Peace Garden Montessori
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Peace Garden Montessori

22 Dec

Posted at 16:39h in Peace Garden Montessori
 
 
 
 
 
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Montessori Holiday Tips:

The Montessori way of teaching children has always been an approach that parents are looking at to foster a child’s independence and confidence. Being that this holiday season will probably keep us more indoors with our family, it is an ideal time to benefit from the wisdom of Montessori from your own home.  

Parents can make their own prepared environment for their children that is self correcting and enticing to children to want to do things themselves-an environment where they listen to their own inner teacher! The following are tidbits found in all Montessori classrooms.

Here are some simple tips:

Mudroom Madness:

*Have an area where your child(ren) can hang their own coat and put away their boots. Use pegs or hooks at child level will do the trick. Buying some simple baskets as cubbies for your child to put away and organize their outdoor gear by themselves would make this an ideal area for learning. Your child(ren) can learn how to zip up their coats as well and this holiday time is the perfect opportunity for them to try.

The Busy Bathroom: 

*This is another great place to encourage hand washing hygiene. Place a sturdy stool in the bathroom for them to reach the faucet and soap. With consistency, they will develop this healthy habit.

Kitchen Connoisseur

*I’m sure that during this holiday season, we will all spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Let the children join you by providing low level shelving and cabinets to put their snacks in next to where you may keep the snacks.  When children are feeling peckish, they can help themselves.  In the same way, have small cabinets (IKEA play kitchens are very useful) for their dishes and cutlery. The dollar store is the place to visit for utensils that are child size, like whisks, wooden spoons, pizza cutters, peelers, cutting boards and the like. A Montessori Learning Tower is a good investment for your child(ren) to help out with baking and food preparation.  Other learning opportunities in the kitchen are setting the table, pouring liquids or dry things like cereal or beans, peeling, cutting and sorting silverware. 

Keeping a small fridge just for your child to reach for cold snacks or liquids is useful, or a fridge drawer or shelf within child’s reach would be perfect for them to have access to whatever they desire.

Dust Bunnies and Crumbs:

At Peace Garden, the children love to dust and sweep.  Small sized hand brooms, dusters (I even use small Swiffer Dusters), cleaning cloths and garbage cans make cleaning easy and joyful for children!

Dressing Themselves:

Allow your children to dress themselves over the holidays when there is not any pressure to get to work or school.  Give them the time they need to figure out how to put on articles of clothing so as to learn coordination and be conscious of how to work their arms and legs to put and take off clothing. 

04 Dec

Posted at 19:05h in Peace Garden Montessori

On a snowy day last week, I decided to bring some warmth into the school to contemplate the sunflowers”, as Vincent Van Gogh would put it. I’ve always loved Van Gogh mostly because of the way by which he expressed his emotions by use of colour. I wanted the children to try to make the connection between the use of this artist’s colours and their own feelings about it.

I read them a children’s version about Van Gogh and his life. They seemed to commiserate mostly when Van Gogh and his beloved brother were distanced. They could really empathize with the sibling relationship.

I have a precious vintage art book about Van Gogh that has been in my family for many years. It has a stunning print of “Harvest at La Crau” and we reflected together about the golden light of this painting and how it’s relieved by shades of green and violet. The children were mesmerized. Their significant connection to the painter came when they looked at “Vincent’s Bedroom in Arles”. As they all have bedrooms, to be invited into this painter’s room was indeed exciting. For Van Gogh, this painting was hopeful and restful. When one child piped up and said, “It feels good” and the rest of the class said that it made them “happy”, I knew they understood how colours embrace feelings.

Then we looked at the famous “Sunflowers” and the children used Colour Box 3 to find the shades they saw in Vincent’s painting. Then came their paintings. We used the paint colours the children picked. I made a rough sketch with charcoal to assist them with scale, but the entire painting was on them. The colours they used, the way they filled in the flowers and the centre, the stems, the vase — was their own artistic expression. I think you would agree, they turned out beautifully! They were extremely proud of themselves.

