific study, Dr. Montessori found that children need a block of uninterrupted time in order to go through a rhythm of focus and consolidation. Children two and a half and older need at least three hours to move through these cycles of concentration. Often children’s most growth and meaningful work happens toward the end of a three-hour block of time.

We can think about this in relation to our current-day understanding of what it means to get into a flow state. Sometimes people describe a flow state as “being in the zone.” It’s when we are so immersed in and focused on what we are doing that a sense of time and our surroundings disappear. This concept of flow has been most clearly articulated by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Csikszentmihalyi was a psychologist whose studies of happiness and creativity led to his articulation of flow – a highly focused mental state that is conducive to creativity and productivity. Interestingly enough, when Csikszentmihalyi’s grandchildren started going to a Montessori school, he saw how Montessori learning environments allowed young children to achieve this state of flow.

Why is this significant?

In order to get into their own state of flow, children in our learning communities need a three-hour chunk of time. We have designed our morning arrivals and routines so that children can benefit from an interrupted morning work cycle.

Part of the morning schedule involves children having enough time to greet their peers and go through their routines without being rushed before they enter the classroom environment. When children are ready and in the classroom, the guides can begin focusing on giving lesson presentations and generally supporting children as they start their day.

However, if children routinely arrive late at the beginning of the morning, the adults’ attention needs to be split between greeting those who arrive late and attending to the children who have started their important work of the day.

This is also hard on the children who arrive after their peers have settled into their morning. When children enter a space where everyone is already connected and engaged in work, it is hard for them to connect with classmates and even know where to begin. This is especially challenging for those who really need to establish a social connection at the beginning of their day. It’s a little like awkwardly coming late to a party and finding everyone else in already established social circles!

In addition, late arrivals can be challenging for the community as a whole. The children who were on time and working often find it distracting when friends and classmates arrive. They might even lose focus on what they were leaning because they feel compelled to greet their friends. However, once everyone has arrived, the community is really able to settle. The adults aren’t trying to help children transition into the classroom and friends aren’t getting distracted by who is coming through the door. After arrivals are over, a gentle hum often comes over the room.

A World of Difference

Children need time to transition. Some children are relatively quick, while others take over 15 minutes to get their items put away, shoes changed, and so forth.

It makes a world of difference when our community members arrive on the early side, so that transitions can happen when a guide is able to be present to greet children and so that we can have everyone in the classroom at the start of the day.

We know that mornings can be hard. Believe us, we know. If we were able to just extend the morning if people arrive late, we would! However, children get hungry for lunch, we want to have plenty of time outdoors, and we also need to leave time for children who need to rest. Thus, we rely upon on-time arrivals for the very important three-hour work cycle. Having that uninterrupted block of time is vital to a well-functioning classroom and to individual children’s development.

Thank You!

Thank you so much for being attentive to on-time arrivals, understanding why having the three-hour work cycle is so important, and considering how you can help. If you would like to meet and brainstorm about routines that can support on-time arrivals, we would be honored to get to strategize with you. When we can meet one-on-one with families to support morning routines, we often find some really creative, healthy, win-win options! It can take time to figure out what is most effective for each child and family. It’s a constantly evolving opportunity and we look forward to the collaboration. Please schedule a time to come in and connect.

Culturally Responsive Practices: An Interview

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 11:00:05 GMT

To support our children most effectively, it seems like we, as parents and caregivers, need to make our own cultural lens visible. How do you recommend starting this process?

Making our cultural lens visible is actually the first step for everyone, no matter our background. One of my favorite authors in the education space is Zaretta Hammond who wrote Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. She says that culture is the way the brain makes sense of the world. We all come from a cultural background. We all come from families who told us things about the world.

One of the things my mom did when I was a child was to always tell me that brown was her favorite color. She would call it beautiful, warm brown. As an adult, I realized she was actually purposefully counteracting the messages I was getting from the rest of the world. So that is a piece of cultural messaging from my mom that I really, really appreciate and stand behind as an adult.

On the other hand, my mother would always say “put your knees together and sit like a lady.” As an adult, I can question what sitting has to do with gender and also what sort of expectations are we reinforcing. My thinking brain knows that, but every time I sit down and my knees are spread, my mother’s voice still comes into my head. Sometimes I listen to it and sometimes I don’t, but it is something that is so deeply ingrained in me.

Our cultural lens and cultural background are like that. They are all these tiny things engrained into us: how close we stand to someone, what voice to use in different settings, and how much time to leave until someone else is finished talking. Many of these are harmless or cause mini-misunderstandings. But others can be actively harmful depending upon what your family or society has told you about what makes people intelligent or the characteristics of people of different races and genders.

Some frameworks present this cultural awareness as an iceberg. There is the tip of the iceberg above the water, like the language we speak and the music we listen to. Then there is the part below the surface of the water, which is largely unconscious.

This is the unconscious basis upon which we make decisions. It is the work of a lifetime to uncover those many unconscious factors.

So when we realize those unconscious assumptions that are part of our own cultural lens and cultural background, it allows us to judge situations with more clarity and to allow for different perspectives. For teachers, families, and all humans in the world, we can’t necessarily do this work by ourselves. We can do a lot of reflection by ourselves, but we need a coach or outside view to help us see those unconscious aspects.

You have done a lot to support culturally responsive practices. What led you to this work?

Part of this is based on my identity characteristics. The other is that my journey in Montessori was a little different from what other folks have experienced.

I started as a Montessori child at a school in Metro Detroit that was about 80% Southeast Asian and South Asian, with a smattering of white kids, a smattering of black kids, and some Middle Eastern kids. It was very diverse and I was a minority, but in a different way than has been true for the rest of my life.

As an adult, I took Montessori primary training in France where we had a very international cohort of folks. Then I worked with a woman from Côte D’Ivoire to open a school in Senegal. It wasn’t until I came back and did my elementary training at the Washington Montessori Institute [in Maryland], and heard other people talking about their Montessori experiences, that I realized how different my experience had been.

As a black queer woman within the Montessori space who had a childhood Montessori background where I was both represented and not, it was always sort of immediately obvious to me that children need to feel socially and psychologically safe and see themselves represented in environments, in order to learn and grow.

Although Maria Montessori originally founded this pedagogy in a homogenous society in Italy in the 1900s, I believe that the philosophy itself is meant to be adapted to and reflect the identities of the children, families, and community in which it is seated. So I feel it is really important that we actually do that, which is adult work.

Will you share a little more about how this is adult work?

It is really fascinating that the education world is so focused on children and what children do. Are they doing enough? Are they learning enough? Are they doing the right things?

As Montessorians, we know the prepared environment and prepared adult are the foundation of children’s experience. If something isn’t going right, we first look to the environment and then we look to ourselves. We also need to take an additional step back and look at who we are and what we are bringing into the environment.

When we are talking about making sure classrooms are culturally responsive and reflect the experiences of the children who are in them, it is easy to talk about this as window dressing. Are your books diverse? Is your art diverse? Those things are important. Yet it’s really about having a strengths-based lens, examining our own biases, and understanding that in order for children to grow we need to be really individualized when understanding their strengths and building their abilities.

This is work that adults need to do on themselves. It isn’t about what the children do or how the children learn. It is about the adult figuring out where they are seeing clearly and where they aren’t, what knowledge they have and what knowledge they don’t have.

We need to be okay with being in that growing and learning space, which can be hard because it requires dismantling a lot of unconscious beliefs that everyone holds.

Do you have recommendations for how adults can start some of that work, for ourselves and with our schools?

For adults, this work starts with reaching out and doing research. We, as human beings, tend to be afraid of what we don’t understand. Researchers say that this is biologically programmed into us as a defense mechanism. So part of it is just figuring out what are the facts and learning what is true. There are a lot of organizations that lead folks in this work and help bring information into your environment that actually widens your perspective.

This answer is also different for folks who are and aren’t in the global majority. For folks of the global majority, especially in the United States, often perspectives that are outside of our own are just part of life all the time. It’s not something we can avoid. Whereas if you are white or have other majority identities, you need to actually take steps outside of the world where most of the folks around you share your identities. Find out about considerations that are super present for other folks but not for you.

To partner with schools, be an advocate, but also understand that everyone is on a different part of their journey, including schools. A lot of schools are trying to figure out how to best support all the children in their care, which goes beyond race and includes gender, sexual orientation, different types of families, ability status, and citizenship status. There is a lot of work that needs to be done.

While the onus shouldn’t be on the person or family experiencing discrimination or not getting an equal experience, it is also important to be an advocate for your child. I see a lot of families, especially families who are multilingual, or who are from under-resourced communities, be less vocal when things go wrong. So I would say advocate.

There are folks out there that provide support. There is a great resource from Learning for Justice called Speak Up at School . They have a whole packet with four strategies for how to respond when you see injustice. It also talks about the difference between calling folks in and calling folks out, and when you make a decision to do each.

The other thing I would recommend to families is to spend time with teachers and spend time in the classrooms. Also, know that Montessori is a hard way to teach. It is a lot easier to have all the children doing the same thing at the same time. Teaching in a methodology that focuses on individual work, builds up children’s intrinsic motivations, where every child in the classroom might be working on something different and at different levels and at all kinds of different places, and where we are trying to build children’s ability to interact with a minimal amount of adult support in like a microcosm of society – that is not small work! So Montessorians are often hesitant to include other adults in that practice.

That being said, I believe that Montessorians need to do a better job of explaining to families the why of what is going on and providing deep and thoughtful opportunities for families to engage with their children’s learning and with the co-creation of curriculum.

There are some parts of the Montessori curriculum in which families can have a huge contribution. One example in the primary classroom is practical life. The practical life curriculum is meant to reflect children’s activities in their own homes. So a way families can engage is to offer classroom experiences, like providing small group cooking or showing how to do different activities from home. For example, some cultures use upright mops while some use floor cloths. Sharing some of those activities with the classroom allows both your child’s identity to be reflected and other people’s eyes to be opened and perspectives broadened. So that is one clear opportunity where families can interact to co-create the curriculum.

In elementary, another place for collaboration is the history curriculum where children are learning about how people satisfy their fundamental needs. Families do this in different ways. This is a great opportunity for families to be interviewed, explain ways they do things at home, talk to children about what they celebrate and why, and share their traditions. This helps children learn about different customs.

When it comes to children and their identities and feeling comfortable, unfortunately, it often falls on families to get ahead of that in some environments. For example, family members might come in to read a book about adoption or work with the teacher to coach their child about talking about adoption. We can help children who have started gender transitions to lay the groundwork for that awareness or support children on the autism spectrum who at some point want to explain to friends how their brains work. Families can lean in to help educators grow and to make sure their children have a safe space in school.

Knowing there is work that needs to be done collectively, what resources would you share to help folks along their journey?

That depends on how you learn! For some, reading is the first step. There are book lists out there and some have little workbooks. One wonderful resource is Collectively Renewing Montessori: An Invitation .

For some, watching or listening is the first step. There are podcasts, Instagram reels, and YouTube videos to watch.

For some, conversations are the first step. What I would not do is go up to your nearest person of the global majority or non-binary person, and say, “Hey, can you tell me about your experience?” That is a little tiring for them.

Find places where folks are already having these conversations. There are free groups in many cities and online where folks get together for discussions and to do social justice work. Embedding yourself in those communities widens your lens. There are also actual classes and organizations, like Embracing Equity or Crossroads , that support folks in this work.

Those are first steps, yet this is work that takes a lifetime. There are a lot of facets to it. Talking the talk and walking the walk are different. This isn’t about learning and saying the right things. It is about developing our lens for analysis. We are all continually learning. Have the willingness to do your own work and examination. Continue to reach out with a lens of curiosity and inquiry.

August 2023 Newsletter

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 03:32:56 GMT

July 2023 Newsletter

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 03:32:54 GMT

Participation in Practical Matters

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 11:00:00 GMT

In our daily lives, we do so much to take maintain our surroundings, as well as care for ourselves and others. As adults, we take these activities for granted. Young children, however, yearn to participate in practical matters.

Everything we do to care for the environment, ourselves, and others make up what can be called "practical life" activities. In a Montessori home or school environment, practical life activities help children learn about cultural norms, while also helping them develop internal motivation, intellect, and body coordination.

Purposes of Practical Life

With this in mind, we can really think about how practical life activities have two purposes: one is external and one is internal. The first purpose is to help children engage in something meaningful and real. For example, washing a table leads to a clean table. The second aim is to help children develop their internal worth and sense of competency.

Practical life activities help children become psychologically and physically independent. By the time 24-year-olds begin life on their own, they should be able to provide for themselves, be responsible for their actions, plan for their future, and perhaps even help support others. The little things we do early in children’s lives set them up for later success.

As children engage in purposeful work, they develop a sense of being an important part of the family or community. By beginning to help take care of their personal needs, they also develop a sense of accomplishment.

In a Montessori environment, children have a place where practical life activities are carefully prepared and presented to support emerging independence. The sink is at children’s height. The faucet is easy to turn on and off. The soap container holds just enough soap to wash hands. Children can perform activities that were perhaps previously done for them.

Practicing Self-Care

The practice of self-care can begin early in children’s lives by approaching tasks with an attitude of collaboration. Even if a baby can’t do an action, they can have a sense of participating. We can invite this participation by saying things like, “I’m going to put on your shirt. Let’s put your arm through the sleeve.” As we allow for more and more collaboration, children’s active participation gradually increases. Opportunities for collaboration can be as simple as offering something in front of a child rather than actually putting it into their hands.

Caring for Surroundings

In addition to self-care, a Montessori environment provides numerous ways for children to care for their surroundings. In order for children to be successful in this process of caring for their surroundings, we thoughtfully prepare the environment. Child-sized materials give children an opportunity to participate successfully. Their work must be real work, rather than activities to just keep them busy. Plus, the impact on the environment needs to be clear. If the plants need water, then children can water the plants. If the floor is wet, children can mop the floor. If a table is dirty, children can wash the table. Through real and meaningful activities, children develop a strong sense of belonging within a community.

Supporting Practical Life at Home

Parents often ask how to support their children’s practical life work at home. One easy and meaningful strategy is to create routines that help children care for their surroundings. They can clean up toys at the end of the day, set the table for dinner, or put dirty clothes in the laundry basket. The preparation for these kinds of activities isn’t elaborate and merely requires carefully selected items or furniture: a basket in the laundry room for dirty clothes, a special shelf for toys, or a low drawer in the kitchen prepared with items for setting the table.

When thinking about how to create practical life activities, consider the following:

Will the activity help develop independence and coordination of movement?
Can it be done independently?
What skills are needed?
Will this activity allow repetition?
Is it culturally appropriate and necessary?
Is it beautiful?
Is the material child-sized?
Is it logical?
Is it safe?

With these guiding questions in mind, we can create simple yet purposeful ways for our children to learn how to care for themselves, those around them, and their surroundings. In the process, children observe what is essential and then make the activities their own. Plus, as they internalize the procedure, children start to realize how capable they are! They put their whole focus into their work and experience great satisfaction in completing the activity. Meaningful engagement in practical life activities allows children to develop a strong sense of belonging and ultimately flourish into their fullest selves.

During these summer days, take a look at where your children might be able to contribute to the daily rhythms of the household, or even take more ownership of their own routines for self-care. Children will begin to imitate adult actions, which leads to them performing tasks in their own unique ways.

Keep in mind that this process is not completely linear, as some days children need more support than on other days. At this point, we can offer loving assistance while still upholding a sense of their involvement: “I see your clothes are still on the floor. Let’s pick them up together.” We all can use a little help sometimes!

From infants to adolescents, our young people are quite capable and benefit greatly from participating in practical life activities. If you would like some inspiration for how children are involved in caring for themselves, their surroundings, and others, please contact us !

Supporting Independent Sleep

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 11:00:02 GMT

In Montessori, we talk a lot about independence because we want to help children in their process of becoming capable young people! For our youngest children, this means supporting them in mastery of basic functions such as eating, toileting, and sleeping. Supporting independent skills in these three areas is pretty significant because these are parts of life where children ultimately have complete control over what does or doesn’t happen. So it makes sense for us to avoid setting up obstacles in these areas and instead help children develop skills that will build up their confidence.

Our Language Matters

The language we use is indicative of our goals. For example, when children are learning to use the toilet, we make sure our language reflects that process. We aren’t “training” children like we might train a pet. We are helping them learn life skills so they can be well-functioning humans who understand cultural norms. In fact, we even call what we do “toilet learning” because children are learning how to take care of their bodily needs by using the toilet.

Similarly, when thinking about children and their sleep, we are not “sleep training” like we might crate train a new puppy. Rather, we are supporting children’s natural process of learning how to settle themselves, self-soothe, and eventually fall asleep independently.

Importance of Sleep

With more and more research about the role sleep plays in brain development, growth, and learning, we have a responsibility to educate ourselves about how best to promote healthy sleep hygiene. A 2007 study states “that the most fundamental requirements for healthy growth and development in young children include a) loving support and protection by parents/caretakers, b) adequate nutrition, and c) adequate sleep.” A 2020 review of sleep and early brain development details how “sleep plays a critical role in learning and memory, emotional regulation, and related brain structure development.” Establishing healthy sleep practices in the early years is critical for our children’s development. So how can we best do this?

Focus on Four Factors

In order to help our children have trust in us and strengthen a secure attachment, we need to provide safe boundaries. This includes helping them learn what is acceptable and what isn’t in regard to sleep. Just like we hold boundaries for dental hygiene, we can uphold healthy sleep habits, too!

To promote healthy sleep hygiene, we can focus on four factors:

establishing an environment that is conducive to sleep,
maintaining regular routines,
providing suitable associations for the onset of sleep, and
upholding limits while making adjustments throughout childhood.

Sleep Environment

To create a place that is conducive to sleep, it can be helpful to think about our own sleep needs. Are we more likely to fall asleep in a bright, noisy, active environment, or in one that is dark, quiet, and calm? The same applies to our children. A comfortable sleep environment should be dark because sleep hormones are triggered by darkness. Plus, natural and blue-based artificial light stimulates alertness. Black-out blinds or curtains (as well as aluminum foil over the windows in a pinch) help immensely. The designated sleep space, whether a bedroom or other area, should also be calm, quiet, and free of distractions like toys or other interest-provoking items. Finally, it’s best if the room temperature is slightly cooler.

Regular Routines

Our children depend upon us to establish healthy and consistent routines, including times for rest. When children stay up past their nap or bedtime, they can enter into an overtired zone. At this point, they experience a stress response, which leads to the release of adrenaline and cortisol. This influx of chemicals causes a “second wind” and children can become even more energized and awake, despite their intense need for sleep.

To avoid this vicious cycle, it’s important to learn our children’s sleep window, which is the time it is easiest for the brain to switch to sleep. Children actually give us cues as to when they are in a window for sleep. They might begin to have some difficulty listening, lose focus, or become a little more irritable. Some children may rub their eyes, go for a comfort object, or seek contact with a caregiver.

Every child is a little different, but when they start to indicate they are in a sleep window, it is time to wrap up the routine. The process should be very simple, for example, pajamas, toileting, teeth, one story, a hug, and a kiss. It’s better for extensive reading and a long bath to happen before the sleep window because these activities can very easily push children past the window of opportunity and lead to them entering the overtired zone. A predictable, simple pre-sleep routine allows children to unwind and feel secure in knowing that sleep is happening next.

Sleep Onset Associations

When children fall asleep, they form associations with the conditions that are present at the time when they actually drift off. So if we rock our children, read to them, or even snuggle in their bed next to them until they fall asleep, our children learn that they need that condition to be present in order to fall asleep. This also means that as children awake slightly during normal sleep cycles, they look for the same conditions they had when they first fell asleep. If children can’t recreate those on their own, they become dependent upon adult intervention, which can then can lead to more frequent night wakings.

Thus we need our children to go to bed when they are drowsy but still awake, so they can develop appropriate sleep onset associations. We can sing a song, read a book, or rub their back. However, we need to end any of these activities before our children actually fall asleep. We need to leave them while they are heavy-eyed but not yet asleep! Transition objects can help children, too. Some might like a special blanket, doll, or stuffed animal, which they can use to self-soothe as they drift off to sleep.

Limits & Adjustments

Sleep patterns change throughout early childhood and beyond. So while children need us to be consistent, they also need us to understand developmental changes. It can help to use resources like the Sleep Foundation to check on recommended hours of sleep for different developmental stages.

As children get older, they also get more sophisticated in trying to prolong the bedtime routine or keep us engaged when actually we should be stepping out of the process to allow them to fall asleep on their own. Work collaboratively with your child to establish or re-establish the routine (and the limits). Write down the routine and revisit it before bedtime. Stay calm and consistent.

Children are hard-wired to test the boundaries and are just checking to make sure we are going to stay true to the agreement. If you feel like you are going to break down and not be able to uphold the agreement, find someone who can be your backup or reinforcement. If you are doing bedtime alone, find a friend who you can text or call and who will remind you about staying true to what was established.

Above all, make sure you are taking care of yourself! If you are sleep-deprived it is much harder to hold limits or think clearly about the long-term goal of helping children become independent and capable young humans. If you ever want to talk or need support, we are happy to help. We love to share resources and support families!

Adolescence: Time of Transformation

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 11:00:01 GMT

Adolescents have such power and potential. They can achieve so much when they have a supportive space that helps them develop their incredible abilities and ultimately realize their possibilities.

The book, The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults , shares a helpful analogy for understanding adolescence: “...the teenage brain is almost like a brand-new Ferrari: it’s primed and pumped, but it hasn’t been road tested yet. In other words, it’s all revved up but doesn’t quite know where to go.”

To best support adolescents who are all primed to go but don’t yet know where, we can work to better understand their developmental characteristics and needs.

Time of Transformation

The first three years (ages twelve to fifteen) of adolescence are comparable to the physical and cognitive transformation that happens from zero to three. Adolescents are forming themselves, physically and psychologically, into the adults they will become.

This is a transition from childhood into adulthood, evidenced by dramatic bodily changes. The relative calm and stability of the previous years shifts to a more tumultuous time. During this period of intense change, adolescents’ health becomes more fragile. They require more sleep and are more prone to acne, depression, bulimia, anorexia, mono, etc. As Frances E. Jenson, MD, and Amy Ellis Nutt explain in The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults: “Adolescence is a time of increased response to stress, which may in part be why anxiety disorders, including panic disorder, typically arise during puberty. Teens simply don’t have the same tolerance for stress that we see in adults. Teens are much more likely to exhibit stress-induced illnesses and physical problems, such as colds, headaches, and upset stomachs. There is also an epidemic of symptoms ranging from nail biting to eating disorders that are commonplace in today’s teens.”

Adolescents need a special kind of care and protection during this time of transformation. Like caterpillars that need a chrysalis in order to metamorphose into a butterfly, adolescents need a protective space for reconstruction.

Neural Changes and Emotional Needs

The adolescent brain is also undergoing dramatic changes, from neural pruning when unneeded neural synapses are removed, to an increase in myelination which allows for faster neural transmission.

