For the Love of Books!

We love books!

It has been a pleasure to watch the success of our new bookstore, Content (the purveyors are parents at our school) here in Nfield. We are also excited to have Booker back on the road this summer and hope to hear the "beep, beep" in our parking lot during summer school in June and July.

Just because we love books so much, this post is a share from two favorite bloggers--Simone Davies at The Montessori Notebook and Dr. Dave Walsh at Mind Positive Parenting

In a nutshell--keep it real and let them chew on it.

 1. Keep it real

Young children are interested in the world around them (rather than fantasy) so choose books with pictures of real objects and stories about known experiences, such as visiting grandparents, going shopping or getting ready in the morning.

One of my favourite books for young children is Sunshine by Jan Ormerod -- it has no words but the most beautiful illustrations of daily life.

It is also nice to have books which show children from all cultures.

And, in keeping with having books based on reality, save books with animals driving cars, animals talking or animals going to the supermarket until your child is a little older. Last time I looked, there were no teddy bears driving down my street.

2. Choose beauty

If you have been learning about Montessori for a while you would have heard of the term “absorbent mind”. Young children are like sponges and absorb everything - good and bad (!) - from their environment.

So when we choose books, we should also make sure that they are beautiful so that the children can already build appreciation for beauty.

When we choose beautiful things, how carefully we hold them as if they were works of art. And it won’t be lost on the child if the adult is also super excited to explore the book and admire the beauty.

3. Make them age appropriate

The age of the child will also impact the choice of book.

Materials

Board books are great for children under 1 who also enjoy exploring books with their mouths. Lift-the-flap books get interesting from 12 - 18 months and sturdy pages are also a good choice for toddlers. Then as the child gets older and are able to handle the books more gently, we can choose paper-back books and, for special editions, hard-back books.

Number of words

A book with one picture on a page is perfect for an infant; then a picture with a single word; then comes a picture with one sentence; followed by simple and then increasing complex stories.

For me, there are no strict rules though. For a very young child, I might make up my own sentence to sum up a page for a wordy book. Or often we have not even followed the story instead discussing the pictures, for example, “What do you think they are doing?” or “What can you see?”.  And I have read books numerous times in reverse order as the child turns the pages from back to front, sometimes quite quickly. Hilarious.

4. Choose books with rich language

Even though the child is young, my favourite books use descriptive words, accurate language and avoid baby talk. Children under 3 also enjoy books with a nice rhythm and rhyme. Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy has great realistic pictures and a beautiful rhyme - one book that the children will ask to read again and again.

5. Look for books with attractive details

I am sure I do not have to tell you that your child will want to read the same books over and over again. So it is extra fun when the books have lots of details in the illustrations and you can find new discoveries to discuss each time you read it.

A great example is the book by Dutch author/illustrator Charlotte Dematons called The Yellow Balloon. Again without any words, the pictures are so full of details that adult and child alike love to pore over this book to find new things, as well as look for the yellow balloon on each page.

And before I go, here is a small selection of the books that are being read over and over again in my classes at the moment.

For children under 1 year

For children from 1 to 2 years

For children from 2 to 3 years

So find a nice corner of the house, add a small chair or cushions, a small selection of books in a basket or front facing shelf, and you have a cosy reading corner that I am sure will be well used!

Please come and visit me over at Jacaranda Tree Montessori (www.jacarandatreemontessori.nl/blog) and if you are ever in Amsterdam, I would love you to pop by and say hello!

Connection

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.

Getting Into the Dirt

Happy Spring 2015!
Although it happens every year it still seems like a mini-miracle. Planting seeds at MCH with joyful, hopeful children. They are so close to the wonder of nature and we are ever fortunate to be working with them.

 

Reconnecting Children with Local Food and the Land

National Montessori Week - Happy Friday!

Spread the word about
Montessori!
“Within the child lies the fate of the
future.” –Maria Montessori

 

 

National Montessori Week - Happy Thursday!

Montessori is brain-based learning.Just ask a pediatric
neuropsychologist!
Unknowingly, Dr. Maria Montessori, tapped into the very
structure of the human brain.
Neuroscientists, developmental
psychologists and pediatricians all
agree that the brain forms crucial
associations based on the very
same process of learning that Dr.
Montessori identified over a
century ago.

Dr. Steven Hughes-Good At Doing Things:

National Montessori Week - Happy Wednesday!

Infancy through high school,
Montessori’s got it all!
Montessori is more than a pre-
school. There are Montessori
programs all over the world for
children from infancy through high
school.

