Tag Archives: Preschool

Seven Extra Hours

By: Alex Chiu

What if you and your child were given the gift of seven extra hours to your day or even to your week? Most of us would probably be thrilled to have that extra time to do all of the things we complain that we never have the time to do! Looking at some shocking statistics from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), it might just be possible to find those seven extra hours. According to the AAP, “today’s children are spending an average of seven hours a day on entertainment media, including televisions, computers, phones, and other electronic devices” (www.aap.org). Seven hours a day. That is longer than an average school day in the United States. And adults might be right up there with their own screen time, too, if they carefully and honestly looked at how they spent their leisure time.

So why should we be concerned, and what can we do? The prevalence of media and modern devices has many of us in a frenzy to keep up with the latest trends and to be ‘connected’ at all times. There are great advantages to having access to media and all of the new technology, and there are many excellent and appropriate times and places for its use. However, we need to be careful that too much screen time, especially for children, doesn’t negatively impact their growth and development.

And we do know that are consequences to our children’s media use. Childhood obesity and shorter attention spans are just two issues linked to media overuse by children that have raised the alarm for parents and experts alike. From a child development perspective, young children need hands-on, real world, sensory-rich activities that promote concentration, experimentation, and socialization much more than they need to leap into a cyber world. As Maria Montessori said, “It is through appropriate work and activities that the character of the child is transformed.  Work influences his development in the same way that food revives the vigor of a starving man.  We observe that a child occupied with matters that awaken his interest seems to blossom, to expand, evincing undreamed of character traits; his abilities give him great satisfaction, and he smiles with a sweet and joyous smile.” (San Remo Lectures).

The work that Dr. Montessori saw as crucial to healthy development in children was that related to real world, daily life activities where children touched, smelled, tasted, carried, tended, learned about, and experienced the world around them. She said, “The hands are the instruments of a man’s intelligence” (The Absorbent Mind), and it’s hard to imagine her thinking that little hands constantly holding onto electronic devices would lead to this goal.

To be fair, some of our children’s screen time is constructively spent on educational purposes and schoolwork. Schools rightly take pride in the technology they offer to their students. Teachers work tirelessly to find creative ways to incorporate technology into their lessons to capture their students’ attention and to make this very big world a little smaller and more accessible to their students. We do want our children to become familiar with cutting edge technology and to not fall behind on the rapid developments in that field. Staying savvy with progressive technological advances is necessary in our modern, fast-paced world. We can even find wonderful Montessori apps that extend traditional lessons, and technology certainly can be seen as something which promotes children’s curiosity and desire to learn more. It opens doors to places some children might not otherwise experience, and it has real benefits as children continue to broaden their scope of learning as they grow.

However, the emphasis from the AAP is that seven hours is spent on entertainment media. So, how can we limit our children’s media use and help our children find other ways to entertain themselves? Healthychildren.org suggests creating a “Family Media Plan” where you set boundaries for what media your children may use, when they may have screen time, where in the house screen time takes place, and how long your child may spend with entertainment media. But once the screens are powered down, what will your children do? Consider moving more, playing more, connecting more (face to face, not online!), and creating more. Just being aware of how much time your family spends in front of a screen may help you take a step back and start to brainstorm other things you’d like to be doing instead.

We know that childhood passes so quickly. Freeing up some of those seven hours spent on entertainment media may provide you with the opportunity to do more meaningful activities where you are engaged with your child. It may ultimately help to slow things down for a little while and result in some of your family’s best memories. You can share those memories on social media when you’re done!

A Few Tips for Monitoring Media Usage at Home

  • Designate screen-free zones at home—especially consider no media in children’s bedrooms.
  • Let your children know when they are permitted to turn on the electronics and set time limits.
  • Utilize parental controls to keep your children safe from inappropriate content, websites, etc.
  • Have a TV/Media “Turn Off” Week—no screen time for 7 days, not just 7 hours! Or consider “No Media Mondays” where at least one day a week is spent without any screen time.
  • Make the media meaningful: watch television together and discuss and ask questions about what you are watching. Or research a topic of interest together online or help your child find a YouTube tutorial for something he or she is interested in learning.
  • Mix up media with movement – decide that after 30 minutes of screen time that you and your child participate in 30 minutes of exercise. Dance, walk, play tag, anything that gets you up and going!

