When children work with the Montessori materials for math, they absorb the concepts seemingly effortlessly. Oftentimes when asked who taught them how to do something they seem surprised and answer that they taught themselves. In many ways, that isn’t far from the truth.

Today one of the first grade boys had the golden beads out to work with addition. The problems he had chosen did not involve any changing and when I glanced over at his process, I noticed that he was simply writing the answers without using the beads.

Hmmmm.

I checked in with him and observed that he understood exactly what he was doing and had added correctly, starting with the units and moving up the place values. Since he was obviously working in the abstract, I suggested that he try using the beads to do addition that involved sums that changed across the place values. He was delighted and attacked the challenge with gusto. At each change I observed a little physical burst of excitement. Shortly after he showed me his completed work. He had finished all the problems on the card and had gotten them correct. He was beaming.

I predict he will be doing addition with changing in the abstract very soon.

I returned last night from Chicago where I attended the Adolescent Colloquium held by the North American Montessori Teacher’s Association (NAMTA). It was an inspiring weekend. NAMTA conducts such tight conferences that my head is spinning with nascent ideas. We hardly had time to breathe, let alone care for other bodily functions. Presentation followed presentation in a carefully orchestrated schedule.

Some of the presentations were so thrilling that I bought audio CDs of them. Laurie Ewert-Krocker has been working with adolescents at the Hershey Farm School for more than 10 years. Hers presentation is one I think every prospective parent, donor and board member should hear. I will definitely be lending that one out.

The entire audience was moved to tears by a presentation by a graduate of the Hershey Farm School. She spoke eloquently about what she has done since graduating. The community of the Farm School inspired her to work actively toward world peace. She was an articulate, engaging 18 year-old. What a shining example of what our children can become when they live within a supportive Montessori community for all their developing years. This is what I want for every child. At least we are moving forward with that for the children of our area.

I looked up this morning to find there was NOTHING for me to do. Every student was busily engaged in work. Some were working together, and some were working independently. Montessori wrote that the goal of the adult is to become unnecessary. I definitely felt like a fifth wheel today!

What amazed me was the variety of work I observed. Two first year students were working on division with changing (and with remainders!), a second year was also doing golden beads, but she was doing multiplication. Another child was testing his speed with the multiplication facts. A student was building the periodic chart of the elements. Two girls were studying the states. A boy was practicing his cursive. He came and asked, “How do you make a cursive f again?” but I directed him to the control chart. A girl was doing a reading comprehension booklet. One boy was studying Vikings on the computer.

In the multipurpose room it was just as busy. Two students were drawing, while one was checking a book out of the library. Another girl was learning some art nomenclature and a boy was getting a presentation with the color drop lesson. One child was weaving and another was sewing a button. We had two children absent today, so that accounts for all of my students. Wow. What a wide range of lessons.

And it was only 9:10 AM. Even before that I had observed many other interesting lessons. A boy had learned the names of all the eons and eras. Two first year students had been working on multiplication with the bead bars, and two boys had been sharing the flash cards for addition with one another. One student had been doing punctuation, followed by reptile research. Two girls had done the animals of the wetlands of North America and a boy had listened to a book on tape.

What a busy, busy class. What a wonderful class.

We have a great little lesson that helps children learn how to mix colors precisely in order to get just the variation they want. Starting with one hue, they add a drop or two of another hue and paint a sample. Continuing in this fashion, they will eventually reach the second hue. That is how they know they are finished.

I gave this lesson to a first year student this morning. He worked in deep concentration for a long time. Finally he brought his finished strip of color samples to me. Pride was shining from his whole body. “Aleta, look! It took 49 drops!” he told me.

Montessori wrote, “The more the capacity to concentrate is developed, the more often the profound tranquility in work is achieved, then the clearer will be the manifestation of discipline within the child.” Visitors often comment on how calm the classrooms seem, even with the children working on a wide variety of chosen activities. It is that abiding respect of concentration that allows the children to gain that inner discipline along with the self-esteem that is its companion.

Something as simple as the color drop lesson can have far-reaching effects.

It is not often that I write about disappointment in my students. It is so much nicer to focus on the wonderful things they do, but once in a while, I AM disappointed. This week (and frequently in the past) we have had to address a lack of responsibility in dishwashing after lunch. For three days in a row there were dishes that were seriously dirty at the end of lunch in the elementary class. There was even dirty silverware. That left our sanitizers the job of rewashing the offending items in order for them to be clean to next day.

Since daily reminders were not improving responsible behavior, we resorted to labeling the plates with the students’ names and requesting that families send silverware from home. It will always be more important to maintain the safety of our procedures over simple convenience. And now the sanitizers will be able to identify the owners of any unsatisfactorily washed plates.

I wish we could have solved this without going to such extreme measures, but I suppose it is unrealistic to live the life of an educator without some small measure of disappointment from time to time. In the greater scheme of things, this doesn’t seem so important.

We transition from lunch back into the classroom with some journal writing. Oftentimes we provide the children with a prompt to get them going. Today I suggested that they write about one thing from history that they would like to include in their skit.