Due to these dramatic physical and cognitive changes taking place, adolescents can have difficulty concentrating and staying focused. This also leads to a decrease in their organizational skills and judgment, as well as a reduction in their executive functioning abilities like working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control. Because of this diminished executive functioning ability, adolescents often make decisions based on emotion. Their brains are relying upon the limbic system rather than their developing prefrontal cortex.

Thus, adolescents can experience strong and tumultuous emotions and it can be a struggle for them to gain mastery over these emotions. As such, adolescents need time for personal self-reflection, and yet this need exists in the midst of an intense desire to be within and accepted by a group.

Rational and logical expression can be challenging during this time, thus adolescents also need creative outlets for releasing and exploring emotions, thoughts, and any conflicting experiences. Creative outlets can include dance, writing, art, music, sports, etc. In addition to providing an expressive outlet, physical activities also release endorphins and help regulate hormonal balance.

Finding Equilibrium

Because adolescents are working to integrate their new physical and emotional selves, they need as many opportunities as possible to integrate manual work (work of the hand) and academic work (work of the head). In addition to experiencing an equilibrium in mental and physical activities, adolescents need opportunities to explore their personal identity in the context of their social identity.

Like younger children, adolescents are somewhat ego-centric. After leaving the elementary years of calm and confidence, early teens become self-conscious and are highly sensitive to peer acceptance. This results in a sensitivity to the looks, comments, or actions of others, which is further complicated by adolescents having difficulty reading facial expressions. It’s no surprise, then, that our teens often imagine that someone is upset with them or thinking negatively of them. Close relationships and feeling accepted by their peer group become extremely important to balance these feelings.

Being Valued

Because this is a time of extreme vulnerability, adolescents need to be treated with understanding and respect. They want to know their value, their role, their contributions, and their worth. Adolescents benefit greatly from opportunities to contribute to their community in meaningful ways. This is best achieved through adult-level work. When this contribution is acknowledged by their peers, adolescents feel valorized, or recognized, which leads to a bolstering of their self-confidence.

Having choices is also a vital component of adolescents’ work. This opportunity to make a choice about what to do and when to do it provides teens with a strong sense of empowerment and allows them to practice making constructive choices.

Role of Adults

Adolescents need the guidance and support of adults. They also rely upon and appreciate the opportunity for side-by-side work. We can shift into more of a supportive, coaching role with our adolescents, which can more easily be achieved when we are working alongside each other. Adolescents relish this opportunity to collaborate in what it means to be an adult by engaging in adult-level work.

This side-by-side work also offers us, as adults, the opportunity to respectfully share information and teach skills, without risking offending our adolescents. In “Three Ways to Change Your Parenting in the Teenage Years,” Christine Carter explains: “When we give our adolescents a lot of information, especially when it is information that they don’t really want or that they think they already have, it can feel infantilizing to them. Even if we deliver the information as we would to another adult, teenagers will often feel disrespected by the mere fact of our instruction.”

Respectful treatment connects to adolescents’ need to feel a sense of justice and personal dignity. While elementary-aged children focus on distributive justice (e.g. fairness), adolescence is a time when young people begin to grapple with and understand restorative justice, social justice, and economic justice.

Adolescence is a period of dramatic growth and change. Although the dramatic physical changes that accompany the onset of puberty can rock the stable foundation of elementary years, if we understand adolescents’ needs, we can help our teenagers emerge as empowered and full of creative energies.

A Supportive Summer

Mon, 19 Jun 2023 11:00:00 GMT

The summer months can sometimes feel like a long stretch, especially when we are trying to figure out how to keep our children engaged, or at least entertained. However, if we think about the big picture of what children really need, it can be easier to think about activities that will satisfy those needs and support natural development.

What do our children really need?

When Dr. Maria Montessori first began working with children, she approached her work with a scientific mindset. She observed tendencies, needs, and behaviors of human children the way a scientist might observe animals in the wild. In this way, Dr. Montessori was able to identify inclinations young humans have toward particular behaviors or characteristics. Some of the tendencies Dr. Montessori observed include:

to explore
to orient
to have or create order
to work
to strive toward self-perfection

Let’s take a look at these human tendencies in relation to how we structure summer days with our young children.

Exploration

Humans have a need to explore. Early humans needed to explore their environment to discover where and what to eat, to find shelter, etc. Our infants, babies, toddlers, and young children explore in order to adapt to their environment and learn about the world. From our infants’ early days when they explore using their senses (smelling, tasting, hearing, and then tracking with their eyes) to when our babies grasp, slither, scoot, crawl, stand, and walk, children under the age of six are sensorimotor learners. They have to explore using movement and their senses to make sense of their boundaries of self.

Exploration may be one of the easiest parts of summer. With the warm weather and long days, there is ample opportunity to find new parks, traverse new trails, or even just see what happens when you wander down the sidewalk with your child. The key is to focus more on the process than the destination. A simple nature walk may be long in duration but short in distance. For example, young children will appreciate the time and space to stop and explore what is happening with the busy ants in the sidewalk cracks.

Incorporating different senses and movements makes exploration most meaningful for children. Get creative! After a trip to the farmer’s market, collaborate with your child to create a colorful array of foods to sample together. Pick a few places outside where you can lie down with your child, listen, and gather sounds. Share what you heard. Draw pictures of what you think made the sounds. Or maybe go on a scent journey around your yard or neighborhood. See what smells you can find!

Orientation

Orientation is needed to find our way. In order to be able to explore, humans have needed to be able to orient themselves. We need to put ourselves in relation to our surroundings in order to find our way around in a new environment. Disorientation comes from not being secure in our surroundings. The process of orientation is a process of creating relationships: where or what am I in relation to this place?

Young children have a need to orient themselves to culture (through customs, food, language, etc.), as well as routines and places. They need to know what life is like so they can adapt accordingly. We can support this orientation by introducing our children to the routines, customs, and expectations of the summer months.

If regular library visits will become part of the summer routine, take time to visit the library space and orient to different components of the building (the bathroom, the checkout counter, the reading nook, etc.), as well as norms of behavior within the library walls. If you’ll be outdoors picnicking or connecting with friends for lunch, taking a few moments to make sure your child knows what to expect can make all the difference.

Order

We rely upon order in our environment, from segmenting 24 hours of a day to having laws that lend order to our communities. Order helps us have a sense of safety, control, and stability. For children, order is essential. They need constant points of reference to be able to orient themselves to the world. Children need to be able to anticipate the day. If we change the order of events, that can throw our children off balance. In fact, it’s not uncommon to see some regression in our children when change happens.

How do we create order during the summer, a time when schedules can be less constant? Building a little time into the morning routine to go over the plan for the day is one easy way to help children feel secure about what to expect. While slightly older children can grasp an overview of the week, especially if presented in visual form, younger children live more in the moment. They depend upon a regular rhythm. So even if summer schedules shift, it’s best to try to keep some regular touch points to ground the day. Even if the time gets adjusted slightly, keeping true to things like rest time after lunch or bath before bedtime, helps young children feel like the day has a predictable order.

Work

All of us have a natural tendency toward activity. Work is the way we achieve a purpose or result through mental or physical effort. Our children want to contribute in meaningful ways to the work of our lives. This is most successful when we can build in time for our children to accompany us with household chores or general maintenance.

During the summer months, much of this kind of work can happen outdoors–washing the car together, watering the garden, cleaning outdoor furniture, or sweeping the patio. Whatever you decide to offer, make sure you’ve tested out the tools to make sure they work. For example, can your child squeeze the sponge and reach down into the bucket of soapy water? Can your child carry the watering can? How much water comes through the hose when it is turned on? By paying attention to a few details, we help our children experience successful work and contribution.

Self-Perfection & Repetition

Mastery is achieved through bringing our work to completion and often this requires a great deal of repetition. This tendency for perfection is what has allowed for the advancement of human civilization. Becoming more proficient requires repetition, exactness, and a quest for self-perfection. We can see children perfect their skills as they learn to walk and talk. They keep trying until they achieve mastery.

To help our children master what they set out to do and then be able to advance, we can be sensitive to how our young children are observing movements around them and perfecting the movements they see through repetition and precision.

Summer is a fabulous time to focus on large gross motor activities that perhaps couldn’t happen as easily during the colder months. Find a space outdoors for your child to practice walking along a line or a board lying flat on the ground. Or create little obstacle courses for your child. This can be as simple as creating chalk circles to hop in, then crawling under something, before finally tossing a bean bag into a bucket. Or you can blow bubbles that your child can chase and try to catch (or pop!). Follow your child’s lead in terms of what is engaging and allow them plenty of time for repetition.

As we move into the summer months, keeping these tendencies in mind can help us provide satisfying experiences and opportunities for our children.

Equity Q&A with Britt Hawthorne

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 11:00:01 GMT

Britt Hawthorne is an antiracist educator, teacher, speaker, visionary, and advocate. She is committed to raising a generation of antiracist children by centering families of the global majority and fostering equitable learning environments for students and children of all ages and backgrounds. We recently had a little Q&A with Britt and we are delighted to share this with you!

Britt is the author of the highly-anticipated, New York Times Bestseller, Raising Antiracist Children: A Practical Parenting Guide . The book is an interactive guide for strategically incorporating the tools of inclusivity into everyday life and parenting.

Your book, Raising Antiracist Children, is subtitled: A Practical Parenting Guide. Practicality seems so important for busy families. With this in mind, what do you see as important priorities? Where do you suggest families begin?

Begin by fostering brave spaces at home. Brave spaces are intentional spaces focused on coming together with a new understanding. For example, I grew up with narrow racial and cultural representation. Many books in my childhood home featured white or Black main characters. Hardly ever did the books in my home represent Latino, Native Hawaiian, Native American, South Asian, or Hispanic characters.

I know our commitments live in our actions. So, I shared my concern with my partner and we discussed how this lack of representation caused misconceptions to persist. We could then prepare a home environment that shows we value diversity. Because we’re fostering brave spaces, together we can reflect, discuss, and choose what we want for our children.

What are some priorities or practices that you uphold in your family?

I lay out five parenting principles in Raising Antiracist Children: A Practical Parenting Guide . One of the parenting principles is that we believe children have the desire to learn. Learning means we welcome questions, mistakes, and new understandings.

Therefore, we create curious moments with our children by asking questions.

“I wonder if there are more white people in the world or people of color?”
“Have you ever wondered why Europe and Asia are considered separate continents?”
“Do you hear people talking about race? What do you hear?”

We also respond with curiosity rather than fear, silence, or frustration. Here are some examples:

“Oh, you’re noticing that you have larger eyes than she does. I wonder if she has eyes like her mom, like you?”
“That’s a curious question. I wonder where we could find the answer together. I bet a book from the library could tell us more about it.”
“Thanks for asking me. I don’t know the answer, so I’m just as curious as you. I can do some digging to figure it out. I’ll let you know what I find over dinner.”

When you think about this ongoing work, how do you see it connected to Montessori philosophy and/or practice?

The Montessori philosophy has everything it needs to serve every child, regardless of background. Amelia A. Sherwood said it best, “Montessori education has the ability to liberate the child!” As Montessorians, we deliberately practice this cycle of spiritual preparation: take care of ourselves, take care of others, and take care of the environment. Those three commitments are the same commitments antiracists and liberation workers use to guide their work.

And it’s not just about wondering how we can care for ourselves, others, and the environment. It’s creating the time and offering the resources to be culturally affirming, intentional, and purposeful in our work. That’s why you can go into almost any Montessori environment and witness practical life, grace and courtesy, and community care happening. While we might use different words, we describe very similar practices.

What are some resources you recommend for families and educators?

For parents and grownups, I recommend Raising Antiracist Children: A Practical Parenting Guide by Britt Hawthorne (me!) with Natasha Yglesias.

Here is a list of books for learners:

Bodies Are Cool by Tyler Feder
My Face Book by By Star Bright Books
Together: A First Conversation about Love by Megan Madison, Jessica Ralli, et al.
You Hold Me Up by Monique Gray Smith
The Antiracist Kid: A Book about Identity, Justice, and Activism by Tiffany Jewell
Eyes That Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho
Flying Lessons & Other Stories edited by Ellen Oh
The Assignment by Liza Wiemer

We hope you’ve gathered some helpful insight from Britt about how we can collaborate to move the idea of educational equity from goal to reality. Britt partners with action-orientated educators to create classroom environments that are inclusive and equitable for all learners. And most importantly, she’s rooting for you!

To learn more please visit britthawthorne.com .

The First Six Years: Conquests of Independence

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 11:00:02 GMT

As caregivers and parents, we have a bit of a bittersweet role. While we want to keep our children close, we ultimately need to support their path toward independence.

We expect dependence at the beginning. Yet our newborns take their very first step toward independence at birth. Once born, they have to breathe on their own. And rather than get nutrition through the umbilical cord, they use effort to begin latching on or suckling.

Throughout their first six years of life, our children achieve so many milestones of independence. Let’s take a look at some of these conquests of independence. You can use this framework as a guide and reminder of how we can support our children as they grow and develop.

Birth to One Year

The first conquest of independence is birth which comes with the cutting of the umbilical cord. At this point, infants must breathe and gain nutrition on their own. Even our expression “It’s time to cut the cord” indicates the shift to increased independence.
Movement is another acquisition of independence in the first year as children begin to use their arms and legs, sit up and crawl, and move from one place to another. With this increased locomotion children no longer need to be held or carried.
Our children also begin to feed themselves. Even in the beginning when babies are nursing, we want them to indicate hunger. The weaning process and shift to using the weaning table supports this path to independence. As our children begin to eat and drink on their own, it is important to have foods and tools they can use independently (e.g. a shot glass for water, finger foods, etc.) rather than having an adult putting a utensil or bottle in their mouth.
Children can also start to practice basic use of utensils. Having utensils that are child-sized and functional is key to independent use.
In addition, our children need the opportunity to develop the ability to be by themselves. To become independent, they need to practice separating from their caregiver(s). Healthy separation depends upon healthy attachment, and our children need the chance to have some time without adult engagement.
Around the end of the first year, children begin to develop language to communicate their needs. Prior to this time, they are able to use other methods to communicate: crying, cooing, smiling, etc. This communication is the beginning of social skills and children’s ability to relate socially to others.

One to Three Years

During this time children can walk confidently and begin to run and climb. Once children can walk, they can begin the process of becoming independent in toileting.
They become more independent with the use of their hands, which become tools for exploration. Because of this, children no longer need to rely on others to hold and carry items.
Language use allows children to begin to express themselves independently.
Children can start to become independent in dressing themselves.
They begin to be able to use simple tools (crayons, sticks, cups, utensils, etc.).
They become more capable of caring for their own personal hygiene (brushing their teeth, washing their face, brushing their hair, etc.).
Children become more proficient with and capable of carrying their own items.
They have the capacity to clean up after themselves (putting away belongings, folding clothing, wiping spills, sweeping crumbs, etc.).

As children get older, they need opportunities to develop their will. Thus, during this stage of independence, it is really important that children can make choices. Making a choice means they are acting for themselves and exercising their will.

From Three to Four and a Half

If it hasn't happened already, children experience separation from the family (e.g. going to school). To be able to separate from one’s family is a new skill of independence. For children who haven’t been able to be by themselves, this is a harder process. During this time, children realize they can survive and trust others, which is a significant step in independence.
Children develop a wider range of social skills.
Children’s motor and visual skills become more developed and refined.
They are able to engage in more games (e.g. catching and throwing a ball).
They have finer manual dexterity (using individual fingers) as well as refined fine motor skills (when all fingers are working in unison).
Children begin to develop the ability to use language to express their emotions. They can learn a multitude of words to be able to express feelings.
They can use utensils and tools to prepare their own food (which ideally happens prior to age three). Research shows that children involved in preparing their own food are more likely to try diverse foods.
Children learn to master fasteners (zippers, buckles, bows, etc.) and thus the self-care involved with dressing and undressing.
They can contribute to their community and care not only for themselves but also for the environment through simple responsibilities like setting the table, folding towels, etc.
They are more independent in caring for their own hygiene needs.
Because their vocabulary is expanding, children can use words to express emotions, as well as to better express their thoughts.

Four and a Half to Six

Children have more social independence and can not only do for themselves but can also use acquired skills to help others.
They become more independent in their social skills so they can internalize and apply the social norms of their community (e.g. pushing in chairs, greeting visitors, communicating that they need space, etc.).
Children become proficient in dressing themselves and can help younger peers with the dressing and undressing process (e.g. getting dressed for going outdoors).
They acquire the capacity to have empathy and compassion.
They have a basic understanding of quantities and how they are represented, instead of just mimicking or rote counting.
Children begin to recognize and use the symbols of our language (e.g. expressing themselves through writing or interpreting the thoughts of others through reading).

These conquests of independence are ultimately about becoming functionally independent. Young children are in a process of mastering different aspects of their lives and they need us, their caregivers, to support them in this process.

Our children are so capable and they benefit when allowed to move toward increasing independence. If you’d like to see how our Montessori environments set children up for success, please schedule a tour !

Supporting Our Adolescents

Mon, 29 May 2023 11:00:01 GMT

Tanesia R. Hale-Jones is a Montessorian, educator, social activist, poet, artist, and parent, who believes deeply in the importance of community engagement and teaching young people to be global citizens. Tanesia serves as Jr. High Level Director and Adolescent Guide at Escuela del Sol Montessori, where she guides 7th and 8th-grade students and oversees a team of teachers and community partners. Tanesia lives and works on Tiwa Territory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her 18-year-old, two cats, and many house plants. She recently shared some of her insights from her many years of working with adolescents.

As a Montessori adolescent guide (and a parent of an adolescent), how do you see the role of adults needing to shift for teens? What is your advice for caregivers of adolescents?

It’s important to remember that our children aren’t living their parents’ adolescence. I talk to so many adults who had a traumatic or really emotional adolescence. Think back to being an adolescent and that moment of recognizing being connected to something bigger than ourselves. This is both really inviting and also pretty terrifying because it means leaving something behind. Adolescence is marked with a kind of grief of separating from family and yet wanting to separate. It isn’t as dramatic as people or movies sometimes make it out to be, but there is a separation that happens and a yearning for something bigger. I always reminded parents that this experience is really normal and healthy. Our job is to hold space for it to happen.

Also, watching someone going through their adolescence brings up a lot for parents, including our own feelings or insecurities. So the invitation is to do your own work. There is a healing process to go through–either by yourself or with partners, friends, or whomever you have in your adult community–that can allow you to be really present for the young people in your life.

There is also value in meeting it all with humor. That doesn’t mean laughing at our adolescents, but rather being able to recognize that you don’t have to get on the roller coaster with them. You can respond, acknowledge, and listen well. This means asking curiosity questions and pulling away from the need to fix it for them, which is hard because we don’t want them to be in pain. We love them so much. We long for them to be safe and whole. Yet we need to hold a space for curiosity.

My own adolescent is leaving their adolescence at the age of 18. They have been a beautiful reminder that can I be in the presence of someone else’s growth and that I don’t have to do anything about it. I can witness it and support it. Supporting that growth is the gift I can give.

How can we, as caregivers, support our adolescents while also giving them the space they need? Do we hold space or give space?

I think it is both. So many parents talk about how their adolescents just want to be in their rooms. Parents of one of my students told me how they were going to be away and realized their adolescent was old enough to be home alone. The parents checked in and found out their child was so excited about having the day to themselves. Their adolescent had a day of feeling respected and trusted. They had that space.

We can also hold space because when our adolescents do emerge, they often want cuddles and tenderness. Often we can be surprised by that need. But we can just be really present with and accept what they need right now. It might be something very different in the next moment! So just hold it now. It is precious. These moments are like building blocks for the emergence of their adult self.

With this awareness of how teens are building their adult selves, what is your take on how important electronics and social media are for our adolescents? How do we stay aware and sensitive to teens’ need to connect through social media platforms while also being aware of the challenges of social media channels?

A lot of younger adolescents have grown up in this [high-tech] world and there is a learning curve for adults and parents. I think about how to stay interested in what adolescents are interested in. What are they listening to? What are they watching? In some ways, it’s about getting ahead of it all. For example, so many songs are sampled, so I often go back and ask if they know who wrote the original song.

With social media, it’s so tricky. I talk with parents about this all the time. I think a lot of it is about really being honest about who social media was designed for and the repercussions of it for adults and young people. We can help our adolescents examine the content they look at and help them build a critical lens. Building critical awareness and visual acuity about who is being represented leads to great conversations about equity, race, and gender roles and appeals to an adolescent's desire for justice and personal dignity. We can engage in conversations about what they are getting out of the content and what it says to other people.

This process isn’t about changing their minds. That’s not really the point. The point is that we are teaching our adolescents to be critical thinkers about what they are consuming and why they are consuming it. We can ask, how does it make you feel? We can explore other moments when they felt that way and how to amplify those moments as well. Do you feel connected? Great! Are there other experiences or activities that make you feel just as connected? It is about teaching discernment, critical analysis on multiple levels, and visual acuity.

In some ways, it is also about rooting back to the values you hold as a family and maybe even helping your adolescent to develop their own personal values. This can be hard, especially if our adolescent’s values start to become different from our family’s values.

How do you approach these kinds of difficult conversations with adolescents in a way that is respectful of adolescents’ emerging adulthood?

It goes back to what I said earlier: you have to do your own work. Difficult conversations can be tricky even when we are communicating adult to adult. When confronted with difficulty or tension, what do we do? I have been practicing stepping toward the conflict or conversation, not with an “I’m going to win” approach, but rather with curiosity. I can explore what is going on for me in that difficult moment. When I am shutting down, how can I turn toward that experience with curiosity? What is getting activated in me when my adolescent says something triggering?

We can respond by asking questions: What does this mean to you? What do you mean by that? For example, there are many young folks who are pushing the rigid boundaries of gender and trying on new pronouns. This is both identity formation and also discarding, putting on, and taking off. We can just ask questions and then not get too precious about the answers. If we can tell they are trying something on, we can explore how to be less attached to their process of experimentation. For me, it is always about coming from a place of curiosity and entering from a place of wonder. This is different than getting stuck in a place of thinking that what our adolescent does or says means I have failed as a parent.

We want what is best for our children and want them to be successful. Sometimes that means looking at what we think success is. What does the world need from our adolescents? What is the world asking of them? These two things can be really different. So that means looking at the reality that young people are met with and then being willing to be open.

I have students who range from having no phones to having TikTok accounts and starting YouTube channels so they can be YouTube stars. As their teacher, I can feel myself getting precious about it and wanting them to be something like an inventor of healing technology! But really, social media can be fun and silly. So I ask questions about it. Which ones do you like? What do you like about them? Oh, that little sample of a song came from a whole song. We could listen to the whole song together!

My kid loves memes, which can be so snarky. But there is something really cool about memes and the way they have distilled culture and humor. I think about how there is something clever here. I see the process as my kid understanding their own humor better and being able to critique society in a way that is pithy and ridiculous.

