In Spark this week, it was noted that some tables and chairs were “wiggly” and with the presentation of how to use different screwdrivers, the learners took ownership of this task in the studio. They demonstrated great care of their space by making sure the tables and chairs in the studio are being well taken care of.

During Morning Circle time, the guides have started reading chapter books aloud. The learners voted on which book to read and decided that both studios should read from the Magic Treehouse Series. There has been great excitement over what is going to happen next in the story and there is always a request for one more chapter!

Two focuses this session in Spark that have naturally come up between the studios are inclusiveness and kindness. There have been rich discussions with role play scenarios, and an intentional practice of these traits. The learners have been exploring different ways to be kind throughout each day, including during conflict resolutions.

This week the learners invited their parents to their studio for a Spark Play Journal Exhibition! Guests were shown beautiful examples of the Spark Play daily reflections in the learners’ Play Journals and were invited to observe the end-of-day Closing Circle.

On Wednesday, the Sparks were asked to join Discovery for an Exhibition Rehearsal! With the Sparks as inquisitive guests, the Discovery learners were able to practice their Exhibition presentations and share their hard work with their friends!

For the last day of the session, the upstairs studio and downstairs studio had a big lunch all together, followed by a bubble scavenger hunt and our weekly Friday Dance Party! 

We are excited for Session 5 where we will be exploring Zoology!

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” — Cicero

In the Montessori environment, lessons on grace and courtesy are vital at every level. These lessons go beyond the common “please” and “thank you” by demonstrating empathy and courtesy as integral life skills.  Gratitude is one of the many lessons of grace and courtesy. We are hardwired to teach “thank you” as a habit, but to truly understand the value of thankfulness, one must first build a foundation of generosity, humility, wisdom, joy, integrity and trust.

To help children learn to value gratitude, we practice incorporating it into our daily Montessori activities. With younger children, we can learn to be vocal about the things we appreciate. We begin by modeling, using our words and tone of voice to appreciate what we see around us:

• – I appreciate how Adam cleaned up after he made a snack.
• – Thank you for these lovely flowers. I truly appreciate your thoughtfulness, Samantha.
• – Freddie the fish really appreciates his water tank being cleaned. Thank you for helping with that today!

We can help children express their gratitude by using descriptive compliments, or “appreciations.” Appreciations often make others feel important and acknowledged by recognizing their efforts. Maren Schmidt, of Understanding Montessori: A Guide for Parents, writes, “Descriptive compliments describe what you see, what you feel, and then use a word that sums up the entire experience.” (Schmidt, 2007) Descriptive compliments describe rather than evaluate, which make them a bit different from a general compliment, or praise. In our Spark studios, we practice appreciations throughout our day by naming and noticing behaviors and actions that we appreciate.

Let us all remember that Thanksgiving is more than a day of feasting- let true thanksgiving and gratitude live in our hearts every day!

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” — Gilbert Keith Chesterton

In today’s blog post we are diving deep into the ebbs and flows of the three-hour Montessori work cycle. Once the children settle into their day, you can see them with a sense of happiness and satisfaction absorbed in their work. There is a productive hum in the studio. Then, about an hour into the morning work cycle, there is a noticeable rise in movement and voices, and it appears the children begin to lose interest in their work. Dr. Maria Montessori termed this natural restlessness as “False Fatigue”.

She further observed that this period lasts for about 20 minutes and the children used this time to get to the next level of their work, to find their focus and concentration in their own time. Dr. Montessori explained this phenomenon as the child searching for their “maximum interest.” She went on to explain that this period of “false fatigue” is necessary for the child to get absorbed in more challenging work in the studio.  

Consider false fatigue in the same way you would take a break for fresh air, or to stand up and get away from your desk. The child experiences the same “mental” need, the need for a reset so they may get back to properly concentrating on their work again.

As guides, we are trained to observe and stay back and put our full faith in the child and the Montessori environment. When the guides step back and avoid disrupting the period of false fatigue, the children have the opportunity to return to their work with more focus and concentration than the prior period.

It is part of our inner work (takes so much practice) to not work on mitigating the restlessness. A Montessori Musing Place writes: “By anxiously stepping in and ‘managing’ at this point, teachers (guides) replace the child’s will with their own.” That observation sums up the impact of “doing something” about false fatigue. Interfering may actually make the period of false fatigue last longer.

“Work chosen by the children, and carried out without interference, has its own laws. It has a beginning and ending like a day, and it must be allowed to come full circle.” ~ E.M. Standing, Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work

“In Montessori education, children learn to learn by learning… Academic skills are essential to learning and knowing, not the aim of learning and knowing.”

The Authentic American MontessoriSchool, p. 43

Montessori materials are a crucial part of the prepared environment forming the very basis of budding attributes of independence, curiosity, concentration, intrinsic motivation, care of self, care of the environment (social responsibility and citizens of the world), and academic preparation. Beyond the direct subject and skill presented by a given activity, lie indirect- yet critical- opportunities for the formation of these attributes, leading to the development of the whole child.  

The direct goals of the Practical Life activities like spooning, hand washing, window washing, sweeping, sewing, brooming, etc. are: independence, broadening the child’s experience of their immediate environment, care of self and the environment, control of movement, and grace and courtesy. Indirect goals include: hand-eye coordination, motor control, preparing the wrist, and development of the pincer-grip for writing. Understanding of freedom and boundaries also largely comes into play in this area of learning. 

The direct goals of Sensorial activities like the pink tower, color tablets, rough and smooth boards, or the thermic tablets include: refinement of senses, language for the different qualities that the matter possesses, (rough, smooth, hot, cold, dark, darker, darkest), and strengthening of muscle memory. 

The direct goal of Math and Language is academic preparation. The indirect goals include:  independence, critical thinking, problem-solving, curiosity, and intrinsic motivation. The goals can be broken down even further. For example, when a child is using the Movable Alphabet, our goal is not to make sure a word is spelled correctly, but rather, to work on actual word-building (using letter sounds to make words/writing) and further decoding them as a natural next step to reading. Words could look like “osum” (for awesome), “luv” (for love). This all ties in as an example of literary independence and critical thinking. 

The goals for Culture – Botany, Science, and Geography- are very similar to that of the other areas, and also open young minds to the world outside, and their role/relationship with and within it, as the citizens of the world. 

“The developing child not only acquires the faculties of man:  strength, intelligence, language; but, at the same time, he adapts the being he is constructing to the conditions of the world about him.”  

Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind, p. 61

     .