Happy V Day from us!

Our new Montessori cabinet

It's not big but it's perfect! 

The doors fold right back so it feels really welcoming & right now I've mostly got Practical Life activities set up so I don't need more space. There is more space up top behind the glass doors for when I get more organised and can start including some Sensorial materials. 

I reeeally want to have a Pink Tower and the Red Rods and more but with school fees I think I'm going to have to make all of my Montessori materials so I'll have to work out what I will be able to have do. Any advice will be gratefully accepted :)

The best laid plans

Well, to quote myself : So it is that the best laid plans always change...

On Hug's first day of school Lovely *insisted* that he was starting school that day also. Oooookay... Ummm... about that! T noted that he'd never seen him so sure about anything (which is saying something!) so I decided to go with it. Yup, I had just cancelled his place at Hug's old preschool (one of the deciding factors had been that I hadn't seen any interest in 'starting school' whatsoever, until this precise morning that is). 

But strangely everything fell into place. There is a small preschool close to us that runs a Steiner (Waldorf) program with a very small number of children. I made a few calls and went to have a look & Lovely was in his element immediately. It's very gentle and intimate and he actually told me to kiss him and go! Such a surprise. A lovely surprise actually. Even though I had decided that we would be at home together this year, & had kind of set my heart on it, I was so inspired by his determination & totally wanted to follow his energy. He obviously wants to assert some independence and I'm very proud of him.

So, the newest plan for his week is: 

+ 1 day at home with Hug and I doing Hug's homeschool program

+ 2 days at his little Steiner preschool

+ 2 days at Home with Mama doing Montessori

+ 2 'Loveheart' days  That's what we call the weekend when we are one big family again.

So, he started this week & I totally paced and wrung my hands for the entire 4 hours I was at home alone on the first day (T works from home but even he had a meeting) & it was totally w.e.i.r.d. But he was as happy as a bean when I collected him & on his second day I went ballistic on the house and starting completely rearranging *everything*. 

Wow! The things you can do when there are no children in the house! It's amazing! Basically, T has been working at a desk in our bedroom for the past 3 and a half years (It *is* a nice table I kept reminding him ;) and desperately wanted a studio space. Our room was lovely & bright and big & the boys room was smaller and a darker which was okay as they also had a nice sunlit playroom. But we decided to forgo our big room in order to take the playroom over as a joint studio space for the 2 of us. Our old room is now the boys joint bedroom and playroom & I must say it is already wonderful. I'm loving it! Our new room is still quite sparse and simple and I'm loving it too. The new studio space still needs lots of love but will be great. The boys were BURSTING with excitement when they came home and discovered the switch-a-roo. 

Not only did I have big plans for the rooms but I also was on the lookout for a special space to make into a specific Montessori area. Our house isn't huge and it had to be somewhere that could be closed up. I've always had activities out in the general area in the past but now that I want to be more structured with it I felt the need to make it less accessible when we aren't using it but still very accessible when we are. I must have strutted about the house for ages before finally deciding upon the cabinet in our living area. It *was* holding all of our linen, photo-albums, an assortment of storage and the infamous junk-drawer (do you have one?) but I decided on it never the less. Out it all came & shall I say that there is *lots* of sorting to be done around here! But I did it! Photos to come...

{ image: A bee pollinating our watermelon patch. Those babies are going sooooo good!}

Apple Bread and Sparkling Windows

Hug's school has a great program running throughout the entire Kindergarten year whereby the children only attend school 4 days each week & the 5th day is a homeschool day! Yippee! 

The parents choose 2 choices from a list of activities each term that you agree to do with your child in the home. We chose Cooking and Cleaning (or 'House Blessing' as I - and Flylady - like to call it ;)

This was our first week & I pulled out the beautiful cookbook Apples for Jam (which had been sitting on my shelf looking gorgeous but greatly unused for far too long) & decided that seeing that we had a huge bowl of apples on the table that we should make Apple Bread! 

Lovely comes to grip with the apples. His job was to wash them at the sink. Note the tea-towel apron :)

Hug cutting the butter to help it soften.

