School Development.

While I'm chipping away at my last days of study before Assitants to Infancy exams this week, developments at the school continue!

View from the opposite street corner... As Little Red Ridinghood would say "My, what a beautiful fence you have!"


This is the big gate.


And this is the little gate (the entrance, basically.)

Windows? Check.



And the nice view from inside out. (Thanks for the pictures Yair!)

Cupboards.

After a few nights of unfit sleep due to paranoia regarding the shelf dimensions that I'd given to Yair and Don Roberto before I left for Scandinavia, I procured these pictures of the progress. My measuring is notoriously haphazard and sloppy (I didn't go to Montessori school as a child). I double checked with friends (thanks Jenny and Annie) and can now reclaim my well deserved siesta. The shelves are looking solid and spiffy. I suspect they will fulfill their cosmic task nicely.
Here's Don Roberto, Yair's carpenter buddy, lining up the planks for the next shelf.Stacked up two tier shelves for Practical Life.


The dimensions for these Montessori shelves, for anyone out there with the interest are:
60cm L x 55 cm H x 25 cm W for the two tiered shelves (for the smaller Practical Life)
120 cm L x 65 cm H x 30 cm W for the three tiered shelves (for holding Number Rods and Red Rods in Math and Sensorial Area)
110 cm L x 65 cm H x 25 cm W for three tiered shelves for other general use (more Sensorial, Language, Math, and Practical Life).
And a couple of taller Practical Life shelves to hold buckets and larger trays.

Happy Birthday Beef Supreme!

Enjoy that party tuna ye shady little trickster.

More Amsterdam.

Crashed the Association Montessori International's General Meeting. In the picture distinguished delegates: one of the Swedes, the Sri Lankan, Yours Truly from Aruba/Costa Rica, a German, and the Texas Norwegian. And that's just 5 out of the dozens of other distinguished folks there.

Maria Montessori's Own House.

In a brief stint to Amsterdam last week, our whole Assistants to Infancy team got to visit Maria Montessori's Holland residence. Her house is located in Konniningweg (try to say that without sounding like a dimwit), what is now the Hall of Justice of the AMI.

The building is narrow and with characteristic Amster-stairs (a wall that only appears to have steps) that must have kept her shipshape while she lived here. Of note was her original library chock full of beautifully aged first editions of her books and translations of her books in dozens of languages (eg. "O Segredo a Infância" - the samba version of "The Secret of Childhood").