 

 

 

For more ideas and information about children and media, visit the sites used as references in this article:

American Academy of Pediatrics www.aap.org

American Academy of Pediatrics Information for Parents   www.healthychildren.org

PBS Children and Media Site for Parents http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia

Center on Media and Child Health www.cmch.tv

Solutions for your Life http://solutionsforyourlife.com

 

MCA Book Club Inspires Summer Reading List

By: Alex Chiu

In the fall of this past school year, The Montessori Children’s Academy (MCA) was proud to host Dr. Eileen Kennedy-Moore as a guest speaker for a Speaker Series event.  Dr. Kennedy-Moore shared her professional insights on a variety of parenting topics, balanced with her own honest experiences as a mother of four.  She was an engaging speaker, and she enlightened everyone who attended this special event.  Her focus on the topics in her book Smart Parenting for Smart Kids stirred up lively conversation.  The book, which is filled with vignettes and strategies for raising smart kids who will become healthy, happy, and independent adults, raised a great deal of interest and intrigue among the audience members.

In order to keep the conversations going, MCA sponsored a Parent Book Club featuring Smart Parenting for Smart Kids in the spring of 2016.  Twenty parents from all three MCA campuses participated in the six weekly sessions, with each week zeroing in a different topic of discussion taken from sections of the selected book.  A Head Teacher at each campus guided the conversations where parents exchanged personal experiences about the challenges of parenting, asked questions, and bonded over the content of the conversation.

The Book Club provided a platform for delving into a variety of issues that were commonly experienced by members of the group, and together, using the book as a guide, they brainstormed methods for better understanding and helping their children.  Certainly this was the common denominator for the group – all parents seek new techniques for working with their children as they grow up.

We reached out to Dr. Kennedy-Moore and invited her to share some background information about why she wrote Smart Parenting for Smart Kids. She shared the following:

One of the comments that my co-author, Mark Lowenthal, and I hear a lot from parents in our practices is “My kid is smart, but…” The “but” could be that their children get very upset when they make mistakes, or they have trouble getting along with other kids, or they constantly argue with adults… These parents know that their children are bright, but they worry because they also know that it takes more than school smarts to create a satisfying life…

This book is about helping children develop inner strength and outward empathy. The world tells bright children that their performance matters; they need us, their parents, to tell them that they are much more than the sum of their accomplishments. They need to know that we love them for their kindness, curiosity, imagination, determination, and sense of fun. Qualities like these aren’t necessarily impressive, but they matter deeply.”

MCA’s Director of Montessori Development, Camilla Nichols-Uhler, added that many of the tenets in Dr. Kennedy-Moore’s book complement Montessori education, making this book choice something which dovetails with what our parents are learning about how their children work within a prepared Montessori environment.  She explains:

“In Montessori classrooms, teachers guide the children to develop solutions to challenges and problems in a practical way while at the same time gaining self-confidence.  Children find ways to be successful working independently and in groups through each stage of their development and throughout their Montessori education.  The focus is not just on academics, but also on developing the whole child.  Smart Parenting for Smart Kids and the Montessori philosophy share the value of nurturing the whole child.  Parents learn how to lay the best foundation at home just as we lay the foundation for our students’ academic, social, and emotional growth while at MCA.”

Our Book Club facilitators and parent participants enjoyed Dr. Kennedy-Moore’s book and the discussions about positive parenting that ensued at the club meetings.

