Many Montessori House students have met Ivy and Madeline — Ms. Maria’s two dogs. Ivy’s the black greyhound and Madeline’s the shaggy, black and white mixed breed (poodle and Havanese, perhaps?). All three (Ms. Maria, Ivy and Madeline) love to hike the trails along the Hudson in the Palisades Interstate Park. This adventure took them about 3 miles south from the Alpine Boat Basin along the Shore Trail to the best waterfall in the NJ section of the park — Greenbrook Falls.
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We couldn’t resist taking more pictures of our rabbit doe Cindy (doe is the technical name for a mama bunny) and her seven rabbit kits (short for kittens, the technical name for baby bunnies).
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This year we had a mama bunny in the classroom and she had baby bunnies! Since Montessori House children weren’t at school (due to Covid-19), we let the baby bunnies play in the classroom.
To help parents make this home-bound time tolerable for all members of the family, and to keep their young children productively engaged and active, our Director — Ms. Maria Morningstar — has started a series called “At Home“. The series is published in our website NEWS section. Since they’re published using a blog, chapters appear in reverse order, with the most recent At Home the top entry. Each chapter starts out with a short introduction and you then click on “Read the rest of this entry>>” to see the entire post,
Here’s what we’ve published so far (with links to each full chapter):
Montessori House students of all ages love Practical Life (PL). For our youngest students, a large part of their time is spent on PL. Practical Life lessons are all demonstration and imitation. By doing PL, children learn the concept of a “work”: having a lesson, getting it from the shelf, working (only as instructed), mastery, and clean-up. An important aspect of Montessori education is engaging the whole child (physical and mental) to reinforce learning, as occurs with PL works. Starting with PL, children establish a set of habits and a framework for further learning, as they become capable of lessons in other areas like math (numbers), and reading (sounds, letters, etc.), and more.
Creating an organized area for you child to “go to school” (while at home) will help you and your child.
Your child’s work area should have the following attributes: Read the rest of this entry »
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In our Montessori House classroom we distinguish between handwriting and word/sentence/paragraph building. Handwriting is physical and requires the child to have fine-motor skills. The “building” skills for words, etc. depends on cognitive development. The physical skill and cognitive skills may develop at different rates. Don’t worry now, these skills will all fall into place, usually by 3rd Grade.
Here are suggestions for how you can give your child lessons. Remember in the Montessori classroom, when we say “lessons” we mean introducing your child to a “work”. Once introduced, your child works on his/her own to master the work on which you’ve given the lesson. Read the rest of this entry »
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8:30 – 10:35: Children’s Work Time – more focused and individual/traditional Montessori works:
Work Time Goals: independence, self-direction, learning by trying (perseverance), creativity, purposeful (not destructive) exploration, patience, skill-building, and dealing with frustration.
How To: Bring your child to the School/Work Area (see “Creating Your Child’s Work Area”) to choose works.
During Work Time: Read the rest of this entry »
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Parents at home may find it easier to use the same vocabulary we use at school. Our teachers consistently use these terms to provide structure for your children, and to apply clear rules and standards to their conduct in the classroom. We hope parents can take advantage of their children’s training at school, and we hope consistent words while at home will make the transition back to school that much smoother. Here are ten (10) important words or phrases: Read the rest of this entry »
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