October in the Montessori Classroom

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October is always an exciting month for young children. Autumn is usually in full swing here in Pennsylvania and the children are looking forward to Halloween and Trick or Treat night. October is an exciting month for teachers because we generally begin to see more and more of what we in the Montessori world call normalization. Yes, normalization is kind of a funny sounding word. What we mean by it is that the children have come to understand the routine of the classroom, they are able to find their own activities without a great deal of adult guidance and they are working with purpose. We begin to see the big four: order, concentration, coordination and independence in most of the children.

How is this achieved? For the youngest of our students (in my current classroom my students range in age from not quite three to five years old) we try to focus their lessons in the practical life area of the classroom. This is an area that is not typically seen in non-Montessori preschools. The practical life area of the classroom encompasses fine motor activities, care of the environment, care of self, art, sewing, and cooking. This month our activities are pumpkin colored or fall themed. We are learning to weave using orange ribbon, our spooning and pouring works have small pumpkins and candy corn buttons to catch the interest of the young child. The art shelf is full of painting, drawing and gluing supplies which are always in full use.

Why are these type of activities so important for the youngest child? Practical life activities assist the student in gaining fine motor coordination and muscle readiness for writing, they focus the child’s attention and to help build concentration. A child who can carry a tray with a glass pitcher, pour the water into a small container and then carry the tray back to the shelf has mastery over herself indeed. The self pride and independence we begin to see will carry over into other areas of the child’s young life and will have great impact on her future abilities.

How can you help your child at home? Ask him to help you as you work around the house. Children love to help set the table or help make a part of the meal. Put a small pitcher of water in the refrigerator and some cups in a space she can reach so she can be independent in getting her own drink. Give her child sized tools to clean up when she spills – small towels, a broom and a dustpan make learning to clean up much more enjoyable. Don’t expect too much. Children have short attention spans and will not be able to perform tasks perfectly or to adult standards. No worries! If you work side by side with your child and give gentle guidance you will be amazed at what he can accomplish and how independent he can be.

As we enjoy the cooler weather and look forward to Trick or Treat costumes and candy I hope you are also seeing some positive changes in your children. I am definitely seeing it in my Montessori classroom.

Songs for the Seasons

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Tomorrow is the Autumnal Equinox here in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the time of the year we start learning about the four seasons in the Montessori Primary Classroom. Our children are young, ages 3-5, so the exact reason we change from Summer to Autumn in one day is not too easy for them to understand. Helping them learn the rhythm of the year (the changes in nature and celebration of cultural and religious holidays) is so important. Young children are in a sensitive period for order. They like knowing what is happening and why. Celebrating the seasons in a special way each year helps children learn about nature and our world but also helps them prepare for the unexpected (like Thanksgiving and the Winter holidays).

I’ve included a video with some songs we like to sing this time of year and also a few books I usually read. There is also a special guest star who appears a few times. I hope you enjoy him and the information.

September

Posted on by mnurture
September in the Montessori Classroom

Welcome to the September edition of my ‘A Year in a Montessori Classroom’ series. I plan on posting once a month about my classroom and what we are learning. My hope is to help you learn a little about how a Montessori preschool and Kindergarten are unique among early learning classrooms.

September is a time of transition for us all. Some of our students are starting school for the very first time, some are coming from other schools and some are returning to the same classroom but as an older student. For all of us, we have had summer break and we need to get back to our routines.

The first thing to know (and love, in my humble opinion) about a Montessori classroom is that about 2/3 of the students are not new to the classroom. They have already spent one or two years in the classroom. This means they know the routine, they understand the rules and they are comfortable with the teacher. It also means the teacher (me, in this case!) knows most of his or her students very well.

Why is this important or noteworthy?

Having this level of knowledge and comfort with returning students helps eliminate time spent getting to know students and planning for their educational progress. I am able to start on day one understanding how my students work, what their passions involve, how they struggle, what kind of learner they are, etc. It is only a small number of students I need to get to know from the ground up.

For the students who are returning, they are ready to be helpers for the younger students. I find the 2nd year students to be the best helpers. They are SO PROUD about their knowledge and growth (and that they are no longer the youngest in the room) that they are tremendously happy to show the younger students how to do things in the classroom. What amazing learning for all the students from day one!

The youngest students are often happier when a child close to their own age takes them under his/her wing than if it was the teacher. As the teacher, it is amazingly helpful to have an army of young educators giving comfort and guidance to the newest members of our community. This is an amazing level of growth and self confidence that can’t be found in many other educational philosophies.

Well, I’ve just spent most of my post on just one little aspect of the September classroom. It’s an important one, though. A few other things we do include learning things like the procedure for having snack, looking for your classroom job and doing it every day, learning how to clean a spill, push in a chair and roll a floor mat. Another important thing we learn at the beginning of the year (and practice all year long) is how to resolve conflict with a peer. That is a whole separate blog post so stay tuned.