Mrs. Gallo, one of the club facilitators, shared her experience with us:

I thoroughly enjoyed hosting the MCA Book Club.  The parents were great and really positive and supportive of each other.  We had five parents and most were able to attend the entire series. We typically started out with the chapter topic, but often parents had parenting issues that they wanted to talk about.  The biggest takeaway from the series was tuning into the child by reflecting what the child is saying.  This enables the child to know that you heard him or her and allows the parent to slow down and focus on the child.  I think a forum for parents to come together and discuss parenting concerns is so needed…  All-in-all it was a positive experience…”

With so many challenges facing parents and children today, having a place where people can come together to exchange ideas and glean insights from experts and peers can alleviate some of the stress of parenting.  It can also foster feelings of confidence when parents realize that they are not alone and that there are people and resources out there to support them in their efforts to be the best parents that they can be.  As the saying goes, “It takes a village.”

A parent participating in our Book Club commented:

“The Book Club offered me an opportunity to pause and reflect on some of the struggles I face as a parent in addressing my children’s needs.  I found it helpful to hear other parents’ experiences and to discuss strategies with them….  I enjoyed participating in the Book Club and found it helpful, overall.”

We were thrilled by the positive response to our inaugural Parent Book Club and are looking forward to hosting another in the 2016-2017 school year.  Stay tuned to learn when it will be held and which book will be the focus for the next set of meetings!  If you were unable to be a part of our Parent Book Club this year, we recommend that you add Smart Parenting for Smart Kids to your summer reading list. And while you’re at it… Here are some other titles you may want to check out while traveling, lounging poolside, or just taking a lemonade break in your backyard:

  1. Montessori Madness!: A Parent to Parent Argument for Montessori Education, Trevor Eissler
  2. The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness: Five Steps to Help Kids Create and Sustain Lifelong Joy, Edward Hallowell, MD
  3. The Big Book of Parenting Solutions, Michele Borba, Ed.D.
  4. Getting It Right with Children, Madelyn Swift
  5. Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius, Angeline Stoll Lillard
  6. Parents Do Make a Difference, Michele Borba, Ed.D.
  7. The Pressured Child, Michael Thompson, Ph.D.
  8. Raising a Self-Disciplined Child, Roberts Brooks, Ph.D. and Sam Goldstein, Ph.D.
  9. Building Moral Intelligence, Michele Borba, Ed.D.
  10. Generation Text, Michael Osit, Ph.D.

Maintaining a Montessori Mindset Through the Summer

By: Alex Chiu

Summer is the time of year when schedules are a bit more relaxed, bedtimes push back a little later, and vacations and staycations abound.  Some parents worry about what to do with their children during the summer and about ‘summer learning loss’ (where students, not immersed in daily learning at school, lose a portion of what they gained during the school year).  However, this doesn’t need to happen at all.  Instead of summer being a vacation from learning, it can instead be an opportunity for your children to find new ways of channeling their curiosity and practicing and refining the skills that they have obtained throughout the school year.

To help maintain a ‘Montessori mindset” throughout the summer, there are a few things that parents can do.  A good place to start is by following the example of Montessori teachers who take great care in preparing their classroom environments, upholding expectations for everyone in the classroom community, and following the children’s lead as their interests and needs come into focus. With a little planning before summer vacation begins, you can create a bridge between your child’s school-year Montessori learning environment and your own home during the summer months.

First, prepare your environment.

Keep an assortment of activities available for your child to use during the ‘down times’ of the day when chores are finished and outings are not planned.  Items should be placed where the children can reach them, and a child-sized work area should be established.  This allows your child to make decisions about what to do with his or her free time and to be able to do things independently, without mom or dad having to participate at all times.  To help you begin, think about the places where you and your child spend the most time during the summer days.

In the Kitchen

You might consider designating a shelf in your kitchen to hold activities such as:

  • An art box with child-safe scissors, scrap paper, colored pencils, leaves, ribbons, buttons, glue sticks, and a tablemat encourages children to create imaginative collages.
  • Small pitchers and a collection of cups provide opportunities for practice with pouring dry ingredients (like beans and rice) or liquids.
  • A large, deep tray or dish filled with sand or salt along with seashells, a small rake, and pretty stones invites your child to design ever-changing paths in his or her own miniature Zen garden.