Weighing + tipping + pouring + measuring + mixing + cracking 

(+ tasting :)

The top of our finished Apple Bread. I personally thought it was one of the yummiest things I'd ever eaten! Lovely gobbled it up but he will eat almost anything (except potatoes - what's with that?!) and Hug didn't like it (the walnuts I think) and T thought it was too sweet! Too sweet, is that even possible? Tee Hee. Although I was a little disappointed at first I soon remembered that it's all about the process, man, & they LOVED the process. Big smile :)

Our 'Home Blessing' job for this week was window washing. It was a good opportunity to model how to squeeze out the sponge (I showed them how to ball it completely into their hand & squeeze). We use little sponges by the way - I just cut a standard sponge in half. I had been looking at the back windows with dread for some time & now they are all sparkling. Thanks sweet boys. Oh, & me -  I was helping too :)

Lovely and the Buttons

Lovely transfixed himself the other evening with the job of teaching himself to put on his own button-up pj's. 

Despite the balmy summer evening he had insisted upon these flannelette ones & then spent quite a long time getting the top on and then buttoning it himself  (I walked out, not realising the effort he was exerting, & offered assistance at one time but quickly realised that he didn't want my help - a very 3 year old kind of certainty ;)

Eventually he had done it & it was time to count the buttons.

An amazingly self-contained and self-motivated lesson.

Shared aspects of Montessori and Steiner

Montessori Secrets left me a nice comment on my previous post Control the Environment, Not the Child:

"Children learn so much from their environment. Montessori recognized how important it was for a child to be stimulated by their senses. An excellent environment is one which enables the child to gain independence. I wish you good luck on your journey!"

So I guess that individual liberty encompasses enabling the child to gain their independence. And the prepared environment should stimulate their senses...

It's been an amazing week here. Hug started school! It's his 3rd day today & everything is going so well :) He was as happy as a bean when we dropped him off the first day (it was Lovely who was in tears because he so desperately wanted to stay). We got to linger this morning for morning circle which was very sweet. As I've mentioned it is a wonderfully beautiful Steiner (Waldorf) school close to us.

I've been trying to sort in my mind what it is I am so drawn to in Montessori and it will be something I hope to explore here over the next few weeks especially as I also embrace the Steiner schooling. I want to start with clarifying (for myself, it's a process!) the shared aspects.

Something that I see Steiner and Montessori education agree upon is the Prepared Environment. While the Montessori classroom is often more simply decorated, and the Steiner classroom (for Kindergarten) dresses the area with soft fabric to give a warmth to the space, they both are very orderly and attractive. There is a place for everything and everything is beautifully presented. 

The Steiner teacher and the Montessori directress are also expected to have prepared *themselves* for the task of bringing their best self to the children. From what I have read, personal growth it is an essential part of being a Steiner teacher and there is a very strong element of the spiritual in the entire Steiner curriculum. I personally love the book Nuturing the Spirit in non-sectarian classrooms by the Montessorian Aline D. Wolf. She sees personal growth and a striving for a connection to the spiritual elements of life to be very important underpining of Maria Montessori's vision that has been largely forgotten and stresses it's importance in the Montessori classroom today.

Both streams of thought agree that the environment should stimulate the senses of the child. Of course, I could now list the myriad of ways that the philosophies differ in this regard (with the Montessori classroom geared to much more intellectual stimulation of the senses) but I want to sit with the simple fact that they do share a lot of common ground too. Interestingly Steiner believed that there are 12 senses as opposed to the 5 that we typically consider. I have been reading the book Beyond the Rainbow Bridge and they give a simple description of what he believed they are and maybe I can write more about that later if anyone is interested. So, there is a shared purpose of creating an environment that will stimulate the child's senses. 

Watching Hug at school (I can't believe I'm actually writing that - it's still so new!) I also believe that the children in the Steiner kindergarten are given a lot of opportunity to gain independence - as children are in the Montessori classroom. In both instances they are given real cups to drink from and have access to real (child-sized) tools for cleaning and for industrial activities like woodwork. The classroom furniture is all child-sized too, something I believe both educational streams can thank Maria Montessori for. There are real sinks and real working kitchens for baking and more. 

Lessons in Grace and Courtesy are also strengths of both classrooms. This morning I watched as a sweet little girl walked around the circle offering all of her classmates (and some of the younger siblings including Lovely who were joining them for morning circle) a beautiful ceramic platter of fruit and vegetables. Pieces of capsicum, cucumber, peach, banana and celery (loving presented until a little one knocked the plate and it was served in a much more haphazard way. Cute ;) and she did a wonderful job of offering something to all of her classmates before choosing something for herself and sitting down. Pretty impressive for morning 3!

Okay, I must go and hang out with Lovely & rest my mind. It's been so busy recently trying to tie the two worlds of Steiner and Montessori together (I've linked here to Wikipedia for further reference to both founders).

I'd love to hear your thoughts!...

{image note: Hug on his first day. Love you baby!}