maria montessori – HonorsGradU

February 28, 2023February 28, 2023

“Where’s The Mom?”

We live across the street from our local post office. It’s amazing.

My oldest child (5 years old) is the type of kid that absolutely needs her independence. She thrives when given opportunities to do things by herself.

Recently I’ve had several packages to ship off to friends and family, and getting to the post office with three kids in tow can be extremely challenging, even if it’s right across the street!

So I let my 5-year-old take another independent leap by sending her on the errand for me, by herself.

With the package addressed and ready to ship, she walks across the street alone, $5 tucked safely in her purse to pay the shipping fees.

She’s been on enough errands with me that she knows what to do. She knows how to wait in line and ask for help at the counter when it’s her turn. She’s pretty good at exchanging money and keeping receipts safe for the travels back home.

The first time I sent her I watched out of our family room window for the entirety of her visit, just to make sure everything was okay. But as time went on, I trusted her more and more with her abilities and didn’t pace by the window waiting to watch her walk back home.

One day after coming home from her post office errand, she told me the lady working at the counter asked her where her mom was. I asked my daughter what her response was and she said, “I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything.”

It got me thinking, what would the correct response be?

Her mom was right next door.

Her mom was observing from afar.

Her mom was teaching valuable life lessons.

Her mom was providing an opportunity for independence.

Her mom was showing a high level of trust not only for her daughter but also for the postal workers and other patrons in the building.

I don’t think the worker meant any malice when asking the question. I’m certain after assessing the situation, she realized my daughter was there to run an errand for me and was in no way distressed or neglected. It takes a village to raise a child and our sweet postal worker was only making sure my daughter was okay.

But we’ve also transitioned into a more stressed and scared society, causing us to be wearier of letting our young kids do things for themselves. 50 years ago no one would have thought to even question her. This pushes me to allocate opportunities for my children to find independence throughout their young lives so that they can grow up to be contributing members of our society.

By sending them on errands by themselves, within a reasonable distance from our home.

By letting them go into the library alone to return and check out books while I wait outside.

By picking out and buying their own ingredients and supplies at the grocery store for the cupcakes they’ve been wanting to make.

“Independence is not a static condition; it is a continuous conquest, and in order to reach not only freedom, but also strength, and the perfecting on one’s powers, it is necessary to follow this path of unremitting toil.”
-Maria Montessori

Photo by Matheus Bertelli

February 8, 2023February 8, 2023

Real Life Risky Play

On a fall afternoon, I was outside supervising a group of neighborhood kids playing in my yard and neighboring yards. I am a big fan of risky play, so watching them scale apple trees and climb up our rope swing was bringing me so much joy! (And yes, some anxiety. But I do trust them and their ability to know when it’s too much for their body.)

At one point they found a ladder lying on the ground that they worked together to prop up onto a stump in the yard- yay for teamwork! They were using this ramp to climb up and down and hang on and jump off of it, it was great to watch. However, upon closer inspection, I realized that right under the propped-up ladder were several 2×4 boards that were full of rusty screws and nails.

Instantly their risky play turned to dangerous play.

I was able to take a second to gather my thoughts and plan my next move, how I reacted could drastically change the outcome of their work.

There was danger, but nothing was immediate. Courses needed to be changed, but it wasn’t a life-or-death situation at the moment that I needed to swoop in right away.

I offered them some awareness of the situation,
“Hey guys, let’s look around really quick. What do you see on the ground? Boards with nails in them? Yeah, that can be dangerous if we fall on them! What can we do to make this a little safer?”

Their first solution was to move the boards away from where they were playing, but with the number of children and only myself there to supervise them, I didn’t feel like this would be a safe option to make sure all of the boards were picked up and moved without a nail going through someone’s hand or foot, so I had to tell them we needed to find a new option.

After some more deliberation, they decided to work together to pick up the ladder and move it to a different area to prop up and play on again. After moving it, the ladder was taller and in a more risky position to play on, but the danger of it was gone because it was a safer landing than the alternative.

They played with their setup for hours and hours with no incident! And maybe they would have played in their first location for that long with no harm to anyone either, but the danger there was not something I could ignore.

Risky play is important and good and needed, but as a caregiver, it’s my job to determine when risky play turns into dangerous play.

There was so much learning in this situation, both for the children, and myself! I am not perfect and every situation isn’t handled this well every time. But with practice and time, I’ve learned more and more how to differentiate between risky and dangerous play and the best way to approach the changes we need to make in order to keep everyone safe, while still giving them opportunities to learn through risk.

Anna Crabb- Advocacy For Childhood

This post is part of a series where we interview real educators and tell their direct stories. All words are their own. You can see the entire series here.