Take a look at the adolescent
curriculums used in two U.S.
schools…

National Montessori Week - Happy Tuesday!

Public, private and charter.
Montessori is for ALL children!
In the U.S., there are 400+ public
and 4,000+ private Montessori
schools. Montessori is growing
and it’s for ALL children!

Learn more about Montessori from
the students and staff of Baltimore
Montessori Public Charter School.

National Montessori Week - Happy Monday!

Someone said, “How children learn influences
who they will become”.
Alumni, tell us one thing you learned at Montessori
school that you still do today…

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me
and I remember. Involve me and I
learn.” –Benjamin Franklin

Will Wright, founder of “Sims”, said: “Montessori
taught me the joy of discovery…it’s all about
learning on your terms, rather than a teacher
explaining stuff to you”.

Montessori Mafia article

Celebrating 108 Years of Montessori Education

February 22nd marks the start of National Montessori Education Week!
Dr. Maria Montessori (1870-1952) was an
Italian physician, educator, and innovator,
acclaimed for her educational method that
builds on the way children naturally learn.
Learn more about Dr. Montessori and her
amazing life and work!

Short-

 

Long-

 



The Third Year--Montessori Kindergarten

It's that time of year at MCH when parents of our second year students begin the decision making process for re-enrollment. We applaud and support them in this important process. It can seem like an overwhelming responsibility to choose the best class for your child. We hold a special meeting just for them at our school to offer guidance and explain which choice we feel is the best for our Montessori students. While not everyone can stay for the third year at our school, our hope is that those who can will do just that. It is a gift that will pay huge dividends in the child's outlook on learning. We feel so strongly about it that all of our scholarship money in the past has gone to making the third year choice an easy one for parents. As an authentic Montessori school, we are committed to the three year cycle in the classroom and to offering the best possible Montessori primary education to each child. We serve the Watcher (3 year old), the Worker (4 year old) and the Teacher (5 year old). It is both our mission and our pure delight.
Here are some of the videos we'll share at the information meeting:

An Environment of Peace

After the passing of our beloved Bela bunny I wrote in our school newsletter about a new peaceful area in the classroom environment. This area was designed to help those seeking comfort with emotions and was set up after a discussion with the older children. On the table we have a book titled “Our Peaceful Classroom” which is written by children from Montessori schools around the world. Other items at the table include a stress ball, a large and small sand timer, a plant and a nature picture. The children also came up with a list of guidelines to follow while visiting the peace table. It is not visited as much now, but has remained an important part of the classroom.

Often at our school the entire environment is awash with peace and beauty as the community of children and adults work and thrive together, but there are also specific peace areas tucked away for children to access at their will.
 

As in many Montessori schools, our book area is called "the quiet corner".

Some schools call it the peace area, the silence corner, the peace table or the peace shelf. All these names and places in the Montessori classroom serve a similar purpose. It is an area where the children are able to go and calm their minds and bodies. It is often an area in the classroom for one child to visit at a time when they feel the need. While in this area, it is the expectation that the child is quiet and the other children are expected to not disturb the person visiting the peace area.

At times we have introduced another area we call the peace table. On this table we have a peace rose in a vase. The rose is used to practice conflict resolution and also when there is an actual conflict between two students. One brings over the peace rose to the student whom they are having a conflict with. While holding it, they state what happened and why they are upset to the other student. The rose is then passed. The child who was listening repeats back what the first child said. This is a skill that takes some work because it requires active listening during a conflict (something that is difficult for adults at times, too). The child who repeated the problem to the first student then gets a turn to either apologize or explain their point of view and it continues until the conflict is resolved. This takes practice, but the children appreciate the process and utilize it when a conflict arises.  

In the sensorial area of the room there is also a peace shelf that has a basket with a little sign that says "Silence", a Book of Peace (peace symbols and words from around the world), yoga cards, a blindfold and massager, finger labyrinth and a liquid timer (which is quite mesmerizing).  There is also a special basket used for practicing group silence that has a variety of quiet instruments (singing bowl, chime eggs, rain forest frog croaking) to play to signal the end of silence. Group silence is an activity practiced in both early childhood classes and elementary classrooms usually once per day. It is a time of quiet reflection and a chance to build self-control. 

 Peace education is an extremely important part of Montessori. We strive to give the children tools and opportunities to experience peace and learn about peaceful living in many ways. Consider making a peace area in your home for all the family to use. I am sure we could all benefit from some quiet time every now and then!

 

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically... Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education."
--Martin Luther King Jr.