Category Archive:
Understanding Montessori

Relight the Candle

relight the candle

Five-year-old Tommy walked over to his mother, Judy. ”Write my name for me, Mommy.” ”Tommy, you know how to write your name.” ”But I don’t ‘member,” he said. Tommy’s mother, Judy, phoned me, near tears, about this conversation. Judy’s concern was that Tommy had forgotten something as seemingly simple as the three letters in Tom. […]


Understanding Self-Discipline

understanding self-discipline

It has been said that the only true discipline is self-discipline. With self-discipline we take ownership of our own behavior. We take responsibility for our lives. As we discipline our children we might consider that our goals should include these objectives of helping our children take ownership of their behavior and responsibility for their lives. […]


Free Workshop: Preparing Your Home The Montessori Way

preparing your home the montessori way

Ever wish there were a way to create a home environment that supported your child’s Montessori classroom experience? Are you confused about what it means to do things in a Montessori manner? Do you think there should be an easier way to help your child gain independence? In this 40-minute session I’ll show you how […]


The Deep Well Of Time

deep well of time

It’s here!  To help you with storytelling, Montessori style. Michael Dorer’s new book, The Deep Well Of Time: The Transformative Power of Storytelling in the Classroom. This summer I was lucky enough to preview an advanced copy and I loved Michael’s stories. How I wish this resource had been available when I was in the classroom. […]


To Lead A Child To Learn

steps to reading

Helen Keller wrote, ”Anybody can lead a child to a classroom. It takes a teacher to lead a child to learn.” Keller is perhaps the most famous of students of the 20th century. Her teacher, Annie Sullivan, taught Helen, who became blind and deaf at the age of 19 months, how to communicate and connect […]


Fears of the Young Child

Fear, sadness and anger are three of the most difficult emotions for children, and adults for that matter, to learn to manage. These emotions are interrelated in that fear can be the core emotion behind anger and sadness. Children need to be able to modulate their emotions in order to focus their attention, to concentrate, […]


Addressing Key Frustrations With Your Children

cherries

”If life is a bowl of cherries, why am I in the pits?” Erma Bombeck knew how to see the humor in day-to-day reality. Maintaining a positive and forward-moving life is a challenge to say the least. Life has a way of helping us misplace our senses of humor in a hurry. Some days the […]


Teaching Values

teaching values

”Do you teach values?” a telephone caller asked. Back in the early 90’s parents were upset that values were being taught in school. Controversy brewed and bubbled. Do you teach values? The question caught me off guard. How can you not teach values, I thought, because of the very nature of values? Whether we are […]


Asking For Assistance

asking assistance

Can you help me, please? These five words seem to be hard for many people to say. In airport check-in lines, at fast food restaurants, or in grocery stores, we may react negatively when someone neglects to ask, “May I help you, please?” But at those times when we feel that no one is trying […]


Leave It Ready For The Next Person

montessori newsletter

Sustainability seems to be a current buzzword. Product labels proclaim sustainability. Clothing is sustainable. Tuna is sustainable. New construction is sustainable. Marketing types seem to be playing upon our ecological concerns of making sure we don’t run out of resources, that we aren’t unwittingly spending our grandchildren’s inheritance. When I opened my first Montessori classroom, […]