If you are interested in more about my Montessori classroom (I teach at the New School of Lancaster – www.newschool.net), follow me on Instagram (@montessori_nurture). I will posting about our learning throughout September.

Finally, I’ve made a little YouTube video with a couple of the songs we sing in September. I hope you enjoy it. I’ll try to upload our songs each month if I am able. I hope you enjoy the songs and also learning a little about my Montessori classroom.

Nurturing the Spirit

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One of the biggest pitfalls educators encounter is not the system, not administration, not parents, not difficult behaviors. No, the biggest pitfall is much, much closer to home. The difficulty? The self.

What? Isn’t it because of who we are that we became educators in the first place? Isn’t it our love of children that keeps us going everyday despite the difficulties? Didn’t we spend years studying for this vocation?

Yes, yes, and yes. Yet, unless we slow down and prepare the innermost part of ourselves, we will not be fully prepared. In The Secret of Childhood, Dr. Montessori writes, “We insist on the fact that a teacher must prepare himself interiorly by systematically studying himself so that he can tear out his most deeply rooted defects, those in fact which impede his relations with children. We need to see ourselves as others see us.”

She points out two things that impede the teacher: pride and anger. Let me give you some examples from my own experience. As a Montessori teacher who teaches children between ages three and six we have an area of the classroom called practical life. In this area children practice pouring water between two or more pitchers, preparing their own snack, using spoons, tongs, eye droppers, etc. to transfer items between bowls, decorating the classroom with flowers. Often I have provided the materials used by the children: lovely small vases, beautiful bowls, interesting spoons, etc. The children do not always use these items with care and they are often broken. It is easy to become angry or frustrated when these carefully curated items don’t make it through even one day. If an unprepared teacher were to lash out at a student at this time instead of carefully considering the underlying cause of the carelessness or breakage (poor motor control, tray not right size for activity, etc.) we can damage the self esteem of a very young child. Something far more precious than any vase or bowl.

Pride also can hamper the teacher’s ability to move the children forward. Too often we are so concerned with how others will view us by the behavior or academic prowess of the children (our pride) that we may lecture the children before or after a visit instead of allowing them to be themselves in their individual developmental time frames. We show them our disappointment or give too much praise merely for the sake of the visitor’s perception. Again, these things damage the children’s sense of self in a way that can be difficult to repair.

What is so important prior to the beginning of school but also each and every day is that we as educators (or homeschool parents, or just plain old parents!) is to take stock in our interior life. Reflect on your state of mind first thing in the morning. Is there something bothering you? If you have negative feelings, how will these impact your day? Is there something you can do to gain peace?

At the end of the day, reflect. Where did the day go right? What did you do that you could improve? What caused you to act in a way that wasn’t helpful? How can you change? Look at yourself but don’t be harsh. We all make mistakes, we all fail, we all have room to improve. When we are kind with ourselves during this kind of emotional honesty we will remember to be kind with the children as they are also learning how to act and behave.

This kind of inner care is called many things. Mindfulness is probably the newest term. Whatever you call it, know that by taking the time for introspect at the beginning of your day and also at the end will help no matter what your vocation – teacher or otherwise. Knowing ourselves will always assist us as we connect with others.

This is always our first goal in the Montessori classroom – to connect with the children, the parents, our larger community. Only then are we able to begin the larger process of education.

*This post is part of the Year in a Montessori School series.*

A Year in a Montessori School

Posted on by mnurture

In a just over a week I will begin a new school year with my students, ages 3-6. I teach at one of the two Montessori schools in my town (The New School of Lancaster). A very long time ago I was a parent to two young boys and was faced with the challenge of deciding where to send them to preschool. I was a stay-at-home mom and thus didn’t need a full day program for my children which gave me more options from which to choose. I’m not sure if that was a good thing or just the opposite! At the time, I was not a Montessori trained teacher and didn’t know much about the differences in school options. I really just took into consideration cost and location. I wish now I had known more about the differences in school educational philosophy. In order to help others with this type of decision I will be posting for a full year about the Montessori classroom.

I hope you will join me in this look inside the classroom. You may or may not have the option of choosing a Montessori school for your children but perhaps by seeing what it is we do and why what we do is so important during the first years of a child’s life you can look for similar ideas as you search for a school. You may also decide to implement a few things you read about at home. Please leave a comment if you have specific questions or topics you’d like to see covered. I look forward sharing this year long journey with you.

