Thanks to all the parents (Cultural Events Committee and Nutrition Committee) who made it so special.

Here’s the recipe for the Grandmother’s Famous Cranberry Bread (makes 1 loaf):

Preparation

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Add egg, orange peel, and orange juice all at once; stir just until mixture is evenly moist. Fold in raisins and cranberries. Spoon into a greased 9 X 5 X3 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hr 10 mins or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack. If you choose, you may substitute cranberries for the raisins to have an all cranberry bread.

Here’s what Polly provided the week of October 17th.  

• Monday: water crackers and provolone cheese, a bag of apples and yogurt, water crackers
• Tuesday: pear raisin bread pudding, raisins in mini box
• Wednesday: sweet potato puree with carrot and celery sticks
• Thursday: veggie sushi platter (from Mr. WOK)
• Friday: banana bread, banana

This week Clara brought us: bananas, popcorn chips, vegi platter, hummus, and organic applesauce.  And the Nutrition Committee also helped the children prepare pumpkin smoothies. 

We wonder what Benita will bring us next week!

If you’d like to sign-up for “snack duty”, join the Nutrition Committee via the Parents section of the website.

On Wednesday, 10/26/11, parent volunteers made pumpkin smoothies with the children at the Montessori House. 

With their Montessori training and expertise in ”practical life”, the children did the measuring, the blending, and the pouring themselves.  of course the parents and teachers helped them with the drinking!  The smoothies were a great hit! 

Here’s the recipe if you’d like to try this at home!

• Measure out the following:
  • ¼ cup milk
  • 2 tablespoons canned pumpkin
  • 1 teaspoon (rounded) sugar
  • Pinch of cinnamon
  • Smaller pinch of nutmeg
  • Put measured ingredients in blender to blend till smooth.
  • Drink up!

The Montessori Mafia

By Peter Sims

 It may seem like a laughable “only in New York” story that Manhattan mother, Nicole Imprescia, is suing her 4-year-old daughter’s untraditional private preschool for failing to prepare her for a private school admissions exam.

But her daughter’s future and ours might be much brighter with a little less conditioning to perform well on tests and more encouragement to discover as they teach in Montessori schools. Ironically, the Montessori educational approach might be the surest route to joining the creative elite, which are so overrepresented by the school’s alumni that one might suspect a Montessori Mafia: Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, videogame pioneer Will Wright, and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, not to mention Julia Child and rapper Sean “P.Diddy” Combs.

Is there something going on here?  Is there something about the Montessori approach that nurtures creativity and inventiveness that we can all learn from?

…

By the end of kindergarten, among 5-year-olds, “Montessori students proved to be significantly better prepared for elementary school in reading and math skills than the non-Montessori children,” according to the researchers.  “They also tested better on “executive function,” the ability to adapt to changing and more complex problems, an indicator of future school and life success.”

Of course, Montessori methods go against the grain of traditional educational methods.  We are given very little opportunity, for instance, to perform our own, original experiments, and there is also little or no margin for failure or mistakes.  We are judged primarily on getting answers right.  There is much less emphasis on developing our creative thinking abilities, our abilities to let our minds run imaginatively and to discover things on our own.

…

From the Wall Street Journal April 5, 2011, 10:57 AM ET

Getty: Montessori learners

Why Montessori for the Kindergarten year?

by Tim Seldin with Dr. Elizabeth Coe

 Its re-enrollment time again, and in thousands of Montessori schools all over America parents of four-almost-five-year-olds are trying to decide whether or not they should keep their sons and daughters in Montessori for kindergarten or send them off to the local schools.

The advantages of using the local schools often seem obvious, while those of staying in Montessori are often not at all clear. When you can use the local schools for free, why would anyone want to invest thousands of dollars in another year’s tuition?  Its a fair question and it deserves a careful answer. Obviously there is no one right answer for every child. Often the decision depends on where each family places its priorities and how strongly parents sense that one school or another more closely fits in with their hopes dreams for their children.

 Naturally, to some degree the answer is also often connected to the question of family income as well, although we are often amazed at how often families with very modest means who place a high enough priority on their children’s education will scrape together the tuition needed to keep them in Montessori.
So here are a few answers to some of the questions parents often ask about Montessori for the kindergarten age child.

 [Dr. Seldin goes on to address the following questions, click here for his answers.]

• In a nut shell, what would be the most important short-term disadvantage of sending my five-year-old to the local schools?
   
• What would be the most important advantages of keeping my five-year-old in Montessori?
   
• In a class with such a wide age range of children, won’t my five-year-old spend the year taking care of younger children instead of doing his or her own work?
   
• Isn’t it better for kids to go to school with the children from their neighborhood?
   
• Since most children will eventually have to go to the neighborhood schools, wouldn’t it be better for them to make the transition in kindergarten rather than in first grade?
   
• If I keep my child in Montessori for kindergarten, won’t he/she be bored in a traditional first grade program?

[Click here for full article]

Tasks for Six-Year-Olds

Choose clothing according to weather.

Shake rugs.

Water plants and flowers.

Peel vegetables.

