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Montessori Myths

Montessori Myths

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Each year, during the start of school, teachers and administrators try to explain to new parents the essence of the term Montessori. In this article, we’ll try to explain what Montessori is and is not, dispelling, we hope, a few misperceptions about Montessori...
Montessori 101: What Teachers Wish Parents Knew

Montessori 101: What Teachers Wish Parents Knew

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t a teachers’ conference a couple of years ago, we broke into groups to answer the following question: What are the most important ideas you’d like to communicate to parents of the children you teach? Here are the thoughts from over one hundred teachers and school administrators. Respect the work of your child. Children are […]

Nurturing the Entrepreneurial Spirit: “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” — Parenting adage

Nurturing the Entrepreneurial Spirit: “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” — Parenting adage

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inancial security is one of the long-term goals parents wish for their children. Being financially secure has connotations of knowing how to make money, how to save money, and how to use money to help others. Financially secure suggests that we have a realistic expectation about the amount of work it takes to make a […]

Finding the Best Fit tor Parents

Finding the Best Fit tor Parents

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hat I found over the years is that most people will tell you what you want to hear. To find those families that were the best fit for my school, I took a tip from Elvis Presley. Elvis’ business manager, Colonel Tom Parker, required every venue that asked Elvis to perform to deliver a matchbook […]

Santa: Making the Invisible Visible

Santa: Making the Invisible Visible

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ve never gotten a present from Santa Claus,” said Iliana, my 12-year-old seatmate on an east coast flight. ”My parents thought I should only be given verifiable facts. They told me there is no veracity in Santa Claus.” ”It’s too bad that no one ever told your parents about the Secret of Santa Claus. When […]

The Two-Second Rule

The Two-Second Rule

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“Look, mommy! I’m daddy!” hree-year-old Scotty opened a blue marker and scribbled on the wall as his mom, Margie, cut vegetables for dinner. Scotty had watched his dad paint the kitchen over the weekend. Now Scotty was trying to ‘help,’ or so Margie surmised in the split second of disbelief and dismay as she took […]

Quiet Time is Important

Quiet Time is Important

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We get so busy doing that we neglect to stop and consider our being. A quote from Kurt Vonnegut reminds me of that innate human need to maintain balance between doing and being. To be is to do – Socrates To do is to be – Sartre Do Be Do Be Do – Sinatra” hen […]

Ten Signs of On-Track Development

Ten Signs of On-Track Development

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hildren who are on-track with their development display ten specific behaviors and characteristics. In Montessori terms, we call this process of natural and normal development, normalization. As parents and teachers, we are concerned about doing the right things with our children. When our children go through difficult periods, we can spend nights tossing and turning […]

Webinar: Freedom and Responsibility

Webinar: Freedom and Responsibility

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If you keep hearing about “freedom within limits” at your child’s school but you’re not quite sure how to apply this principle at home, join us for this webcast. It is loaded with examples of real life situations and strategies for allowing freedom with responsibility.

The 18th Hole of Miniature Golf

The 18th Hole of Miniature Golf

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ach began the 18th hole of miniature golf. Twelve-year-old Zach was ahead, and one under par. A wager of a pizza with my husband was in the balance. Zach stayed focused and won the match by two strokes. There should have been fireworks. The band should have played a Sousa march. The mayor should have […]

What Should We Teach Our Children?

What Should We Teach Our Children?

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hat should we teach our children? Research shows that 80 percent of the facts we learn for tests are forgotten in a month. We remember best that information with which we have an emotional connection. It’s a lot easier to remember your birthday than the year of the Battle of Hastings (1066, in case you’re […]

Ten Signs of On-Track Development

Four Keys to Raising a Self-Disciplined Child

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o you dream of having a child who is self-composed, articulate and respectful of others, young or old? In our children’s pre-verbal days, it seems like those attributes may be impossible, but there are some teaching tools you can use to help your child have the self-discipline to live a peaceful life as a toddler […]

Developing Insight into What It’s Like To Be So Small

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retend that you just found out that you’ll have to be in a wheelchair for a year, possibly longer. What adjustment would you have to make to your home to accommodate this change? “This week, crawl around your house, through every room, and make a list of changes that you would make. That’s your homework. […]

Ten Signs of On-Track Development

Stop! Look! Listen!

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n effective, yet, counter-intuitive teaching and parenting suggestion took me a while to understand and put into use. The idea? “Don’t just do something – stand there.” Our first inclination when we see things that we think we need to stop is to jump right in and fix it. One of the interesting discoveries of […]

Ten Signs of On-Track Development

TV or Not TV: That is the Question

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All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.—Blaise Pascal (1623 -1662) “I can tell you exactly the year that my students changed,” my college professor told our class in the 1970’s.  “I’d ask a question and nobody made any attempt to answer it.  They thought they were watching […]

Ten Signs of On-Track Development

Learning To Be Friendly with Error

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s parents, we now have a choice to make regarding how we approach this paradox in our own household. How do we balance freedom and limits? When do we give a choice and when do we just make the choice? How much stuff do we have readily available in our homes, and how much more […]

Ten Signs of On-Track Development

How Not To Be Your Child’s ATM

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Guess what the number one stressor is in our families today? t doesn’t take a wild guess. Financial decisions are creating the most pressure in our homes right now. The economic changes in the past two years have affected most everyone on this planet — from the goat herder in Kashmir to the knitted-goods manufacturers […]