Saturday. Chicks love frozen yogurt.

What is sweeter than a handsome man who loves puppies?




Vanilla orange frozen yoghurt!



I had some friends visit a few weeks ago from Portland, OR. And during their visit we broke out ye old ice cream maker a few times. After our discovery of the yumminess of drinking orange tea with a splash of vanilla soy milk in it (so creamsicley delicious!) we decided to replicate it in frozen yoghurt form. Here's our recipe:

In a blender:

3 cups plain yoghurt (the thicker the better)
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
large splash of vanilla extract (the kind that comes from vanilla bean if you have it)
juice of 6 oranges
grated rind of 1 orange
1 cup of half and half or cream

Pour it into the ice cream maker and voila! I am wondering about the possibility of making it without the ice cream maker...

The G rated version of this recipe that we used for school this week was:

3 cups of vanilla yoghurt
juice of 2 oranges
large splash of milk


Then poured this mixture into popsicle molds (we make a lot of popsicles at school)and had Vanilla orange yogurt popsicles. Very very delicious.

Thank you for my eyes.

In one of my books recently, there was a line that has stuck with me all these days. I like it so much. "When the mind is calm, like still water, you can see clearly." I think this idea applies to observation in the classroom. When I am calm and present, I can really see what is happening. I had a moment of synchronicity with a child, through the environment, and it made me so happy today.

I have been observing/enjoying N's explorations with the metal insets. She works carefully and for long stretches of time with one shape, placing it in different ways on the paper and creating new shapes. Then there was a lull in the work! "Oh no!" I thought, "It's over!" Her work had been inspiring others to try new variations with the metal insets and I wanted to see if this work could be extended. I made a set of variations myself, laminated them, and placed them in a basket on the metal insets cabinet. I made them for N but wanted to see if she would find them herself and if they would move her into more in depth work with the metal insets. They were on the shelf about 20 minutes before N found them, leafed through them, came running to me- "I want to do this!" And then inscribed circles in squares, and ellipses in the circles, shaded and drew lines. To watch her relishing in the work, matched perfectly with her level of interest was incredibly satisfying to me.

My endeavors to start these kinds of explorations are not usually as overtly successful as today's. I am grateful for my eyes!

Free Montessori 3 Part Cards

Inspired by this post by Montessori Candy on very simple and beautiful display envelopes for 3 part cards, I updated my online "box" of 3 part cards. I have added the Butterfly Cards which were very well received by the children who learned all of them for our field trip to the Butterfly Farm. I've also added our Shell Cards, Triangle Cards, and the rest of the Aruban Plants, Aruban Land Birds, and Insects (Which are probably more useful to local teachers). My table setting cards are too heavy to upload into the box- they crash my system every time. You can download these cards for free by clicking on the box link at the bottom right of my page.

Assistant's Album

For all of you who asked, following is the breakdown of the Assistant's album that we are using at our school:

1. Brief History of Montessori
(First Theory Lecture from AMI Training from my own Practical Life Album)

2. Key Concepts of Montessori Education
(Prepared Environment, Human Tendencies, Sensitive Periods, Mixed Age Group, Respect for the Child, Self Correcting Materials, Areas of the Casa- a summary of each concept)

3. Comparing Montessori and Traditional Education
(Handout from AMS website)

4. School Overview - Staff Names and Phone Numbers
Children's Names and Ages
School Calendar

5. Schedule of the day in detail- with detailed assistant tasks (where to be, what to do)

6. Role of the Assistant in the Classroom
-List of assistant duties both before, during, and after school
-End of day tasks (Clean up list)

7. Communicating with Children
-Classroom Ground Rules
-Hints for effective discipline (from Becky Bailey)
-It's not what you say, it's how you say it (tips about how to positive phrase, and communicate clearly with the children in a respectful manner)
-How to recognize real work with materials and concentration

8. Observation Tasks
To further familiarize the assistant, each day/week there are specific things to
notice and note when observing.

8. Helpful Articles: To be read as home work during first weeks and discussed at meetings. To be supplemented as time goes by with articles that support the further development of the assistant.

*The Four Planes of Education- by Dr.Maria Montessori
*Freedom and Discipline- by Judi Orion
*The Role of the Teacher and the Role of the Assistant- by Annette Haines Ed.D.
*Setting Limits- So Little Understood, So Greatly Needed- by Judy Orion
*Conflict Resolution in Young Children- by Lori Woodard
*Working with your Assistant- by Shannon Helfrich

9. Lessons: Modes of Activity
As the assistant becomes familiarized with her duties and tasks, more can be
added to the list of possible lessons/activities she may direct

-Songs
-Language Games
-Counting Games
-10 Ways to dismiss children and re-engage them with work
-Sound Game
-How to read a book
-How to tell true stories
-How to have a conversation about something that a child noticed
-The Question Game

Great Assistantship.

