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The Blog

Composting with Worms: Children Grow Values by Living Them

“Good-bye smelly garbage.  If every home had a worm compost box there would be no food scraps to throw out.  The days of smelly garbage would be over.” Read more »

Violence Breeds Violence: The Spanked Child Becomes the Abusing Boyfriend and Spouse, and That’s Not the Worst of It

Let’s study the map – our country, our people; we deserve better, we can do better. But it’s going to take a lot of hard work to get us there. Here is one powerful way to address the various types of violence among our people. Read more »

Quality Listening, Not Wise Words: Listen. Wait. Listen.

Children need a constancy of time for thinking out loud in the presence of a quiet but genuinely interested adult whose only response is deep listening. In this environment the child can self-develop and make breakthroughs in thinking. Read more »

More Writing, Less Pseudo-Dyslexia

Among Montessorians this is well known. And yet forgetful, distracted and habit-driven creatures that we are, we forget. We send children to tutors who drill them on reading instead of playing with them in writing. We may even drill them on reading ourselves! Read more »

Like Both a Scientist and a Saint

In Montessori’s own startling words, exacting like a scientist and spiritual like a saint, and an enlightened generalist as well – who covers all curriculum areas with ardor, always researching and learning something new. Read more »

The Three Most Important Questions to Ask Our Youth

Our children can’t know what we value if we have forgotten it ourselves. And it’s easy to forget with so many high powered voices clamoring after us, telling us again and again in so many different ways with such certainty and so much jazz what is valuable, how lacking we are without it, and how we must do anything, give everything to get it. Read more »

The Elephant and the Rider

Listing the points and bullet-pointing them would be a worthy exercise. Keeping that list handy, readily available for those moments when we are tired, distracted, worn down, fearful, anxious, sleepy, or hungry would help us remain strong for our children. Read more »

Effort and Struggle: The Enlightened Gift of Love

Austin Montessori School’s Parent Infant Group is a welcome opportunity for parents to heighten their observation skills of their infant under the sensitive guidance of Gwen Logan. This infant has struggled to reach and has at last grasped the hanging ring without the interference of adult help or the obstacle of adult comments. Read more »

Help Needed Road Sign #2

I admire the cheerful, firm, and respectful way the adults intervene in this video to help the child learn the needed social skills. They don’t ignore it. They don’t get annoyed. They don’t scold or shame. They firmly and politely show and tell the child what to do and say. Read more »

Montessori Terminology: Causing the Blind to See

Most of us attended conventional, traditional schools, either public or private. We know that system and its terminology. It’s familiar. We know the factory model given us by the Industrial Revolution. Read more »

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