Yoga in the home.

 Once considered by many to be weird and "foreign" , Yoga is now accepted as a beneficial form of physical and mental discipline.  Many Montessori classrooms I've visited have yoga exercises as an activity and, I am pleased to say, it is an activity that is in almost constant use.

   The benefits of yoga are many - decrease in blood pressure, increased flexibility, improved hand-eye coordination -  but I am not an expert on the subject so will let you do your own research to discover those (and other) benefits.  I have observed, however, that yoga in the classroom serves many children as effectively as any of the other activities on the shelves.

In the classroom, the Yoga activity is presented by the teacher to one or two children at a time.  The materials required are just a yoga mat and a few pose cards.

 

Once the children have been shown how to do the yoga poses, they are welcome to unroll the mat and choose a few poses to practice when ever they want.

Yoga is easily transferred from the classroom ( or the Yoga studio) to the home and can be done by a child alone or with an adult.  I like the thought of a child having his own yoga mat and his own cards so that he can practise at whim or join in when his parents are practising.  With all that said, here are some pictures of M. at home with his yoga mat.

M. has already learned how to roll and unroll a work mat in the classroom so transferring that skill to a yoga mat is easy.

Then he takes off his shoes - just like in the classroom.

And begins to practise his poses.

Look at the joy on his face!  What a great way to get in a little activity and a lot of fun.

Thanks, M.

Chores at home and their implications to academic work

For Christmas, G. received a fish tank and fish from his grandparents. He is almost 7 now and attends our elementary classroom.  His mother understands the importance of his taking care of the fish all by himself.  Care, feeding and cleaning of the tank will be his responsibility.  His mother might need to remind him now and then but she will not be doing the work herself because what would that teach G.?

In our conferences at school, we often ask parents what chores the elementary children do at home because there is a direct correlation between school work and house work.  The responsibilities that a child is given at home (chores) help to establish a sense of order and peace that the child carries into more academic work.  Chores also give the child a sense of time management, the ability to prioritize tasks, as well as general organizational skills.

I am not talking about basic things like making one's own bed, putting dirty clothes in the hamper or hanging up one's jacket when coming in from outside.  I am talking about real cores - things that need to be done around the house to keep the home clean and tidy.  These might include cleaning or folding the laundry, washing the floors, vacuuming, washing the windows (inside and outside), pulling weeds from the garden, raking leaves, or shovelling snow.

There are a couple of important thing for parents to remember, however.  NEVER redo a chore that a child has completed - no matter how much you want to and DON'T nag.  Take a page out of a Montessori teacher's album - make a mental note of how well the child did the chore  and where he may need more practice.  At a later date, show him how to do the chore again so that he has another opportunity to observe the way you complete it.

Being responsible for various chores at home makes a child feel validated in his role within the family.  That confidence and validation is brought into the classroom without it being a conscious thought.  When I am in the classroom at the end of the day, it is easy to pick out the children who routinely take care of chores at home.  These are the children who begin to clean up the classroom without any fuss or reminders and are often the children who instinctively take better care of their belongings.  Literature tells us that these are the children who, when they  begin to live away from home, know how to wash their own clothes, clean their own rooms and cook their own food as well as know how to organize their studies or work requirements more effectively and easily. 

A Blog Worth Reading

It has been forever since any of our families have sent pictures so I thought I'd redirect you to another wonderful blog.  It is called A Montessori Home and is written by Cathy -another Montessori Teacher and parent.  In the blog, Cathy answers many of the questions that come up when raising a child within the Montessori philosophy. 
Give it a read.  I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I do.

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!