After a wonderfully normalized-like day in our environment I had the nicest surprise when my very talented assistant shared with me her observations of the day with a prelude that went something like this:

"Today I wanted to see what they were actually doing, not just like -"working with the clay", but notice exactly what was happening with the children and the materials. When Z was washing the sink, for example, I was thinking of how much sensorial information was going to his brain. He was counting brushstrokes as he washed, he counted to seventeen. (Mathematics while washing the sink!) The movement of his hands and his whole body while he was scrubbing and getting water. He repeated parts of the work several times- why those parts?, I wondered."

And then she proceeded to give me forty minutes worth of fine in-depth observations of what she saw, including at the end, a summary of each child and the areas they worked in. I am inspired!

Sayenne and I meet every day after school to go over observations. Not every day for 40 minutes, usually 20-30. This happens after we clean up the kitchen and the environment. I am lucky enough to have an assistant that is not only glad to, but prefers to meet at the end of each day and share with me in detail what she wrote in her observations notebook. I am also lucky enough to have an assistant who shares a similar sense of humor to my own and can notice things that cause peals of laughter to erupt from the office after school. Talking about the day, hearing her observations, how she felt about the day, giving some feedback from my own training and other experience and recording the most relevant aspects of the observations has become an invaluable part of my day.

Talking about the frustrating parts as well as celebrating the breakthroughs has allowed me to disconnect a lot better from school when I go home. It removes the urge to talk about school outside of school, better yet, removes the urge to give summaries of my day to any available soul after school.

We have tried several methods of communication through the years. One year she would hand me her observations notebook and I would read it after school and write feedback, comments and if possible I would add an article or even bring in a book to tie in what I was noticing from her. This worked pretty well, but I think it perhaps obligated Sayenne to have to keep notes that were coherent for me to read, and it is so hard to capture some moments in a couple of sentences.

In those days we had weekly meetings, which I would prepare for and try to have enlightening literature, observation tasks, and other things to aid Sayenne's development in the classroom. (Writing this reminds me that it is important for me to continue to supplement our meetings with things for her to take home and read and think about. )

My trainer emphasized the importance of keeping clear delineations of what the assistant's role and what the directress' role are. I have found that both roles are incredibly complex, and the exact delimitation of both roles migrates! I am very fond of the idea of taking into consideration each other's aptitudes and talents. I have also found that even when a directress may know well what her role is, it is also her responsibility to make sure that the assistant knows hers. There are some wonderful articles written about this, and if anyone out there is interested I can point you to them.

In order better understand myself what the assistants role is, during my training, one of my classmates and I put together an Assistant's album. Into it we put articles about the assistant's responsibilities, presentations that the assistant may eventually be giving, lists of possible short transition games that the assistant may play, as well as the relevant information about the classroom (the schedule, class list, clean up tasks list, etc.) Ours is well worn and has expanded over the years.

I am feeling very grateful today to be able to share this journey with my assistant, and feel quite proud of how much we've trekked together!

Lemonade Stand Awards

P.S.Montessori nominated my blog for a "Lemonade Stand Award" and wrote some pretty sweet things about this blog on her page. Thank you! Passing it along, some blogs that nourish me:

The Moveable Alphabet- Joshua Slocum's great granddaughter, Susan Dyer, shares the beautiful happenings of her environment. This is what Montessori is all about.

Montessori by Hand- Although this blog is in a permanent state of hiatus, it is the original reason why I started blogging. Insightful, practical, and lots of shared goodies.

Take me out on a field trip...

I love field trips with the children. Connecting with nature in different environments is one of my favorite things to do with them. Preparing for field trips and helping the children begin to see something in the environment that they were not aware of before is very satisfying.

I have read that it is not until you have the language to classify something that you can actually see/notice/appreciate it. If all we know about trees is that they are "trees" then they are a green blur in the landscape. But as soon as you know how to differentiate them, their barks, the shapes of their leaves, their relationship to animals and insects, THEN you can't but stop in front of a tree and find it amazing.


In my training, the trainer did not recommend taking the 3-6 year olds out on field trips because they are in a stage where they prefer what is known and comfortable for them to unknown surprises. Field trips can disrupt their sense of order and stress them out. I understand and agree with this. In order to compensate, we prepare very much for our field trips. We mark our calendar weeks in advance, we talk about what the place will be like and what our routine on that day will be like. As the date gets closer, I go into more and more detail about where we are going and what the experience will be like. I think this gives the children positive reinforcement about what behavior is expected of them, and calms them to be able to visualize what is going to happen.