Happy Thanksgiving and an Update

Posted on by mnurture

I am sitting at my computer looking out on a cold and gray day here in Lancaster, PA. I’ve been a little quiet on the blog, Facebook and Instagram these past few weeks. There’s a good reason for my silence – I’ve been very busy working on my new classroom! At the very end of October I took over a Primary (ages 3-6) classroom at The New School of Lancaster where I ran Toddler summer camp and was hired full time in August to run a parent/one-year-old class and the before school program. Needless to say I’ve been busy getting to know the children in my new class and making the classroom my own.

Now that my other duties are almost complete and the classroom is feeling a little more settled, I hope I can spend more time here on the blog sharing the goodness that is Montessori with you!

We had only one day of school this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday and our parent conferences. Holidays can be challenging affairs with young children and I thought I’d write a little about how you can make your holiday a little more stress free this year.

The first thing to remember is that a holiday is special. Holidays come around only once a year and are usually steeped in family tradition. Children are generally super excited about the holiday and we want to encourage the magic that begets the excitement while also helping our children (and ourselves) to maintain some semblance of sanity so we can enjoy our time together.

So how do we do that????

First and foremost, remember that children need the basics of life: sleep and food. As adults we can hold off on eating because we know there will be lots of food at the special meal but young children can not do this. Try to give your children some healthy food choices throughout the day so they don’t become irritable or have emotional outbursts related to hunger. Also make time for sleep, whether it is going to bed at a reasonable time or getting in a nap or quiet time during the day. Proper food and sleep will help your child (and you!) have a more relaxed and enjoyable holiday.

Next, we have to remember that children crave order and routine. Before the holiday begins, talk to your child about what to expect. Think about your child’s temperament. If you have a child who gets overwhelmed easily, make a plan for what to do when the noise and chaos of a large family gathering becomes overwhelming. Find a quiet spot at Grandma and Grandpa’s house for your child to spend time in order to recharge. 

Remember that the holiday is usually short lived so enjoy it in the moment. Even so, it may take a few days of extra sleep, extra attention and attention to routine to get your child back to his or her regular schedule and personality after the big day is over. 

Here’s hoping you have a joyous holiday season over the next month!

Using observation to problem solve

Posted on by mnurture

Happy autumn, everyone! The weather has finally turned cool here in Lancaster, PA. Whatever the weather in your part of the world, I hope you are finding time to enjoy it. This week I started leading two caregiver/toddler classes at school. It was so much fun! I just love talking with parents and seeing all the fun things their young children are doing. Part of the joy is sitting and watching the children in the environment. They always amaze me. The way they use the materials in the classroom and relate to each other and the adults in the room is so fascinating.

I have children as young as 10 months old in class so I put out a few items that are for younger children including a beautiful wooden ball cylinder from Heirloom Kids. This toy is a rolling cylinder with multicolored balls encased inside. The balls cannot be removed from the cylinder. It is a really beautiful toy for very young children. Older children can become frustrated by this toy because they want to be able to remove the balls from the cylinder (but cannot). This is exactly what happened during our class.

For about 15-20 minutes of our time together, the adults sit together to discuss a topic while the children play and explore the classroom in and around us. One little 13 month old was sitting with her mom trying and trying to put her fingers inside the bars of the cylinder so she could remove the balls. She became very frustrated and was verbally expressing her distress. Another parent brought up a wonderful question,”What do I do when my child becomes terribly frustrated? Do I intervene or let her work it out?” Since our topic for the day was observation, this was a beautiful hands on way to explore the topic. 

We stopped to observe what was going on – the child was trying to put her fingers in the cylinder, she was unhappy and expressing (loudly) frustration with the situation. We also talked about child development. At 13 months she is at a stage where she wants to explore the properties of the container (open, close, take out, put in) and the balls in a more advanced way than this toy allows. Thus, she was extremely frustrated. 

After (quickly) observing the situation and thinking about her developmental level, we introduced another material (a basket with a removable ball) and unobtrusively removed the ball cylinder. She immediately quieted and became interested in the new material.

In addition to talking about observation, we had also been talking about the prepared environment and how we can assist our children just by changing things about the rooms they explore. I explained why I initially put in the ball cylinder (due to young age of a few children) and why after observing all the children in the room (who are capable of more advanced manipulation) I will remove it and replace it with more developmentally appropriate toys next week. 

I hope this little anecdote helps you to focus a little more on observing your children, thinking about their developmental levels and how you can change or enhance the areas of the house-room-garden-yard that they come in contact with. By doing so you are helping your child to grow and develop by removing obstacles and enhancing her learning environment.

 

Your Two-Year-Old

Posted on by mnurture

I’ve started a new job at a local Montessori School (if you live in or near Lancaster, PA click here for more information about The New School of Lancaster) and have been spending a lot of time in the toddler classroom. The children in the classroom range in age from around 20 to 31 months old. We have a tendency to lump all toddlers into one category when, in fact, they make some amazing developmental leaps during that two-year-old year. 

