A New Addition to S.'s Family

 

At  8 lbs, 12 oz, a little brother was born at home on March 1, 2011. 

"S. will eventually be sharing this room with his brother once he is ready to leave our bed, but I'm not sure either how this will work out. I don't think it would be safe to have both on a floor bed, S. is only 18 months old and has an unwanted interest in C's eyes. So I think a crib might be necessary for awhile. As for sharing space, S's clothes could move to the closet, where he can practice hanging things on hangers, and the little one can have his clothes in the dresser. Also S. can have his toys on the higher up shelves and C's things can be on the lower shelves. It will get interesting when the room gets turned upside down in a mess and both will deny any participation in it! "

Congratulations!

A new house and a new bedroom for S.

This past year has been one full of changes for S.  Many of you will remember S. as the child who inspired me to begin this blog.  His mother is a teacher at our school and is, at this very moment, waiting at home for the birth of her (very overdue) second child.

S. and his parents recently bought (and are renovating) a new home.  Here are some pictures of S.' s new bedroom.

The low Montessori-style bed and the set of drawers are the same as in the previous photos of S.'s room.  He can now open the drawers and select his own clothes.  As K. (Mum) mentioned, she puts only a couple of choices in each drawer in order not to overwhelm S. while giving him the freedom and independence of deciding which clothes he'd like to wear.  I also love how low the window is.  S. can easily look outside any time he wishes.

His belongings are set out on a shelf where he has easy access to them.  (It should be noted that these pictures were taken just after the room was put together. The cord to the CD player has since been secured to the back of the shelf unit.)  A couple of cheerful pictures have been hung at S.'s eye level and the space is not overly decorated or accessorized. 

In addition to the set of drawers in the room, there are hooks on one of the walls to facilitate S. hanging up his towel, jacket, etc.  Notice how low the hooks are.  S. has no trouble reaching them at all.

And finally, here is a picture of S. and his baby doll. A lovely way to help prepare a child for a new brother or sister.

 

Thanks, K.!

Putting on a coat...the Montessori way?

Every now and then, I go through my statistics to see which subjects people are looking for when they stumble upon this blog.  Something I've noticed a number of times is people searching for directions to putting on a coat "the Montessori way."  I then realized that I posted about how we teach the children to hang up their coats but I wrote nothing about how we teach children to put on their own coats. So I've decided to write a post about that subject.   I have no idea if this is the"Montessori way" but it is the way its been done in three of the schools at which I've taught.  If you know another way,  please let everyone know (I'm sure there are several).

Armed with my trusty camera, I asked a couple of children to help me.  The first girl is 3; the second girl is 4. (I apologize in advance for the pictures but this is a difficult activity to capture.)

First, the child spreads her coat onto the floor with the front open to expose the arm holes. She then moves the coat (or her body) to make sure the label is close to her feet (or knees if she is kneeling). 

Then the child puts her arms as far into each arm hole as she can, holds onto the material........

...and then flips the coat up into the air and over her head and behind her back (which is why its important that the child hold onto the material inside the arms) .

The child then pushes her hands to the ends of the sleeves and shrugs the coat onto her shoulders.

Ta dah!

     In the classroom, I show the children how to do this with my own coat.  I have done it as a group presentation but find a one on one presentation much more effective.  I don't use a lot of words - in fact I don't use any - to give the child time to really observe what I am doing.

When Practical Life is internalized it often comes home to roost.

When a child is allowed to spend as much time as needed in the Practical Life area of the classroom, over time the lessons learned are internalized.  Very often, those internalized skills show up at home.

This happened to G's mother the other day when he announced that he wanted to make dinner.  I will let her tell the rest of the story.


"G. made dinner for the family tonight - in 23 steps! So I took some pictures for you.

He decided to make Pan Fried Herring (local from Port Alberni), with broccoli and snap peas, with stuffing (yuck - stuffing!! whatever... it was his choice).  It was cool because it was a bit of a science lesson - looking at the fish eyes, the gills, chopping the head off and gutting it - are those eggs inside? Wow. Ewwww, the blood, bladder, and guts!

Cleaning the fish. 

All clean.

Chopping up the veg.

Preparing a dredge for the fish.

Cutting up and arranging lemon pieces on a plate.

Preparing the pan for frying the fish.

Frying the fish.

Preparing the stuffing.

 Setting the table......

...and Voila! dinner is served!

It was fun and he was so proud of himself. He even washed & dried some dishes. Our little chef! Practical Life seems to be approached differently now by G., not so much a learning of skills as a perfecting and contributing to the family that makes it so wonderful for him (and us!)."

By the way, G. is 5 and a half!

Wow!

A Belated Christmas Wish and a Happy New Year

On behalf of all of the teachers and families who have contributed to this website we wish you a restful and loving holiday season.