In the Family Room

  • A basket of books in a cozy corner with pillows and good lighting invites children to spend some time each day in the company of good books.
  • Recycled items in a basket become building materials where children construct rockets, sculptures, or skyscrapers. Save tissue boxes, oatmeal containers, paper towel tubes, empty water bottles and other ‘trash’ items for inventive uses
  • A collection of objects (marbles, coins, cotton balls) and number cards offer practice in matching quantities to the numbers.

Also, rotating puzzles, matching cards, counting activities, and favorite toys every few weeks keeps things interesting and fresh through the summer months, as children choose which activities they would like to do.

In the Backyard

Don’t forget to prepare things in a space outside, too!

  • A bucket with fresh water alongside sponges and paintbrushes might inspire your child to wash the deck or outdoor furniture.
  • A tray with bubble-making supplies and unusual bubble blowers such as funnels, rope tied into a circle, and a slotted spoon put a new twist on an old favorite activity.
  • A container garden with a watering can and weeding gloves helps your child take responsibility for the care of plants. Consider a variety of herbs that smell good and that may be used in cooking!
  • A butterfly net and bug viewer might be kept together for children to investigate how animals behave in your backyard.

It may take a little time and creativity to collect household items to use for the activities, but this preparation of your home environment is worth the effort.  And it needn’t be expensive.  You can easily use items you already have available around the house.  After you have your prepared environment set up, show your children what activities are available, where they may do their work, and what to do when they are finished using the materials, just like their teachers do at school.  Then, let them enjoy the freedom to choose their work and play!

Second, uphold your expectations that your children are contributing members of daily family life.

In a Montessori classroom, children learn to respect themselves, others, and the environment.  They know that everyone has responsibilities and that the classroom community relies on everyone contributing and doing his or her job.  Parents are fully aware that just because it is summertime doesn’t mean that families are on a vacation from the usual day to day responsibilities of cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, etc.  So, while your children are at home this summer, be sure to include them in these necessary daily chores.  They will be happy to show off the Practical Life skills that they have been developing all school year!  Have your children help with age-appropriate tasks such as:

  • Setting the table
  • Sorting laundry
  • Sweeping the front walkway
  • Assisting with mealtime food preparation
  • Scrubbing the back deck with sponges and soapy water

Not only does upholding your expectations allow them to practice their skills, but it also confirms that your children (and the work that they do) are important.  That is a very motivating feeling!  Patience on the part of the parent is essential for helping your child to grow in his or her mastery of these skills, but summer is a season to give your children time to complete their work to the best of their ability, resulting in a great sense of accomplishment (and in all likelihood, a much more willing little household helper!).

Finally, challenge yourself to “follow the child”:

In Montessori classrooms, teachers learn to ‘follow the child’, and summer is an opportune time for parents to try to do the same.

But first, what does it mean to “follow the child”?  At its essence, it means to observe your child and to open the doors that your child is knocking on with his or her questions, interests, and behaviors.  As your child chooses activities around the house, you might pay attention to which ones he or she chooses over and over again and which ones are left to collect dust.  The toys and games being used most often are certainly drawing your child’s attention, and you can try to uncover just what it is about these things that intrigue your child.  Maybe he or she is drawn to everything decorated with bugs and dinosaurs.  Well, there’s the door waiting to be opened—summer can be the time to collect books on those subjects or to visit local museums where together you can learn more about them.  Or maybe you observe that the most repeated activities are those where your child feels most challenged or most relaxed, and that is what keeps him or her coming back again and again.  Stand back as your child works and plays.  What do you notice?

Equally important are those children’s items around the house that are collecting dust.  Is your child-size easel always clean and bare?  Maybe your child doesn’t know what to do with it.  Perhaps a fresh supply of watercolors or different sizes of paper or brushes might inspire a new or renewed interest in art.  Or a visit to a local gallery might open up a new door to artistic expression for your child.  By quietly observing your child, you can get some great insights into his or her interests and as well as his or her needs.