Cook simple food (toast, hot dog, boiled eggs).

Prepare own lunch for school.

Hang up own clothes in closet.

Gather wood for fireplace.

Rake leaves and weed.

Take pet for a walk.

Tie own shoes.

Responsible for minor injuries.

Keep garbage container clean.

Straighten and clean silverware drawer.

Tasks for Five-Year-Olds

• Help plan meals and grocery shopping.
• Make own sandwich and simple breakfast.  Clean up.
• Pour own drink.
• Prepare dinner table.
• Tear up lettuce for salad.
• Measure and pour ingredients for a recipe.
• Make bed and clean room.
• Dress and choose outfit.
• Scrub sink, toilet and bathtub.
• Clean mirrors and windows.
• Separate clothing for laundry.
• Answer and dial phone properly.
• Yard work.
• Pay for small purchases.
• Help clean out the car.
• Take out the garbage.
• Help make family entertainment decisions.
• Learn to tie shoes.
• Feed pets and clean their living area.

Tasks for Three- and Four-Year Olds

• Setting the table, even with good dishes.
• Put the groceries away.
• Help with grocery shopping and grocery list.
• Polish shoes and clean up afterwards.
• Follow a schedule for feeding pets.
• Help do yard and garden work.
• Make the beds and vacuum.
• Help do dishes and fill the dishwasher.
• Dust the furniture.
• Have goal chart with tasks.
• Spread butter on sandwiches.
• Prepare cold cereal.
• Help prepare plates of food for family dinner.
• Make a simple dessert (gelatin, ice cream, yogurt).
• Hold the hand mixer to whip potatoes or mix batter.
• Get the mail.
• Should be able to play without constant adult supervision.
• Fold laundry.
• Polish silver, brass, and a car.
• Sharpen pencils.

The task and responsibilities are cumulative, so be sure to see our prior post on what to expect of two-year-olds.

Tasks for Two-Year-Olds

• Pick up toys and return to proper place.
• Put books and magazines in a rack.
• Sweep the floor.
• Place napkins and silverware on table.
• Clean up what they drop when eating.
• Give a choice of two foods at breakfast.
• Clear own place at table.
• Toilet training.
• Brush teeth, brush hair, wash hands.
• Undress self.
• Wipe up own spills.
• Put food away from grocery sacks to shelves.

That’s a pretty impressive list!  Surely you can’t wait to read what we can expect of 3-4-year-olds!

“Often what we call naughtiness on the part of the individual child is rebellion against our own mistakes in educating him. The coercive means which we adopt toward children are what destroy their natural tranquility. A healthy child, in his moments of freedom, succeeds in escaping from the toys inflicted upon him by his parents, and in securing some object which arouses the investigating instinct of his mind; a worm, an insect, some pebbles, etc.; he is silent, tranquil and attentive. If the child is not well, or if his mother obliges him to remain seated in a chair, playing with a doll, he becomes restless, cries, or gives way to convulsive outbursts (“bad temper”). The mother believes that educating her child means forcing him to do what is pleasing to her, however far she may be from knowing what the child’s real needs are, and unfortunately we must make the same statement regarding the school-teachers!”

– Dr. Maria Montessori, Pedagogical Anthropology, page 443

Fathers had little role in child care when Dr. Montessori wrote the passage above, but if we substitute “parent” for mother, the quote still applies. In the last century a liberation of gender has swept through western civilization. Though incomplete, this wave of liberation has swept much faster and further than a similar liberation for childhood.

Scientific evidence has long since demonstrated the ineffectiveness of authoritarian treatment of children. Chillingly, some parents and most traditional schools still persist in labeling children “good” or “bad” based on their ability to passively accept arbitrary constraints and to parrot back facts and dogma placed in front of them. Many educators treat children as potential criminals who need to be forcibly “civilized”. 

As Montessorians, we uncategorically reject this notion. A child’s behavior communicates his or her needs clearly to those who listen.  One child may break her toys in order to learn how they work inside.  Another may get dirty while exploring the mysteries of nature. A boy may chatter in class because he is unengaged by the work, or because he is simply hungry for social interaction. Consider that social intelligence, like all other kinds, also needs stimulation in order to develop.

Is there a disruptive child in your classrooms? Many well-meaning and thoughtful people have suggested that Montessori is not for all children. Others, both idealistic and with great depth of classroom experience, suggest the opposite, that the Montessori classroom is the ideal environment for every youth, and perhaps adult learners as well!

We would rather not paint with too broad a brush. Instead, we wouldsuggest that at least many of these more “difficult” children may be able to find a wonderful place within your classrooms. The key is for teacher and parents collaborate to discover – and unlock! – the key of the child’s interest.

Thoughts for the day:

Think back onto your own childhood. If you weren’t lucky enough to be in a Montessori classroom yourself, can you remember times that you misbehaved, or were judged to be “misbehaving?” What happened?  Were you being purposefully troublesome, or was there some need of yours that was unmet?  How can we become more tuned in to the children? How
can we better understand what their behavior is communicating and sobetter support them in meeting their unmet needs?