I've had some requests to post the words to the songs we sing at school, so here goes!

The Continent Song
Do you know your continents, your continents, your continents
Do you know your continents, then please sing with me
North and South America, Europe and Asia, Africa, Australia, Antartica too
Now you're through

Five Little Pumpkins
5 Little Pumpkins sitting on a gate
1st one says, oh my it's getting late
2nd one says, there are witches in the air
3rd one says, oh but we don't care
4th one says, lets run and run and run
5th one says, I'm ready for some fun
oooooohhhh went the wind and out went the light
and the 5 little pumpkins ROLLED out of sight

Happy Birthday, Montessori-style second verse
We celebrate your birth
And your place on the Earth
May the Sun, Moon and Stars
Bring you peace where you are

Let me know if there are any others out there you'd like to know!
Have a great weekend! (We'll be at the Celtic Festival Saturday... maybe we'll see a few folks there.)

Last Night's Montessori Education Parent Night

Hello out there! Here is the handout I prepared for last night's meeting. It was a lot of fun. My favorite part was slicing the apple much faster than Ms. Tina! ;)

Thanks to those who came and participated!
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Montessori from Home to School: The Prepared Environment & Practical Life

I. Practical Life
II. Montessori Prepared Environment
III. Developmental Goals: Order, Concentration, Coordination and Control of Movement and Independence
IV. Grace and Courtesy
V. Linking Home to School and Obstacles to Development: Brainstorming Session

What is Practical Life?

In Montessori, we define Practical Life as the area of the classroom reflecting the skills of everyday living. Practical life work is real things children can do. The activities of the Practical Life area are scaled down real life tasks that children can accomplish. These activities build skills leading into new rewarding activities. The tasks of Practical Life promote belonging and self-esteem: “I can do this. I can contribute something. My work is important. I know I belong. I know I am capable.” Because Practical Life ranges from pouring one’s own juice to sewing a button, it meets the needs of children to find a way to belong in the greater world.

What is the Prepared Environment?

The “Montessori Triad” consists of 3 factors that contribute to healthy development: the child, the adult, and the environment. These factors interact with each other, and when in balance, promote positive and healthy development.

The environment is emphasized in the Montessori classroom. Every area of the classroom is organized and sequenced. There is an order to every task. All the parts of an exercise are grouped together to promote success and limit error. The classroom environment is meant to enable children to be independent. The size of tables, chairs, sinks, etc. enable the child to be successful. The child can reach all the things he or she needs, and finds the environment suited to him or her. This prepared environment should be orderly and pleasing to the eye, without being distracting or overwhelming.

Seven Basic components:
Freedom
Structure/ Order
Reality and nature
Beauty and atmosphere
The Montessori Materials
Development of Community Life
The Teacher/ Adult

“Our schools offer the tinies a sheltering refuge in which the first elements of character can take shape, all of which has its own importance.”
“We may truly say that these things have been chosen by the children. We found there were objects liked by all children, and these we regard as essential.” Montessori, The Absorbent Mind.

Developmental Goals: Order, Concentration, Coordination and Control of Movement and Independence

A child develops order in practical life by remembering position of items on shelf, remembering a sequence of steps, restoring the work, completing a cycle and using simple determinations and decisions. Tasks are geared to draw attention to fine detail and distinctions. When a child’s sense of order is satisfied, it brings a state of calm and is rejuvenating even for older children.
Because these tasks are engaging and on the child’s level, they naturally capture a child’s attention. After the attention is captured, concentration becomes possible. Although children may spend a great deal of time with toys and TV, theses stimuli often do not produce active concentration. To encourage concentration, the task must be active and hands-on, have a purpose, require attention to detail, and can be cycled or repeated again. The passion children show in grinding coffee or whisking bubbles helps them learn to concentrate. This kind of concentration is crucial to academic goals, like learning to read.
Montessori found “every complex action comprises a series of distinct movements; one act follows the other. The analysis of movements consists in trying to recognize and to carry out these separate and distinct acts.” (Discovery of the Child) Practical life works are sequenced carefully to require increasing motor skill and strength. Much of the grace and courtesy lessons given, such as carrying a chair or sitting on a line, represent the child’s blossoming ability to function in a classroom and lead towards the next goal, independence.
Independence describes a range of behaviors and attitudes and sense of being that a child possesses. To be independent is to choose things, carry out decisions, care for self and react appropriately so that one achieves a desired result without interventions. Many tasks are geared right at the child’s level, as to empower the child. A child also learns natural consequences for carelessness and mistakes without adult judgment. Montessori described the dressing frames as a way children can “prepare themselves separately for these movements by means of repeated exercises. We succeed in teaching the child to dress himself without his rally being aware of it, that is, without any direct or arbitrary command we have led him to this mastery.” (The Montessori Method)