Both as a parent and a teacher, I’ve tried to step into adolescents’ world. I often say, “I love that for you .” I don’t have to like it, but I can start to get why they like it.

Sometimes adolescence hits and it takes everybody by surprise. With that in mind, do you have any recommendations for entry points or resources for families and caregivers?

There is so much written about adolescent brain development, which has been helpful. The work of Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is really powerful. She has a great TED talk and short articles, as well as her book, Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain .

Britt Hawthorne’s book, Raising Antiracist Children: A Practical Parenting Guide , is really, really great and she posts nice videos that are short and to the point.

I do think there is something valuable to articles that Montessori adolescent practitioners have published through the years. They are really powerful tools. I will often choose one or two to send to my families during the school year. It’s about rooting back to who these young people really are. This helps me to remember where they are and what they need. Then I can reflect more accurately on who I need to be for them.

I think being outside and doing projects is important. Resources for this can range from engaging with local and national parks or restoration projects–things that inspire them to connect with the land– to going to farmers' markets. Adolescents need things that make them feel a little adult and also are opportunities for them to be independent.

There is something really great about connecting adolescents to support groups if they need that. For example, where I live we have a transgender resource center that is gender-affirming. There are also resources like GLSEN [Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network] and GSA s [Genders & Sexualities Alliances], depending on what kids need. I also think therapy is great for adolescents! Especially when you can find people who are good at working with adolescents. It can be nice to have another person to talk to who isn’t your family.

Any other last thoughts?

Adolescence brings up a lot for the adults who are offering love and care. But it is a magical time to witness. It’s really fun to watch. There is a tenderness of exploring what the end of something means and how young people are beginning something that they don’t have any clue of how to begin. It is such a liminal space. As adults, we are very much in our thinking brains and can’t really imagine hanging out in a liminal space. However, think about being in the presence of something that is yet to be! That is the invitation that Montessori gives.

Adolescence is very internal time. Sometimes adolescents externalize their experience, but often it is very internal. We realize that there is so much happening. Accept the invitation of being curious, playful, and joyful with our young people. Enjoy it and remember what a gift it is to be witness to this process.

Memory, Learning, and Montessori

Mon, 22 May 2023 11:00:02 GMT

Memory is such a critical component of learning. We perhaps take this for granted without fully understanding how memory works and how to support our children in the process of creating and retrieving memories.

What is memory?

Memory is essential to being human. Our brains have evolved to remember what is most meaningful. That being said, we also tend to forget things! Interestingly enough, not remembering is often just a case of not giving our brains enough input to support the creation and retrieval of the memory.

How are memories created?

We take in a great deal of information through our senses. This perception includes the

sensory, emotional, and factual components of experiences. In order for any of that information to become a memory, our brains have to create and connect all those bits of information into a pattern of neural activity. That pattern persists in a structural change that is created in our neurons. This pattern can later be re-experienced (or remembered) by reactivating the neural circuit.

There are four steps to this process of creating a memory:

Encoding
Consolidation
Storage
Retrieval

Encoding is basically just the process of capturing information through sights, sounds, emotions, the meaning of what we perceive, and what we pay attention to in the moment. This information is changed into a neurological language.

Consolidation is the brain’s process of linking activity into a single pattern of connections and associations. Consolidation is a time-dependent process and it can be disrupted or impaired. If a new memory is in the process of consolidation and something interferes, then the memory can be lost or degraded.

Storage is a pattern of activity that is maintained over time through chemical changes in neurons and create physical/structural changes in the brain. Then through retrieval, we reactivate the same connections so we can revisit, recall, or recognize what we learned or experienced previously

All four of these steps have to happen to create a long-term memory that can be consciously retrieved.

Why is this significant?

If we want to remember something, we need to notice what is happening. This requires perception and attention. We might perceive something, but if we don’t actively give it attention, the neurons activated during perception won’t be linked and a memory won’t be formed. In other words, memory is not like a video camera. Our memory can only capture and retain what we give our attention to.

When children (and adults, too!) forget things it is because they didn’t give it attention in the first place. It’s worth noting that paying attention isn’t always easy for the brain. We pay attention to things that are interesting, new, emotional, or important to us in some way. Those are the details our brain captures. The rest we ignore and forget. Paying attention requires a conscious effort. We have to wake up the brain and become consciously aware to remember something.

Memory & Montessori

With all this in mind, we can see how learning is going to be most effective when our children have a connection to the content. Basically, it’s easier for children to learn things that they are interested in. In a Montessori classroom, children have the freedom and opportunity to focus on learning information and skills that are personally exciting and inspiring. As a result, the process feels less like school and more like play.

Also, remember how the formation of memories depends upon the process of consolidation (something you read just a few paragraphs before)? Well, because consolidation can be disrupted by any interference, it’s important for children to have uninterrupted time to engage in their learning. They need to be able to focus without having to regularly shift gears. In Montessori, a three-hour work cycle allows children to settle into their learning and fully consolidate the information they are encountering. They have the time and space to allow their brains to link their activities into a pattern of connections and associations.

Focusing on the Positive

If you’ve ever heard the reminder to water the flowers rather than the weeds, you’ll appreciate the power of paying attention to positive experiences. There is a neurological reason why this matters. If we invest our attention toward positive things, those are the experiences that we will consolidate into memories. If we pay attention to the negative, that is what we will synthesize and store. We find what we are looking for because that is what we paid attention to in the first place!

Again, this is applicable to Montessori education where we focus on what children are doing right. Plus, we use opportunities to reteach skills so children can be successful and experience a positive feedback loop. As a result, children can enjoy learning, which then becomes self-perpetuating as they find engaging activities, interesting information, and meaningful accomplishments throughout their lives.

If you are interested in learning more about memory, be sure to read Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting by Lisa Genova.

A Montessori Dictionary: Elementary & Adolescent Terms

Mon, 15 May 2023 11:00:26 GMT

As is often the case, specialties or practices have their particular lingo. Montessori is no different! In this Montessori Dictionary post, we’re focusing on a few terms (some familiar, some far from familiar) that apply to the elementary and adolescent years. When possible, we’ve included some quotes from Dr. Maria Montessori. We encourage folks to take a look at her work. Dr. Montessori was a woman well before her time and her books continue to be a source of inspiration!

Cosmic Education

“Since it has been seen to be necessary to give so much to the child, let us give him a vision of the whole universe.” –Dr. Maria Montessori, To Educate the Human Potential

Dr. Montessori developed Cosmic Education as an educational approach for children in their elementary years. This approach is based on the needs, tendencies, and characteristics of children ages six to twelve, and provides an awareness of the interconnectedness of all things, as well as a sense that the universe is ordered, governed by rules, and is inspiring. Cosmic Education also provides an understanding that all we know and learn is built upon the great work of those that came before us in the whole of human history.

“If the idea of the universe be presented to the child in the right way, it will do more for him than just arose his interest, for it will create in him admiration and wonder, a feeling loftier than any interest and more satisfying….his intelligence becomes whole and complete because of the vision of the whole that has been presented to him, and his interest spreads to all, for all are linked and have their place in the universe on which his mind is centered.” –Dr. Maria Montessori, To Educate the Human Potential

Erdkinder

Dr. Montessori’s vision for adolescence was to have a land-based program where adolescents can engage in meaningful work that balances intellectual and physical pursuits. This program is ideally a residential farm school in a country setting where adolescents can pursue the real work of the farm and create a community separate from their families. This kind of work allows adolescents to cultivate social and economic independence through valuable experiences in social organization, economic vitality, and intellectual pursuits.

“This means that there is an opportunity to learn both academically and through actual experience what are the elements of social life….We have called these children the ‘Erdkinder’ because they are learning about civilization through its origin in agriculture. They are the ‘land children’.” –Dr. Maria Montessori, From Childhood to Adolescence

Imagination

Imagination allows us, as humans, to understand and shape the world in significant ways. Dr. Montessori emphasized that children have great imaginative power that is essential to their self-construction and human development. Imagination is what has allowed humanity to make advances, create, invent, and work through problems that have not yet been solved.

Imagination is the superpower of elementary-age children. They have built up their sensorial experiences and impressions during their early years and are now able to use this foundation to imagine through time and space. Thus, a great deal of the elementary curriculum appeals to the imaginative ability of children ages six to twelve.

Occupations

Occupations are opportunities for adolescents to try on adult-level activities and work that integrates the mind and the body. These experiences are focused and purposeful and allow adolescents to experience how they can contribute to their society. Often adolescents will ask, “What will I use this for?” They deeply want and need to use their knowledge to make an impact in the world. Occupations can range from beekeeping to bookkeeping. They are practical experiences, typically connected to the land or other non-academic pursuits.

Plan of Study and Work

“…the aim should be to widen education instead of restricting it.” –Dr. Maria Montessori, From Childhood to Adolescence

At the adolescent level, Montessori education is based on a general, holistic program of study that integrates with work on the land, production and exchange, and support for the developmental needs of adolescents. This general plan includes:

the moral and physical program that emphasizes how adolescents should be treated as vulnerable growing young humans;
a syllabus and methods for education, which includes activities and methods for self-expression, cognitive and intellectual development, and preparation for adult life; and
practical considerations for prepared environments, ways for adolescents to be involved in economies, and varied and supportive adult involvement.

Psycho-Discipline

To understand the term psycho-discipline, it can be helpful to look at the two parts of the word. The prefix, psycho, means relating to the mind or psychology, and comes from the Greek for “breath, soul, and mind.” Discipline is a branch of knowledge. Thus psycho-discipline is the knowledge that is presented according to the psychology of the learner.

In Montessori, we focus first on the whole young person and figure out how to support the characteristics and needs of that individual and where they are in the stages of development. As such, the learner connects to what they are learning because they are naturally engaged with, and own, their process of learning. The learning process ultimately helps the individual’s process of self-construction.

“Education should not limit itself to seeking new methods for a mostly arid transmission of knowledge: its aim must be to give the necessary aid to human development.” –Dr. Maria Montessori, From Childhood to Adolescence

If education in the “disciplines” is to aid human development, the focus becomes on the individual and their holistic growth, rather than solely on the content.

Please be sure to schedule a tour of our school so you can see how Montessori education aids human development, inspires the imagination, and gives a vision of the whole universe!

Our Montessori Bookshelf: Wordless Picture Books

Mon, 08 May 2023 11:00:39 GMT

Even though they don’t have a written narrative, wordless picture books can be an essential part of young children’s language development. These books have pictures but no text and are often classified around a theme or sequence that is familiar to children. In our toddler and primary classrooms, we have two or three of these books on a shelf at any given time and rotate them throughout the year. Because young children are still distinguishing between what is real and what is of the imagination, we also make sure that the books are plausible, rather than focused on fantasy or imaginary themes. Really, we just take care to choose books that highlight the wonderful world as it really is.

As our students get older (even into the elementary years), we use wordless picture books to help with storytelling, sequencing, and making predictions. Taking a “picture walk” through the story helps children interpret visual clues and helps lay the foundation for becoming better readers.

After children have had time to explore a wordless picture book, we may ask them to share their interpretation of what is happening in the story. Children love dictating the story for an older peer or adult to scribe, creating speech bubbles, or even writing their own narration to accompany each page.

When “reading” a wordless picture book with your child or children, you can describe the illustrations, ask questions about what they see, and even encourage narration of a story to accompany the pictures.

Anno’s Journey

by Mitsumasa Anno

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1076038

This classic book with its full-page, detailed illustration shows the progression of one person’s exploration across a European countryside. The discerning eyes of children find all sorts of delights and connections across the pages. In addition, Anno has woven in treasures for more advanced searching, such as scenes from famous stories and paintings, as well as numerous cultural references. This is a wordless picture book that children can easily lose themselves in for an extended period of time.

A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog

by Mercer Mayer

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/654093

This book is part of a collection of perfectly sized books for little hands. Each title ( Frog on His Own, Frog Goes to Dinner, One Frog Too Many, and A Bog, A Dog, A Frog, and a Friend ) provides an illustrative journey of all sorts of backyard adventures, often spurred on by the frog who hops into a heap of trouble (or fun, depending upon one’s perspective!). Particularly pleasing is the ease and comfort of the boy in his outdoor ramblings.

Here I Am

story by Patti Kim, pictures by Sonia Sánchez

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/17658592

With its more complex story line, this wordless picture book is probably best suited for slightly older children, although the vivid and textured illustrations appeal to any age. The story follows a child immigrating from one country to another and portrays the emotional journey of what it means to move from loss into a feeling of belonging. After your child consumes this lovely tale of connection, be sure to take a peek at the author’s moving letter at the end at the end of the book.

I Walk with Vanessa: A Story About a Simple Act of Kindness

by Kerascoët

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/35758098

The story begins with images of a young girl, Vanessa, moving and starting at a new school. The other children go about their day not really noticing her. But then the pictures zoom in to a scene as they all leave school, when a child is scary and mean to Vanessa. Another child notices, though, and eventually realizes she can take the initiative and walk with Vanessa to school. This one small act changes everything for Vanessa (and maybe even the boy who was being unkind). The author also shares some resources to help children and adults when confronted by bullying behavior.

In the Pond

by Ermanno Cristini and Luigi Puricelli

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2114487.In_the_Pond

In the Pond is a must have book for those young nature lovers who can’t get enough of seeing ecosystems in action. Each page highlights a section of the pond and provides an elegant piece of the puzzle of life moving through the water, hovering at the edge, and slipping into the scene. At the end of the book, we get to see the whole array of pages put together, complete with a key identifying each of the 33 organisms represented.

Inside Outside

by Lizi Boyd

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/15015619

The pages of this book take us on a seasonal journey moving back and forth from inside a child’s home and the backyard. This delightful book features small windows that show the dynamic link between these two spaces, while also providing a new view or focus on particular details that might at first be easy to miss. The clever illustrations highlight a child’s experience in all its glory and, although the pictures are simple, they provide enough richness for multiple trips, back and forth and back again.

One Little Bag: An Amazing Journey

by Henry Cole

https://www.goodreads.com/fr/book/show/44575061

The book begins with a picture prelude of a tree being harvested, transported to a paper mill, and transformed into a paper bag. This bag becomes part of a child’s experience of growing up, sharing love, and creating family. This love story of sorts is also a moving reminder of the importance of conserving the resources of our precious planet. And the author’s note at the end isn’t to be missed!

Pancakes for Breakfast

by Tomie DePaola

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/309554

This simple story line shows a woman waking up to the thought of enjoying pancakes. The pages follow her process of checking the recipe, preparing the ingredients, and bumping up against the challenge of missing key elements from the recipe. This requires her to gather eggs, milk the cow, churn the butter, and even go to a neighbor who has tapped some maple syrup. With all of these obstacles almost overcome, she encounters one more big one. But that doesn’t stop her from enjoying some pancakes! One of the delights of this book is how it incorporates words as part of life: from the recipe book, to labels on the dishes or containers, to the final picture hanging on the wall at the end.

Sidewalk Flowers

by Jon Arno Lawson and illustrated by Sydney Smith

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25928556-sidewalk-flowers

One girl’s walk home with her busy (and slightly preoccupied) dad becomes a tribute to how even the smallest of acts can bring kindness and color into others’ lives. In the process of noticing small details, the girl collects sidewalk flowers and shares the beauty with those she passes who most need a little love and care.

Wave

by Suzy Lee

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3171606-wave

The line drawings and blues of the ocean perfectly capture the childhood experience of running to the beach and dancing with the ebbs and flows of the water. Seagulls stand by while a girl goes through a series of interactions with the waves. From initial stand offishness to full-fledged immersion, the girl and the wave (and even the seagulls) go through a kind of transformation, which is enhanced by the blues that begin to wash across each page as the story unfolds.

Window

by Jeannie Baker

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1401164

Through one window, we witness a story of change. What begins as a lush, tropical backyard eventually becomes a bustling neighborhood. Within this story is also the transition from babyhood to childhood to adulthood and even parenthood. From the items on the windowsill to the various kinds of interactions outside the window, Baker’s collage constructions provide not only a textured story, but also host of fascinating details.

Download a PDF of this booklist! We hope you and your children enjoy these books as much as we do!

Pandemic Impacts on Older Kids and Teens

Mon, 01 May 2023 11:00:05 GMT

While there has been a certain amount of awareness of how COVID has impacted young children, we thought it would be helpful to shift our attention toward those in their elementary and adolescent years. While the impacts may manifest differently, those in the middle of their school years also experienced considerable disruptions from COVID. From increased anxiety and physicality to challenges in social interactions and work engagement, elementary-aged children and adolescents are facing their own share of struggles.

Social Development

Those who experienced the start of the pandemic during their elementary and early adolescent years were at home during a time when developmentally they needed to connect with peers and figure out their social identity. It’s during this time that our kids develop their own sense of individuality within the context of community. This interplay amongst peers allows older children to both develop their ability to communicate with others while processing how their individual actions impact those around them. The result? Our young people begin to learn how to practice empathy for others while also advocating for themselves.

During the locks-downs and distancing from COVID, many children missed out on key formative experiences, like how to join a group, how to invite others into a group, and even how to have positive conversations. Without some of these skills, navigating social situations, especially those that involve more than one other person, can be trickier.

Even children’s awareness of others’ physical space has been impacted, perhaps due to maintaining six feet of distance or even having more time in close proximity to screens. As children have been able to be together again, the boundary line of what is too close or what is too physical is something they are having to discover.

Direct instruction and guided practice can help. Elementary-age children love to role-play, so even acting out different scenarios can be beneficial. To foster developing friendships and healthy peer interactions, have conversations with your children and teens about the qualities of a good friend and how to be a good friend to others.

Regulating Emotions & Managing Anxiety

During the elementary time period, our children are developing their emotional skills, which provide an important base before young people enter their more tumultuous adolescent years. Major emotional skills mastered during this stage include how to adjust to different rules and social norms for behavior, understand others’ feelings, acquire more control and management of emotions, and develop strategies for patience and general adaptability.

In addition to not having as much opportunity to flex these social-emotional muscles, so much was outside of our children’s control during the early COVID years. As a result, more young people have developed increased anxiety, which can manifest in a multitude of ways.

For some children, just the transition into the school building and away from parents or caregivers can cause anxiety to flare up. For others, trying to figure out how to interact with peers in-person can be anxiety-provoking.

To help, we can focus on communication and collaboration. This can range from recognizing and discussing emotions when children are calm, to remaining open and empathetic when strong emotions surface. It’s essential that, as adults, we model emotional regulation so our young people can see how we use coping strategies, like taking deep breaths or stepping away from a situation, rather than just reacting.

We can also be sure to address our kids’ behavior rather than their emotions. This helps young people understand the distinction between their feelings and their actions. For example, if someone feels angry, that is just a feeling, which is neither good nor bad. However, if someone acts on that feeling by hitting another person, the behavior of hitting is unacceptable. When we handle disciplinary situations, our responses can help our kids begin to internalize that it is okay to experience a range of emotions and that they have choices and limits in terms of how they behave.

Involving our children in the conversation is essential. They might need help voicing or expressing their emotions and anxieties so worries don’t stay hidden inside where they can easily proliferate. Most importantly, we need to help ensure that children don’t keep avoiding whatever is causing them stress or anxiety.

Getting Back Into the Rhythm

Healthy routines are important for older children and teens, who need structure and predictability to offset the stress associated with the changes they begin to experience in their social lives, their bodies, and even their emotional experiences. With all the disruptions of the pandemic, we need to be especially sensitive to the importance of following through and following up. Our children need us, as adults, to hold consistent, firm, and kind boundaries, so that they can feel secure and settled.

From regular sleep and predictable mornings to completing chores and finishing assignments, routines can be the guide. With older children and teens, we also need to engage in respectful, curious conversations about what causes them to feel stressed, tired, or overwhelmed. Ideally, we are encouraging our young people to take an active role in planning routines that will help them manage themselves better. If we brainstorm with our kids and write down the plan together, we can more easily revisit what is going well and what might need to be modified. Also be sure to celebrate the wins and compassionately communicate if something isn’t working well.

Above all, our young people need our patience and understanding. This requires us, as adults, to practice our own mindfulness and grounding so we can be present and supportive. If concerns arise, we can work in harmony to compassionately identify possible problems and strategize practical solutions.

To see how we support students' emotional regulation, social development, and intellectual engagement, come visit our school . We love to share what we do!

Observation to Instruction

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 11:00:13 GMT

Do you see your child throwing their clothes on the floor in a heap? Maybe leaving things out on the kitchen table? Interrupting during mealtime?

It’s so tempting in these moments to jump in, perhaps correcting or reminding (often for what seems like the umpteenth time).

One of the keys to a Montessori approach is taking the time to observe what is happening, noting what you see, and waiting for an opportune time to teach what to do rather than what not to do.

Supporting Undeveloped Skills

For example, a Montessori teacher saw that a child new to the classroom was regularly cutting to the front of the line as children prepared to wash their hands. Other children were getting quite upset with this young friend’s tactics to get to the front of the line.

Instead of reprimanding the child, the Montessori teacher observed that he wasn’t acting maliciously. He just seemed to not yet have or know the skills to line up successfully. At a quiet moment, the teacher connected with the young boy and let him know that when there is a line, we just go to the end of where the line is forming. Grateful for this information on social graces, the child then happily started going to the end of the lines. It turns out the child just didn’t know the expectations!

It can be so tempting to jump in when we see something happening that we don’t like. Yet as long as children aren’t hurting others, their surroundings, or themself, we practice observing and determining what children still need to learn to be successful.

Observation is Key

The heart of the Montessori method is learning how to observe children in an objective and meaningful way. Adults learn how to look rather than merely see . In order to look without judgment, expectation, or preference, adults work on developing a deep inner awareness. This requires that we observe to understand rather than see something and jump to conclusions.

Thus Montessori education is focused on the natural emergence of young humans at their own pace. The role of adults is to prepare the environment and support children in their optimal development. In order to do this, we have to become constructive observers. We focus on waiting and observing, rather than intervening right away.

How This Can Work at Home

This is something that we can try at home, too. Perhaps your child is throwing their clothes on the floor in a heap. Rather than scold or lecture in the moment, try taking a deep breath and making yourself a little note to remember to circle back to the undeveloped skill. Later, when everyone is relaxed and content, take the time to connect with your child. Let them know you want to show them how to either put their clothes in the laundry basket or fold and store them for later use. Practice these options together. Finally, thank your child for taking the time with you to learn this skill.

Or perhaps you can go over the steps to loading dishes in the dishwasher. Or how to wait for a pause in the conversation. The trick is to observe for the need and wait to give instructions. Children want to do well. Often they just need us to observe, pause, and later take the time to show them how to be successful.

This doesn’t mean that our children will always remember how to do what we’ve shown. Sometimes they’ll need a smile and a gentle reminder. Sometimes they’ll need us to cycle back and demonstrate something again. The key is remembering to observe, rather than reacting in the moment.