Following the child doesn’t mean that you can’t also offer suggestions for activities you might do together this summer.  And if you have a special interest, share it with your children.  Astronomy?  Gaze at the summer nighttime sky and try to identify different constellations.  Read the myths behind their names, and visit a planetarium to learn even more.  These experiences nurture your children’s natural curiosity and provide them with ways to extend their learning beyond books and into the ‘real world’.

Other ideas for following your child’s interests and expanding your child’s summer experiences include:

  • Exploring the outdoors–look for animal tracks, build fairy houses, and learn what types of trees and plants are growing in your backyard.
  • Going on local ‘field trips’ in your neighboring towns. This area is rich in culture, art, nature, and so much more!
  • Using public transportation (trains and buses) and having your child try to map your routes or log how many miles you travel.
  • Inviting your children to brainstorm what charitable acts they could do this summer—a used toy or book sale on your front lawn or a lemonade stand with the proceeds going to a local charity?

Together you can choose do-able options from this list.  Then let your child outline a plan and put it into action.  But remember to stand back and observe all of your children’s efforts—you will be amazed by what they think and at what they can do when you trust yourself to follow their lead!

With a little preparation, patience, and a “Montessori mindset”, you can provide your child with fulfilling activities that reinforce the skills he or she has gained during the school year.  You will find yourselves sailing smoothly through the summer months and right back into the new school year when it begins again before you know it in September!

Pennies for Peace 2015-2016

By: Camilla Nichols-Uhler, Hannah Ferris, and Alex Chiu

Since September, MCA students have been raising funds for Pennies for Peace, a “service learning program that brings cultural and philanthropic education to students and educators all over the world”.  Each campus recently totaled its pennies, with the help of our math-savvy students, and now plans to send the contributions on to assist children at schools throughout Asia.  Read on to learn how many pennies our MCA students counted, resulting in a significant contribution to this very worthy cause!
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Program Overview

Pennies for Peace is part of the educational component of the Central Asia Institute (CAI).  CAI is an international development organization that works with communities to improve access to education in Asia.  The CAI believes that education can alleviate poverty and reduce conflict.

Pennies for Peace is a fundraising program designed specifically for children, and its philosophy of “students helping students” is relatable even to preschoolers.  MCA students, whose capacities for compassion find their foundation in the Montessori Philosophy, have taken ownership of this yearlong project.  The children collected pennies from home and then brainstormed additional ways to engage the community to help them with their fundraising efforts.

Through their classroom Cultural studies, the children have learned a great deal about the state of education in certain areas of Asia.  And perhaps of more significance, they have also come to understand the importance of sharing some of what they have with others who are less fortunate.  When the MCA students discovered that just a few pennies could buy school supplies like notebooks and pencils for children in these far-away communities, they realized that many pennies could do even more.  They wondered if they could work toward collecting enough pennies to build an entire school.

Connecting Curriculum with a Cause

The Pennies for Peace program ties in nicely with the Montessori Culture and Science curriculum. Over the course of the year, MCA students have learned a lot about life in the more educationally deprived areas of Asia.  For example:

  • In many communities, the need for children to work on family farms often prevents them from going to school;
  • Often the physical terrain is very difficult to travel, and many children cannot get to schools in larger villages because roads through the Himalaya Mountain Range are dangerous;
  • Cultures place an emphasis on boys’ education at the expense of girls’ education. In some areas, only 12% of girls can read.
  • The culture in countries is very different from that in the United States: many families move from place to place based on the seasons to farm, they celebrate different holidays, and they eat different types of food.

In addition, participation in Pennies for Peace relates to the Montessori Peace curriculum, which aims to teach children how people working together peacefully can make the world a better place for everyone.  The Pennies for Peace program also taught the MCA students about organizing their efforts for a good cause.  They learned the process of brainstorming ideas, developing a plan for collections, and then putting that plan into action.  All of these efforts resulted in building their understanding that working together towards a common goal is hard work, but that it reaps wonderful results and is well worth it!