In reality, I don't really expect the field trip to be anything more than a brief sensorial experience in a new environment. But I try to plan for it to be so much more. We make identification booklets of flora and fauna that we may encounter- the children draw or color the plants and animals and make small check boxes for marking off when they see it. We bring samples of plants or minerals we may see on our trip. We make classification cards of geologic structures, plants, animals or minerals we may focus on. So much to do in preparation!

Instead of using a field trip as a culmination to a "unit", we try to integrate the experience into our daily classroom life and find ways of continuing and deepening the themes. For example, we continue to expand our shell collection from our first trip to the sand dunes where we went simply to collect shells and slide on the sand. When a child brings in a new shell we label it and add it to the group. The children continue to reinforce their knowledge of shells by visiting the ever changing collection.

Making a photo book of the field trip and captioning it with words that an older child can read to himself or others is another great way to continue the experience. A set of these memory books is invaluable to a feeling of community experience.

Anyway, I was inspired to write about this since we are just beginning to bring out works related to our next field trip which will be to the Ayo Rock Formations. We are starting to look at rocks and minerals- beginning with the story of quartz, three kinds of it, their names (clear, milky, and amethyst), and a geode that we will smash open tomorrow morning. The children speculated about what would be inside the geode and about how to open it- they all agreed hammer would do the trick.

Resistance is Futile. Giving in to each moment- no matter what it brings.

Sometimes after I gripe or grieve even minimally to Yair about something regarding my work, he says to me "Sweetheart, that's all part of your work." I've been thinking about those words.

I am realizing that I sometimes resist certain parts of my work. Sometimes I feel resistance towards situations in the classroom (especially when I don't understand why they are happening), bathroom episodes with children, unkempt closets, dust on the shelves, some phone calls to parents. Yesterday I was washing cups in the kitchen at the end of the day, and I realized that I was feeling a small resistance to having to do so much clean-up at the end of every day. I remembered the words, "it is all part of the work".

Being a Montessori directress in my case involves doing all of those things. One activity cannot be without the rest, they are all necessary, integrated, interdependent. Setting limits with a child is as important as giving a lesson (wait, it IS giving a lesson!), preparing the environment, helping a child become independent with the use of the toilet, keeping parents informed of the manner of activity of their child, all are equally important. When I resist any of these small activities, I am putting myself at odds with what is actually happening.

If I am trying to hurry over one aspect, the rest are diminished. If I am aware during all phases of the work, present, listening, open, then all the work is enlightened. The work is not just a practice, each moment is my life.

Working on it.

Today was one of those days in the classroom where I was, once again, dominated by a hectic feeling. I was very happy when it was over.

Later, when I was walking with my dog, I was replaying the day in my mind and with the calm surroundings and the sea and the trees, things didn't seem like they'd gone that awry this morning. I guess it's like when parents come for observation on wondrously productive and quiet days, and then they say “It seemed a little chaotic.” It's all about present state of mind.

Children everywhere are doing the same things, going through the same stages, presenting the same behaviors in classrooms all over the world. I'm sure I'm not the first one to witness baskets used as hats, puzzle pieces as swords, pencils as projectiles (yikes). It's universal. The only thing that wavers is the way the adult handles herself in the midst of these incidents.

I would like to be more patient. I'd like to be able to handle all the interactions of the day with an internal smile. To be able to respond to every little hand on my shoulder with the same openness and readiness to listen. To be unwavering in the still water of my mind regardless of the circumstance surrounding me. To be able to model the kind of patience that I'd like the children to have. Patience for the children, and patience for myself. To have enough patience to respect the pace of my own learning.

Secondly, I want the humility to not gloat in the successes nor take the mishaps too much to heart, but to respond to both as simply the natural ebb and flow of life with young children.

I'd like to possess the clarity to appreciate all the happy wonderful and insignificantly miraculous occurrences that are happening under my very eyes during the day with the children.

Lastly, to possess the knowledge to best judge how to respond to the situations that need my attention.

I am working on it.

Renewal.

We took a hiatus from the classroom work on Friday and took a trip to the beach instead. I have found that taking a day and devoting it exclusively to enjoyment, out of our regular routine and location, offers our group a moment for a different kind of bonding. We swam, built sand castles, ate snack and lunch together under a shady tree, and I even brought my soft surfboard for the children to try. During our beach day there were no squabbles, no one got upset, everyone was happy and interacting joyfully. When we have done this in the past, the children come back to school the following week seemingly refreshed and eager to get back to the normal routine. As do the teachers, naturally. It restores the freshness to the group.