The Montessori Approach

Through observation, Dr. Maria Montessori discovered how children’s character is formed through experiences in the environment, how children adapt to their culture, and how children have sensitive periods for acquiring all sorts of important skills.

Observation allows us to provide children with opportunities to become competent and capable. Come observe this for yourself! Schedule a tour today!

Raising Anti-Racist Kids: An Interview with Rebekah Gienapp

Mon, 17 Apr 2023 11:00:28 GMT

With a social justice and community organizing background, Rebekah Gienapp knew that she wasn't the only parent out there who didn't want to wait until her child was an adult to talk to him about the things that mattered most. As a result, Rebekah started a business focused on nurturing brave kids who seek justice and also wrote a book Raising Antiracist Kids: An Age-By-Age Guide for Parents of White Children . Her youngest son went to a Montessori school and she recently shared some insights about how she has made anti-racist parenting a priority.

Conversations with our children about difficult subjects like race and racism can sometimes feel insurmountable. How do you recommend tackling topics that might feel weighty to us as adults but that are important to have with children?

The important thing is to begin with more straightforward subjects, especially with our youngest children. We can name skin tone and help kids correlate those skin tone words with the words our society uses for race. This can be really confusing for children. I call myself white but I’m not white like a piece of copier paper. You may have a friend who calls themself black, but their skin is some shade of brown. Talking about things like where our skin color comes from–that it comes from melanin–and where our ancestors are from. That’s where children’s natural curiosity starts. And I think this is more accessible for adults. We aren’t yet talking about the more complicated levels of social injustice and racism. So I would say start with the simpler, less charged topics.

Another thing I always encourage, especially for white families, is to make sure you have lots of positive representations of people of color in your child’s books, the media they watch, the toys they play with, and hopefully in your social circle. Do this before you get into talking about prejudice. Around the time my son was about four or five, I started looking more closely at our children’s books. I realized that almost every book we had with a black character was about social injustice and I was sending him a message that being black is mostly about experiencing oppression. So make sure you are laying the groundwork by providing stories and experiences about children playing and doing normal kid stuff.

Once you lay that foundation, the next step is talking about prejudice that children might be observing in their everyday world, like personal prejudice between children or that they see in adults. For example, microaggressions are things that kids commit without realizing it. One example I saw is when a new Asian co-teacher came into a preschool room, one of the kids said, “Oh, your English is so good.” The teacher had a method in place: her students knew that if she said “ouch” they would come back to that moment because something hurtful had been said. When it was circle time, they could address the “ouch” and talk more about why a comment was hurtful. So that is the next level, those interpersonal relationships.

Then I would bring in some examples of systemic racism that kids can wrap their heads around. With three to six-year-olds, I suggest talking about children’s books. Most Montessori children are in a literacy-rich environment. At your own home, in a library, or a bookstore, take a look at the covers of the books and who the characters are. Likely what you are going to find is that there aren’t many books starring kids of color. This is an example of injustice, but it doesn't have to do with violence and is a little more accessible. Plus, young children are used to thinking about books.

With older children, one example is explaining that there are schools that have dress code policies. Sometimes these dress code policies will specify what kind of hair style people can wear, which can be discriminatory against traditional black hair styles. So I would suggest starting with these kinds of topics and laying the foundation before talking about something like police brutality.

But obviously, if your child has heard about something, especially something that has happened in your community, you might not be able to do this careful scaffolding. You might need to jump right in and address it.

I made a video on Instagram with the example from my city [of Memphis] of Tyre Nichols about how to talk with kids about that event. Take a look for four suggestions when there is something traumatic in the news.

How do you see this ongoing anti-racist work being aligned with Montessori principles?

The Montessori concept of planes of development is a really helpful tool in figuring out how to say enough, but not too much, for your child to be able to process the information. I also think about the ways that Dr. Montessori wanted children to engage with the real word. That is why even the three-year-olds use glass. Dr. Montessori trusted that if the adults around the children are preparing them in the right way, that they can handle these things. I think this also extends into the realm of values and justice. Obviously we don’t want to overwhelm our children, but we also don’t want to shield them from the world as it is.

I also think about the first time I heard about fundamental human needs: people have similar needs but the way they meet them varies according to their time and place and culture. I think one of the roots of racism and oppression is this idea that some ways of meeting needs or expressing culture are better than others. So I think Dr. Montessori’s appreciation for the many different ways people have met their needs through time can be a helpful bridge into anti-bias work.

Beyond what we talked about at the beginning, such as engaging in conversation with our children, where do you recommend that parents, caregivers, and educators begin when starting this work?

If we already have a strong commitment to anti-racist/anti-bias work and perspectives, we can get into really trying to cram it all into our kids. So just a reminder that we need to be pacing ourselves. We can do a little at a time and remember that there are lots of years. That’s not an excuse not to start! But remember we are starting and we don’t have to get from A to Z in a couple of years.

In addition to making sure we have these positive representations and have books and media about social justice issues, it’s also helpful with children to just periodically sprinkle in what you are learning. Sometimes they will be interested and want to talk about it and other times it’s going to go right past them. Sometimes you will think they weren’t listening and then later they will say something that shows they were. This can be a good way to open conversation and, if we do it the right way, it can model for our children that this is a journey and all of us are learning and changing. It’s not about getting it right all the time, or saying I am an expert, or I know what to do. We can model learning and curiosity, and how to change our thinking and behavior when we realize that something was harmful or not true.

What do you see as some useful resources for families and educators?

For parents who are raising white children, I have a guide called “ What’s Wrong with Saying We Are All Equal .” It’s five conversations to have about race with white children.

Parents of all races would probably find my booklists useful. The blog on my website has all kinds of children’s book lists, everything from toddlers through the younger teen years.

Britt Hawthorne ’s work is really helpful. She sends out really practical emails. She also has really good Instagram videos with practical nuggets. Tiffany Jewell has two books, which are especially for folks with older elementary kids and teens: The Anti-Racist Kid (which is great for kids around ages 8-12) and This Book is Anti-Racist (which is really good for teens). Both Britt and Tiffany are Montessori-based. Even when they aren’t talking about Montessori, you can see it coming through in their work.

The other thing, which is especially useful for parents of color, but also anyone, is Embrace Race . It specifically focuses on children and race. They have lots of recorded webinars and upcoming trainings for parents, as well as tip sheets if you don’t have time to sit through the webinar.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

I often use the metaphor of the antiracism journey. It is so useful because we are on a path. We are never going to get to the very end and be able to say, “Oh, I’m here. I’m done.” It’s that way for us. It’s that way for our children.

I know there are biases that I’ve heard my younger son express that concern me. I’ve had a reaction like I’m doing something wrong if he says those things. Just remember that if you stay consistent and calm and in conversation and are an example to your child, those things will eventually resolve. So don’t panic. Think about how long it can take our children to learn how to use the potty or express their emotions in a way that is healthy. All those things take time. Why would this work be any different?

Caring for Community

Mon, 10 Apr 2023 11:00:24 GMT

Part of being part of a community is participating in the daily routines to care for our surroundings. In Montessori, we provide numerous ways for children to participate as community members.

Children love being able to help care for their environment through real and meaningful activities. In the process of helping maintain and care for their classroom and school, children develop a sense of belonging. They begin to feel at home.

Laying the Groundwork

In order for children to be successful in this process of caring for their surroundings, adults do a lot of behind-the-scenes preparation. We make sure we have materials ready that are both real and child-sized. Because young children learn from (and love!) repetition, we also want children to be able to continue working with the materials as long as they desire. This might mean having just the right amount of polish for cleaning the mirrors, or vases for arranging fresh cut flowers, or cloths for wiping the tables.

Real Outcomes

The activities we provide in Montessori environments are real work, rather than something to keep children busy. As such, the outcome of the activities must be clear and necessary. If the plants need water, children can water the plants. If the floor is wet, children can mop the floor. If a table is dirty, children can scrub the table.

Because our young people are learning how they can have an impact on their environment, adults work hard to not redo what children just did. Thus, if the table is still dirty, the adults leave it as is. Perhaps later another child can be invited to clean the table, but the adults refrain from swooping in and cleaning the table afterward.

Types of Activities

In order to determine appropriate care of the environment activities for the classroom, we observe children and also consider what practical maintenance needs to happen each day. If there is an easel with paint, we create a material for washing the easel. If there is an easel with chalk, we offer an activity for washing the chalkboard.

The specific kinds of activities depend upon community norms, the greater culture, the climate, and even the length of the day. Regardless of these variables, the activities always have an intelligent purpose and are part of the everyday, regular part of what happens in the community.

Individual Satisfaction to Community Impact

At first, children will pursue the activities for their own satisfaction. They will clean a table to enjoy the process of creating soapy bubbles and wiping them off the table. Later they will realize how they are caring for the environment in ways that benefit everyone. They will want to scrub a table because they see it is dirty and they want it to be clean. This realization causes children great joy. They love to contribute to the greater good!

To help children develop this awareness and sense of belonging, it is nice to acknowledge something a child has done that day to contribute to the community. However, we must tread lightly in this process so that children maintain a sense of doing the activity for themselves and the community, rather than for adult praise.

Responsibility

Ultimately, care of the environment activities help children learn how to be responsible for their actions. If a plant needs to be watered, and it isn’t watered, eventually the plant will die. We can offer children the opportunity to water the plant, but if no one is willing, there is a tangible and natural consequence. Children learn that their actions matter and they take great pride in being capable contributors.

Presentation

Before presenting these practical life activities, we work carefully as adults to practice the steps, ensure that the activity makes sense, analyze our movements, and be confident that the presentation flows. Once we create the activity, practice it, and present it, we step back and observe children working with the materials. In the process of observation, we ask questions like: Is this activity working? Do I need to change anything? Do I need to change some of the steps? Do I need to take out unnecessary steps? Does the activity need to be removed?

Ultimately though, children will observe what is essential in the activity and make it their own unique process. As children internalize the procedure, they will start to realize how capable they are. They will put their whole focus into the work and experience great satisfaction in the process of engaging with meaningful work in the community. They will develop a strong sense of belonging, and ultimately flourish into their fullest self.

Support at Home

As parents, we are often curious about how we can support our children’s Montessori experience at home. One of the best ways is to create care of the environment routines and activities at home. Children can clean up their toys at the end of the day, set the table for dinner, or put dirty clothes in the laundry basket. We don’t need elaborate preparation, but rather carefully selected items or furniture: special shelves for toys, a low shelf or drawer prepared with items for setting the table, or a basket in the room for laundry.

Taking a little time to think through the steps involved and what children will need to be successful goes a long way. As adults, we move through daily activities without having to think about what we are doing. Young children, though, are learning how to master their movements. Thus, when we are presenting how to do something, our children need us to slow down and really isolate each step of the process.

Significance and Belonging

For children, learning how to care for their surroundings is a remarkable gift. Through this meaningful work, children develop a strong sense of belonging and significance. They see how their contribution matters. Come visit our school to see how even our youngest children care for their community and develop personal purpose!

Independence: The Significance of Food

Mon, 03 Apr 2023 11:00:18 GMT

Throughout history, human survival has depended upon finding, preparing, and consuming different kinds of food. It is certainly understandable why food is a central part of our lives!

In Montessori, we recognize that food plays a bigger role in our young humans’ development. While nutrition is key, food also represents so much more! Therefore, we offer children the opportunity to use food as a way to develop a richer understanding of the world, master abilities to function independently, and develop a rich language for communication.

Understanding the World

As children develop their relationship with food, it’s important that they get to experience food in its natural state rather than only prepackaged. During the sensitive period for refining their senses, young children need to be able to explore their food sensorially so they can experience the taste, texture, smell, appearance (uncooked and cooked), and even any sound food might make.

In Montessori environments, we offer children opportunities to see and taste fresh foods, and even experience creating homemade breads and soups. Rather than opening a can or package, we start with natural raw ingredients and let the children put all the pieces together so they can see the steps involved in making different foods.

Whenever possible, we also try to give children meaningful connections to nature and its bounty, including when foods are in season. It’s a bonus when we can have fruits, vegetables, and herbs growing in planters or in the outdoor environment! Our goal is for children to develop a connection to food and its growth cycle throughout the year. In the process, children can learn about the parts of plants we eat: leaves, stems, roots, seeds, and flowers.

As children get older, they become more involved with the production and exchange aspects of food, from purchasing ingredients to preparing whole meals for others.

Mastering Abilities & Movement

When children are preparing food, we start with basic skills such as cutting, dicing, peeling, grating, and juicing. As children gain more dexterity and skill, like holding and using a knife, we move toward teaching more complex skills, such as how to prepare the ingredients when following a recipe, or how to operate kitchen appliances such as toasters, openers, coffee makers, juicers, mixers, etc.

Whether using simple or complex equipment, children need items that they can learn to manage on their own. As such, we provide kitchen items that are sized appropriately. So children can master their movements and abilities, the kitchen tools must work for children and not cause unnecessary obstacles. Through plenty of repetition with food preparation and the varied kinds of tools involved, children begin to coordinate their movements and refine their skills.

Developing Language

While children are working with food preparation activities, adults take care to use precise terminology to name the ingredients, materials, and actions involved. When we do this, we help increase and expand children’s language and more permanently fix the concepts in their memory.

Table setting also offers a wonderful opportunity for language development. For the youngest children, we can say, “We need four plates.” Then together the adults and children can count to four. While our youngest children may not have an idea of the concept, they will set the plates one to one and lay the foundation for future math work. Table setting can also be an indirect lesson about prepositions. In a very natural way, we can ask children to put the spoon next to the plate, or to the right of the plate, or a napkin on top of the plate. The word “preposition” is never spoken but the experience gives children exposure to the concept of the function of a preposition in a sentence.

As children get older, we can introduce more complex language and also offer opportunities for them to interpret recipes, write their own instructional steps, and even tap into the expressive creativity involved with food preparation and presentation.

Cultural Importance

Where we live in the world dictates how and what we eat. Different cultures have disparate expectations about cooking or consuming. Yet in all cultural groups, people have explored and experimented with food. This makes sense, of course. People have needed to know what they can eat, if food needs to be cooked to be edible, how foods can be combined, and how our bodies might react to particular foods or food combinations.

Food also plays a key role in rituals and customs, from people coming together socially to religious ceremonies to relying on food for medical purposes. All cultures have some kind of beliefs about both the significance of food and different foods’ ability to make our bodies feel better or worse.

With all of the cultural richness woven into food, bringing in family traditions, customs, favorite recipes, and rituals around food can enhance the classroom community’s experience and provide a culturally responsive school-family partnership.

Food preparation is an essential part of our learning communities and a significant part of our children’s development. Please schedule a time to visit the school , see this work for yourself, and perhaps even share a bit about your own culinary traditions!

Going Out: An Expansive Elementary

Mon, 27 Mar 2023 11:00:07 GMT

At the elementary level, children want to know the how and why of everything. As a result, they have a strong drive to explore the world beyond their immediate family and even their classroom or school. New interests compel elementary-age children to explore anywhere and everywhere! Plus, they are creating their ability to function in society. In order to achieve this, our elementary children need to acquire new skills.

One of the ways Montessori elementary programs help six- to twelve-year-olds develop these new skills is through something called “going out.” Dr. Maria Montessori developed the idea of “going out” both literally and figuratively. She recognized how, developmentally, elementary-age children needed to go out the door of the classroom and that the door should open into the wider world.

What is Going Out?

Imagine that a group of two, three, or four children have been studying something in the classroom. They have exhausted all of the resources in the class or school library and are eager to learn more. For example, a group of children may have learned about falcons. They want to interview a falconer and see some falcons up close. Or maybe a couple of students have been interested in mice, so they visit the local pet store to learn about the care of rodents. Students who just researched the Titanic may discover a nearby museum with a display about the Titanic, so they arrange a visit. Children learning about a period in history might visit a local theater’s costume shop to find clothing from that time period and recreate what someone would wear. The options are endless.

Purposes of Going Out

This small group experience serves elementary children’s need for independence, collaboration, and experience. They need new opportunities for intellectual stimulation. They are curious to learn more. They want to learn everything about the universe and the universe won’t fit into our classrooms!

In addition, elementary children need to be social and collaborate. In preparing for a “going out” experience, students get to work together in an authentic and meaningful way. In the classroom, they share resources, make group decisions, delegate and divide labor, take responsibility, and celebrate each other’s success. Inevitably conflict can arise and can be a necessary and important part of their work. With support, children practice respectful problem-solving. So with all this practice, they are ready to apply these skills outside of the classroom through their “going out” experiences.

“Going out” trips also require a new level of self-discipline. Children must make decisions and take action. In order to have a successful outing, they have to organize their thinking, themselves, and each other. They also must demonstrate a high level of responsibility, as individuals and as a group.

Different than a Field Trip

Although field trips are important and delightful, they are quite different than the “going out” experience. Field trips involve the entire class and are often planned and executed by an adult. The “going out” trip, however, involves a small group of children who want to learn more about something they are studying or investigating. Those children are then responsible for all of the logistics of the “going out” trip. The outing is conceived, planned, organized, and carried out by this small group of children who have a mission to learn more.

The responsibility for setting up a “going out” experience can require a variety of skills ranging from letter writing, sending emails, filling out forms, making appointments, finding transportation, reading schedules, budgeting for the day, making a phone call, speaking to different kinds of people, using electronics respectfully, packing supplies, confirming appointments, and following up with acknowledgments or thanks.

Sometimes children may need little mini-lessons about particular forms of decorum related to their “going out” — how to enter a theater, how to conduct an interview, how to write a thank you note, how to show you are listening, how to pay an admissions fee, etc. These are all vital skills that help our children prepare for how they will enter society.

A Community Effort

A successful “going out” program requires the support of the whole school community and the community at large. Sometimes parents or school staff offer to transport children. Being a “going out” driver is very different than being a field trip chaperone. A “going out” driver relies upon the children to share the directions, where to park, and what to do. If the children have neglected to check the hours of the place they are visiting, and they arrive to find the doors locked, the driver merely waits for instructions from the children about what to do next. This requires a great deal of adult self-restraint and an understanding of the aims of the program!

The children take on the challenge and expectation of what is expected. They want to be capable and they want to know what successful entry into society requires. When they find out what the rules are, they feel more secure in the world. Over time, as children develop connections and relationships out in the greater community, they also pave the way for future “going out” trips.

Support at Home

The spirit of “going out” can be supported at home, too! Think about the various activities that happen in our daily routines and how our children can take on some ownership or responsibility. For example, going to the grocery store can become its own “going out” experience. Part of the planning and preparation can involve sitting with our children to peruse the weekly sale flier to map out some menus for the week ahead. Children can make a list of what to buy and even estimate how much it will cost or try to work within a predetermined budget. Before leaving for the store, they can gather what is needed: reusable bags, the shopping list, snacks so no one shops hungry, etc. Or perhaps a recent weekend hike sparks curiosity about a particular subject, like rock slides or mushrooms. Children can find out the hours of the local library, talk with the librarian about their interests, and initiate the process of checking out or requesting some resources.

Elementary children are capable of so much, physically and mentally. Thus, we want to acknowledge their potential and offer keys for our children to unlock new experiences and step into the wonderful world beyond the school. The best part? Not only does the “going out” experience meet elementary students’ developmental needs, it also promotes a future full of good citizenship and responsible community members.

To see this work in action, please schedule a tour . Our doors are always open!

Looking on the Positive Side

Mon, 20 Mar 2023 11:00:11 GMT

Our brains are hardwired to look for problems and generate solutions. In The Neuroscience of Change , Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University, explains how this brain state has been helpful for human evolution so we can improve our state of being. Looking for what’s wrong, however, often prevents us from seeing what is good in the present moment.

Because of our negative bias, we can easily become focused on what children need to do better: pick up their clothes, get ready faster, be quieter, solve math problems better, make less mess, and on and on. As a result, our children can easily be bombarded by what they are not doing right.

Clear Feedback & Encouragement

In Montessori environments, we focus on offering clear, accurate feedback and encouragement, which includes acknowledging children’s work and effort. We want children to develop an internal drive so they can be independent, responsible, thoughtful learners and community members.

To support this development, our feedback and encouragement are focused on what is happening for children internally. We acknowledge what children might be feeling and the effort involved. Instead of the focus being on what the adult is feeling, we reflect upon children’s experiences. So rather than saying “I’m so proud of you,” we might say “You look very proud,” or “You worked so hard. Congratulations!”

Phrases of encouragement or positive feedback work best when backed up by evidence. For example, “I noticed how your friends looked relieved when you offered to help sweep up the spilled rice. They seemed to really appreciate your kindness.” Or “I saw how you looked frustrated and then how you took a deep breath. You showed a lot of self-control at that moment.”

State the Positive

Developmentally, young children need to hear requests or reminders framed positively. They need to know the expected behavior and they need us to state what we expected to see. If we say, “don’t hit,” young children cannot easily differentiate between the commands “hit” and “don’t hit.” The last word they hear is “hit,” so that is the image that lasts in their minds. Thus, statements like “don’t run” or “don’t hit” aren’t as effective for our young children.

Rather than saying what not to do, we focus on the behavior we want to see. Statements like “walk, please,” “touch gently,” or “please talk quietly” offer a clear and positive image of what to do. Children hear how to be successful and thus can more easily be successful.

Catch Them Doing Something Right

In addition to these clear directions, we can recast children’s self-image by acknowledging times they are making a good choice. In doing so we are providing our children with positive attention. All too often children get attention when they are engaged in behaviors we don’t like. Children then quickly learn that they need to act out in some way if they want attention. To counter this trend, we need to catch our children doing something right.

Building a Foundation

If we are caught in a cycle of only seeing the negative, one way we can change our outlook is to make a list of all the things our children have done right over the course of a day. When we start noticing and acknowledging the good stuff, we help create a positive feedback loop. Young children also love hearing a story about their day that highlights the positive choices they have made.

In Different Learners , Jane M. Healy, Ph.D., offers a strong reminder about the profound influence we have on our children: “One thing brain research tells us – loud and clear – is that the way we raise and teach our children not only helps shape their brains, but can also influence or even alter the way genes play out their roles.”

In this season of new growth, let’s offer positive reminders and in-the-moment acknowledgments to help our young people develop successfully. By doing so we will also be helping ourselves see the world in a more positive light.

We also encourage you to come to visit our school to hear how the adults and children in our community interact with each other in positive ways!

Pandemic Impacts & Optimal Child Development

Mon, 13 Mar 2023 11:00:30 GMT

We’ve enjoyed some return to normalcy after the intensity of the early COVID years. However, it’s important to remember that our young children are still living with some of the impacts of the changes we all experienced. One of the reasons the COVID years have affected our children is because so much critical development happens in the first few years of life.

While home is an incredibly nurturing place, many of our children were limited to only being at home which led to fewer opportunities for socializing and learning different kinds of relationship skills. To further complicate the scene, many of us were also trying to juggle our own changes in work and life.

With all this in mind, we’ve been focusing on identifying some impacts of COVID and sharing strategies to support optimal development in our young children.