There has continued to be lots of work in history, and yesterday I introduced the timeline that gives an impression of the length of time that there has been written language. This morning I noticed several children working with other time lines, too.

Still, I was unprepared for the reaction to my prompt. Children kept coming to ask, “Can I write about lots of things that happened?” or “Can I do more research before I write?” and even, “Can I write a whole list?”

So the interest in history continues to be high. It is always so much fun to follow the interests of the children as Montessori advised.

I had to go to the dentist this morning, but before I left I had about an hour to spend with the children. At one point one student was playing the music-maker, one was practicing the recorder, and one was working on the tone bars. Another student came into the room and said, “Wow, there’s lots of music today!”

Indeed.

And later another student was working on the tone bars with the scales. He couldn’t remember which scale was the one that could be used to make any music he wanted. Ah, that would be the pentatonic scale. So he proceeded to improvise music on the tone bars using the pentatonic scale.

What I find interesting is that I don’t even think twice about children in their first year of elementary knowing 1) the several different scales and 2) how to transpose them into different keys.

I remember a few years ago when a stringed quartet from the Knoxville Symphony visited. After playing one piece they switched gears and asked the students if they could tell what was different. A younger student raised his hand to answer, and commented that the second piece was in a minor key.

The stringed quartet was astounded. That wasn’t the answer they were aiming for, but it was accurate. They later told me that they had never had that kind of response.

These children, as they grow, will be better able to appreciate all of the arts, even if they don’t have special talents in them. And that is beautiful music.

In many schools and schools systems art and music are given short shrift. They aren’t “academic” so how important can they be? I have always felt that a well-rounded student needs exposure to as many areas of interest as possible. My philosophy is that we have no idea which of our students may be another Van Gogh or another Baryshnikov or Einstein or Beethoven. If we fail to allow their natural talents to flourish, we may never know what the world has lost.

Today I overheard some students discussing the tempera painting lesson. It has only the primary colors, orange, black and brown available. There was talk of technique (if you want the paint to be feathery, dry your brush before getting paint) and theory (first paint with brown, then add some green to it, but just a little bit. You don’t want too much). Then I fielded a question about using pencils to draw, whether that was art, followed by, “Can you color with them?” Well, only if they are colored pencils.

Art and music and dance provide expanded avenues for communication. Experience in these media develop different parts of the brain and help integrate some of the other areas. Reasoning and kinesthetic thinking are enhanced. For individuals with language challenges, they may be offer primary means of communication. They are interlaced with emotion and precision.

I have read arguments about how to teach children the use of different media. Some people claim that if you actually create some recognizable object when demonstrating technique, all the children will do is imitate that object. Well, yes, at first they do. But the artist in them wants to stretch the boundaries of what they have already done. Before long the children are testing the techniques and adding their own.

I would love to see into the mind of the artist. It must be a fascinating place. I am not an artist. But I feel confident that I can help budding artists explore that creative landscape.

Excitement about history research is still running high.

The children are now creating a stack of cards with events they consider important enough to include in their history presentation.

What really made my day were the comments of a first year student. He shared that he really enjoyed the research. I agreed that doing research is lots of fun. But then he said, “I like figuring out the big words.”

This is a perfect illustration of how the joy of reading is all about content. I always feel sad when I see children struggling with those insipid little books that have no real meaning. I wonder how many children decide that reading isn’t worth the effort because of those content-challenged books.

Let’s stick with big words. They not only allow children to experience the thrill of satisfying content, but they move reading skills forward.

Yesterday I mentioned to the class that it is getting to be that time of year to start thinking of what they are going to do for the end of the year program. I suggested that they might want to do something based on one of the many time lines we have in the classroom.

Well, it’s all history now. Today we saw an unprecedented amount of historical research. To facilitate the interest I culled many books from the library and brought them into the classroom. I hardly expected the high level of excitement my simple suggestion sparked.

I am eager to see where the children take this.

The 30th anniversary picnic on Saturday was definitely an enjoyable event. There were numerous alumni, parents of alumni, former teachers, and a full complement of current families. After most of the folks had left we found that there were some of the “old-timers” sticking around reminiscing about some of the old days at Montessori.

Some of their memories were a bit embarrassing and some were just sweet. I had noticed earlier that they all wanted to get out on the field to participate in the games with the parachute – a major component of our picnics at New Horizon. The teacher who had given us that parachute was even in attendance (with her daughter, a former student, and grandchildren – I swear we aren’t old enough to have grandchildren).

One of my current students is enthralled with the sport of football these days and he was delighted to have a chance to meet a former student who plays football professionally as a quarterback on a women’s team. According to his parents he is now planning on his little sister growing up to play football just like the former student!

But the thing that tickled my funny bone the most was finding out from alumni that the current parents were pumping them. What was the transition out of Montessori like? How did you do when you left? Were you glad to have gone to Montessori? Were you ready for other schools?

I should have foreseen that. I should have even planned for it. After all, those are the burning questions that parents have. Choosing the Montessori Way is in some aspects a huge leap of faith. It is reassuring for parents to hear from “those who have gone before” that they not only did all right, they thrived.