There is something about a day like this where it is easy to focus only on what is happening in the moment, to just be in the sunshine, or under the shady tree, in the company of children.

Notes on a Conference (possibly only interesting to teachers out there)

I would like to offer a very simplified and diluted (my personal) version of the very wonderful series of lectures offered by my trainer, Ginni Sackett, at the AMI Refresher Course in Houston held this month. The lectures were a true source of renewal for me and my work in the classroom. Much needed fuel for this time of the school year.

Normalization was a term used by Maria Montessori to describe what happens to children when they are fulfilling their true potential. Honestly, I have resisted this term a little bit in the past. It has sounded too much like a subversive psychological procedure to me. I have made friends with the term after the conference though, and now find it making appearances in my thoughts during the day in the classroom: “He's looking quite normalized today!” “Feels like a normalized environnment at this moment.. oh no.. wait... X is coming out the bathroom..."

The ultimate design of a seed is to become a full fledged beautiful plant. It can only achieve this if it finds a propper environment and is able to overcome any obstacles in its growth process. Likewise, the destiny of a child is to become a well formed, compassionate adult. The path intended by nature for the child to travel on to reach this destination is normalization.

The normalized child is self confident, creative, happy, caring of others, caring of its enviornoment. He has developed a positive relationship to learning.

When children are normalized in a classroom setting, you can identify them as the ones that are capable of choosing their work independently, carrying out the work in concentration, and realizing the purpose of the material, repeating the work, and then, with a big smile on their face, putting the work away. In simple terms, carrying out a complete work cycle. Some children are able to sustain this normalized condition every day, and some children only for a few minutes, hours, on and off.

Dr. Montessori called this process the most important single aspect of our whole work. As teachers, our intention is to help children find this path and travel it. It is simple to do, one would think, just remove the obstacles, including ourselves, and give the kids materials to work with! Rookie mistake #1- to think that we can just offer gorgeous materials, show how to use them, and step out of the way...

Oh the suffering of first year teachers... Oh the destruction of materials that happens that year...

The work of the Montessori directress is of a dual nature. There is a role she plays BEFORE a child is normalized, and a role she fulfills afterward. What unites both manners of teaching is the objective of helping the child become normalized. Because no one can make the journey other than the child, the teacher's role is to provide the opportunity for the child to choose this path on his own. She cannot MAKE him take it.

Before the child is normalized, the directress is like this: (please don't be shocked, it's so opposite to the image of the Montessori teacher we all want to be)

She has to be the entertainiest, super #1 good times provider, praiser of every positive action she sees the child come up with, endlessly compassionate and ever patient even when small hells are breaking loose.

Gaining the trust of the child is her first task. (Just this first point is worthy of it's own AMI Refresher Course Conference.) Establishing a relationship with parents is very helpful here. I have experienced this. By being gentle, inviting, happy, and all of those other qualities that it is difficult to be when one is watching a little person jumping up and down on a table, and offering modes of activity (see two lines below) she can get through this.

Once the child trusts the teacher, and feels like what she has to offer is going to be very fun and enjoyable, then she can begin the enticement towards independent work.

The way to be the entertainiest adult around in the classroom is to offer motives of activity (this is just fancy wording for fun/educational games). Examples of motives of activity:

Singing songs
Counting games
Grace and courtesy lessons
Language games
Movement games
Practical life lessons
Walks in the garden
Giving some toys (ex: Legos, wooden blocks)


Basically, anything that the “hokey pokey” can provide. The objective is for the child to focus his attention on his body (concentrate) for a little span of time while having lots of fun. During these activities the child experiences a little bit of the feeling of concentration and attention. (It feels good!) The games are also sneakily used as preparations for many of the materials that will come later (for example: the Sound Game.)

Gradually, one day (maybe tomorrow, maybe at the end of the year) the child will show enough control and attention for the directress to be able to trust him with a piece of real material which the child can carry out. Paring him with a material that is difficult enough to sustain his attention, but easy enough that success is possible is the key here.

And then the easy part begins. Well, slightly easier than being the super #1 good times provider...

By providing materials and an environment suitable to sustain the budding concentration of the child, the teacher begins to fade into the background becomes the more well known image of the ideal Montessori directress. The one that is indistinguishable from the wallpaper and who emerges only to say: “Come with me! I want to show you something!” Then she can become the gentle guide of the child on his journey to manhood.