13 Oct

Posted at 19:21h in Peace Garden Montessori

Montessori discovered that children are drawn to specific actions at certain times in their development between the ages of birth and 6 years of age. The word sensitive here means that children have a particular “sensibility” to some actions and not to others (Secret of Childhood).  These sensitive periods influence the development of a child. Children become naturally attracted to activities that involve learning language, movement, refining the senses, order, small objects and socialization.
These sensitive periods are transient and time sensitive.
There are natural times in a child’s life that different stages of learning take place. How to talk, how to walk, how to socialize and how to develop and heighten senses are innate developmental processes.  It is a fact that if these developmental windows of opportunity are not realized, the effects can be felt long into adulthood.
We have seen a toddler express their independence and opinion in whatever they are involved in.  We have heard the famous toddler expression, “No”.  During the age of 2 and 2.5 the child is  establishing their independence and will to do things in a certain way.  A child wants to do things by themselves.  This takes a tremendous amount of patience from adults.  However, the long term benefits outweigh the short term pain. If we recognize and respect the child’s will, then self direction and independence become inherent growth patterns in them.
We also have noticed how young children feel a sense of joy when they put things back in their proper places.  Also, have you noticed how calm a child feels when their days are scheduled and go according to plan?  And how tantrums occur when things are out of place and schedules are changed? This is because there are obstacles (we adults) have put in place of their natural sensitivity to order.
In addition, a two year old realizes that they have the power in them to use “yes” or “no” so they can address their individual needs.  This is natural.  It’s not until the age of 5 or 6 that a child can truly understand about working in groups and not pay attention to themselves as an individual in the group.  It is unrealistic to constantly ask our children to think about another’s needs ( ie: in a play group setting),  as that sensitive period has not been developed yet. So moms—please don’t worry if your child is having trouble sharing their toys at 2.5!  Gently remind them and be rest assured they will learn at the natural given time provided they have experienced empathy and kindness.
Before the age of 6, learning is effortless.  That’s why teaching a child multiple languages before this age will remain with them for the rest of their lives, down to the accent and nuances.  The child is attracted to learning written and verbal language. In the Montessori environment, they are using their whole hand to decipher sounds and letters.  They are moving using the moveable alphabet to compose words.  They are at the same time developing, hand eye coordination and other senses are being refined.  The child is not only putting together letters to make words but their aural sense is also developing as they are hearing each individual letter sound.  Words like “drum” are sounding crystal clear, and no more sound like “jrum”.  As a result,  their diction also becomes clear and pronounced.
Montessori teachers are trained to recognize and make the most out of these sensitive periods. Parents can also be of genuine assistance to the child.  Maria Montessori herself says,
“It comes for a moment but its benefits last for a life time”.

30 Sep

Posted at 15:38h in Peace Garden Montessori

Sensorial activities in the Montessori environment are the “keys to the world” for the child. They are self-correcting, hands-on materials that help your child develop logical thinking for future mathematical purposes, powers in visual discrimination, attaining the perfect pitch, heightened tactile awareness and olfactory prowess.

The child’s mind is like a camera taking images of what they absorb with their senses. Soon whatever they capture in their mind is absorbed and internalized. Once internalized, the child can go out into the world and make connections with what’s around them.

The knobbed cylinders are what I would call a material that grows with the child. These are the first set of sensorial materials introduced. During early in childhood, when the child is in the special sensitive stage of order, and when the muscle memory of the hand has the proclivity to sort objects by shape and size is when the Knobbed Cylinders have their greatest intellectual impact on the child.

There are four blocks of these materials, each possessing cylindrical knobs with differing heights and dimensions. This activity heightens the VISUAL sense of the child. The child is merely holding the cylinders with their three fingers on the knob.  They are then visually discriminating and retaining what they see.

  • when first introduced to a child, they are merely taking out each knob IN ORDER
  • to add a challenge, the child learns to mix up the knobs but the sequence by which they are removed and placed back are still in order, left to right
  • when the child has worked diligently with 2, they can work with them together but ensuring the sequence is kept
  • as the child gets a bit older, they can work with 3 blocks and then 4
  • the child can internalize the dimensions by “distance pairing” —removing the knobbed cylinders on one table in order with the cylinders placed further away and then trying to find the correct knob per hole by challenging their memory with the distance

How does this help the child?