Grace and Courtesy

The Grace and Courtesy lessons are the heart and soul of the Montessori Environment. They are the means by which the teacher creates a peaceful and cooperative classroom. They teach the details of simple procedures, which we adults take for granted, but children need explained and demonstrated in order to be successful in life. The child learns the customs of the classroom, which help to develop discipline, the behaviors acceptable in society, to respect self and others, to be a kind and caring person, and to be confident in social situations.

OBSTACLES

• Clutter: “Overabundance debilitates and retards progress.”
• Assisting the Child (unnecessarily)
• Interruptions

We brainstormed ways to help independence at home and the obstaacles to independence at home. More to be added later...

check out this article

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=407528&in_page_id=1770

A parent emailed me this article.

The article mentions A. Lillard's work through UVA (check out her book Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius.) These kind of articles give me hope that having research based information that supports what educators and parents have been saying all along will make a difference.

Nature Deficit Disorder?

My children enjoyed scaring away all the ducks at Bryan Park! :)

I found a topic for the day!
At the NAMTA (North American Montessori Teacher Association) Conference in Atlanta last January, the keynote speaker, Richard Louv addressed what he coined as a "Nature Deficit Disorder."

Here's a quote from Louv on the Nature Deficit Disorder:
"It's the cumulative effect of withdrawing nature from children's experiences, but not just individual children. Families too can show the symptoms -- increased feelings of stress, trouble paying attention, feelings of not being rooted in the world. So can communities, so can whole cities. Really, what I'm talking about is a disorder of society -- and children are victimized by it."

I've been slowing reading Louv's book Last Child in the Woods for a few months now. He raises some interesting points about how our society is limiting the interaction between children and nature. He points out the litigation issues that often deprive children of nature. For one thing, our parks and play spaces for children have much more to do with limiting liability for injury than anything else. Here's another interview quote:

"For instance, I bring up the idea of the "criminalization" of natural play, where if you take all the state regulations, the well-intended and often needed environmental restrictions, and add those to the covenants and restrictions that now cover almost any new development that has been built in the last 20 years -- things that control everything to whether you can plant rosebushes in the front to what color your curtains -- well, the idea of a freewheeling, tree-house-building, nature-loving kid doesn't fit that. So if all of [these restrictions] were to be enforced, playing outdoors by kids would be essentially illegal. It's not all enforced, but the message still gets through -- kids get a sense that there's something unsavory about playing outdoors. And it's too easy to blame this on lazy parents who let the TV do the baby sitting, when the truth is there is a matrix of forces that have come together to create this problem, and those forces are hard to stand up against as an individual and as a people."

It's a bold statement that Louv makes-- that the symptoms of ADHD would be reduced in children if we put them back in the woods, back outdoors in a natural environment. So far there is evidence to support the claims that stress reduction, increased creativity, cognitive skills, and full use of the senses are the immediate benefits of being in nature. I share with many adults the same feeling of relief to be outdoors.

(One of my goals this year is to make it a regular part of my life to go hiking and camping with my family. )

So here's the question I think parents need to ask themselves: is it worth the risk of poison ivy, ticks or other common (and mostly avoidable) hazards to put children back in the woods? If the benefits are increased creativity, concentration, and to reduce stress, are these "less controlled" environments worth it?

It was this issue that inspired me to offer a nature themed camp over the summer. We definitely immersed ourselves more with nature. Campers found lizards, a toad, many insects, a bird's nest with eggs and a hatchling bird, wild blackberries, the farmer's fields of tomatoes, corn, sunflowers, etc. and collected apples and fresh food and flowers from nearby fields. We took nature walks almost every day and spent an hour outside if we could. We watered the garden and pulled weeds all summer. It was a taste of nature, but not quite on the level as the author's childhood memories of unstructured play, fort building, and tree climbing

The only bad part about this book so far-- no one needs another label or issue to obsess about! In our modern tendency to frantically overschedule, is this just one more thing to stress over? I hope not. I hope it is a term that gives us permission to:
- take vacations
- go wild places
- relax
- play in the mud; get dirty, REALLY DIRTY with your child.
- have more fun outdoors!

Warmly,
Sarah