School Connections

This time of year brings many visitors to the children's house. While giving tours to prospective families and answering questions about decisions looming for parents of matriculating students, I stretch in my role as communicator. Striving for key points to stress about Montessori and education in general I am drawn to the idea of connection. Young children tend to develop emotional attachments to what is familiar and comfortable for them. The Montessori philosophy of education holds the environment of the child as one of the most important elements in development. Many who have not perhaps read much about Montessori, or seen it in daily action as we do,  may not realize the importance of this environment on the development of the child.

Freedom
A central tenet of Montessori’s pedagogy and philosophy holds that children must be free to follow their natural interests, leading to opportunities to develop their potential and increasing their knowledge of the world. Within the prepared environment, the child must experience freedom in a number of ways, including: movement, exploration, ability to interact socially, and the freedom to learn and grow without interference from others.

Structure and Order
On the surface, structure and order may seem at odds with the importance of freedom in the prepared environment. The prepared environment is meant to reflect the considerable structure and order of the real world and presents an organized system that children must learn to understand in order to make sense of their surroundings and, ultimately, the world.  The ordered environment supports children’s ability to reason and provides consistent opportunities for children to validate their expectations and interactions with the world around them in predictable and consistent ways.


Social Environment
The multi-age classroom groupings provide tremendous benefit to children as part of the prepared environment.  Any number of benefits accrues to children as a result of learning within the Montessori social environment.  The opportunity to be the youngest, middle and oldest student cohort over time affords children unique perspectives and experiences at each stage.  At different times they receive help from older children or aspire to do things that older children do, they serve as role models or mentors for younger children and they have regular opportunities to develop compassion and empathy for others. In addition, children’s ability to work and play in a variety of group settings is explicitly supported by the social environment that is intentionally created as part of Montessori’s methodology.

Intellectual Environment
The prepared environment ultimately aims to develop the whole child, not just the intellect, but intellectual development will not occur without the previous aspects of the environment in place. The above aspects of the prepared environment, coupled with the Montessori curriculum and unique Montessori materials, supports children in moving from simple to complex ideas and from concrete to abstract understanding and manages to do so in a way that is truly individualized and differentiated.

Experiences in Nature
The opportunities we give them to interact and develop a relationship with the natural world, will help them to develop tools for environmental responsibility and ecological understanding. With young children sometimes spending up to 50 hours per week in early childhood settings, early childhood educators have an important role. Opportunities for our young children to explore the wonders of plants, bushes, trees, flowers, and animals are diminishing. We have to give them time and places to explore and interact with nature before they can understand it well enough to want to look after it.

It is a lot to explain on a short school tour... and the purpose of this post is certainly not to overwhelm parents during the decision making process.  Our goal is to impart a bit of this way of looking at the world of the child. They truly know their own child and can envision an environment in which he or she would thrive. We hope that in their time with us they feel just that, and experience a real sense of connection.

Cooking in the Children's House--#1 Community Fruit Salad

Every year we begin our cooking program at school with a project designed to build community. Each member of the group brings a piece of fruit from home (this is important to establish an early home/school connection).

We take time to present each piece of fruit describing its sensorial qualities and recognizing the contribution made by the child. It's amazing how this step deepens the experience, and you will hear the words and sentiment expressed over and over as the fruit salad is consumed later at the snack table.

The children wash their fruit, chop it up, and add it to a communal bowl, thus creating an infinite variety of delicious fruit salad.

Everyone enjoys this first cooking endeavor immensely. The excitement of practical life work with real tools is a draw for most. The older students lead the way with their adept use of the utensils and memory of the procedures (including dish washing at the end).

When it comes time to eat the glorious mix it is nice to take a moment or two to observe the children. Some pick out their favorite fruit and eat only that, but most are happy to sample all that went into the salad. "I'm eating Josie's New Zealand kiwi now," they may say to their snack table companion, or "Do you know that my grandpa has raspberries growing right in his yard?" Socialization of the class is taking place now and it is so lovely to hear one child ask another, "Did you like my watermelon in the fruit salad? It's my favorite, is it yours, too?"

At the end of the day we take time for a bit of grace and courtesy and thank each member, again, for their contribution to the group cooking project. We also try to remember to thank the parents at pick up time, and sometimes get to listen in a bit as their child explains the first cooking class in excited tones. They are so proud of their accomplishment and joyfully recount the task they undertook with their new group.

The formation of a community is well underway.

Cooking in the Children's House--Fall

Oh, glorious harvest time!

It is such a joy to share the bounty of the garden with children when school starts again in the fall. They marvel at the dangling bunch of potatoes pulled from the ground and the bounty of heavy tomatoes hanging from vines. Some of the older students are extremely excited as they recall planting these very plants or seeds before the school year ended in spring. The experience of connection to the earth and the nourishment of their bodies brings it all full circle.

"What can we make with this?", they ask as a carrot comes up out of the earth. Picking a bean from a pyramid of leaves, they run to ask, "Can I just EAT this right now?"

YES,YES,YES!

That is, of course, the beauty of having the children's garden right there in the schoolyard. The Montessori method is extended to the outdoors in such a natural way for the children to explore, discover, take care of and consume the small miracles of the earth.

Next: Recipe #1

Cooking in the Children's House

Cooking in the Children's House aims to show how we have incorporated the Edible Schoolyard into our Montessori primary classrooms throughout the year. We learned directly with the children at our school and along the way created a gardening and cooking program for young children that felt right for us. Teachers, children and parents contributed many ideas and countless hours of planting, weed pulling, picking and chopping to realize this dream.
We thank them one and all!
Our inspiration springs from our dedication to the children who traverse the garden paths, but also from our commitment to the educational methods of Maria Montessori and the guiding light of Alice Waters, founder of the Edible Schoolyard project.

"There must be provision for the child to have contact with nature; to understand and appreciate the order, the harmony and the beauty in nature.” Maria Montessori