Socializing with Peers

During the early COVID years, children didn’t have as much time to be around others, especially other children. Even when we could be with other people, we all needed to maintain a physical distance.

Yet children learn how to navigate social situations through play. Think of the rough and tumble romping of wolf puppies. It is through those interactions that the pups strengthen social bonds and learn how to navigate social status in the pack. Similarly, during interactive play, children learn to negotiate, share, wait for a turn, follow the rules of a game, and consider others’ feelings.

Our children now have an intense hunger for socialization while their socialization skills are still developing.

To support their social development, we can:

provide plenty of opportunities for unstructured imaginative play with peers
observe to see if children are hanging back or avoiding interactions
offer gentle help for joining into play or suggest phrases children can use to ask to participate
recommend tasks they can do to help the group
identify real-time emotions
model positive communication

Before intervening, though, it’s also important to give time and space for children to negotiate and problem-solve. Children learn best through opportunities to make some mistakes and, just like with the wolf pups, the learning might look a little messy at first!

Connecting to the Real World

Many of our children have had a lot more screen time over the past few years. According to Carlota Nelson, director of the documentary Brain Matters , too much screen time can impact children’s concentration and focus, reduce their ability to control impulses, and affect their capacity for empathy.

Young children need lots of opportunities for concrete, tangible, hands-on play. They need to use their bodies and hands to manipulate the world around them. Plus, multi-sensory experiences help children develop strong neural pathways.

To help this real-world connection, we can:

provide more time in nature and green spaces
incorporate more movement, exercise, and free play into the day
play board or card games with our children (or just play with them!)
make sure to practice and model face-to-face interactions and eye contact
engage in healthy human touch
reduce passive screen time

As an added bonus, these pursuits also provide children with more opportunities to experience a language-rich environment. As we know, the amount and quality of language children experience have a direct correlation with the rate of their language development. Thus, they need plenty of experiences to develop their language skills through listening to and interacting with a variety of people around them.

Developing Independence

Being home more with our children led to lovely family time, however it also may have increased our children’s reliance upon our presence while decreasing their tolerance for uncomfortable situations. Yet as children grow, they need opportunities to develop independence. These experiences are immensely important for children to build a sense of self while also increasing their self-esteem, frustration tolerance, and perseverance.

Rather than shield our children from challenging situations, we can make sure they have practice with experiences that can be a little anxiety-provoking. Anxiety is a normal human feeling and helps our bodies prepare us for something that might be hard. So our children can gain practice in how to regulate themselves, they need opportunities to be a bit out of their comfort zone.

To develop our children’s confidence, we can:

expose our children to experiences that can produce a little healthy anxiety
create opportunities for children to talk and share their thoughts
engage in warm, responsive conversation (with lots of listening!)
experience and discuss stories or situations together
teach practical life skills for self-sufficiency
include our children in household chores

As children become more confident, they are better able to handle transitions, experience less anxiety, and become more flexible. If you need any more convincing, Psychology Today references a study showing that children who started contributing to family chores at age three or four were more likely to have successful relationships, engage in rewarding careers, and be more self-sufficient in their lives.

As we shift into more regular routines after the intensity of the pandemic, let’s use this time to bring out the best in our children.

“We then become witnesses to the development of the human soul; the emergence of the New [Human], who will no longer be the victim of events but, thanks to his clarity of vision, will become able to direct and to mold the future of [human]kind.”

– Dr. Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind

We welcome you to visit the school to see firsthand how we support our future leaders, the young children, as they develop their independence, strengthen their social bonds, and make lasting connections with the wonder of the world.

What is the Montessori Three-Year Cycle?

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 12:00:53 GMT

When visiting a Montessori classroom, it can at first be surprising to see children of a range of ages in one room. Visitors often ask how children of very different sizes and abilities can all be supported and challenged in one classroom. There are many factors, but one reason the mix of ages works so well in Montessori is because we have “three-year cycles.”

What is a Montessori Three-Year Cycle?

In Montessori, children typically enter a classroom as the youngest children and then stay in the same learning community for at least three years. Over the course of those three or so years, they cycle through a rhythm of growth and development.

When children first come into a new classroom it is a bit like what happens when transplanting a perennial flower: they need some time to establish their roots and initially don’t show a great deal of external growth. This first year in a classroom is when children are exploring their environment and making sense of their new community.

During their second year, children are more established and, like perennial flowers, they often show more growth and blossom a bit more. This is when children are experimenting in a learning space where they feel comfortable and established.

By their third year, children are the experts in their community. Similar to perennial flowers, children’s growth becomes exponential and abundant. They truly blossom. The children who have benefited from a three-year cycle show what happens when they have had an opportunity to establish their roots, extend themselves, and then have the time and space to bloom in exciting new ways.

Evolving Roles

Because children in Montessori classrooms are with each other for a series of years, their learning community becomes a family. As they move through the years together, children get the opportunity to play the role of the youngest, middle, and oldest child, and experience the responsibilities and opportunities that come with those roles.

The younger children look up to their older peers, quickly learning through observation how to behave, what is acceptable, and even what to look forward to in terms of advanced work. The oldest in the class serve as mentors, leaders, and even teachers. As the older students master certain skills or materials, they have the opportunity to share what they have learned and in the process are able to synthesize their learning. Through this mutually beneficial process, children move through the process of developing aspiration, building confidence, and demonstrating mastery.

Consistency of Community

By having a consistent community for at least three years, children are able to build a foundation that serves them in multiple ways. In addition to having time to gain mastery, children establish long-term relationships with their peers and the adults.

With their training and sensitivity to developmental needs, Montessori teachers understand individual children’s learning styles, rhythms, and needs. They can tailor their presentations to the individual, recognizing where and how to help children stretch beyond their comfort zones. As a result, children are able to feel secure enough to take risks in their learning.

One of the additional benefits is that over the course of multiple years, a meaningful and supportive partnership develops between families and the Montessori guides. A consistent community provides support that empowers our children and families.

Zone of Proximal Development

The three-year cycles of Montessori mixed-age classrooms provide children with scaffolding to work in collaboration with a skilled teacher and more knowledgeable peers. Supportive learning environments allow children to make connections that they wouldn’t necessarily be able to make on their own. Psychologist Lev Vygotsky called this scaffolding the “zone of proximal development.” As children grow within their zone of proximal development, they develop more confidence and are able to practice new skills and abilities. They have social support through meaningful, purposeful interactions with others.

As children solidify their learning and consolidate their knowledge, they experience new possibilities for growth in a family-like learning community. This mixed-age experience is an essential component of what we do and our three-year cycles make it possible.

Come see the benefits for yourself! Schedule a tour to get a first-hand glimpse of this three-year cycle in action.

What is Social Organization?

Mon, 27 Feb 2023 12:00:24 GMT

As humans, we develop as social beings in our communities, society, and culture. In fact, associating with others is a fundamental human tendency. Therefore, in Montessori education we prioritize social development, even (or especially) as children grow into adolescents.

At the adolescent level, young people are experiencing a bridge from childhood into adulthood. They no longer need and want to create little practice societies as they did in their elementary years. Instead, adolescents need and want to understand and experience adult-level roles and responsibilities. Adolescents therefore require new opportunities for independence and valorization, as well as opportunities to contribute in purposeful ways to their community. In Montessori, we call this social organization.

In order to support this experience, Dr. Montessori envisioned an ideal setting where adolescents could live within as many aspects of society as possible. In her book, From Childhood to Adolescence , Dr. Montessori even outlines a road map for social organization at the adolescent level. In describing the practical aspects of social organization, Dr. Montessori suggests that adolescents live away from their families in a residential setting, preferably a farm that includes components such as a shop or store, a “museum of machinery," and a way to host others.

Residential Experience

Developmentally, adolescents need to break away from their families. Having some sort of residential setting or away-from-home option allows adolescents to figure themselves out in new ways amongst different adults. In addition, a residential opportunity allows adolescents to live in a community and recognize the impact they have within and on their community. Even if a full residence isn’t possible, adolescents can prepare meals for each other, make sure the kitchen and tools are ready for the next meal, ensure the compost is taken out, clean the dining area, and so forth, all of which allow adolescents to experience how their work matters.

This kind of experience is similar to how students in a Montessori primary or elementary environment become aware of how what they do in the classroom impacts others: if they run, are loud, or step onto someone’s work rug, that has an impact. Yet at the adolescent level, the experience of social organization needs to be in the context of real living. Adolescents need to step into adult-level roles. They need to coordinate lunch for their community or be the barn manager in charge of animal care. This also means they need to handle what happens if part of the work is left undone.

Land-Based Opportunities

Another ideal aspect of adolescents’ social organization is being on a farm or working on the land, which offers adolescents the opportunity to experientially understand our agricultural roots as humans. To survive, humans have needed to grow, raise, and harvest our food. When working on the land, adolescents get the experience of what it means to care for other living things and how those living things provide human sustenance. There are big moral questions that come up in this process: what do to when an animal is sick, how to honor an animal that will be butchered for meat, or how to handle pests that are decimating crops. Farm life allows adolescents to grapple with challenging questions that are part of living in a society.

Production & Exchange

Similarly, when operating a shop or store, adolescents get to experience the process of production and exchange as it works in society. They can labor to make sure a hive of bees is healthy and producing honey, and then determine how to package and market that honey to sell. Or they can create cutting boards in a wood shop and puzzle over how much to sell them for based on the cost of materials, the time for labor, and the value of their artistic work. They can harvest cucumbers and pickle them. They can create artwork for auction. They can harvest lettuce and wash it to prepare a salad for the community. Opportunities abound.

This experience also offers adolescents the chance to understand interconnections and interdependencies. Many people have done a great deal of work so that we can enjoy each thing we eat, purchase, or enjoy! Through the process of production and exchange, adolescents can also begin to understand the role of monetary systems and how to budget, plan, save, invest, share, and be responsible with their earnings.

Hosting & Using Tools

Other ideal options for adolescents include a hostel or host experience and a “museum of machines.” In hosting, adolescents get to experience how to give back to others. For example, in making a meal for guests or providing a place for parents to stay for the night, adolescents must put others’ needs first, while also taking on new roles and responsibilities.

Finally, Dr. Montessori’s “museum of machines” isn’t about having machines on display behind glass but rather means having many tools and machines available for adolescents to use, take apart, and repair. This collection of machines allows adolescents to learn and practice with tools that will help them on the land or farm, with their residential setting, in their shop, or with their hosting experience. Use of different tools of society helps adolescents learn skills and abilities that will serve them as capable adults.

Preparation for Adult Life

Preparation for adult life is a significant part of the adolescent experience. This isn’t preparation for a job, though! Rather preparation for adult life means that adolescents begin to understand the context for the human experience amongst other living things on earth, within the big picture of human progress, how we have used technology for the building up of civilization, and how each of us is a part and player in human history.

It is important to remember that adolescents are on their path to maturity. Social organization offers them the opportunity to step firmly onto the bridge from childhood to adulthood by living and experiencing aspects of what it means to be in society and the moral questions that arise as a result of being a human living amongst others in the web of life. In addition, social organization provides adolescents the chance to develop their own independence in the context of how we are all connected to each other.

In our families, communities, or schools, let’s keep these ideal principles in mind as we support our adolescents. We also welcome you to visit our school to see how we prioritize social development!

Toilet Learning: The Montessori Way

Mon, 20 Feb 2023 12:01:29 GMT

As parents we quickly learn that children have control over three things: eating, sleeping, and toileting. Rather than engage in power struggles, however, we can help children develop the skills they need to manage and gain mastery over these essential aspects of life.

In Montessori learning communities, young children learn how to prepare snack, fall asleep without assistance, and dress themselves. In addition, they learn how to control their sphincter and stay dry. This process, which we call “toilet learning" or “toilet awareness” takes time, yet it is a vital part of becoming independent.

Because we are helping children with an important aspect of their independence, we try to avoid the terminology of “toilet training.” After all, we aren’t training our children like we might train a dog! Rather we are helping children feel the success of becoming fully independent as they become masters of their own body functions.

The process takes time but doesn’t have to feel daunting. Here are some key aspects of toileting the Montessori way.

Establish Body Awareness

Toilet awareness starts at birth. From the earliest days of life, we talk to our infants about what is happening as we change their diapers. We might say, “Your diaper is wet from your urine,” or “I am wiping your poop off your bottom.”

To help our infants become aware of being wet or soiled, it’s best to use cloth diapers. Disposable diapers are very effective at wicking away moisture, which leads to children not connecting the act of eliminating pee with the feeling of being wet. As children shift into toddlerhood, they can begin to wear cloth underwear.

Useful phrases:

“Does your diaper feel wet or dry? Is there poop in your diaper?”
“Your underpants feel so heavy! You must have had a lot of pee come out.”
“I see you are squatting down and pushing. Your poop is coming!”

Collaborate

When a child is wet, we help them to the bathroom and collaborate with changing out of their wet underwear. We allow them to sit on the toilet to see if any urine is left that can be pushed or released into the toilet. Then once they have on dry underwear, they return to their activity.

Children need to feel involved in the toileting and changing process. They can assist in getting the clean underwear or diaper and putting any soiled items in their appropriate place. This gives children the feeling of some power or control in what is happening.

Useful phrases:

“You can hold your shirt up while I pull down your pants.”
“You can open the Velcro on this side of your diaper and I’ll open the Velcro on that side.”
“I’ll have a turn to wipe your bottom, and then you can have a turn!”

State the Facts

We are careful to stay matter of fact through the toileting process. Going to the toilet is a very natural thing to do, so we treat it as such. When children have wet or soiled their underpants or cloth diapers, we show them the dirty pair of underpants or diaper and where it should go. When appropriate we may even deposit feces from their underwear or diaper into the toilet. Children very quickly begin to associate and understand the process. Even when they begin to use the toilet successfully, we avoid clapping and celebrating and instead stick to the facts.

Useful phrases:

“Everyone poops!”
“Pee and poop go into the toilet.”
“It’s time to try sitting on the toilet.”
“Your underpants are wet. Let’s change into some dry underpants. Do you remember where to find your dry underpants in the bathroom?”
“Look, there’s some pee on the floor. Please bring me the clean-up bucket from the bathroom so that we can dry the puddle.”

Keep it Light and Friendly

Children are very sensitive to adults’ emotions, even when we try not to show them! Thus we make sure to have a positive, light, and friendly attitude toward the toileting process. Our approach helps children feel comfortable with their normal bodily processes. So we make sure to avoid any facial expression, comment, or tone of voice that conveys disgust or dislike, frustration or impatience. We stay relaxed and positive, so children can feel that way too.

Useful phrases:

“We can always change into dry clothes!”
“Everyone used to wear diapers—even Mommy and Daddy! Now we can use the toilet. You can, too!”

No Tricks or Treats

We offer the toilet, but we never force children to sit on the toilet. We also avoid asking children if they would like to sit on the toilet. There is a happy middle in which we suggest that they sit on the toilet or let them know it is time to sit on the toilet. Ultimately, we trust that children will incorporate this part of daily life into their routine. Young children love the consistency of routines, so we ensure, from the very beginning, that toileting is a regular part of the day.

Bribing, reward charts, and punishments may have short-term results, but do not work for the long-term goal of helping children develop independence, self-assurance, and mastery of this essential part of their humanity. We allow children the time to be successful. Rather than scolding or over-congratulating, we know that children will learn through experience and feel proud of their accomplishments.

Useful phrases:

“It’s time to sit on the toilet.”
“You peed in the toilet. You did it all by yourself.”

Respect the Process

Often when adults change children it is all done so quickly that children aren’t even aware of their bodily functions. Rather than rushing, we take time to explain what is happening and offer opportunities for collaboration.

It’s showing the utmost respect to children when we help them learn how to do something for themselves. When children able to respond to their body’s needs, they are one step closer to being fully functioning, independent young people.

Art for Self-Expression

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 12:00:55 GMT

Numerous theories and lots of research expound upon the importance of artistic expression. For young children and adolescents, art is an especially crucial form of personal expression. As such, children need to experience their own process rather than to produce a piece that someone else wants. In Montessori, we also have sensitivity to different expressive needs throughout different stages of development.

Process vs. Product

For young children, the process of making art is much more important than the product. When infants and toddlers are engaged in art activities, they are expressing feelings that they may not yet have words to express. Thus, during these early years, we focus on offering young children a variety of different artistic mediums.

When children are using different art materials, we first provide opportunities to work with larger spaces and then later move into the smaller more refined possibilities. For example, we start with painting at the easel, then as children develop more coordinated hand movements, we offer smaller paper or objects to paint.

Use of Tools

In addition to introducing different kinds of materials, we also show young children how to use different tools. We show how to use just a little water and the tip of the brush with watercolor paints. We explore different techniques with crayons. We introduce various tools–like knitting needles, crochet hooks, or looms–for fiber arts. Whatever the form of art, we offer the tools required for successful expression through that form.

We also open up a range of possibilities for children to explore. For example, in introducing clay, we show how to carefully get out the clay, how to use different techniques such as forming coils and slabs, how to cut, carve, or roll the clay, and how to store it when finished. We may also show examples of clay sculptures, whether in books or museums. With all of this information, children have a range of inspiration when they decide to work with clay.

Adult Response

To support young children’s artistic expression, we offer objective comments: “Oh how interesting…the lines go up and down,” or “I can see you used a lot of red and blue paint today.” We want to be very careful with what we say so we don’t give any indication of judgment, either good or bad. Young children do not yet have the language to explain their art. Therefore, we want to make sure our comments don’t inadvertently create expectations for children.

In Montessori, adults don’t insist that children express themselves artistically, or tell children what to express. When children choose some form of artistic expression, adults allow them the freedom to be with themselves while in the process of creating art. With this in mind, children’s artwork is individual, creative, non-competitive, and often connected to other subjects. We don’t expect children to learn to imitate adult creations or turn out products that all look alike.

Into the Elementary Years

From six to twelve, children began to use art in a more cognitive way. Often elementary-aged children began to want their artwork to be very realistic. They may focus more on the finer details of a particular piece of art rather than on the overall composition. As a result, children of this age can become discouraged if they feel their art “doesn’t look right.” Their determination is relentless. Because they will often insist upon realism, even at the risk of giving up on their artistic ability, we offer many different sub-skills to help children refine their techniques.

Art in a Montessori elementary classroom is often connected to students' intellectual pursuits. When studying Ancient Egypt, students may want to create a portrait in profile or a model of a pyramid. If they are immersed in learning about a country, they might learn about the symbolism of the flag’s colors and sew a sample flag.

All of this work is aided by the fact that children of this age love big projects. To support their artistic and intellectual pursuits, we provide elementary students with a kind of mini-studio so they can access the materials they need to create big projects and share their learning with their peers.

Through Adolescence

During adolescence, young people need even more opportunities to form, shape, express, and clarify their inner thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Artistic expression can be a vital outlet during this turbulent time, and can allow adolescents to not only reach a better understanding of who they are but also to be able to connect deeply with others through shared expression.

Questions of identity and fitting in weigh heavily on adolescents. Without ample opportunities for expression, these already perplexing questions can fester. Adolescents need creative outlets to keep their spirits vibrant!

In addition, expressive opportunities allow adolescents to merge their emotions with their intellect. It’s best to have a variety of avenues for artistic expression: instruments readily available to pick up, an art studio to transfer complex feelings into visual art, or opportunities for dramatic interpretation of academic content.

Vital Form of Expression

In Montessori, we feel strongly that young people need artistic outlets so they can have balance in their physical, emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual, and creative development. A Montessori environment supports the development of the whole person, thus allowing children to explore their personal creativity.

Art is a vital form of expression throughout different stages of growth. Through art children can express what they are feeling, elementary-age students can integrate their learning and refine their skills, and adolescents can better understand themselves and their connections to others. Creating art can allow our young people to reveal feelings that they could perhaps not express in words. Thus, we offer children a variety of art mediums and different experiences, as well as the freedom to choose and experience the form they have chosen.

As always, we invite you to come to visit our school to see this artistic expression in action!

Independence: The Foundation of Freedom

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 12:00:59 GMT

In order to be truly free, we need to be able to make our own choices, which means having the skills and abilities to then act upon our choices. Without independence, we can’t truly be free.

As children’s independence grows, so does their opportunity for freedom. They have more choices available and more to consider. The freedom children experience in our prepared learning environments is directly related to their independence. Over multiple years in their classrooms, children feel like masters of their environment and younger children look up to them as if they have superpowers.

In order for children to develop this freedom and independence, we make sure that the following opportunities are present in our classrooms:

To Choose Their Own Activity

Even at a young age, children have ideas of what they want and don’t want to do. This independence will only increase when children have opportunities to make decisions. In Montessori classrooms, we provide opportunities to make choices, but it is not a free-for-all!

The classroom is set up with a variety of activities designed to meet developmental needs. Children are free to choose any material they have been shown or that they have the ability to do. Thus, children must have the skill before being able to choose.

To build this ability to make a choice, we start by offering children choices about very simple things. When an activity has two parts, we might ask: “Would you like to carry the box or the tray?” Then we give another opportunity to make a choice: “Lovely! You may carry the tray to any table that you choose.”

Over time children develop the ability to make increasingly more complex choices and they build the skills that allow them more options in their learning environment.

To Work Without Interruption

Once children choose an activity, they are free to do it for as long as they like without anyone else (adult or child) interfering with their work. In this way, we protect children’s focus and concentration. As a bonus, because the materials are self-correcting, children don’t need an adult for validation.

The adults in Montessori classrooms work to protect children who are actively engaged in purposeful activity from interruption (even if this is a three-year-old washing a table and water is pouring off the table!). If children get interrupted a lot, their concentration becomes broken which can result in them not wanting to take risks or engage with challenging learning material.

The experience of being interrupted can happen a lot to children. They try to start doing something and someone comes along and stops them or finishes it for them. Yet children need to be able to deeply dive into activity in order to develop concentration and focus.

To Move Freely

Children are free to move about the classroom. Rather than having an assigned table or workspace, they can choose to work where they want and also with whom they want. They have the liberty to get up and move, get a drink when thirsty, or go to the bathroom when needed. If there is a group activity in the classroom, children are even free to choose whether or not they want to participate.

To Communicate With Others

Children also have the freedom to communicate. They can speak to whomever they want and when they want, as long as it is not disturbing their own or others’ work. This freedom is a gift to children who are often asked to be quiet and not to talk. Children in our learning environments have the freedom to speak and the ability to be heard, which means that the adults in the classroom make it a priority to be respectful when children want to communicate something.

To Work at Their Own Pace

Unlike in traditional environments where children move together along the same path (this half hour is story time, this is math time, etc.), Montessori children have the freedom to work at their own pace. To facilitate this, our schedule is specifically designed to offer large blocks of uninterrupted time so children have the freedom to spend the time they need on the activities they choose.

Working with learning materials is how children are developing themselves. They need time to reflect and integrate what they are learning. Therefore, children also need to be able to repeat an action as often and as long as they would like to do so. When children are new to Montessori classrooms, we sometimes need to let them know about the opportunity to work at their own pace and rhythm by reminding them, “You can do this for as long as you like!”