  • it develops the logical mathematical mind
  • it heightens the visual sense as develops the mind to discriminate between various dimensions and heights so that the child can one day make connections to the environment

29 Sep

Posted at 19:16h in Peace Garden Montessori

By the time a child is five years, old they have developed 85% of their core brain structure.  In fact, a baby is born with more brain cells than an adult.  In a child’s early years, they are constantly making trillions of new synapses (connections).  The child’s mind is like a sponge and Montessori says, “The child is endowed with unknown powers, which can guide us to a radiant future.”
Importantly, by the time a child is 5, they have a comparable self esteem to that of adults. This self esteem remains unchanged and stable throughout adulthood. Therefore, it is crucial a child has belief in themselves early on so it can stay with them for the rest of their lives.
In a Montessori classroom, the child develops their self esteem by:
1) Having a trusting relationship with their teacher guide.  The child should be free to explore freely and work with materials peacefully without judgement.  A peaceful relationship = a peaceful mind open to receive all the Montessori environment has to offer.
2) Maria Montessori noticed way back in 1907, that self correction is one of the cornerstones to happiness and self worth.  The materials in a Montessori classroom are self correcting.  Thereby, a child can then “see what he can do ….. and supply him with indicators which tell him his mistakes…His very nature tends toward exactitude and the ways of obtaining it appeal to him.” (Absorbent Mind)   A child is never told they made a mistake, instead, they find it themselves and this keeps their self worth and dignity intact.  The errors are their own to fix.
3)  A 3 year mixed age group in a classroom setting enables the older child to mentor the younger ones and as a result they feel pride in themselves upon receiving adoration and respect from the younger peers.
4)  Hearing “good job” does NOT help a child develop self esteem from within.  Hearing “good job” is not an indicator of how a child feels about what they did, but is a subjective comment coming from the adult.  It’s a “good job” to you,  but is it for the child?  Instead,  in a Montessori classroom a child develops self esteem through, “work and activities that the character of the child is transformed.  Work influences his development in the same way that food revives the vigour of a starving man.  We observe that a child occupied with matters that awaken his interest seems to blossom, to expand, evincing undreamed character traits; his abilities give him great satisfaction, and he smiles with a sweet and joyous smile.” (San Remo lectures)
As a child becomes more independent, they feel an inner joy and an awareness that their potential as boundless.  When they do real work and have the freedom to correct themselves, they become “the leaders of themselves”,  and perhaps maybe even become our future leaders.  When a older child mentors a young one, they feel a sense of adoration and love from their younger peers and that builds their sense of self.  By loving what they do and feeling the support and safety with those around them, they learn to love themselves.
In correspondence with a Montessori framework, we as adults can teach children to say beautiful phrases that they can repeat to themselves.  These will one day be engraved in their personas.  Things like, “I am brave”, “I am smart”, “I am strong”, “I am kind”,  “I can do my work”, “I work hard”, “I am beautiful”….. are soul lifting and mindful affirmations that assist children to believe in themselves while they are immersed in their rich Montessori environments. These come from the “I” and as it’s repeated they derive inner strength and confidence that they will take with them throughout their lives.

31 Aug

Posted at 18:11h in Peace Garden Montessori

Before a Montessori teacher can guide, they need to do an inner preparedness to carry out the best way to serve the child. Just like Maria Montessori teaches us to reach inward to extract the most beautiful potential of a child,  a teacher too has to reach within their “self” to bring out everything positive, kind, compassionate and pure.  This is no mean feat.  Initially, a new Montessori teacher is concerned with mainly making sure the environment is in good order and that the presentations are perfect.  This is the normal practice of a brand new teacher/guide.  They are learning how to manage a classroom to the best of their ability and are the caretakers of their children’s  physical and intellectual needs.  Indeed there are lessons to be learned in the initial years of being a Montessori teacher.  There is also a slow transformation taking place– and deep seated knowledge is being attained of one’s true self.  With  time, the teacher grows into serving not only the child, but also the spirit  (The Absorbent Mind, p281).  

