The other day I gave a young student the first presentation of the knobless cylinders. He was so excited. His eyes lit up and he announced before the presentation that he, “would get to choose this now.” After the lesson we put everything away, as is the procedure. Once the rug and the carpet seats were returned to their proper place, he went to choose the lesson for himself.

This is a student who typically does many repetitions of lessons. There have been times that he has done the same new lesson for forty-five minutes or an hour, over and over again until he is saturated. So I wasn’t surprised to see him choose the lesson immediately.

But this was a new twist that really made me realize how literally children take things at times. Once he completed the lesson, instead of just reusing the materials, he put the box of cylinders away, rolled up the rug and returned his carpet seat to the box. Then he got the carpet seat back out, spread a rug, got the box of cylinders and started over. He went through this entire routine several times.

This also illustrates that children really do the lessons for the activity and not to be done. I think it would have disturbed his sense of order had I tried to give him the “shortcut” of just leaving the rug and materials out and building with the cylinders repeatedly. We certainly learn by observing the children.

In the winter I have such a hard time getting my hands warm. I always warn the children if I have to help them snap a snap on their pants, because my cold fingers can be quite a shock on their tummies!

A little boy came up to me and said his hands were cold. I held his hands for a moment and said that his hands were even colder then mine because his felt warm to me. Then another child wanted to test my hands and another. It was a spontaneous sensorial thermic lesson!

I guess we can just use hands instead of the thermic bottles for comparing temperatures for a while. I won’t complain about my cold hands any more as long as they can help the children understand temperatures. And besides, everyone knows the old saying, “Cold hands--warm heart!”

I have experienced one of the most difficult emotional days of my life today. The details of which are inconsequential. But in the midst of the difficulties I have had to overcome, I was given two incredible gifts.

The first came from a wonderful assistant in the classroom. I commented to him that this has been the worst day of my life. His response was, “Truly?” And I had to answer in the affirmative. “This is the worst it has gotten?” Again, I had to answer in the affirmative, and before he was even able to continue along that line I realized that if today was the worst day of my life, I am an extremely fortunate person. Despite the reality that nothing had really improved about the situation, I knew that I was going to be okay. Thank you Britton.

The second gift came a few minutes later. And it actually unfolded in two stages. As the children were coming in from the playground I was waiting for them (as is the custom for the staff person who has been inside). The faces of the children lit up as they entered the door. I heard, “You’re back!” and “Where have you been?” I simply told them that I had been busy doing work. Their undisguised pleasure was the first part of that gift.

The second part was delivered throughout lunch. I sat among my young students listening to their innocent chatter and joyful interactions with one another and with me. It was so soothing. It was so sweet. It was so trusting.

Thank you parents for allowing me to bask in the sunshine of your children’s beautiful trust. May I always be worthy of it.

I have experienced one of the most difficult emotional days of my life today. The details of which are inconsequential. But in the midst of the difficulties I have had to overcome, I was given two incredible gifts.

The first came from a wonderful assistant in the classroom. I commented to him that this has been the worst day of my life. His response was, “Truly?” And I had to answer in the affirmative. “This is the worst it has gotten?” Again, I had to answer in the affirmative, and before he was even able to continue along that line I realized that if today was the worst day of my life, I am an extremely fortunate person. Despite the reality that nothing had really improved about the situation, I knew that I was going to be okay. Thank you Britton.

The second gift came a few minutes later. And it actually unfolded in two stages. As the children were coming in from the playground I was waiting for them (as is the custom for the staff person who has been inside). The faces of the children lit up as they entered the door. I heard, “You’re back!” and “Where have you been?” I simply told them that I had been busy doing work. Their undisguised pleasure was the first part of that gift.

The second part was delivered throughout lunch. I sat among my young students listening to their innocent chatter and joyful interactions with one another and with me. It was so soothing. It was so sweet. It was so trusting.

Thank you parents for allowing me to bask in the sunshine of your children’s beautiful trust. May I always be worthy of it.

We often take the older students on field trips to expand their exposure to the world. Last week we went to see The Nutcracker. Kindergarten students accompany the elementary on this trip and it is truly delightful to see how the children react to this event.

We always prepare children for field trips. In Montessori we don’t consider going out a way to avoid being at school as many teachers do in traditional education. We see these trips as real learning experiences. And what better way to learn than to be more informed.

I have a miniature stage set for the Nutcracker and one afternoon I shared the story with the children, alerting them to particular things for which to be watching during the performance. We practiced clapping to show appreciation for what the dancers were doing. We talked about some of the things that happen backstage and with the sets. We even discussed some of the French terms used in ballet. We played the music and talked about what was happening during different passages.

I was so pleased with this trip. All during the performance I heard applause from our students whenever there were intricate steps or amazing choreography. When I looked down the row at the children, I saw many of them sitting on the edges of their seats in excitement.

Folks who think that telling children about what they will be seeing ruins the experience for them don’t understand the nature of learning. Even as adults, we appreciate cultural experiences more deeply when we have some basis for understanding. The same is true for children. They need a framework upon which they can integrate their learning activities.

Field trips meet educational needs of students that cannot be addressed in the classroom. This week’s trip to The Nutcracker was a perfect example of that. And I hope it sparked continued interest in the children that will result in further research for some of them.