Limits

In order to support this foundation of freedom, Montessori classrooms have a few basic limits that support independence. In addition to ensuring that children aren’t distracted or interrupted in their work, we help children learn that materials can only be taken off the shelf and must be returned to their proper place on the shelf. These basic rules are clear social signals to children as to when a material is available for use: when a material is on the shelf it is available, and when the material is not on the shelf, it is not available.

Children are also part of restoring materials so that they are ready in their proper place. In the process of making the activity beautiful for the next person, children learn how to replace wet towels with dry towels, how to dry drips of water off a tray, or how to replace anything that was consumable. When the materials are restored and returned to their proper place on the shelf, then children can access the materials independently.

Development of Independence & Freedom

As children gain skills and abilities, their independence increases and so do their choices. Activities are available and ready for use so that children are not dependent upon anyone to get things for them. Children can choose where they do their work. The lessons we offer are designed to provide just enough information for children to continue the activity independently. We offer these liberties in harmony with children’s skills, abilities, and level of independence so they can experience a variety of freedoms in their learning community.

Curious about how this all works? Schedule a tour to see how independence and freedom are interconnected!

Our Montessori Bookshelf: Mathematical Thinking

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 12:00:53 GMT

As humans, we are predisposed toward order, exactness, and precision. With this tendency to abstract and imagine, we could be said to have a mathematical mind. Children, young and old alike, are drawn to numbers and mathematical ideas.

For thousands of years, math has been a part of the human search for meaning. We have long tried to quantify our natural world. From carbon dating artifacts to analyzing voting trends in politics, from understanding traffic patterns to examining climate change, math continues to be an integral part of our search for understanding.

Learning to think in mathematical terms is an essential part of becoming a person adapted to our time and place. Math is such an integral part of our lives and we feel that it’s vital to ensure our children are not only in touch with mathematics but also captured by the beauty and wonder of math in our world.

With this in mind, we pulled some of our favorite books that promote mathematical thinking for young children through early adolescence.

Counting Is for the Birds

by Frank Mazzola Jr.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2850143-counting-is-for-the-birds

Written in rhyme, this picture book can be used in different ways with young children. Some may just enjoy the story and illustrations, others can clue into the counting aspect of the book, and older children might explore the ornithological details provided on each page. This is the kind of book that you can revisit again and again with your children!

4,962,571

by Trevor Eissler, Ruth Chung, Bobby George, June George

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12054759-4-962-571

Written by a former Montessori parent, this picture book is a lovely introduction to and extension of the concept of place value. A young boy wants to see how high he can count, so he figures out ways to create groups of numbers so he can count to four million, nine hundred sixty-two thousand, five hundred seventy-one (and beyond!). Plus, anyone who has been in Montessori will appreciate the color coding of the numbers in the title!

How Much, How Many, How Far, How Heavy, How Long, How Tall Is 1000?

by Helen Nolan, illustrated by Tracy Walker

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1471736.How_Much_How_Many_How_Far_How_Heavy_How_Long_How_Tall_Is_1000_

Children at the end of their primary years or those who have recently transitioned into elementary will definitely appreciate this exploration of the quantity of 1,000. Full of thought-provoking questions, this picture book takes readers on a journey through how a 1,000 can be represented in so many different ways – and how that can change our impression of the size of the number.

One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale

by Demi

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/417181.One_Grain_of_Rice

This stunningly illustrated picture book provides both a moral tale and an example of the exponential power of multiplying by two. After a raja in India has hoarded rice for his own benefit, a young girl returns some spilled rice to him and as a reward requests only one grain of rice, as long as the raja doubles what he gave her the day before over the course of 30 days. By the end, she has more than enough rice to share with all the starving villagers, as well as the goodwill to support the raja in continued kindness.

Anno's Mysterious Multiplying Jar

by Masaichiro Anno, Mitsumasa Anno

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/596697.Anno_s_Mysterious_Multiplying_Jar

For those who love Anno’s Journey , this is a must-read, but this time the illustrations and text take the reader on a mathematical journey through factorials. Then to show what happened mathematically, the Annos (father and son) illustrate the multiplication in a graphic way that fits so well with what children experience with the Montessori math materials.

Mathematicians Are People, Too: Stories from the Lives of Great Mathematicians, Volumes 1 & 2

by Luetta Reimer, Wilbert Reimer

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1629218.Mathematicians_Are_People_Too

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/443990.Mathematicians_are_People_Too

This collection of short stories dramatizes conversations and lives of mathematicians throughout history and can easily capture the imagination of elementary-aged children who love the power of a good story. The stories can stand alone or be jumping-off points for further mathematical or historical investigations. We love the glossary at the end, the short biography at the start of every story, and the fact that female mathematicians are fairly well represented in these two volumes.

The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure

by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, illustrated by Rotraut Susanne Berner, translated by Michael Henry Heim

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/91358.The_Number_Devil

This is the perfect book for older elementary-aged children who aren’t quite sure they want to still love math. A boy meets a number devil in his dreams who leads an exploration of all sorts of fascinating aspects of numbers. The wildly fun and irreverent approach (led by the devil) makes even complicated math feel accessible. The whimsical illustrations certainly help, too! And for those wanting to go back and reference helpful information, there is a “Seek-and-Ye-Shall-Find List” (aka index) at the end of the book.

Doodle Yourself Smart . . . Math

by Helen Greaves, Simon Greaves

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/13235749-doodle-yourself-smart-math

For elementary children and adolescents who like to play around with mathematical thinking, this is a fun activity-style book that appeals to mathematicians and artists alike. Each page offers beautiful space for playing around with the problems (and yes, there are answers in the back for those who just need to know if they got it right!).

The Man Who Counted: A Collection of Mathematical Adventures

by Malba Tahan

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1160800.The_Man_Who_Counted

Those who like a good mathematical challenge, combined with a taste of the adventure that comes with travel, will love this series of chapters that form a bit of a novel. Each chapter of this book can stand alone or work as a cohesive whole as the narrator and the “man who counted” move through the Middle East. They encounter a slew of social problems that are solved with a sophisticated level of number sense that feels both mystical and matter-of-fact.

Click here for a downloadable PDF of this booklist! As always you are also welcome to come visit the school and see how we support mathematical thinking for all ages.

Materials Spotlight: The Bead Chain Cabinet

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 12:00:35 GMT

Visit any primary or elementary Montessori classroom and you’ll immediately notice a stunning display of colorful glass beads hanging in an open cabinet. Children (and adults!) are drawn to the order and elegance of the bead chains. Beyond their initial aesthetic appeal, the bead chain material offers an amazing array of intellectual opportunities for young children to those in their elementary years.

Color-coding

One of the brilliant aspects of the Montessori math materials is how they provide children with multiple ways to make neural connections. For example, each of the bead bars represents a quantity and each bead bar is also color-coded so that the quantity is connected to a color: a bar with two green beads represents two, a bar with five light blue beads represents five, a bar with eight brown beads represents eight, etc. This color coding allows the child’s brain to establish multiple quick ways to understand the quantity: the number of beads, the color, and the size.

Appealing

In Children’s House, young children are attracted to the beauty and fragility of these colorful, glass beads. Long before they are ready to use the bead chains, young children can learn how to dust and care for the beads. They develop a respect for the materials and understand how special they are. Often young children will watch in awe as their older classmates learn how to carry, lay out, count, and label the bead chains.

Linear & Skip Counting

As they practice counting the bead chains, four- and five-year-olds solidify their understanding of teen numbers, as well as quantities from units, to tens, to hundreds, to thousands. Eventually the focus of work with the bead chains shifts from linear counting to skip counting, as children begin to focus more on the labels that indicate the end of each bead bar. For example, on the 100 chain, children label and name 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, etc. Children can also layout, count, and compare the 100 chain and 1,000 chain side-by-side, providing the sensorial experience of the different quantities laid out in a linear fashion.

Multiplying

As children move into their elementary years, they are solidifying their skip counting in relation to mastery of multiplication. They love to quiz each other by turning over some of the labels to see if their friends can figure out which of the multiples is missing. So for the short chain of multiples of seven, for example, they might turn over one label to see if their friend can figure out the missing multiple: 7, 14, 21, __, 35, 42, 49.

The bead chains are also used to provide an impression of common multiples, which is critical for future work with fractions. Children lay out two long chains side by side, label the chains, and then find all the common multiples, and also begin to intuit the concept of the lowest common multiple.

Squaring & Cubing

The other fascinating aspect of the bead chains is how they geometrically represent the concept of squaring and cubing. Children learn how to fold up the bead chain so that it creates a square made up of four rows of four: 4 x 4 = 16.

This work can continue with the long chains, each of which creates the cube of numbers one through ten.

In addition to the hanging chains of bead bars, the bead chain cabinet also contains beautiful squares of each number, which can be stacked to create cubes, as well as the actual cubes for each number. The squares and cubes can be used for explorations with powers of numbers as well as more advanced work when students start to explore working outside of the base ten number system.

As children move into more advanced mathematics, they will often briefly revisit this foundational material to cue their memory when working with exponents.

Spiral Curriculum

The bead chain materials provide a perfect example of the spiral nature of the Montessori curriculum. From early linear counting, cycling into an understanding of multiples, to preparation for squaring, cubing, and base number work, children come back again and again to the beauty and breadth of the bead chains.

We invite you to visit our school to see the bead chains for yourself!

Montessori At Home: The Baby’s Room

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 12:00:05 GMT

When children come into our lives, we want to make sure we offer them the very best. Yet our children develop so quickly and their needs change so dramatically!

By having a clear, yet simple, plan we can prepare a bedroom space for our young children that not only supports optimal development but also helps us, as adults, feel prepared for each stage of development.

Clear Spaces

The child’s room should have boundaries that will help them be comfortable and thrive. One way to do this is to create a space that only has what is needed, with specific areas for each type of activity. For example, the child’s room needs to have areas for:

Physical care
Sleeping
Feeding (until weaned)
Moving

Although these spaces will shift a bit as our children develop and their needs change, we can prepare a room that is consistent yet easily adapted for each stage of development.

Above all, the child’s environment needs to be practical, beautiful, ordered, and safe, and at this stage, also needs to meet the parent’s or caregiver’s needs.

From Zero to Five Months: Birth to Weaning

Because young infants are adapting to a new world outside the womb, they need consistent points of reference to feel secure. This sense of security and consistency–with furniture, people, and daily routines–allows our newborns to feel able to explore their surroundings.

Physical Care

During these first months of the child’s life, the physical care area in the room has furniture and items for diapering and dressing. At this time the adult is the whole world for the child, so it is best for the changing table to be set up so the adult is at the baby’s feet so they can see the adult talking (describing what is happening, naming body parts, etc.).

Sleeping

Ideally the sleeping area has a low floor bed that provides an unobstructed view of the room and freedom of movement. Because this bed can stay consistent as our babies grow, it can help to start with a large-enough mattress (e.g. twin bed size). With room to move, babies will start to slither and eventually will be able to freely crawl into bed.

Feeding

The feeding area begins as a space designed for nursing mothers and babies to bond during breastfeeding. The space thus needs to be peaceful with a comfortable chair and a table or shelf with everything the feeding adult needs to have close at hand.

Movement

This area has three key elements: a mat, a mirror, and a low, open shelf. A hook in the ceiling above the mat can be positioned for hanging and rotating Montessori mobiles. A mirror mounted on the wall allows babies to begin to see themselves and their movements. A low, open shelf can store manipulative materials. Eventually babies will start slithering to the shelf to get these developmental aids.

From Five to Twelve Months: From Weaning to Walking

The room doesn’t need to change dramatically during this time and only needs a few, key modifications.

Feeding

The feeding area still has the adult chair for breastfeeding and snuggling, although during this time children begin the weaning process. This important separation process allows children to form their personal identity.

The weaning table and chair are important new additions to the room. This small, wooden table is very heavy and stable, with rounded edges and a beautiful place setting. In addition to a small, stable, supportive wooden chair for children just learning how to sit upright, the parent or caregiver has a stool so they can also sit and offer some of the first foods.

Movement

To help children be able to pull up and cruise, we can add a bar to the mirror and eventually remove the mat. An ottoman in the movement area can be a used for crawling around, pulling up on, and cruising around. The ottoman could be the same footstool used with the nursing chair. As children begin to cruise and walk, it’s nice to also include a lighter weight table, chair, and stool that they can push and move around themselves.

From Twelve to Thirty-Six Months: The Walking Child

Walking is an incredible accomplishment in human development. Rather than using their hands to aid in transportation, children can use them to transform their surroundings.

Sleeping Area

The bed can stay the same (or a little higher since they can now use their hands and whole body to climb onto it).

Feeding Area

At this point, the feeding area can shift completely to the family eating area.

Physical Care Area

As children learn to walk and develop more muscle control, they will eventually shift from needing diapers to using the bathroom for toileting, or at least transitioning to standing diaper changes in the bathroom. We can thus remove the changing table and replace it with a small wardrobe with a mirror, so our children can see themselves dressing.

Movement Area

Once children don’t need the assistance of the bar, we can remove it, as well as the mat and the mirror. It’s important to remember that children’s furniture should be proportionate to their mental and physical strength, so they are challenged, but in a way that allows for successful mastery with some effort. Above all, the furniture should be child-sized.

General Considerations

It is important to keep in mind that children have their own developmental paths. With this in mind, the above changes in the room should be done only after thorough observation of how our children are developing.

Children’s awareness of their environment begins at home, later expands to school, then to the community and local culture, and then beyond to their country and the world. The experiences children have in these environments become part of who they are, so we want to take care to prepare the best spaces possible!

If you want some inspiration, come visit our classrooms to see how we prepare environments for children’s optimal development.

The Montessori Prepared Environment

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 12:00:26 GMT

In Montessori, we talk a lot about the “prepared environment.” Really, though, this concept of a prepared environment isn’t limited to Montessori. In fact, from the earth’s biosphere offering an array of support for life, to the fragrant and colorful flowers existing to lure pollinators, to a woman’s uterus preparing each month for the implantation of a fertilized egg – prepared environments are all around us!

A prepared environment has three essential purposes:

to offer protection,
to provide nourishment, and
to stimulate growth.

In Montessori, a prepared environment is a place for children that is specially designed to appeal to their sensitive periods for learning, as well as their fundamental human tendencies. When designing these prepared spaces for children, we take into consideration how to ensure children feel protected and nourished, so they can reach their potential. Basically, the Montessori prepared environment is a place where children can feel at home as they develop their inner selves and outer skills.

One of the ways we offer children safe, home-like learning environments, is through our attentiveness to how the physical space is set up to meet children’s developmental needs. The classrooms have small, easy-to-move tables and chairs, as well as plenty of windows that let in bright, inviting light. Large open floor space allows children to work on the floor on rugs and move freely about the classroom. Low, open shelves display orderly arrangements of beautiful materials which invite children to engage with an array of learning activities.

The materials on the shelves are quite aesthetically appealing and have been developed out of trial and observation in schools all over the world. The beauty of the materials and the classroom appeals to children’s development of an aesthetic sense, while the arrangement of materials from concrete to abstract provides children with a solid sense of order.

In addition to being beautiful, the materials in the environment are real and purposeful. Containers for items even offer different textures and sensorial experiences. Because the materials are authentic, they offer children clear guidelines regarding use and misuse. Fragile items help children learn how to handle items with control and care. Plus, having access to beautiful, breakable treasures conveys an essential message of goodwill and trust.

In the beginning, adults assist children in getting their bearings in the classroom and teach the precise use of each material. The children then have the freedom to choose what they do and to focus for long periods of time.

Although adults are not the focal point in Montessori classrooms, adults are of prime importance. While they may have an outward appearance of passivity, the adults are acutely alert to what is happening in the classroom community. In addition to this presence and awareness, adults in Montessori classrooms must prepare themselves in profound ways. They have extensive intellectual and practical training to be able to link children with different aspects of the learning environment as well as with the breadth and depth of educational materials. Because the adults model how to have a peaceful environment where everyone is respected and able to work without distraction, they also must prepare themselves on a personal and spiritual level.

In addition to this psychological safety, Montessori prepared environments also focus on the importance and value of living things and outdoor spaces so children can keep and develop their connection to nature. Ideally, the classroom includes a garden area in which children can sow seeds, care for living things, and participate in harvesting the fruits of their work. The indoor and outdoor spaces often blend together with plants and animals as integral aspects of the classroom. In Montessori, we consider this connection to nature to be an essential part of education.

The connection to nature both in and out of doors, the arrangement of open space with child-sized furniture, the ordered and aesthetic materials, and the centrality of children with adults offering background support, all provide children with the protection and nourishment they need to develop independence and active engagement.

Children in Montessori prepared environments love their learning spaces! Come visit our school to see how the classrooms appeal to children on so many levels as they engage with their community and construct their understanding of the world.

Discipline: The Positive Way

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 12:00:25 GMT

We are often asked about how we handle discipline in Montessori. It’s a great question because we think differently about discipline. Ultimately, we want our children to develop self-discipline and to understand how to balance being an individual within a community. We know that children need to have a sense of belonging and significance; they want to feel and be capable in the world. In the process of learning how to use their power constructively, we understand they will make mistakes along the way.

In thinking about discipline, it can be helpful to consider how we, as adults, want to be treated when we make a mistake. If we start arriving late for work, for example, how would we want our supervisor to respond? Imagine if we were reprimanded, especially publicly. We might slink into discouragement, feel resentful, or even lash out. Or maybe our supervisor doesn’t hold us to expectations of timeliness and we eventually don’t even feel the need to get to work promptly. However, if our supervisor kindly and quietly reminds us about arrival time expectations, perhaps even checking in about what is going on in our lives, their warmth and understanding can inspire us to do better.

Our children deserve and need the same kind of respect. They do best when they are encouraged rather than punished or pampered. Yet often we get caught in a cycle with our children. We punish or cajole. Our children rebel, maybe get back at us, or perhaps retreat. Things get worse. We may react and layout more consequences, as if making life more miserable will help our children make better choices. In reality, we are all more likely to do better if someone supports us to figure out what went wrong and how to make things right.

The practice of Positive Discipline aligns well with Montessori philosophy and helps us shift from being punitive or reward-based to being kind and firm at the same time. Positive Discipline is a respectful approach that acknowledges that when children feel worse, they do worse, and when children feel better, they do better.

To balance being kind and firm at the same time, while also ensuring that we are supporting our children in healthy ways, we can listen to what we sound like when we communicate with children. Are we issuing directives or asking for cooperation? Are we forging relationships or cutting off connections? Are we brashly belittling or kindly reminding?

One way to become more aware of talking with our children rather than to our children is to practice the Positive Discipline principle of connection before correction. Connection before correction means that we focus on creating closeness and trust instead of distance and hostility. If we notice a child has left their coat on the floor, it’s most effective to first connect with them in a loving way before reminding them to clean up after themselves.

Basic brain science explains why this is the case. Scolding, nagging, lecturing, blaming, shaming, yelling – all cause the recipient’s brain to shift into “flight, fright, or freeze” mode. Children (and adults, too) function best when they feel safe, trusted, and accepted.

Connection before correction can be as simple as first getting to a child’s eye level and smiling before addressing the need at hand. Or perhaps it’s saying, “I love you, and the answer is no.”

Other ways of making a connection include active listening, spending special time together, validating feelings, asking questions, and giving hugs. Effective connections are made when everyone involved feels significance and belonging.

When children feel a connection, their sense of belonging and significance increases. Often this connection is enough to stop misbehavior and facilitate cooperation. The real bonus is that when we take the time to first connect rather than correct, we actually end up feeling better ourselves. Everyone benefits.

Positive discipline practices are an essential component of how Montessori communities function so effectively. We would love for you to come to visit our school and see how we are kind and firm at the same time, how we practice connection before correction, and how we see mistakes as opportunities to learn. Schedule a tour to learn more!

Roles & Goals: The Montessori Guide

Mon, 26 Dec 2022 12:00:15 GMT

Our society knows teachers. Teachers give information. Teachers provide an education. Teachers instruct.

In a Montessori classroom, however, the role of the adult is rather nuanced. The adult is there to facilitate, suggest, model, and observe. The materials teach. The adults advise.

Those of us accustomed to traditional models of education may find this odd or even worrisome. How can we expect our children to learn if the teachers don’t teach?

Traditional vs. Montessori

Because the Montessori model is quite different from traditional education, the adults responsible for providing a Montessori experience have very different responsibilities, skills, and abilities than those of teachers in a traditional method.

Historically children have been seen as blank slates or empty vessels that just need to be filled with information or knowledge. The teacher’s role has been to fill the vessel, to teach. Because the teacher passes information, correction, and validation to the student, the teacher is the material for learning.

Rather than seeing children as empty vessels, Montessori teachers see a bundle of potential just waiting to be realized. As such, the focus is on discovering these hidden potentials in children and supporting their development. This happens most effectively when children are actively engaged in their learning process.

In the traditional model, a teacher needs a number of tricks, including a system of rewards and punishments, to keep children focused on learning. But this framework of grades and evaluations isn’t actually necessary for children to learn.

In Montessori, we see the deep intellectual, social, and emotional engagement that happens when children get to learn through their own activities. Children get to use a variety of hands-on materials to explore, discover, and internalize key concepts and skills. Montessori teachers introduce how to learn from the materials in the classroom. As a bonus, because children are active participants in their own learning, they don’t have to sit passively while remaining focused on the teacher’s activity.

Roles & Goals

So, if a traditional model demands that the teacher’s presence is active and the student’s presence is passive, what does it look like in a Montessori classroom? When you look in a Montessori classroom, at first it may be hard to find the adults because the role of the Montessori teacher should be (or appear to be) a passive one. You may see an adult observing the room or particular children, inviting a child to a small group or one-on-one lesson, or sitting with children who are using the learning materials.

Sometimes it can be clear that the adult is presenting a lesson. In these moments, the adults do look a lot like teachers, just working with a small group rather than the whole class. Yet during these brief presentations, the goal is rarely to dispense information. Montessori teachers don’t want to teach the trick for compound multiplication, the names of all the countries in South America, the characteristics of mammals, or the function of a verb in a sentence. Rather, the goal is to give the children just enough of the lesson to pique their interest or capture their imagination. We want them to return to the learning materials again and again so that they discover the mathematical proof, scientific concept, geographical boundary, historical connection, or grammatical rule on their own.

Teachers vs. Guides

Because this goal and the role of the adult are so different, we often refer to our teachers as guides. This change in terminology shifts our thinking. Montessori teachers don’t lead a class from the front of the room. Our guides provide paths for children to learn that the quantity of 10 feels bigger than the quantity of two, that nouns name things, that equivalent fractions really fit into the equal space, or that 82 actually forms a square!

