The toddler age group is generally seen as one of the more challenging when it comes to parenting. We are prone to disagree. While parents and toddler's alike may struggle at times with the limited communication abilities that come with the age, it turns out that there is one big thing you can do to get your toddler engaged and happy. Put them to work.
Good outcomes, regardless of where they begin, are the result of a lot of work. Outside of starting someone down the path toward examining something, quotes are – in our opinion - useless and frequently harmful. You will never really be able to understand a subject, an event, or especially a human being (including yourself), from a quote.
Montessori facilitates an environment where children are free to explore, learn, and grow safely while providing guides to support children along the path. One assumption underlying this approach is that children are owners and active participants in their own lives who are capable of doing things on their own. We would go so far as to say that children begin to really own the choices that drive their lives and that they start growing apart from us from the second they are born. Controversial? Well, no. It is literally true the instant the cord is cut. As parents and educators we become blameworthy for developmental failures when we are accomplices in creating "adult children" rather than adults. This generally happens when we fail to become the guide that helps another human being desire to be in charge of creating their own story (hopefully one that is meaningful and fulfilling). The child that grows into an adult is the child that has had plenty of practice building the skills and traits that differentiate an adult from a 6 foot tall toddler.
At Greystone House, we tend to place a lot of emphasis on the care and maintenance of our bodies. While we believe this to be important whether you are aged 5 or 95, we would argue it is critical for the ages we serve. Like so much of what we do at Greystone House, this emphasis is simply a foundation for building good lifelong habits, and the earlier you start the better the result will be. What follows is a list of some of the ways we build this skill and how you can work on building it at home.
We have been in the early childhood education game for a long time. We have seen so many things in terms of words and actions from preschool aged children and confess we are rarely surprised any more at the variety of behaviors.
Self-esteem can be a mixed bag. When people move from a sense of justified pride earned by working their way through a task to being convinced of their own superiority with little to no justification, something has clearly gone awry. But there is a clear area where self-esteem is healthy and where, particularly in children, it can serve as an armor against all manner of negative influences. Building that positive self-esteem and thickening the armor starts early. As parents of preschool children, there is no time like the present.
If you consider yourself a hands on learner, whether completely or even partially, we suspect you will be able to relate to why we love this aspect of child development. The playground presents an opportunity for societal learning and practiced citizenship in a hands on fashion. As individuals, children on the playground are presented with a number of scenarios that they must work through.
Think back to childhood. Who did you look up to? Were there people in the media and entertainment that you looked up to and idolized? Sports stars? Actors? Pop singers? From a perspective of being worthwhile in your development, how did that work out? If you are like most people it probably didn't work out well.
We know that more than a few of our parents were Montessori educated themselves, but for those who weren't we offer up our belief that it is never too late. Below are some suggestions for how we can all become Montessori adults.
Compassion, which differs from empathy, is defined as a consciousness of the distress and suffering of others that drives a sympathetic response to help alleviate it. There is a growing body of evidence that compassion is in many ways an innate instinct rather than a learned value and it appears in varying degrees depending on the person. We see this quite strongly in some children at school where they are immediately concerned if another child so much as groans in discomfort.
Courage is a moral strength. It allows us to move forward in the face of fear, challenges and even real danger. We say that those with courage are brave. But at times it seems that we limit the definition of what it means to be brave to a narrow band of seemingly heroic acts. Courage and bravery can seem relegated to warriors and superheroes. And this is a shame, because we see acts of courage every day at school that…
While she is remembered for the innovative and lasting education method that bears her name, Maria Montessori was much more. She was a physician, a scientist, a tireless activist for women's rights, and an advocate for peace. To Dr. Montessori, the hope for a true and lasting peace was tied up in the education of children. A moral education focused on a respect for diversity, citizenship and acceptance of personal responsibility was at the center of her hope for the future.
Joy is an emotion or a feeling - right? By definition it is an emotion of great delight or happiness or the expression of a glad feeling. So why include joy in a list of values that we seek to imbue the children with if it is in fact not a value? This is precisely the conversation my wife and I found ourselves in when revisiting how we do "Greystone House things" earlier this week.
Whether talking about our leaders and their responsibility to govern fairly and within the bounds of their defined power or of ourselves and our responsibility to accept the consequences of our actions and reactions, this concept separates adults from children and commoners from despots. But the thing is, there is no switch that flips.
Our series on values started with an overview. In that overview we mentioned we were adding in a new value and breaking off another. We felt that these new values were important enough to merit their own emphasis . Because we have already covered this week's value, self-reliance, we wanted to address one of our new values. This related value is leadership. In a standard classroom where chairs sit in a row and order is maintained by a central figurehead…
When adults have six definitions for a word it is a foregone conclusion that it is not easily definable to young children. But thankfully, justice as we use it is very demonstrable. As we use the term, we are referring to the moral principle that emphasizes objective evaluation and equal, fair treatment of others.
Of all of the dangers that social media presents to children, perhaps the worst is the unrealistically inflated sense of self that the culture of likes conveys. The ease with which the same machinery can crush the ego of those who do not yet have the life experience to contextualize what they are experiencing is equally appalling. The persistent forces that convey the message that our worth is defined by what our group believes is incredibly destructive.
Of all of the values we emphasize at Greystone House, frugality is perhaps the most at odds with our culture. In a day and age where we are pelted with ads and messages to buy more, many of which we do not even consciously register, the idea of balancing our inputs and outputs can seem quite odd. But ultimately, the payoff of a frugal life is the freedom to take advantage of more choices while defining our path in life.
Wisdom is a value that it can be hard to get a grip on. We all have lightbulb moments where we suddenly realize something important. The futility of a certain action, a better way to accomplish a goal, a realization that maybe others matter just as much as we do, or even a moment of quiet reflection where we realize we will never have it all figured out. These moments are frequently the foundation of our personal growth and ultimately help us make better judgments and decisions.
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