When a teacher tries to  place all judgements, interferences, biases, anger and baggage away, their lens becomes focused and clear.   Then the teacher starts to understand and see the child’s heart.  As a result, the secret code to unlocking the child’s heart and thus potential begins.  The beauty of being a Montessorian is that true love, we learn, is the way of  making a difference in a child’s life and likewise, when a child touches a teacher’s heart for the first time, they too can awaken the spirit of a teacher.  This love exchange is the impetus of Montessori teaching.  Like the sun awakens the plant, the growth of the plant opens up itself to the sky.    Maria Montessori writes in the Absorbent Mind, “ When the children show their real natures, she understands perhaps for the first time, what love really is.  And this revelation transforms her also. It is a thing that touches the heart, and little by little it changes people.” (The Absorbent Mind, p282).  

Montessori describes this love as a “higher love”– tagged like the Steve Winwood song 🙂

She says it’s like a love that is “no longer personal or material.  The difference of the level has truly been set not by the teacher but by the child.  It is the teacher who feels she has been lifted to a height she never knew before.  The child has made her grow till she is brought within his sphere.” (Absorbent Mind, p283)  The teacher is not interested in authority over the child and the child is comfortable and joyfully revealing their true essence and growing the way they were destined to.  And the true test of a successful Montessori teacher is when they are able to say, “The children are working as if I did not exist.”  In my understanding, this is when children have attained their “flow state”.

This transformation of the teacher becomes deeper and deeper as the years progress.  It almost becomes a part of your personality and way of life.  The classroom becomes your sanctuary as well as the child’s.  

We learn so much by being Montessori guides.  We learn mindfulness.  So do the children.   We learn to conquer our inner demons and weaknesses.  Although we are human, it is our duty to be our best selves at all times. We learn as Montessorians how to conduct ourselves with humanity as a whole.  We learn to “hold back” the urge to constantly state our critiques of others because we can foresee the harm or pain we can inflict with a thoughtless word. I love the sage words of J. Krishnamurti, “When there is love there is consideration, not only to children but for every human being.” (Education and the Significance of Life, p48) 

Being a Montessori guide can be an exhausting and still exhilarating  practice. A flame is passed to a Montessori teacher at graduation as a symbol of the light that now burns inside us.  As teachers we rekindle a huge flame inside of us and pass it along to every child whenever we enter the classroom. It is this light that enables the flame of the child to burn for a lifetime. 

09 Aug

Posted at 21:42h in Peace Garden Montessori

Why:

Every person has a gift that they were put on this earth to discover and share.   Some adults may not have had the opportunity to be nurtured by a solid education system specifically during their most formative years: from birth to age 5.  I believe that the Montessori System of Education can unlock the potential of a child and what they were destined to achieve.  I witnessed children demonstrate their talents when they are placed in the right learning environment.  I want to give children an opportunity to be joyful learners and become who they are capable of being. 


How:

With my teaching experience and understanding,  I have developed a school that is authentically Montessori; academically, philosophically and spiritually, for children to reveal their inner gifts. 

What:

Peace Garden Montessori is where your child can learn daily in a secure home school  environment that opens up to a beautiful outdoor natural space.  Peace Garden will offer an ideal Montessori experience in having an indoor and outdoor classroom.  Peace Garden Montessori will  implement the elements of Montessori Education: the respect for the child, a prepared environment responsive to  the child’s needs, the  recognition and understanding of the child’s sensitive periods, and most of all,  to instill the joy of learning within the child.  Peace Garden will be a learning sanctuary for the child;  where he or she is free to be themselves in a nourishing environment to grow the garden of their own beautiful personality. 