Montessori guides are acutely aware of how to support children on these varied and delightful paths of progress. Like the rudder of a ship, our guides allow children to embark on a journey of discovery while offering adjustments and changes to the course as needed. The result? Children flourish as active, creative, curious thinkers.

We’d love to have you come to visit our classrooms to experience how we guide children in this remarkable world, encourage active engagement, and support a life-long love of learning.

Time for Togetherness

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 12:00:01 GMT

During the holiday season, we can unintentionally become a bit edgy or stressed. Routines change. We might travel or have out-of-town guests. While our children may feel excited about the holidays, they also can feel the changes in family routines or shifts in family dynamics.

If we are getting together with extended family or friends—no matter how loving, patient, and well-meaning—having additional people mixed into the scene, especially during the holiday season, can add additional layers of stress. Often our children absorb this unspoken stress and their behavior may shift as a result.

Perhaps we see more meltdowns, an uptick in neediness, an increase in whining, more resistance, or a surge in sibling conflict. If our children start to show attention-getting behavior, we can remember that they are sending an important message about unmet needs. It’s like they are waving a red flag to indicate we should shift our focus!

Step 1: Connection

The first step is connection. Children want to feel a sense of significance and belonging. So even a few minutes of loving attention can refuel children who are feeling disconnected. Depending upon their age, this could mean snuggling together on the couch, collaborating on coloring a picture, taking the dog for a walk together, or shooting hoops. The most important thing is that the focus is on being together without distractions.

Step 2: Preparation

Once we’ve established that connection and our children feel secure and satisfied, we can discuss changes that occur during the holidays. Will bedtimes be different? What will shift about meals together? What kinds of activities will likely happen?

In preparing ourselves and our children for time with extended family and friends or changes to expect during the holidays, we can consciously reflect together about what routines will shift, what traditions we want to honor, and what joys and challenges the time may bring.

Our children like to be prepared and have a sense of what to expect. Involving them in the discussion, planning, and preparation can alleviate not only their anxiety but also our own angst.

Mapping out the days on a family calendar provides a visual guide for the changes in routine. A whiteboard works well, easily allowing for modifications if the plans become overwhelming. Take time to have conversations about what activities are most enjoyable for everyone. Then cut back on those that are not essential.

Step 3: Mindful Involvement

When we are in the midst of being amongst friends and extended family, the experience of collecting snippets and stories of favorite holiday experiences can be a bonding experience for everyone. Part of the ritual of coming back together around the holidays can include sharing, and even documenting, different memories of past times together. This kind of sharing offers everyone a way to reorient and reunite. The recollections can even be collected in a kind of family memory book that can be pulled out when everyone gets back together again.

Children and relatives also want to help. Intentionally enlisting extended family to support children’s involvement can create a win-win for everyone. Some possible collaborative activities include food preparation (scrubbing potatoes, mixing dough, tearing lettuce for a salad), making simple decorations, setting the table, folding the laundry, and even dusting and tidying. We all feel more settled when we feel useful and engaged.

This holiday season we have an opportunity to consciously create new rituals and opportunities for our children, our friends, and our extended families. Rather than rely upon old patterns perhaps learned from previous generations, let’s plan our time of togetherness and mindfully prepare ourselves and our children.

Power & Potential: The Sensitive Periods

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 12:00:18 GMT

Have you ever noticed how sensitive young children can be to changes in routine? Even the slightest schedule adjustment can throw things off. On the positive side, young children also have an incredible ability to internalize the order of their daily activities. They intuitively know when something is supposed to happen during a regular day.

It’s also pretty amazing how quickly young children absorb the intricacies of language, how they progress so seamlessly from sitting to crawling to walking to running, or how they can be so focused on tiny details and objects.

During these times in their lives, children seem to be compelled by an irresistible force. Think of the little one who wants to climb up the steps again and again. We can try to stop them, but they are undeterred! And despite the great effort involved, the activity almost seems effortless to them.

In Montessori, we pay close attention to these periods of time when children show intense focus on mastering a new skill, creating deep understanding, or refining their abilities. We call these times “sensitive periods.”

What are Sensitive Periods?

To paint the picture of sensitive periods, Dr. Maria Montessori used the example of newly hatched caterpillars. These young caterpillars hatch from eggs in protected nooks but are drawn toward the light where they can eat soft, young leaves at the ends of branches. The young caterpillars aren’t aware of the fact that going toward light will provide them with a food source. Rather, they are responding to a biological impetus. Once that need is satisfied, the caterpillars no longer have the desire to move toward bright light. That sensitive period is over and they shift into the next stage of their development.

Like the young caterpillars, young children in a sensitive period become incredibly absorbed with acquiring or mastering a new skill and hone in on the activity that aids their development. Neurologically, this is the time when groups of neurons become more active than others and establish key neural networks in children’s developing brains. These windows of opportunity are transitory and marked by children’s passionate focus on mastering a skill or characteristic.

In Montessori we focus on four main sensitive periods:

Order
Language
Refinement of the Senses
Movement

Sensitive Period for Order

The sensitive period for order is most intense from birth to three years of age, although it does continue through age six. When children are under the influence of the sensitive period for order, we see their intense interest in the order of things, both in routines (time, order of events in day, etc.) and in their environment. Young children can show great distress if this order changes.

As adults, we can appreciate that order makes our lives easier; planning our meals and picking out clothes ahead of time makes our week flow more smoothly. Organization and order are a convenience and make us more efficient. But young children need orderly environments in a different way. The order in their surroundings or routines becomes the basis for their relationship with the world. If that foundation of order is changing all the time, it’s like trying to build a house on a shifting foundation. Lots of changes in the environment or schedule cause children to have to constantly adapt, which diverts their energy away from other necessary forms of their development. When children have a predictable and ordered environment, they feel secure, trust their environment, and establish an internal order.

Sensitive Period for Language

Children are effortlessly absorbing language from birth. The first three years of life are focused on the development of spoken language and the last three years are focused on the expansion and refinement of language, including writing and reading. During this sensitive period, children are learning the intricacies of the language spoken around them. They hear sounds and begin to try to imitate them. They hear the rhythm of phrases and sentences. They begin to internalize the nuances of grammar.

Because children are absorbing all aspects of language, they need rich language experiences. Thus, we want to provide lots and lots of vocabulary by naming real things in the environment and engaging in meaningful conversation, even with our infants!

Sensitive Period for Refinement of the Senses

Young children are learning about their world through sensory experiences. The sensitive period for refinement of sensory perceptions starts at birth and begins to fade around four and a half.

This sensitive period does not make children’s eyes see better, ears hear better, or tongue taste better, but it does help children distinguish between finer and finer differences. Children who have access to sensorially rich environments can begin to refine their senses, have clearer perceptions, and be able to organize and classify their impressions. Neurologically, this sensitive period is when children are creating neural networks that help them interpret their environment through visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile perceptions. An enriched experience gives children the opportunity to develop powers of sensory discrimination, like perfect pitch, that will last throughout a lifetime.

Sensitive Period for Movement

Movement is how children come into contact with their environment, express their developing personality, and develop their independence. So much movement development happens from birth, and then, from about ages two and a half to four, children focus on refining their movements.

Children in this sensitive period benefit from having their movements directed toward some purposeful aim. For example, children want to imitate and participate in daily life, like cooking and preparing food. As parents, we often give our children play kitchens. With no other options, children will play with the pretend kitchen for a while, but this doesn’t satisfy them for long. They are much happier preparing real food for themselves and those around them. Meaningful activity, like food preparation, helps children refine their movement, adapt to their culture, and contribute to their community in a purposeful way.

Power & Potential

Although “sensitive periods” refer to the particular times when children are most open to developing a particular skill or trait, the name is a profound reminder. We need to be sensitive–treading mindfully and with great care–to the power and potential of these periods of development.

During the sensitive periods, children develop the skills and characteristics of order, language, refinement of the senses, and development and refinement of movement without apparent effort. Once the sensitive periods have faded, children can still achieve and develop certain characteristics, but they have to do so using work and effort. Plus, the skill or characteristic isn’t as fully integrated and absorbed. Think about how hard it is to learn a second language as an adult!

Most delightfully, when children are in a sensitive period and their needs are met, they experience deep inner joy and a sense of satisfaction. We invite you to schedule a tour so you can come visit our school and see this joy and satisfaction in action!

Shifting from “Stuff” to the Spirit of the Season

Mon, 05 Dec 2022 12:00:33 GMT

All too often the holiday season becomes about “stuff”–presents, decorations, more presents. How do we wean our children away from their focus on getting gifts and instead shift attention to the spirit of togetherness, generosity, peace, and goodwill?

It can be helpful to hold a family meeting and talk about everyone’s feelings about the holidays. We can ask our children about what, besides the gifts, they really like about the holidays. Often memories start to emerge: making gingerbread cookies with Grandma, taking a walk together as a family, ordering take-out Chinese and days-worth of leftovers.

From those memories, you can start brainstorming about what to establish as part of your family holiday tradition, perhaps even exploring new ways to enliven the winter season. Could a family hike followed by hot cocoa be a regular ritual? Coloring and cutting holiday-themed place settings? Decorating cookies to distribute as gifts?

In discussing the holiday, you can also introduce activities that involve giving and service to others. All sorts of studies detail the mental and physical health benefits of selfless service. The term “helper’s high” refers to the chemicals released in our brains when we engage in giving behaviors. Children can be very intrigued by learning about different charities, especially those that are local or important to their families. Part of the process of gift-giving can include choosing a charity and giving a gift in your child’s name or even having your child play a part in delivering the gift.

Another approach is to focus on giving gifts that are really experiences: a trip to a museum, a weekend family adventure, certificates for favorite excursions, cash and a coupon for an outing to the arcade, a day trip with a friend to the trampoline park. Whatever the experience, the focus is giving the gift of doing something, and ideally doing something together, rather than owning an object.

Brainstorming about the types of gifts or experiences we share with friends and family during the holiday season helps open our children up to the idea that gifts don’t have to be an item purchased at a store or online. As you explore this idea with your children, you can offer options such as:

DYI/Handmade Gifts
Care Packages
Video Gifts/Electronic Messages
Experiential Gifts
Gifts of Quality Time
Skill Sharing Gifts
Donation & Support Gifts
Food Gifts

Children can be involved in creating care packages or gift baskets, video collages or audio greetings that can be sent to grandparents, favorite dry goods recipes in mason jars, and coupons for activities or quality time.

We have enough things in our lives. Even if our youngest children aren’t quite ready to give up the idea of getting material presents, we can model both how gifts can take on many different forms and how we can bring more of ourselves to the holiday gift-giving experience.

Likely our children won’t remember a particular toy they unwrapped in 2022, but they will remember what they did with those they love and how they felt while doing it. Perhaps just planning a different kind of giving this year can bring less stress and more joy. What better gift than that?

Music the Montessori Way

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 12:00:05 GMT

Music. It helps us express ourselves. It expands our consciousness. It draws us together. Since ancient times, humans have relied upon music as a fundamental form of communication. Even today, we can see how children, from an early age, are drawn to music.

Always the scientist and observer, Dr. Maria Montessori recognized the essential place of music in children’s development. She collaborated with a number of musicians to develop a comprehensive music program to support children’s music appreciation and expression. The Montessori music program begins with sensorial experiences that build to children developing an acute awareness of pitch and rhythm. These experiences and activities then evolve into children learning the construction of musical scales and even perfecting how to write, read, and compose music. These components ultimately support children and adolescents’ abilities to use music as a form of self-expression.

Early Experiences

From our earliest moments of life, we absorb the sounds of our environment. A fetus hears the rhythm of the mother’s heartbeat, breathing, and body systems. Expecting parents may sing or tell a story and their unborn child takes in the patterning and intonations of their voices. Newborns use these sounds as a way to have points of reference while orienting to life outside of the womb.

When working with infants and toddlers, we slow down so as to observe and listen to sounds and movements in nature. Hearing and relating to the natural music around us helps us be better attuned to the music in everything. As adults, we model this reflective pace, especially in our fast-paced society.

In the process of learning through imitation, our youngest children try to mimic sounds, first by copying movements with their mouths and later with their bodies. Thus, we model connection to music and openness to learning and experiencing musical expression, both in the traditional sense and through experiences in nature. Because music moves us emotionally and calls forth varied feelings, we also show how to express these emotions by moving our bodies, dancing, and singing. Young children need to experience music so they can make it part of their human experience.

Musical instruments in our infant and toddler communities are often related to nature and the sounds of nature. We provide multiples of each instrument so that when singing songs together, everyone can have a rhythm stick, or other appropriate musical instruments, and keep the beat together. We offer different kinds of high-quality instruments because the sounds affect individuals in different ways. Like with any other material in a Montessori classroom, the adults present the appropriate use of each kind of instrument to the children.

When children get a little older and move into the Primary or Children’s House level, we offer four strands of music education: singing, rhythm, music appreciation, and music literacy.

Children’s House: Singing

Singing begins right away in the Children’s House! We are helping young children realize that their voice is an amazing instrument. We share and teach easy-to-learn songs, as well as model how to express a range of emotions through the musical experience of singing. Folk songs offer high-quality melodies and expressive lyrics, as well as topics that reflect real-world qualities and real-life experiences–from celebrations and holidays to the weather, geography, and just everyday life.

When we introduce songs in the Children’s House, we first sing without any accompaniment so that the children learn how to find the right pitch. Once the children know a song very well, we may complement the singing with a piano, guitar, dulcimer, or the classroom bells.

Children’s House: Rhythm

Young children are so adept at rhythm. From the very beginning, life inside the womb was a rhythmic wonderland, with the symphony of the mother’s heartbeat, digestion, and respiration. Continuing throughout their lives, children experience rhythm all around them. We support the development and refinement of rhythm through activities that involve walking, running, marching, and skipping on an ellipse on the classroom floor, as well as through percussive instruments and music with distinctive rhythmic patterns. We may introduce hand and foot movements during songs, as well as the use of rhythm instruments. Some children also begin rhythm notation while in the Children’s House.

Children’s House: Music Appreciation

Through recorded music selections, we offer the history and culture of different kinds of musical expression in the human experience. When introducing a new piece, we give its name, the name of the composer, and the type of music it represents. These lessons are correlated to what the child knows in history, geography, art, and current events. When musicians visit to play an instrument for the children, we expand the experience with related vocabulary, stories, and listening opportunities.

Children’s House: Music Literacy

Although most settings don’t introduce music literacy to young children, we offer it as we do writing–as a means for sounds to be saved and held. While improvised work is lost into the air, writing down notes saves the idea and allows the possibility of communicating without face-to-face contact.

In the Children’s House, the bells become the children’s second instrument. We begin music literacy as soon as children can pair the bells of the diatonic scale and when they show an interest in the names of the pitches.

To introduce music literacy skills, we isolate two difficulties: notation for melody and notation for pitch. These two pathways start separately in the Children’s House but are joined in the Montessori elementary program.

In addition to working with the tone bars to dive deeply into music notation, scales, and composition, children at the elementary level continue experiences with listening, music history and literature, playing instruments, singing, movement, and rhythm.

Elementary: Rhythm

In elementary, children start with a sensorial experience of four-beat measure patterns, and we soon introduce the notation for these four-beat patterns. Children begin to be able to read rhythmic patterns for familiar names (of people and items), which also prepares them for an understanding of syllabification. Through this work, they begin to be able to notate patterns that they hear and to find notation patterns in printed music. They also get to experience finding words that will fit different rhythmic patterns and can practice notating the rhythm of spoken words.

Elementary: Playing Instruments

We first use games to introduce elementary children to various instruments and then support them in using instruments to accompany class songs. As their expertise grows and they are able to maintain a steady beat, students may form a small band and can even learn how to have a conductor!

Whenever possible, we support children in seeing and hearing real orchestral instruments, including the music and instruments of other cultures. As children listen to individual instruments and combinations of instruments, they learn to differentiate between different qualities of sound that instruments create.

Elementary: Listening

We approach the art and skill of listening very deliberately. The adults set an example by listening to children and by speaking quietly and in clear sentences with precise pronunciation. Even in the elementary, we play listening games–from investigating how our bodies make noise, to taking listening walks, to enjoying mystery sound games, to exploring the absence of sound–all of which provide opportunities to focus on listening skills. The children also relish opportunities to listen to recorded music, both independently and as a group, and to be able to discuss what they heard.

Elementary: Tone Bars

The tone bars are elementary students’ primary musical instrument. Children in the elementary can often be found composing and playing on the tone bars and as they experiment with sounds and the relationships of the tone bars, they are essentially in the babbling stage of language development. With extended exposure and practice, this “babbling” can evolve into children being able to pick up tunes by ear.

Eventually, elementary students use the tone bars for learning major and minor scales, whole steps and half steps, transposition, the musical staff, music notation, composition, pitch dictation, degrees of the scale, intervals, sharps and flats, and key signatures.

Montessori Music Program

Montessori music begins sensorially, isolates difficulty, and engages children in spontaneous activity and meaningful self-expression. The Montessori music program is constructed so that the keys to music can be presented as a language of communication. We consider music to be an element of total literacy and thus give music as much emphasis as we give to mathematics and language as essential tools of communication. As a result, as children move toward adulthood, they are able to use musical expression as a way to better understand themselves and the world around them.

We invite you to come to visit our school to see (and hear) how music comes alive in our classrooms!

Mutual Respect & Making Deposits

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 12:00:01 GMT

Montessori classrooms depend upon a web of mutual respect. This culture of respect is established from the very beginning: from how the classroom is arranged and sized for the children, to how we greet each other at the start of the day, to how the adults refrain from interrupting children’s concentration. Dr. Maria Montessori emphasized that, as adults, we must have the utmost respect for children, because they are in the process of constructing themselves and are the hope for the future of humankind.

Mutual respect does require maintenance, though. As Montessorians, we are always tending to the emotional environment of the community. One way we do this is by continual practice of different ways we can show grace and courtesy toward each other and our surroundings. We do know, however, that situations arise when tensions start to run high, misunderstandings proliferate, and irritation takes over. We are all human, after all.

Because it’s helpful to have some support when things start to fray, we thought we’d share a strategy that can be helpful when frustrations, fallings-out, or rifts are on the rise.

First, imagine a scenario in which there is a small slight. A look from across the room. A forgotten request. Not listening to what is being said.

Usually, this isn’t such a big deal. However, if we are feeling particularly annoyed or frustrated by something that happened previously, we might mutter about how we can’t believe so and so did that again, how could they look at us like that, how they never pay attention, and on and on.

Our response tells a lot about how we are feeling about the other person involved.

If we find ourselves in a situation where a progression of misunderstandings and misinterpretations is causing a rupture, it can be a good time to pause and consider the concept of an emotional or relationship bank account.

Dr. Stephen R. Covey explores the idea of an emotional bank account in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families, and Sean Covey introduces the relationship bank account in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens. The essence of this “bank account” is that we have different connections with the people in our lives, and between each of us we have an unseen measure of how we are connecting. We can visualize that measure as a bank account. Just like with a bank account, we can make deposits or withdrawals.

When we greet a co-worker in the morning with a smile and a compliment, we are making a deposit. Over time, with lots of deposits, a large cushion of goodwill is created in our relationship bank account. When a large cushion is there, our co-worker is likely to be understanding when one morning we scowl and barely mumble, “morning.” They might wonder if we are okay and want to do something to help us feel better.

But let’s imagine that instead of making regular deposits into our relationship bank account, we have either not taken the time for a kind greeting, or perhaps have been complaining about something they’ve done. These little acts end up draining our relationship bank account, like multiple small withdrawals, until there is little to no cushion of goodwill between us. If that’s the case, when we scowl and mumble, “morning,” the other person might react with anger and frustration, fed up with our attitude and ready to retaliate.

In simple terms, our relationship or emotional back account is like a cup that gets filled or emptied.

When exploring this idea with young children, it can be helpful to draw or get a real cup, fill it up while imagining different acts of goodwill, then empty it while exploring little thoughtless or unkind acts. Children love to brainstorm different ways to fill the cup, perhaps even creating a poster or drawing together to have a visual reminder.

Older children are often intrigued by the connection to a financial bank account. Even the logical exploration of deposits and withdraws can help older children shift out of the emotional centers of their brains, which then allows them to approach a potentially tense situation with more calm and clarity.

If your children would benefit from a graphic image of making deposits or filling a cup, or what it looks like when lots of withdraws mean we don’t have a buffer of goodwill, feel free to download this image of a graduated cylinder to use to show filling or emptying our emotional bank account. Sometimes having a visual really helps solidify the concept for children.

Really, though, we can use this strategy in all of our relationships. When we can think about the little acts of kindness, honesty, patience, and unconditional love and acceptance as being ways to build up our relationship bank accounts, we can more easily shift gears in how we relate.

Ultimately, this practice can allow us to become more mindful of the actions between us. We can look across the room with warmth. We can acknowledge a mistake and work to make amends. We can listen with acceptance.

When we make deposits, we connect and cultivate goodwill. These deposits happen on a regular basis in Montessori classrooms. We invite you to come to visit our school to experience this mutual respect for yourself!

Meeting Adolescent Needs

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 11:12:02 GMT

As we adapt, learn, and exist in the world, we rely upon unconscious, innate drives that help us orient, explore, work, order, calculate, imagine, abstract, communicate, repeat, and self-perfect. In Montessori we call these “human tendencies” and we take care to observe how these tendencies show up in different ways at different stages of development.

As young people enter adolescence, it becomes even more critical for us to consider how these aspects of being human show up. When we recognize these internal drives, we can better ensure that we are effectively supporting adolescents’ process of self-construction during a vulnerable and dynamic time in their lives.

So, let’s take a look at each human tendency and consider how to support adolescents’ characteristics and needs.

Orientation

During adolescence, young people need to orient themselves to their new bodies and the new ways their brains are functioning. Sometimes adolescents don’t even quite know who they are from one moment to the next. This can be easily seen in those times when adolescents swing from child-like behavior to adult-like behavior. They also need to orient to a different learning environment, including understanding the new adults in their lives, as well as a new social/peer community. They are trying to figure out boundaries: of their space, their body, and their minds.

As a result, adolescents need orientation to rules and responsibilities. In Montessori adolescent programs, adults support this orientation by providing time and space for training and introduction. When starting a new skill, introducing a new concept, or even starting a new school year, adolescent guides are sensitive to the orientation process that needs to happen and also to the fact that adolescents’ executive function skills are still developing.

Exploration

Adolescents are also navigating issues of their own identity and exploring how they feel comfortable in their world. This normal, developmentally appropriate process can lead to a great deal of creative exploration. They will often want to try on new kinds of self-expression, sometimes through physical presentations such as the fashions and hairstyles they choose or create for themselves.

During adolescence, young people may also explore (or continue exploration of) where they are on the gender spectrum. They seek safe, judgment-free settings in which to see how it feels to be identified in different ways. As a result, they need supportive adults through this dynamic process of identity development.

