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The Curve Of Work: First Year Primary

The Curve Of Work: First Year Primary

The first essential for the child’s development is concentration. It lays the whole basis for his character and social behavior”  Dr. Maria Montessori (1870-1952) believed that children have an inner directive for their optimum self-construction and that concentration was the key to their natural development. This was perhaps one of her major contributions to the […]

The Montessori Difference: Understanding Its Essential Elements

The Montessori Difference: Understanding Its Essential Elements

“The first essential for the child’s development is concentration. It lays the whole basis for his character and social behavior.” (Montessori, 1988, p.202) Dr. Maria Montessori (1870-1952) believed that children have an inner directive for their optimum self-construction and that concentration is the key to their natural development. This was perhaps one of her major […]

The Montessori Difference: Understanding Its Essential Elements

The Montessori Difference: Understanding Its Essential Elements

“The first essential for the child’s development is concentration. It lays the whole basis for his character and social behavior.” (Montessori, 1988, p.202) Dr. Maria Montessori (1870-1952) believed that children have an inner directive for their optimum self-construction and that concentration is the key to their natural development. This was perhaps one of her major […]

Celebrating Chinese New Year

Celebrating Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year must be around the corner, for our school is decked in red and gold. Chinese New Year is celebrated according to the Lunar Calendar, sometime in January or February each year. It marks the coming of spring and new beginnings and is usually a two-week celebration. As in other cultures, there are […]

The Montessori Difference: Understanding Its Essential Elements

Mammolina’s Amsterdam Years (1947-1952)

With the Second World War over, Maria Montessori and her son, Mario, returned from India and came to live in Amsterdam. This was a very busy time for Dr. Montessori, affectionately known as Mammolina by teachers and students “to whom she had become a symbol of hopefulness for humanity, of the kind of optimism necessary […]

How Important Are the Exercises of Practical Life

How Important Are the Exercises of Practical Life

“Practical Life activities keep children at the leading edge of their skill development, building their intelligence, deepening their concentration, and giving them a new appreciation of their expanding capabilities.” —Lillard and Jessen (2008) It was during my recent consultation visit to a Montessori school in India that I found myself required to convince others, more […]

The Cultured Child

The Cultured Child

“You may have tangible wealth untold: Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than you can never be. I had a mother who read to me.” —Strickland Gillian Cuddling up with my mother and being read to by her is probably one of my most favorite memories of my childhood; and well past the […]

The Cultured Child

The Cultured Child

“You may have tangible wealth untold: Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I or you can never be. I had a mother who read to me.” —Strickland Gillian Cuddling up with my mother and being read to by her is probably one of my most favorite memories of my childhood; and well […]

Saving Mother Earth: Addressing Climate Change In The Montessori Classroom

Saving Mother Earth: Addressing Climate Change In The Montessori Classroom

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time and one of the biggest challenges facing the international community today. Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Laureate and Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town alerts us to this fact: “Climate change is the greatest human-induced crisis facing the world today. It is totally indiscriminate of […]

Language Immersion At Montessori Casa International

Language Immersion At Montessori Casa International

common misperception is that exposure to multiple languages causes brain confusion and leads to delayed speech and literacy in young children. In reality, however, a bilingual environment fosters cognitive development and increases creativity, concentration, productivity, and problem-solving skills. As early as the womb, humans are able to distinguish between multiple languages and are able to […]

The Light of India: A Twinkle in the Eye

The Light of India: A Twinkle in the Eye

have been told I need to meet Raji teacher. Before I know it, an older woman ushers me into a small red car and we careen down the back alleys of Chennai, India. We arrive at a garden-level flat, where two grinning women in earthy silk saris and jasmine flowers dangling from their hair greet […]

Freedom Within Limits: A Montessori Upbringing

Freedom Within Limits: A Montessori Upbringing

et the child free, let them have fair play, let them run out when it is raining, take off their shoes when they find pools of water, and when the grass of the meadows is damp with dew, let them run about with bare feet and trample on it; let them rest quietly when the […]

Van Gogh’s Bedroom

incent Van Gogh’s bedroom in the Yellow House in Arles, with its bed pressed into the corner of a sky blue room, a table with bottles and pitchers, clothes hanging on hooks and paintings adorning the walls, has hung in our classroom at Montessori Casa International from the time we opened our doors. We had […]