“There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing” –Alfred Wainwright
In education today, there’s a forward momentum towards STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). There are robotics clubs, programming camps, and circuitry courses. We want our children to enter the world prepared in math and science. However, if you look to the natural world, there are so many ways for your child to become a natural scientist and mathematician.
The etymology of “science” comes from the Latin scire, “to know”, and etymologists note that it probably originally meant “to separate one thing from another, to distinguish.” Yet, in our natural world, there is so much to know, to distinguish, that has fallen through the cracks in the education of our youth, and perhaps even ourselves. In the Montessori classroom, distinguishing and classifying starts in the Children’s House, in practically every subject area. This practice not only helps the child to fine tune their observation skills and hone in their level of concentration, but the child is organizing and classifying information in their brain.
In the Elementary classroom, children continue to use their observational and analytical skills to study, classify, and understand the distinguishing characteristics of the natural world. Elementary children are provided a high level introduction to this field of study. For instance, in botany and zoology, the child learns how each organism lives and what satisfies that organisms needs. Then the child learns about the function and parts, such as the function of limbs, skin, or leaf to that particular living organism. At this point, the child may explore variety. This exposure to variety is what impels the child to classify. A leaf is not merely a leaf, but a maple leaf – or even distinguished further, a red maple. Nor is a feather just a feather, but that very plain, brown feather is a bald eagle feather. By learning and practicing this skill, the child is practicing scientific observation.
In the Adolescent Community, the child explores science and nature through Occupations Studies. Occupations is essentially a study of the land and offers the student a chance to apply scientific concepts such as soil and water chemistry, botany, and microbiology to agricultural practices. The Adolescent Community is committed to the study of the environment and science studies focus on environmental ethics, conservation, and renewable energy. The child conducts their own science experiments and writes full lab reports to explore cause-and-effect relationships. This serves as a means to be fully connected with wanting to distinguish, to know, more about our world.
In order to fully experience science, and even more, love it, the child needs to be in constant connection with the outdoors. No matter the weather, no matter the season, experiencing nature is the best complementary experience to teaching STEM. Pick up a child friendly field guide at a local used book store. Find an even more detailed one for yourself. Then explore – together. Your children will ask the most amazing, inquisitive questions – and you’ll be there with them, modeling scientific observation and inquiry.
To learn more about Montessori education, please visit us.
“Learning cursive is good for children’s fine motor skills, and writing in longhand generally helps students retain more information and generate more ideas. Studies have also shown that kids who learn cursive rather than simply manuscript writing score better on reading and spelling tests, perhaps because the linked-up cursive forces writers to think of words as wholes instead of parts.” – Katy Steinmetz, Time Magazine
A sample of early cursive writing from a Lower Elementary (first grade) student at Greenspring Montessori School.
At Greenspring Montessori School, we have extended our commitment to teaching cursive writing to our Children’s House students. Starting at age 3, students now have access to cursive sandpaper letters, cursive name tags, and lessons on cursive handwriting.
It been proven that cursive writing engages more of the brain and helps students become better at spelling. As they are writing, children are able to slow down and focus on the precision, allowing them to think about what they are trying to say, instead of simply copying letter for letter. Our Children’s House guides look out for signs that an individual student is ready to begin learning cursive, as they also work on their print handwriting.
True to the Montessori model, our guides teach to the individual child. We know our students learn in different ways and at different speeds. In any one of our Montessori Children’s House classrooms, the students are spread about working on all kinds of different activities that interest them. If a student, for example, is drawn to the cursive sandpaper letters, the guide may give the child a lesson on the different parts of the letters, or on spelling out words using the large tangible pieces. If they are working on their pencil grip, the guide may suggest they try a word they know in cursive.
By the time the child enters Lower Elementary, they are working on the precision of their handwriting, creating more elaborate writing pieces to express themselves.
“Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of education.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
During many of our parent education events, we talk quite a bit about fostering the development of soft skills in our children. Soft skills – also referred to as “people skills” – include a person’s social graces, habits, personality traits, and interpersonal skills.
When thinking about education for our children, parents often have high academic aspirations. But of course, we also want our children to be good. This goes without saying. We want them to be caring, compassionate individuals. We want them to be problem-solvers and leaders. It may seem obvious to parents, but how many schools are actually focusing on developing these skills?
At Greenspring Montessori School, we are constantly emphasizing these values in our children. We’ve also provided more resources below showing how essential these skills are in our adult lives, and how to focus on their development with your child.
In our modern world, it is so easy to get sucked in to conflict – online, on the news, with our family and friends. It is important that at a very young age, we begin to learn how to settle our differences and appropriately handle strong emotions.
Peace education is a major component of the Montessori classroom. Adults model peaceful and respectful behavior, and because Montessori classrooms are composed of mixed age groups, older students serve as role models for younger children.
Most classrooms have a peace corner or peace table, at which two students can go to resolve a conflict or a single child can go to calm down and feel peaceful. One strategy is the use of a peace rose. Children learn to take turns holding the peace rose while speaking about how they feel. They stay at the peace table until they have heard each other and resolved their conflict. With very young children, adults model and coach the children with words they can use. Older students can do this independently. At the Elementary level, when the imagination takes off, students enjoy role playing and solving problems in small groups. Elementary and Middle School age students may participate in student-led community meetings, in which conflicts are discussed, brainstormed, and resolved as a group.
Going hand-in-hand with peace education is the Montessori Grace & Courtesy curriculum. Students practice simple lessons such as how to greet others, say please and thank you, tuck in chairs. At the core of these lessons is respect for others, self, and the environment. Montessori students engage in community service at every level – within the classroom for youngest students and outside the classroom and the school for older students.
Below are some additional resources related to Peace Education in the Montessori classroom. For more information on our programs at Greenspring Montessori School, please contact us at inform@www.greenspringmontessori-b.dev or give us a call at 410-321-8555.
Video: Educating for Peace: The Essence of Montessori
These are just a few of the many wonderful picture books about Peace for children! Current parents are always welcome to visit our library to check out books on peace education.