“My degree is in human development, but I knew I wanted to be in education. I was hesitant to go down the education route because there were some things in public schools that I didn’t enjoy as a child. So I ultimately decided not to get an education degree, but hoped somehow, some way I could still be involved in education, but I truly did not know what that would look like.”

“My first glimpse into alternative education was Montessori. I had randomly heard about it and looked up jobs while I was still in undergrad and ended up finding somewhere that was hiring. I was loosely trained by the owner and I loved it, so I dove really deep into the Montessori world for a few years and finished my degree in human development. I thought I was going to go full-blown Montessori, but then we moved and I didn’t like any of the Montessori schools in our new area. They seemed too aggressive and rigid.”

“I stumbled on an ad for an alternative education school opening up in the fall that was still looking for guides, so I applied and got the job. I ended up using Montessori a lot there, but they wanted me to also keep it more open-ended. I worked there for a year and started their early childhood center, which was a pivotal experience for the school I eventually opened myself.”

“We moved again and I was very much missing teaching. When it came time for my oldest to start school, I could not find a school that felt like my style. It felt like the only thing they were talking about and advocating for was kindergarten readiness, they weren’t talking about anything else other than kindergarten readiness, and it felt very braggy, like, “look how fast we can get your kids to read!” and, “look how fast we can get your kids to count to twenty!”

“That just says to me that they don’t see or appreciate or value childhood. What pushed me over the edge was when I watched a documentary that was all about how education can look different. After that, I had a whole moment where I thought, “I have to start a school! I have to do this myself!”

“I had nine months to get my school ready, so I just dove right in. I ended up combining my experience with Montessori and the curriculum of a previous school I was working at, as well as some training I had started with Reggio Emilia. I’ve blended all of these resources as well as my background in human development to give my school its foundation.”

“The beauty of it is in the environment. It’s in the way I set up the space. It’s all free choice and child-directed, there is minimal direct teacher instruction. That enables them to work at their own pace and choose to work on things that they’re interested in, and allows me to float around and help as needed. All of the materials are child-directed with a control of error built in so they can teach themselves. There is a clear right or wrong and they don’t need me to tell them, which is nice because then they don’t develop that dependency on another person to tell them if they’re good or not, they can have their own experience. It’s this personal, intrinsic experience versus a co-dependency on other people to validate them.”

“It’s definitely a lot of trusting the process and if they’re really into one thing for many weeks and they don’t even touch math, you let them do that and trust that eventually you can integrate those math scenarios into real-life situations so they can see how that skill might benefit them. They work with these materials independently and they might work with me, and I give them these real-life experiences to help them get excited about learning whatever skill they need to learn. Or maybe I would work in small groups as well to help give them the social keys needed. It is fluid, it’s child-directed, it’s play-based, and it’s all hands-on.”

“It really does come from this place where I want to advocate for kids. Now that I’m in this space I can never go back. Whenever I see things that are common in other schools that are dismissive of childhood, I want to fight for them and fight for the kids, the parents, and the teachers. I just want to tell them, “It doesn’t have to be this way! It can be easier, happier, and more natural, and the kids can actually enjoy learning!” That really is the underlying theme of all of it- advocacy for childhood.”

A day in the life at Stoneybrook Hollow

April 24, 2021April 25, 2021

Choosing A Montessori School: Is It Right For You?

Let’s talk about Montessori schools! The term Montessori is thrown around a lot, especially recently, it’s become a very popular method among schools, caretakers, and parents. But what is the Montessori method? Here’s a quick introduction.

Maria Montessori developed her method of learning as an Italian physician in the early 1900s. Her work focuses on children being independent in their learning and that they have a natural tendency for inquiry in learning. With the proper tools and set up, the child can be independent in their learning. The typical tools in a Montessori classroom are wooden, simple, and always at a child’s level.

Her work was never trademarked, so any school or center can tag “Montessori” onto their title and claim they teach Montessori method, but may not actually follow exactly what Maria developed. This is important to remember when looking into a Montessori school!

A few facts about a Montessori school:

If choosing a Montessori education, you may have to change your expectations of what school will look like for your children. They most likely will not be sitting in desks at any point in the day, but instead wandering and exploring and learning at their pace.

Because the Montessori method is not a trademarked learning style, it is important to do research on specific schools to watch how they are learning and what the school’s style is to see if it meets the needs you are seeking.

The Montessori method was well developed for elementary aged students, but Maria never created a curriculum for middle or high school students. Some schools have taken the Montessori principles and adjusted them to a high school level, creating a Montessori secondary education program, however, they may be few and far between.

If you have chosen a Montessori program for your kids, how did you come to the conclusion that it was the right choice?

Cover photo from thetot.com