Category: Quentin at 7

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A Montessori field trip: A trip to Fruitful Orchard Montessori in Nigeria

This has been a trip that has been a long time coming. 6 years in the making. And so, after months of planning, vaccinations and packing we are finally here.

I love travelling around the world to visit different Montessori environments. This one is particularity near and dear to my heart because I have been here (in spirit anyway) from the beginning. Before there was a school or children to fill it.

There is a vibrant and beautiful 3-6 classroom here and I will feature it in an upcoming post but what I wanted to focus on firstly was the Toddler Community at Fruitful Orchard. Authentic Toddler communities are hard to find in Canada and we don’t have a single one in our own community despite the fact that we have two Montessori schools that go from 3-6 all the way through high school.

It has all the tell tale signs: tiny chairs and tables, light, bright and airy, but it also has some gorgeous personal touches that the owner Junnifa Uzodike has carefully arranged.

The beautiful artwork and custom fabrics immediately caught my eye. The tiny carved reading bench with hand made cushion is just perfect for two small friends to sit together and look at books. As a side note the books featured are excellent for toddlers.

Perhaps the best part of this Prepared Environment is the tiny working sink, counter and real working oven at a toddler’s height. So often we see the opportunity to cook with heat taken away from toddlers. Here they regularly bake.

The Vocabulary shelves offer the toddlers a rich variety of new language and the chance to explore different items.

One of the most important part of a Montessori Toddler Community is the Practical Life lessons. Care of Self and Care of Others are the foundation of the Montessori Toddler years. That’s why when we knew we were coming I contacted Miniland USA and they rush delivered not only their beautiful dolls but also some warm weather outfits.

Toddlers love repeating. This little one removed the clothes of the doll, named all the body parts and put the clothes on again and again. It is so important for a young child to be able to see this Cycle of Activity through. The repeated fine motor movements and vocabulary solidifies key social neurological concepts that they move forward and build on. Dolls that a child can identify with (either by hair colour, eye colour, skin tone, genitals or physical features such as freckles, scars or implants) are incredibly important for all children. It gives them a chance to see them self and to practice all those Care of Self and Others lessons they have been working on. Often a child will mimic with a doll what they have experienced in their day.

We have been here a week and have a month left to teach in the 3-6 classroom, offer consulting and just spend time. The memories formed here will last long after we leave.

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Montessori Elementary: Astronomy

“If the idea of the universe is presented to the child in the right way, it will do more for him than just arouse his interest, for it will create in him admiration and wonder, a feeling loftier than any interest and far more satisfying.”

– Maria Montessori

The beginnings of the Montessori Elementary start with the Great Lessons. Quentin’s thirst for knowledge led him into these lessons long before he reached the Montessori Lower Elementary 6-9 year old classroom. You can see him here using the Waseca Biome Cosmic Story Mat for the first half of the First Great Lesson which he absolutely loves to this day. And so when Waseca Biomes contacted us to let us know they had graciously slipped their new Solar System Mat into the mail for us, we were thrilled.

It’s a massive multi step material. As with any of the Waseca materials, it comes with a well laid out Guide to Presentations. This gives step by step instructions for the teacher to use. It also comes with so much more!

As with all Waseca Biomes materials the paper materials that accompany the vinyl mat and wooden discs are beautiful, filled with information for all different levels of learning and perfectly fit on a Montessori work mat.

Sixty six fact file cards come with this set. So many more than we could fit into these photos! They have information from the objects in the solar system to concepts like orbits. The lessons that can stem from these cards are adaptive and can almost be limitless. There is also a three level fact finding game set much like with the other Waseca mats. Quentin enjoys moving the space station, meteor and other objects around the mat, researching new ideas and much much more.

The paper materials come in a storage box similar to the Tree of Life Mat. Easy to pack everything up and put it back on the shelf when the lesson is over.

We are so in love with this set! It is perfect for our space loving child in my classroom, my students have loved aspects of this work as well.

You can find it here on the Waseca Biomes website!

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Montessori Book Club: Summer Adventure Books

We are fortunate to live in a beautiful and wild part of the world. One of our absolute favourite things to do is to throw some snacks and art supplies and books in a pack and head out exploring some of these wild spaces.

We’ve been crushing on “The Lost Book of Adventure” for awhile, and so when Quatrokids contacted us on Instagram and offered to send us a copy we were absolutely thrilled!

It’s illustrations are beautiful and the call to adventure at the beginning of the book is just what a certain newly minted 7 year old boy needed to become immediately drawn in.

We love that the book is broken into different sections of adventure with lots of antidotes, and information to spark a child’s imagination to try it themselves.

Quentin had so many questions but ultimately this book has led to big adventure planning.

It has also brought back some very fond memories of our own adventures to the coasts, beautiful forests in our area and other places we have travelled.

This is a long weekend in Canada. It is officially the start of Canada’s camping season.

What better way for us to kick off this upcoming amazing summer of adventure (for us both here at home and very far away stay tuned) then to sit up in bed with the flashlight and this book planning.

This would make an excellent addition to any adventurous child’s bookshelf and is ideally suited towards children ages 6+. It can be found for purchase here!

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Montessori Art Activities: Creating with Clay

I love the feel of clay in my hands. The simple way it moulds into new forms and the meditative way you can roll it in your palm.

Process art is extremely important in Montessori especially in the early developmental years. It strengthens so many aspects of the newly developing Prefrontal Cortex region of the brain and helps children learn to regulate emotions. Process art that allows a child to expand all of their fine motor movements is even better as it also refines the sensorial input areas of the brain and aids in concentration.

And so when we were contacted by Simply Playful offering to gift us their Clay Kit found here , we were thrilled.

It comes neatly contained in a lockable clear carrying case and is a kit designed for four users which we love. It’s fully stocked with everything from round placemats (not shown in the above pic) to metal buckets, tools, accessories like sequins and sparkles and of course enough clay in the primary colours plus white to allow four users to work easily.

It includes the book “Mix it Up and some idea cards which as luck would have it included a penguin.

This beautiful set invites the child to work and the easy open containers keep everything sorted by accessible. Quentin loved settling in after a long school day to quietly work with the cool clay. Right before bed this was the perfect wind down activity.

We love that this Canadian company understands the value of open ended process art and we love all of their different invitations to create found on their website here!

This set is perfect for children ages 3+ who no longer put things in their mouth.