Adolescents are also exploring new capabilities and their own bodies. They want (and neurologically need) to take risks. Adolescent guides provide opportunities for healthy risk-taking, perhaps through a ropes course, a backpacking trip, or even through big physical expressions, while also being sensitive to the physical and psychological disequilibrium that can happen when adolescents are re-orienting and exploring who they are and what is possible.

Work

This exploration of what is possible connects to adolescents’ ability to engage in really hard work. If they feel connected to the purpose of the work, if it has personal or social value, they can take on big incredible tasks. When they feel this connection, adolescents will easily take on a challenge, even something as monumental as moving a whole building, and do so with vigor. If they have an investment in the activity, they will work relentlessly to see that it happens.

Adolescent guides support these experiences of purposeful work that has a real impact. This often means working side-by-side with adolescents to get the work started and to help them find a connection to why the work is important. Sharing their own passion for the work is another way adults can support adolescents’ engagement. Likewise, adolescents can dig into hard intellectual work, again if it has meaning and purpose for them and their social group.

Imagination & Abstraction

Often adolescents’ imagination will aid them in the process of big work. Undaunted by limits, they can imagine better, more innovative ways to get something done. To support this, adolescent guides allow room for failure and mistakes, so that adolescents can experiment and learn from the process. Adults can also allow adolescents room for putting what they imagine into action, rather than focusing on an adult agenda or needing to move things along more efficiently. Adolescents’ ability to think abstractly can help in this process of creating new possibilities.

Adolescents are abstracting patterns and social norms. They are able to start thinking about their own thinking (metacognition). Adolescent guides offer opportunities to connect these new abilities to intellectual pursuits. This can also be an amazing time for adolescents to explore forms of self-expression and appreciate the abstractions that can be found in forms of art. Often adolescents are even creating their own form of language or social norms with their peers.

Adolescents’ imagination can also manifest itself in their focus on what others may think of them. This tendency to think there is an “imaginary audience” watching them all the time or to imagine that they are center stage in an experience, can be challenging for young adolescents. Adolescent guides offer opportunities for adolescents to experience and understand different perspectives, while also considering how sensitive adolescents can be in moments of feeling like the spotlight is on them or that they are misunderstood.

Order

Although adolescents may not seem like they need order, they still need the consistency of routines and order in their environment. They benefit from having all the tools back where they belong at the end of their work: the kitchen utensils back in the correct drawer and school items back in their storage space. How that space or drawer looks may not be completely ordered, but adolescents will experience the value of being able to access kitchen tongs when they need tongs!

Similar to how toddlers need the comfort and order of a regular routine, adolescents also need to rely on an ordered schedule, especially when so much is changing for them internally. It’s worth noting that adolescents might have a completely messy and disorderly room, but then will go through a period of redefining themselves and creating a space that matches a new persona they want to convey.

Repetition, Self-Perfection, & Calculation

The tendency for repetition or exactness can often be seen in adolescents’ desire to play the same guitar chord over and over or to jump up and touch the door frame each time they pass through. They are experiencing new abilities and being able to repeat and make those

abilities more precise can really appeal to them. This also relates to the tendency to self-perfect. Adolescents want to perfect that one move to sink the basketball into the net. They want to get the drawing of a character or a face just right. They may also need to repeat or perfect a way of connecting to their social group–a joke that the group bonds over, a funny dance move, a line from a movie–and this repetition reinforces that they belong to the group. They are also calculating constantly: where do I fit in, how do the connections through social media accounts show my status in the social hierarchy, how can I fine-tune my appearance to convey changes in my identity?

Association & Communication

The need for association and communication is paramount for adolescents. They want and need to learn in association and communication with their peers. They work things out together and need to debate and discuss. Adolescent guides provide healthy opportunities for this through seminars or Socratic dialogue, so adolescents can learn how to listen respectfully, hear others’ perspectives, and communicate their own thoughts. Adolescent guides also honor adolescents’ need to connect with others, being sensitive to the constant talking that often needs to happen for adolescents to work through ideas or feel connected to their peers.

Ultimately, adolescent guides are observing for these tendencies so they can make sure the learning environment matches adolescents’ social, emotional, moral, and physical needs and characteristics during this critical time in their development.

Let us know if you’d like to learn more about how our program helps young people on their journey to adulthood!

Sensorial Superpowers

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 11:09:17 GMT

Young children are in a powerful process of creating an understanding of their world and where they fit in. To do this, they rely upon their senses as an interface to the world. Everything that comes into young children’s minds comes through their senses.

During the first few years of life, children are absorbing sensory input without any discrimination. Then around age two-and-a-half to age three, children begin to bring images from their subconscious into their consciousness. They begin to work with these images and in the process embark on an important journey of building their intelligence.

The Sensorial Materials

To support this development, Montessori programs offer carefully designed sensorial materials.

that follow a formal, systematic approach. The materials isolate each sensorial quality and offer children what Dr. Maria Montessori called the “keys to the world.” In addition, the sensorial materials support children’s classification of impressions and lead to clear levels of conscious discrimination. If children have these experiences in the formative period of brain development, they establish a foundation for a lifetime of order and precision, as well as logical, reasoned thinking.

How do sensorial materials accomplish all of this? Well, they have some really significant purposes!

Sensorial materials support children’s classification and categorization of sensorial impressions.

For young children, the first three years are like collecting impressions and throwing them into a closet. The images or concepts are a bit of a hodge-podge jumble, thus to go in and access what is needed from this unorganized collection can be a challenge. Because this warehouse of impressions doesn’t have order or classification, children need to develop mental organization so their collection of impressions becomes useful.

The sensorial materials help children to classify and categorize all of the impressions they have absorbed and unconsciously stored since birth. When children interact with the sensorial materials, images come out of their unconscious memory and come into working memory. As children use the materials, these impressions become part of their conscious memory. When children become accurate in distinguishing sensorial differences, we give language for the images, which then helps the concepts become fixed in children’s minds.

Children aren’t born with organized brains that have predetermined categories, so this neural organization has to be built up through experience.

Sensorial materials support children’s refinement of their sensorial perceptions.

It’s important to understand that sensorial exercises don’t make children’s ears hear better, eyes see better, or tongue taste better. Rather, the materials help children develop powers of discrimination so that they can analyze smaller and smaller degrees of difference.

When we take in sensorial input, everything goes into our brain. Then the brain has to make discriminations, a skill which develops through experience and the process of making finer and finer discernments. The materials offer children a clear means for starting to classify and to increase their perceptive powers, both of which are important mental abilities.

Sensorial materials support children in the development of abstractions.

What do we mean by abstractions? An example of an abstraction is the notion of “red.” Red as a quality does not exist in nature. Red can be represented in physical things, but we cannot bring “red” to a person. Red is a quality. It is an abstraction.

Children may have some abstractions already in place, but when they are young the number is limited purely due to the fact that they haven’t had a sufficient amount of experience to develop the abstraction. Furthermore, children don’t typically get to experience sensorial qualities in isolation. The Montessori sensorial materials isolate each quality and give children the opportunity to have enough experience to develop abstractions.

Because we, as adults, have a lot of experience in the world, it can be hard for us to understand what children need to create abstractions. To better understand the significance of abstractions, imagine being told about a quince. If you haven’t had a quince before, it is hard to pull up the image in your mind, much less what it tastes like. If you hear a description that a quince is a fruit, you are able to pull up an idea of what a fruit is. Then if you hear that a quince is in the same family as an apple and pear, you can pull up an image that brings you closer to imagining the fruit and perhaps even the type of skin it has.

But without these experiences and the organization of images, children can’t pull up the same level of abstraction. Imagination helps us, as adults, to be able to do this: pull up images in our minds of something haven’t experienced before based on abstractions. In order to imagine, we must have abstractions. This area is most related to the development of intelligence.

Sensorial materials support children’s development of accurate and discriminating recall of perceptions.

The materials engage children’s memory, help them access information from their memory, and support them in using their intelligence. Memory is a tool of the intelligence, but because children aren’t born with memory, they need support with developing it. While children do have an unconscious memory, they have to take the impressions they have absorbed and build memory from them. The sensorial materials help this process.

Memory needs practice and experience to become stronger; it is only increased through activity. We want children’s memory to be strong and thus we provide lots of experience with the materials and variations with the materials. With each sensorial material, there are many ways to extend the activity and help children with recall.

One significant strategy is giving language to each perception. The language is based on what is isolated in the materials–thick/thin, large/small, long/short, right-angled isosceles triangle/right-angled scale triangle, rough/smooth, heavy/light, ovoid/ellipsoid, bitter/sweet. The vocabulary is extensive and rich, and ultimately fixes the perception in children’s memory.

The second strategy we use is playing games which challenge children to hold the perception in mind for longer and longer periods of time. They might put each of the pink tower cubes scattered about the room so that in rebuilding the tower of cubes from largest to smallest, they have to remember the size of the previous piece in searching for the next largest cube. Some of the sensorial games also help children notice particular qualities in the environment, rather than just in the materials. One favorite is searching for items in the classroom that have exactly the same shade of each of the color tablets.

Through repeated experience with the sensorial materials, children develop clearer and more accurate perceptions and create reference points that they can use throughout life. Dr. Montessori talks about the possibility for children to develop touchstones, a sort of fixed, accurate reference by which this quality can be accessed. These points of reference can provide a lifetime tendency for order, precision, and recall, for example hearing the note of G without any other reference or being able to look at a pane of glass and know if it will fit into the window frame.

Sensorial materials help children develop life-long tendencies towards order and precision.

We don’t know what touchstones might develop for each child, but Dr. Montessori says that touchstones developed during these early years will remain with children throughout their whole life. If children can get accurate discriminations while in this time of sensitivity to sensorial input, this precision will remain with them into adulthood. Of course, children’s unique interests will also lead them to their own level of proficiency.

Functionally, this tendency toward order and precision will be important as children move into more academic work in language and math. They will be able to access powers of discrimination that will aid them in future endeavors.

Sensorial materials also provide indirect preparation for further study.

This indirect preparation means that we are taking advantage of children’s spontaneous interest and activity and thus planting the seeds for other areas that children will explore as they get older. When we introduce shapes–from a decagon to an ellipse to a quatrefoil–through the geometry cabinet, children visually discriminate the shapes while also tactilely experiencing the shapes by tracing around them. Multisensory input is stronger than input through just one sense. Tracing the shape also helps to prepare children’s hands for writing. To write, our hands have to be able to follow a form. This is how the sensorial materials provide indirect preparation for further academic study.

Sensorial materials support the development of children’s memory and intelligence.

Dr. Montessori talks about the sensorial area as being most strongly related to the development of intelligence. Working with sensorial materials requires a very different engagement from the practical life work of washing hands or scrubbing a table. Practical life activities help children with coordinating movement and following a sequence with a logical beginning, middle, and end. Sensorial materials don’t have the same kind of logical sequence. They are open-ended and exploratory. Children have to consider each piece and how it works in relation to the other pieces. In working with the red rods, for example, children have to examine each rod’s length in relation to the other rods. Thus, children have to make a reasoned distinction every time they move a piece of material. This process engages the intelligence and elevates children’s level of awareness. In addition, children then have to hold the images in their mind, which helps their memory.

Having an ordered, classified mind is also the foundation for intelligence. When children struggle in more academic areas like language and math, we take time to consider how to better support their mental order and classification. When the mind isn’t prepared well, academic work can be difficult to do. However, if children can recognize and distinguish between a trapezoid and a parallelogram, they will be more likely to be able to distinguish two other shapes like “g” and “q.” When children have a lot of experience recognizing shapes through sensorial materials, they are more able to recognize the shapes they encounter in letters. Sometimes we go back and explore if perhaps children recognize the shapes but don’t have a strong memory. We then use sensorial games specifically designed to help different forms of memory (auditory, visual, etc.).

The sensorial area serves as an important foundation for more academic work because language and math are completely based on abstractions. Words represent concrete things but the words themselves are abstractions. The sensorial area is critical for providing the foundation for abstract thinking.

Outcomes

Although the sensorial materials may look relatively simple, they provide so much! When children use these materials, they are refining their powers of discrimination, creating an ordered mind, enhancing their memory and recall, categorizing their impressions, and building a foundation for rational thinking and intelligence.

As children achieve these skills, they experience life with an increased level of richness, becoming aware of the lovely details of their world. With a prepared mind, children can see things in a new light and with new enthusiasm. This is perhaps one of the most delightful outcomes of children’s work with the sensorial materials: they develop a whole new appreciation of the life around them–dimensions, shapes, smells, sounds, textures, tastes–which is what gives life value and beauty.

We hope you can come visit our school , experience the sensorial materials, and see how children get to develop their sensorial superpowers!

The Role of the Montessori Teacher

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 15:55:02 GMT

What, exactly, is the role of the Montessori teacher? How is it so different from that of any other teacher?

Sometimes it’s easiest to begin by explaining what a Montessori teacher isn’t.

A Montessori teacher is less like the traditional idea of an instructor, and more like a gentle guide. They don’t consider it their job to give a child information. They rather lead children in the general direction and give them the tools they need to find the information themselves.

Maria Montessori once said, “The greatest sign of success for a teacher...is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.’”

Montessori Teachers Cultivate Independence

In a Montessori classroom, rather than seeing a teacher at the front of the classroom giving the same lesson to every child, the teacher will be working quietly with individual children or small groups. While that is happening the rest of the children are free to spend their time doing the work that calls to them. A Montessori teacher works hard to create structures that allow children to be independent and to trust themselves as learners.

One large part of what a Montessori teacher does is to intentionally prepare a classroom environment that is developmentally appropriate, is inviting to children, and supports them on their journey to work independently. This environment is constantly changing in tiny ways as the teacher notices new and evolving needs of the students.

Montessori Teachers are Trained to Think Like Scientists

Parents should know that Montessori teachers are highly trained. Most have recognized Montessori credentials in addition to their college degrees. Montessori certification programs are intensive and demanding; one might compare them as being the equivalent of another college degree. These training programs don’t just teach Montessori educators how to use the specialized materials; there is extensive coursework about Montessori philosophy, child development, and integrating the arts.

When it comes to assessments, Montessori teachers don’t rely on standardized tests; they rely on the power of observation. They have notebooks brimming with evidence of what their students have mastered, need more support with, and are curious about. They are constantly recording what they notice children working on, how that work is being executed, and ideas they might have in anticipation of a child’s next steps. Montessori teachers literally sit beside a child and determine exactly what they know about a wide range of content areas.

Montessori Teachers Think Long-Term

Because of Montessori’s three-year cycles, teachers have the unique ability to consider their big picture when working with students. There is a natural tendency to allow the children to genuinely learn at their own pace. Getting to know a child and their family well over the course of a few years really supports this approach.

Montessori Teachers are Often Called ‘Guides’

...and for good reason. While children in Montessori classrooms have an abundance of choice in their educational pursuits, Montessori is based on the idea of ‘freedom within limits’. It’s the Montessori teacher’s job to carefully craft those limits. Children rely on having a certain amount of structure in place. This gives them comfort and a safe place in which they can take risks and try new things. Montessori teachers set some boundaries and then carefully help students navigate within them.

What if your second grader loves to read but tends to avoid math? Their Montessori teacher will find ways to ensure the math still gets done. Sometimes this involves a gentle discussion with a child about time management skills, priorities, or setting goals. Sometimes the teacher will find a way to integrate the child’s interests into the less desirable work. Sometimes all it takes is a minor change in the environment. Montessori teachers gives children freedom, but they assist children in finding their way to success in this environment.

Montessori teachers value independence, self-reliance, and intrinsic motivation.

They also value cooperation, kindness, and strength in community.

Still curious? Call us to set up an appointment today to observe in a classroom. See what Montessori is really all about.

The Benefits of Multi-age Grouping

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 15:45:52 GMT

One hallmark of a Montessori education is the use of multi-age classrooms.

Infants and toddlers may be together or separate, with a toddler classroom serving children 18 months to three years. Primary classrooms are for children ages 3-6, with preschool and kindergarten-aged children together. The elementary years serve children ages 6-12; some schools separate into lower (6-9) and upper (9-12) elementary, while many split elementary into two groups. Even Montessori middle- and high-school students learn in multi-age classrooms.

While Montessori is not the only type of education that utilizes this approach, it’s not what most people are used to. What are the benefits of structuring a classroom this way? Read on to learn more...

Learning at an Individual Pace

Children in multi-age classrooms tend to have a little more flexibility when it comes to mastering skills within a specific timeframe. We know that learning is not linear, and that learners have periods of significant growth, plateaus, and even the occasional regression. In multi-age classrooms, children are typically able to work at their own pace without the added pressure of keeping up with the whole group, or even being held back by the whole group.

When children in a classroom range in ages, everyone has someone they can work with, regardless of their skill level. Children don’t feel left behind if they struggle with a concept, and they also don’t feel bored by repetition of something they have already mastered. Teachers who teach in multi-age classrooms typically have deep knowledge for a range of developmental abilities, leaving them well-equipped to differentiate instruction for each individual child.

Building Stronger Relationships

Traditionally children move from one class to the next each year. This means not only a new set of academic expectations, different routines, and different classroom structures, but a different teacher.

In multi-age classrooms teachers have a longer period of time to get to know a student and their family, and vice versa. When teachers really get to know a student, they are able to tailor instruction in regards to both content and delivery. They know how to hook a specific child onto a topic or into a lesson. They know what kind of environment a child needs to feel successful.

Parents have an opportunity to get to know teachers better this way, too. If your child has the same teacher for two or three years, the lines of communication are strengthened. Parents get to know the teacher’s style and expectations. The home to school connection becomes more seamless, and the biggest beneficiary is the child.

Mentors and Leaders

When a child spends multiple years in the same class they are afforded two very special opportunities.

Children who are new to the class are fortunate enough to be surrounded by helpful peer mentors. Children often learn best from one another, and they seek to do so naturally. First and second year students watch as the older children enjoy advanced, challenging work, and this inspires them. They look to the older children for guidance, and the older children are happy to provide it.

After a year or two in the same room, students have a chance to practice leadership skills. In Montessori classrooms, the older children are often seen giving lessons, helping to clean up spills, or reaching out a comforting hand to their younger friends.

The best part is kids make the transition from observer to leader in their own time. It doesn’t happen for all children at the same time, but when it does it’s pretty magical to observe.

Mirroring Real-Life

There is no other area in life in which people are split into groups with others who are exactly their chronological age. Whether in the family, the workforce or elsewhere, people ultimately need to coexist with people older and younger than themselves. Doing so makes for a more enriching environment, replete with a variety of ideas and skills.

Why not start the experience with young children in school?

Moving On

While staying in the same class for multiple school years has many benefits, a child will eventually transition into a new class. While this can feel bittersweet (for everyone involved!) children are typically ready when it is time.

The Montessori approach is always considering what is most supportive of children depending on their development. When formulating how to divide children into groupings, Maria Montessori relied on her ideas about the Planes of Development. There are very distinctive growth milestones children tend to reach at about age 3, another set around age 6, and yet another at age 12. The groupings in our schools are intentional, and they give kids a chance to feel comfortable in their community, while also preparing them to soar forward when the time is right.

The Planes of Development

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:35:22 GMT

Maria Montessori based her entire educational philosophy on the idea that children developed through a series of four planes. Each of these planes is easy to recognize and has clear, defining characteristics. If we study and understand these stages, we can approach our interactions with children with a new perspective.

Learning about the planes of development isn’t just for Montessori educators. Understanding your child’s development can help at home, too.

The First Plane: birth-6 years

During this stage children absorb everything like sponges. They are, indeed, excellent examples if what Montessori called ‘The Absorbent Mind.’ This is a time in which we are able to utilize what Montessori called sensitive periods of learning. While each child is different, there are typical patterns that emerge in regards to brain development and general readiness to learn particular skills.

During the first three years of this plane, all learning is done outside of the child’s conscious mind. They learn by exploring their senses and interacting with their environment. During the second half of the plane, from about 3-6 years, children enter the conscious stage of learning. They learn by using their hands, and specialized materials in the Montessori classroom were developed with this consideration.

During this time, children have a wonderful sense of order. They are methodical and can appreciate the many steps involved in practical life lessons in their classrooms. The organization of the works on their classroom shelves is intentional, which appeals again to this sense of order.

The first plane is a time in which children proclaim, “I can do it myself”; it is a time of physical independence.

The Second Plane: 6-12 years

During the elementary years children begin to look outside themselves. They suddenly develop a strong desire to form peer groups. Previously, during the first plane, a child would be content to focus on their own work while sitting near others. In the second plane, a child is compelled to actually work with their friends. It is during this time that children are ready to learn about collaboration.

During the second plane there is a sudden and marked period of physical growth. This may be a contributing factor to the observation that many children of this age seem to lack an awareness of their body, often bumping into things and knocking things over. Children begin to lose their teeth around this time as well. Their sense of order and neatness tend to fade a bit during this plane.

Throughout the second plane, children’s imaginations are ignited. Since Montessori education is based in reality, we find ways to deliver real information to children through storytelling and other similar methods. For example, when teaching children about the beginnings of our universe, Montessori schools use what is called a Great Lesson. The first Great Lesson is a dramatic story, told to children with the use of props, experiments, and dramatics (think: a black balloon filled with glitter is popped to illustrate the Big Bang, with bits of paper in a dish of water used while talking about particles gathering together). This lesson is fascinating for children in the way it is presented, but gives them basic information about the solar system, states of matter, and other important concepts.

Children in the second plane have a voracious appetite for information, and are often drawn strongly to what we in Montessori call the cultural subjects: science, history, and geography. While we support their rapid language and mathematical growth during this time, we are also responsible for providing them with a variety of rich cultural lessons and experiences.

It is important to note that children develop a sense of moral justice at this time. They are very concerned with what is fair, and creating the rules to a new game is often as important (if not more so) than playing the actual game itself.

This is the period of time in which children are striving for intellectual independence.

The Third Plane: 12-18

The third plane of development encompasses the adolescent years. During the second plane, children become aware of social connections, but in the third plane they are critical. During this time children rely heavily on their relationships with their peers. They feel a strong desire to remain independent from adults, although they are not quite ready to do this entirely. It is our job to find ways that allow them to experiment with independence while also providing a safe structure in which they may do so.

Children in the third plane tend to require more sleep, and they sleep later than when they were younger. They long for authentic learning experiences, and Dr. Montessori imagined just that. Her ideas of Erdkinder (children of the earth) led her to contemplate a school setting that would support children’s development during this time. She imagined a farm school, in which children would work to keep the farm operational, but also contribute to planning and decision making while doing so.

During the third plane children are refining their moral compass while developing a stronger sense of responsibility.

The Fourth Plane: 18-24

The final plane is a time in which young adults are striving for financial independence. They are often living away from home for the first time, and use this time to figure out where they fit into their society. Many make choices to further their education and/or explore career paths.

It is during the fourth plane that people begin to develop a truer sense of who they are as individuals.

Each plane of development should be mindfully nurtured. If a child is able to experience one developmental phase in a rich and carefully prepared environment, they are ready to fully take on the next phase when it is time.

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