M. and his Christmas tree.

G.'s gingerbread house.

C. & M. doing a Christmas dance with their grandparents.

Happy New Year!!!!!

A Post to Fill the Time

It has been a while since I've received any photos from our families so I thought, while we wait, I would post about a few things that take place in the classroom that also happen at home.  This post is going to be devoted to hanging up a coat.

In an earlier post, I showed pictures of homes with low hooks on the wall to help a child be independent in putting away their outside wear.  It has come to my attention that some parents have gone a bit farther than hooks and have placed a dowel in  the hall closet at child height.  This means that coats can be hung on hangers.  Since this is how the children put their coats away in our classroom, I thought I'd take some pictures to show how the children actually do this.  My thanks go to K. who allowed me to photograph her going through the  steps required to hang up a coat.

Our cubbies (the top part) and lockers (the bottom part) were custom built to accomodate the children.  Each one is shared by two children and each child has two hangers.  (There are more available if needed but space is limited.)

The children begin by putting the coat on a table top or on the floor and spreading it out. In this picture, K. put her coat on the floor because the tables nearby were already being used.  Sometimes, the sleeves have to be pulled right-side-out and, depending on the development of the child, may be a place where an adult needs to help.

Once the coat is spread out, the child places a hanger on the label with the two ends aiming into the sleeves and the hook poking just above the collar.

The child then closes the coat - first one side, then the other.  I usually demonstrate this with one hand at the top of the zipper/buttons and the other at the bottom.  If a child just closes both sides at the same time, the sides either overlap or don't meet in the centre. This can make it more difficult to do up. 

 Once the coat is closed, the coat needs to be zipped or buttoned up.  Obviously, zippers need to start at the bottom but buttons may be started at either end.  Many children realize, after a few months, that if their coat has buttons, they only have to do up the top button. : )

Once the coat is done up, the child takes hold of the hanger's hook and lifts up the jacket.

The coat is now ready to be hung in the locker.

A few notes: 

-  Many zippers are extremely difficult for a child to get started. (I wrote about that in this post.)  Allow a child to try but be ready to step in with an offer of help if the child begins to get frustrated.  If your offer is accepted, only do up the zipper a little way so that they can finish the job themselves.

-  Be aware of a child's sense of order.  I once had a child get absolutely frantic when I showed him how to put his coat on the floor.  It became clear VERY quickly that in his house, coats did not belong on the floor - EVER.  I guided him to a table and we began again.

-  There will be times at home when a child says "You do it."  When my boys were little and this demand showed up, I would give the appearance of helping while really doing very little.  "Sure.  I'll hold the hanger while you get your coat ready."  or  "I'll start the zipper for you when the hanger is in the coat." 

Lunch boxes and containers

     Helping our children to be as independent as possible is the goal of all Montessori parents and teachers.  So it was with some surprise that I realized, while talking about "child & earth friendly" food containers at orientation last month, that I'd never stopped to look at this issue from a parent's perspective.

      I decided to take a closer look at the choices parents have in the way of boxes and containers and came to this conclusion.  There are many food containers that  a 5 year old can handle but there are very few that are easy for a 3 year old. 

     The child in the picture below, is 5 and he is taking the lid off a kind of plastic container that can be found in most department stores.  As you can see, he turns the box sideways to get a better grip on the box.  Most children do this and, if they aren't holding the box over the table, end up with their food on the floor. 

    Here, a girl is opening a larger, glass container.  She is also tilting the box to get a better grip.  This is fine as long as the food inside is not something with a sauce or liquid. 

The next picture is of a lunch box that was purchased in Hong Kong and reminds me of a Bento Box.

It has separate compartments which hold several different sizes of containers.

The lid snaps onto the rim of the box.  I have found that this kind of lid is the easiest for the young children to undo and close as long as the rim is one continuous lip.... 

instead of a prong lock as in the next picture.  These are just too difficult for most 3 & 4 year olds to line up and snap closed.

There are some mass produced boxes on the market now with built in compartments to separate foods.  Watching the children opening these, I concluded that they are not any easier than their glass counterparts.

The very best solution I've seen for helping a child with lunchtime independence is in  this next picture - each item had been carefully folded in wax paper.  The folding was such that it did not come apart in the boy's lunch box yet it was easy for him to get apart.  In our neck of the woods, wax paper can be thrown into the city compost so this is also a very 'green' solution and much better than plastic sandwich bags.

     While discussing this topic with another teacher at our school, she pointed out that when a child does need help with a container, we help that child in the form of a presentation.  In other words, we hold the container in front of the child, making sure that our hands and arms aren't blocking his view, and open the container very slowly.  Presented this way, the child can see what is involved in opening the container and, after a few more tries, may be able to open it himself.  At home, a parent can do the same thing with their child.  This gives the child an opportunity to open the container for the first time at home, rather than at school.