09 Aug

Posted at 21:10h in Peace Garden Montessori

E.M Standing, a renowned Montessorian wrote under the heading ‘Care of the Environment’, “We would include outdoor tasks such as digging, planting, weeding, watering, sweeping up leaves, and so forth.  It is important to notice, in passing, that these real, not make believe activities and that they are carried out in a real and not make believe environment.” Montessori, Her Life and Work 

And it is so, that the importance of the outdoor garden teaches the children so many Daily Life skills for Dr. Montessori says, “That when children are in contact with nature they reveal their strength.” 

The garden is also a connection to implement what they are learning in the class whether that be in math, science, or writing to reality, where the children are able to observe, touch and make connections with the nature around them.  

A peace garden will teach the child the interconnectedness of nature and that there is a rhythm and flow with everything in life.  Just by planting a seed a child learns to work together for the love of nature with their friends.  As a plant grows, they observe the different elements that assist in the growth of the plant.  They can learn about which plants thrive in shade and which in sunlight so as to care for the needs of nature.  Some plants attract butterflies and this will pique an interest in them to learn about life cycles of insects and animals.  As a plant or flower flourishes a child realizes the importance of bees and this will strike another epiphany.  The possibilities of learning are endless here.  My love for gardening is a gift I offer to my future pupils.  The most important gift that a Peace Garden extends to a child is the feeling and sensitivity towards the harmony of the ecological world, the symbiosis in nature, and how the child fits as a part of this whole. 

Peace Garden symbolizes the beauty of a child in the process of their own growth. Unlike adults,  a child is a do-er and does things for the sheer enjoyment of doing it.  They are anything but interested in the end result.  A gardener in comparison also relishes in toiling and growing and the keen awareness towards nurturing and loving what is in front of them.  The result of the full grown plant is the sigh of satisfaction that the hard work and connection brought forth results! Thus the relationship between the child and the garden lies deep within the roots. 

“The most pleasant work for children is not sowing but reaping, a work, we all know, that is no less exacting than the former.  It may even be said that it is the harvest which intensifies an interest in sowing.  The more one has reaped, the more he experiences the secret fascination of sowing.” – Maria Montessori

09 Aug

Posted at 20:59h in Peace Garden Montessori

Teaching the “real thing” is an important Montessori principle.  During our nature walks, we stop and observe things– be it creatures or plant life.  The child is exposed to the whole of nature sensorially.  We give the child the real thing and in doing so they can experience it and understand it. In the classroom, the child dives in deeper as these observations and experiences are manipulated using materials. Some of these materials are in the form of puzzles and nomenclature cards. The child is able to then truly look at the different parts it entails and learn them.  

Then we take the hand of the child once again and show them the real leaf, the real butterfly, the real flower– this time the child has internalized the parts without aid of materials!  Just by what’s around them! 

At  Peace Garden Montessori, your child will be able to work in both indoor and outdoor classrooms all year round to absorb the world around them.  

Stay tuned for a “real” post on the process by which children absorb the real thing.  

09 Aug

Posted at 20:54h in Peace Garden Montessori

Peace education is encapsulated within Montessori education.  Dr. Montessori became concerned about peace as she witnessed the violence and atrocities of the second world war.  She looked towards a solution and that was to instill peace in children to bring about future change in the world.  

Mindfulness, stillness, tranquility and benevolence of character are the cornerstones to Peace in a Montessori class.  A child has the inner sensibility to construct themselves into harmonious and peaceful members of society.  Montessori herself says in Education and Peace, “This social environment for the child must serve to protect him not in his weakness but in his inherent grandeur, for he possesses enormous potential energies that promise to benefit all of mankind.”  The Montessori environment, with the aid of role models, who themselves practice kindness, compassion, integrity and calmness, will foster children who are peaceful, loving and with noble personalities.

Montessori teachers are to show their children things that are only beautiful and peaceful to therefore help them develop a  full appreciation of the world around them.  The Montessori Peace Corner is a place in the classroom where the child can take the time to reflect inwards and calm any emotions that they may be feeling.  The peace corner teaches children that peace begins within. 

A child can stroke the sand and build upon stones with the Zen garden.  The lulling sounds from the music box soothes the child with its gentle chimes.  The singing bowl vibrates a tone that can give a child some tranquility.