MCA Students and Families Take Initiative

At first, the children came to school with handfuls pennies that they found around their homes.  The sound of the pennies clinking as they were dropped into the collection jars was music to the children’s ears.  As the number of pennies in the jar grew, so did the enthusiasm and creativity of our students, leading some of our students and families to go beyond dropping their pocket change in the classroom penny jars.  We are extremely grateful to everyone for supporting this schoolwide project, and we wanted to recognize a few for their extra special effort:

  • One of our students took advantage of the warm autumn weather and sold lemonade to his neighbors. He accepted payment only in pennies and explained to his customers that the lemonade proceeds would benefit MCA’s Pennies for Peace  He collected thousands of pennies in one afternoon!

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  • Back in December, on an unseasonably sunny and warm Saturday, one family spearheaded a community fundraiser with the help of our friends at Café Beethoven in Chatham. Their children and friends from MCA created posters illustrating facts about the project and shared their knowledge about the countries they studied through the program with passersby.  Many kindly donated their coffee change after learning about the project.  This group of friends raised a total of $270 at the Saturday morning Café Beethoven fundraiser.

Cafe Beethoven

  • Recently, our MCA Elementary students sent a letter to the Short Hills Director, Mrs. Amy Hidalgo, and our Elementary Director/Senior Director, Mrs. Jeanine Christiana, pitching an idea for yet another Pennies for Peace In this letter, they asked permission to host a car wash before the end of the school year.  They explained in the letter:

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Bragging Rights

The students at MCA are growing in their sense of responsibility as citizens of a global community through their involvement with the Pennies for Peace project.  As part of the Pennies for Peace philosophy, MCA students have helped spread the word about the project to other Montessori schools in the Tri-State Area, including sharing information about their participation with their pen pals at Brooklyn Heights Montessori School.  Our students recently found out that their friends at Brooklyn Heights are also in the process of totaling their pennies.  They realize that together they are making a difference!

Across our three campuses in Morristown, Chatham, and Short Hills, the MCA community has raised a grand total of $1,081.43 so far this year for Pennies for Peace.  That’s a lot of pennies… 108,143 to be exact!  Our Elementary students are currently working on a Math project to determine exactly how many school supplies this $1,081.43 can purchase for their friends on the other side of the globe.  Perhaps they will not build an entire school, but they are well on their way to building enormous positive changes in the lives of children in Asia who will benefit from their hard work this year.

We are incredibly proud of our students for sharing information about Pennies for Peace with their families, their Montessori counterparts at other schools, and their communities.  And we want to sincerely thank all of the parents, staff members, and community members from Chatham, Morristown, and Short Hills who contributed their pennies and their time to our various projects this year.

For more information about the Pennies for Peace program, please visit their website http://www.penniesforpeace.org.

 

 

 

 

References for this post:

“Pennies for Peace – a Free Service Learning Program.” Pennies for Peace. Central Asia Institute, Oct. 2015. Web. 10 May 2016.

A Joyful Start to the Montessori Journey with MMC&M

By: Camilla Nichols-Uhler and Alex Chiu

This fall, The Montessori Children’s Academy (MCA) proudly launched an exciting new program called Montessori, My Child, & Me (MMC&M).  Designed for children ages 18-30 months, this program offers young children the opportunity to explore a modified Montessori environment with their parents or caregivers.  MMC&M also provides the adults with an opportunity to learn about Montessori education and to see firsthand how it benefits children.

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MMC&M sessions are 1 ½ hours once a week for eight weeks and are held in a classroom specifically designed for this younger age group.  The classroom is a beautiful, welcoming environment equipped with specially designed furniture and materials that are the appropriate size for little arms and legs.  Everything in the classroom is of the highest quality, obtained from renowned companies such as Hello Wood in Rickman, Tennessee and Community Playthings in Ulster Park, NY.

During each class meeting, the children and adults are introduced to a sampling of age-appropriate Montessori materials from each of the five main learning areas found in a typical Montessori classroom: Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, Math, and Culture.  However, the materials for the MMC&M classroom are adapted to meet the distinct needs and abilities of the young children in this special program.