Next time, I’ll give those students a chance to talk about their lives after Montessori. There is no better endorsement than having those students share their love of what they learned, not just about facts and figures, but how to live life.

This week a student came to me telling me that her slippers were wet. She and another student were scrubbing the napkins, so I concluded that she had stepped in some water that may have spilled. I directed her to hang them on the drying rack until they were dry and she informed me that Britton was getting her another pair of slippers.

A little later I noticed that Britton was going into the kitchen to help the two girls who were scrubbing the napkins to retrieve them and wring them out further. I thought nothing more about it.

A little later, I saw that the girls were mopping in the kitchen. All of this is without any fuss. It was a good example of how students just take care of things without relying too much on adults.

But wait. The next day I noticed mopping in the kitchen again. Then more water. Wet napkins indeed! Our trusty old water heater had bitten the dust!

This on the evening before our BIG 30th anniversary picnic.

And the playground? Wet, there, too. All the rain had turned the yard into a muddy soup. (and I am not going to complain about rain considering that we are still below normal for the year and trying to recover from the drought last year…)

Would the rain stop in time for the picnic? Would we have to move all those people inside? What could we do?

A pickup truck full of straw spread on the playground helped and the rain actually held off for long enough to have our picnic. But it has been wet, wet, wet!

(I'll post more about the picnic later!)

For our 30th anniversary we had many special activities planned, including a picnic lunch for the children and planting trees. There was much speculation in the elementary classroom this morning over whether we would be able to have the picnic. Alas, it was raining at lunchtime.

We had wanted to plant the tree in the morning when all the children could participate. We wanted them to be able to help with the digging and actual planting. As it turned out, the rain cleared for a little while this afternoon, leaving the playground a sea of mush! Carl and Britton went out to slog through the goo to get some hole dug and a frame put up around the planting area.

The children were not able to actually participate in the digging or planting, but afterward, they helped spread the mulch around the newly planted trees. We had to use mulch to create a walkway allowing them to even get to the planting area without having inches of mud attached to their shoes (like Britton’s!).

We did enjoy some other things, though. We made party hats out of newspapers, decorated the whole school with paper chains made by the children, drew pictures of the school and posted them. The newspaper came out to take pictures of the grand “walk around the sun” in which each child represented one year and the teachers filled in the missing years.

I hope the weather is more cooperative for Saturday’s picnic. It is going to be such a pleasure to see children (now grown) from all those years.

Today Rebecca asked the class to write what they liked best about the school. There were some wonderful responses. I have taken the liberty to correct the spelling to make it easier for the gentle reader to understand all of the messages.

~The lessons, the flags, because they are colored and the tables and the desks and the afternoon and music and, and.

~Being able to concentrate

~Because there are lots of friends and lots of lessons you can do.

~The paper chains are exciting and we learn about Norway and Sweden. I like the pin maps.

~I like math, language and geometry. I like math because I like golden beads. I like language because I love to read. I like geometry because I like my geometry card. I love my school because I learn a lot of things. I love playing outside and especially when the lights go out.

~I like my school because of my best friend. I like playing outside.

~We get to make our own books. The teachers care. People are nice. People care. We play outside.

~I like all of my school. I like geography and language.

~It’s appropriate and fun. I get to bring my own lunch.

~They don’t punish as bad as at other schools. You get to learn at your own rate. There are three teachers.

~The rules that allow you to do a math lesson and somebody else does a science lesson and the way we learn responsibility.

~My favorite thing is soccer. It’s fun, and you get lots of exercise. And I like the pin maps because you get to find where the states and countries, mountains, waterways and islands are.

~I like everything.

~The best thing to do at school (I think) is soccer because it teaches you teamwork.

~I like Montessori because I like playing in the yard and doing lessons.

~I like that we get to play outside.

Hmmm. There certainly is high interest in the outside. And it seems we either need to arrange for more power outages or turn off the lights. I "especially" liked that one.

There were more responses, but some were very similar. Two of our older students were absent today. I hope they are back for the big celebration tomorrow!

When I brought up the subject during a class meeting of the coming anniversary I was thrilled with all the ideas shared by the students. Among them was to have a school flag. I got on-line and looked at flag companies. But I did not have a design and it seemed like such a great expense. Back to the children for more ideas. After all, this is THEIR celebration. They wanted to have our school logo, a tree with a sun coming up on the horizon (the new horizon).

They wanted to be part of making the flag. I’d like to note that the school is being decorated with many paintings of well-wishes from the students, too. Over the weekend I bought some sturdy fabric and fabric paint. I washed the fabric as per directions. Sunday night I intended to hem it, but was delayed by a call from one of my Montessori students needing advice.

At any rate, I brought the un-hemmed fabric to school yesterday and got the picture outlined on the flag. The leaves of the tree will be made by the fingerprints of the students in the school! And our elementary students will also sign the flag under the horizon line. It will be a wonderful reminder through the years of all these special children who were here to celebrate our thirty years.