Here is a fun video that highlights some of the developmental differences in early, middle and late two-year-olds. 

In this video we can see how the children’s motor development changes in a big way. Their ability (or willingness) to follow directions also becomes more refined. At the end of the video the researcher asks the children to ‘tell a story’ (a more abstract instruction) which is difficult for even the child who is almost three. 

So, what should we be thinking about during our child’s third year of life? I always like to go back to observing their development. In the good old U.S.A. we have a terrible tendency to compare our children to other children rather than thinking about their individual development. Here are two areas to think about:

Gross motor skills – watch how their gross motor skills improve. Young toddlers will be more clumsy when walking, running and doing simple things like changing from a sitting position to a standing one. By age three they will be running, jumping and going up and down stairs with a lot more ease.

Language skills – Typical development will go from children using one word utterances to stringing two words and then moving on to full sentences by age three. Their receptive language (what they understand others saying) is much better than their expressive language (what they can say) at first.

Keep an eye on how your child improves in these areas. Is her development steady? Does she meet the typical milestones? (Click here for a great checklist at each age.) Can you see how different her motor and language skills are now as compared to a few months ago?

What if you don’t? 

I always recommend parents err on the side of caution. If you think your child is not developing the way she should be or if his development is uneven, give your local agency in charge of developmental screenings a call. Your doctor or childcare center can help you find the information if you don’t know who to call. These screenings are generally free and can help you determine if your child is developing at a typical rate or if he needs some extra help. If there should be an issue, it is always best to begin providing the extra help as soon as possible. 

Most of all, have fun watching your child’s development. I know I am always amazed at the transformations I see in just nine months at school. Two-year-olds are fascinating people!

Create a Children’s Garden

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As I sit at my computer and write this post it is raining cats and dogs outside my window. After several weeks of dry we have come to a week of downpours. I guess it’s an evening out of nature. 

I’ve been a little quiet this summer but wanted to write a blog post about a project I have enjoyed working on over the past few months. I’m pretty passionate about getting children out into nature and in allowing them to explore the natural environment. There is a place for the standard playground equipment but I have seen over many years that children really prefer to have a less structured outdoor space. There is more to discover and create when they are left to use the sticks, stones, leaves and plants that are at their disposal.

We used to have a very large holly tree in front of our house that was surrounded by English Ivy (aka the enemy). We eradicated the ivy soon after we moved into our house and had the tree taken down about two years ago. This left a large grassless oasis. Last summer I attempted to use it as a raised garden but there really isn’t enough full sunlight for that kind of project. So this year I decided to make a children’s garden. 

My own children are grown but we have so many children in the neighborhood I thought it would be fun to create a little spot for our littlest neighbors and their parents. If you have young children, grandchildren or, like me, young neighbors,I encourage you to think about how to make a child-friendly space in your yard.

So what did I do? First I contemplated the space. There were three elements already in place: a dogwood tree, the holly tree stump and a truck tire. The space was also already delineated from the ivy which had killed all the grass in an oval like shape. So I knew the space was shady in the morning which would be a great thing for the children. I then thought about what I knew about young children. They need to move and they learn from their senses. I knew I wanted to add some living pieces that would stand up to children’s curiosity and would feed their sensory systems. Thus I planted catnip and regular mint (just a note that all kinds of mint will spread like crazy so be careful where you plant it). I also wanted to add something that would be visually exciting so added a hyacinth bean vine in the tractor tire and up a decorative piece of metal. The vine gets the best little purple pods! 

For movement, I moved some circular stepping stones from the backyard that were given to me by a good friend. They are arranged throughout the garden just far enough away from each other to allow a few good jumps! I also added a stone pit. Initially I thought I would put some construction vehicles in this space (and I still might) but for the time being there are some big dinosaurs and some little people. 

On the tree stump I added some cars (nature parking lot???). I planted some pots with shade loving plants and one with chives (another great herb for smelling and tasting). A few years ago I made some gnomes out of sticks I whittled from our yard. I added these to the chive pot. When our holly tree was cut down I saved a few tree stumps and added those to the garden for sitting or using a tables. Large mulch filled in the rest.

What was the last thing I did? I invited the neighborhood to come and play. And play they did. I’ve gotten photos from some fun playdates in our yard and have heard snippets of children’s laughter from the yard while I was inside working. What joy!

I’ve started a Pinterest board all about children’s gardens if you want to dig a little deeper into the idea. Click here to see it.  If my children were young I would definitely work more in the back yard to create an open ended space for them to be free, discover and create. For now I’m happy to see the enjoyment in the front of my house.

Have a lovely end of the summer. Remember….get out there and enjoy nature!