One example of a lesson modified for MMC&M participants is the Pink Tower from the Sensorial area.  In the MMC&M classroom, the tower contains five cubes for our little explorers to use in order to build the tower from the largest cube at the bottom to the smallest cube at the top.  In our MCA 3-6-year-old classrooms, the Pink Tower contains ten cubes, and the children learn to transfer one cube at a time from the shelf to their workspace.  As children use this material, they gain a sense of sequence and order.  When they are finished, they return the Pink Tower to its place in the classroom and arrange it in the same way that they found it when they began their work.  This way it is ready for the next person to use.

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As our youngest MMC&M students began to learn the process for using the smaller version of the Pink Tower, the adults observed that this activity is so much more than what it appears to be on the surface.  Many of the parents and adult caregivers marveled at how the children were able to follow directions, concentrate on the activity, and put away the materials in the appropriate place when they were finished!  This is just one example of how Montessori engages the whole child in each activity.  Gaining skills in independence, small and large muscle control, planning, and care of materials all are the essence of this seemingly simple lesson.  And as our adults observed, even the youngest children can be successful when given the guidance and opportunity to take on new challenges!

In addition to using a sampling of modified Montessori materials, the MMC&M children and adults participate in music, movement, art, and yoga activities under the guidance of a certified Montessori Head Teacher.  Movement is an important aspect of the Montessori environment.  Studies have shown that children engaged in movement while learning are able to retain information more easily.  In Montessori classrooms, the children often are moving to choose and complete their work.  Movement provides time to release energy, to think, and to plan.

Within the MMC&M classroom, children have many opportunities to move and to develop their large motor skills as they crawl through a tunnel, push a carpet sweeper, or balance a wooden wheel on a yellow line.  The MMC&M children also practice yoga poses and participate in a variety of songs and games that allow them to move their bodies in controlled, purposeful ways.  At the same time, they are having quite a lot of fun!

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And it’s not only the children who benefit from participating in the MMC&M program. The adults also glean a great deal of knowledge not only about Montessori but also about their own children. By welcoming parents and caregivers into the prepared Montessori environment and guiding them while their children explore the materials, the adults are given the opportunity to see their children through a different lens.  This allows them to come to a deeper understanding of their children’s needs and unique capabilities.

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During the course of the morning, the parents and caregivers are invited to visit the cozy adult area that offers a comfy couch, lounge chairs, and a coffee table. There, with a cup of coffee or tea, they can sit back and observe the classroom in action.  Past participants have told us that by taking note of how the classroom is organized and seeing the types of child-sized tools we provide, they have learned how they can model the Montessori layout in order to promote their children’s independence at home.  There are some simple things parents can do to adapt the kitchen, bathroom, and child’s bedroom to facilitate more practice with important daily life skills.  As Dr. Montessori once said, “The essence of independence is to be able to do something for one’s self”. By modeling the Montessori environment at home, parents give their children the gift of independence, as well as a sense of pride in being able to do things for themselves.

The adults in our MMC&M program also have the opportunity to peruse Montessori resources, including books and articles related to the Montessori philosophy and methodology, and to read a collection of parent testimonials from current and former Montessori parents. Through observation and in conjunction with the parent education materials provided and guidance by the Head Teacher, the adults can witness how the Montessori environment addresses the needs of the children and fosters their natural curiosity, making learning meaningful and fun! They can also begin to build a bridge between home and school by implementing what they see in the MMC&M classroom in their own homes and family routines, which is one of the main goals of the program.

The Montessori Children’s Academy plans to expand the successful Montessori, My Child, & Me program in the future so that it is available at all three of our campuses—Morristown, Chatham, and Short Hills.  We are excited to offer even more parents the opportunity to join our community and to embark on a beautiful Montessori journey together with their children.

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“The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth. From this almost mystic affirmation there comes what may seem a strange conclusion: that education must start from birth.”  ~ Maria Montessori