Mathematics is a language that children naturally understand at an early age because it involves a sense of order, pattern, and precision, all of which are inherent in the developing child. At an early age, children in the Montessori environment acquire these patterns through sensorial experiences. For example, materials such as the Pink Tower, Red […]
Category Archives: Parents
Homework
Dr. Montessori believed that the desire to work is one of the human tendencies. During the sensorial period, children love to work with their hands. In a Montessori classroom, learning is hands-on, active and independent. Children are granted the freedom to move about with purpose in a Montessori learning environment. In addition, children have the […]
Is World Peace Possible? Montessori says it is. And it starts with the youngest children…
Like many parents of young children new to Montessori, I was stunned after my first observation of a Montessori classroom. I was impressed seeing a map of the United States perfectly traced, colored and labeled, and the notebook of a six-year-old with written out division equations and stories written in cursive. I was even more […]
Why Cursive?
There are many aspects of the AMI Montessori education methodology that differ from traditional schools even more progressive private schools. The way children interact with content material, the length of time children are given to master concepts and the teacher-student interaction are among the most obvious differences between Montessori schools and other childcare facilities. When […]
Progress through language
First we would like to send a special thanks to all the families at Stepping Stone Montessori School for their beautiful holiday gifts. We sincerely appreciate your thoughtfulness. During this season of the year, there is focus on joy, tradition, family, love and hope for the New Year. It’s the most wonderful time of the […]
A Winter Solstices Celebration
The Winter Solstice is one of my favorite times of the year. Although it is the shortest day and the longest night, once this night passes I begin to see the day’s getting longer. This always excites me. Many traditions around the world have a celebration in regards to light; darkness into light, good overcomes […]
What is a “four”?
Counting has been with us a good, long time. The idea that we could keep track of things by doing so is indeed fascinating and helpful beyond description. Rather than have “one”, “one”, “one”, etc – or rather, “this”, “this”, “this” (since “one” doesn’t come into being until you have the idea of “numbers” to […]
Eco Teaching
Add to the list of things that you can’t “teach”: eco-friendliness. The rage these days is teaching earth-friendly, eco-sensitive perspectives. This has been popular for a while now. The thinking is that if we TEACH students to be respectful of the Earth they will make better choices for sustainable practices. This is like teaching morality: […]
Creating Meaning – What Learning is
“You learn what you do, and you can’t learn what you don’t do”. You create meaning by doing. It is that simple. We, each of us, need to be our own meaning-maker. You don’t create meaning by just listening. Real learning requires you to be physiologically engaged, and to be physiologically engaged means to have […]
Mistakes and Learning
“If you can’t make a mistake you can’t make anything”, that’s what educator Marva Collins said. She knew something about learning that too often is forgotten. Why do schools traditionally focus so much on “how many did you get wrong? how many right?” In doing so a culture of “the right answer” is created. The […]
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