The Montessori Center's Philosophy and Practice

Our Montessori goals for each student are that he or she develop four basic skills:
* independence - initiates own activity, ends own activity, evidences self-help
* sense of order - returns work to shelf, cares for the environment and materials
* concentration - works at own speed and for as long as attention lasts (10 minutes is considered good concentration for a 3 year old), can tune out some background noise
* coordination - small muscle dexterity in handling objects, pouring, using pencils, etc., large muscle coordination in walking, carrying trays, scrubbing, etc.
* socialization - respect for other's work and person, participates in work and play with peers and adults

All materials and procedures of the school have these goals as their underpinning. The materials also add academic content, such as phonics or numerals - but even if there were no academic content, just the basic skills above are valuable. And of course everything does add academic content.

Finally, we are committed to the belief that children learn best in an atmosphere which allows them to work together with the materials (treating them and each other with respect), and which allows pretend play to occur naturally along with the structured lessons of the materials.

Quatrefoil, multicolored...

                                I've been thinking about when children talk with each other about whether Santa is "real", and the upsetting arguments they can get into: "Yes he is! My Daddy said so!"   "No he isn't! My brother told me that Grandpa said he isn't!" "He's sorta real but there's no reindeers"

            Here's what I think is helpful and also truthful for adults to do when we happen upon these tumultuous moments: ask questions.           

          For example,  "What does 'real' mean?"

                                                                                                              "Are there any things that are real that you can't see or touch?"
                      " Is air real? How do you know?"    
                                                        " Is yesterday real? What if you were a baby born today, would yesterday be real even though you can't remember it?"  
                                                                                 "How about love? How do you know?"
                      "Can you think of anything that is so big you can't see all of it at once?"
                                                                                                                                            "Do things ever look different to different people?"
                      "is there anything that looked different in the old days than it does now?"

I wouldn't want adults necessarily to answer to any of these questions, just to ask them one by one depending on what answers the children were
giving. This encourages two things: thinking more deeply about what one thinks about Santa (so that it's not just, 'my mommy told me') and asking
questions of other people when their beliefs are different than yours - or even when they are the same.
Happy holidays.

This month I read "The Scientist in the Crib" by Alison Gopnik, Andrew Meltzoff, and Patricia Kuhl - about the amazing competence of babies. 5 stars!