Parents often wonder what they can do to reinforce Montessori principles in their home and daily routines. This list, 101 Things Parents Can Do To Help Children, was written by Early Childhood Montessori Guide Barbara Hacker, and is full of practical tips for all facets of life.
When parents are choosing Montessori education for their child, they are trusting their child to take his learning into his own hands. The environment is designed to allow students to discover and learn on their own. The materials are self-correcting and are used until the child says, “I did it.” This type of learning is very different from traditional learning. In a traditional learning environments, information is housed with the teacher. The teacher instructs the child what is important to learn and through rote effort, the child memorizes the information. To confirm that the student learned the information necessary, the student takes a written test. Weeks later, though, students have often forgotten or have a diminished memory of what they were taught. In the Montessori environment, children discover the answers themselves, so information and learning is housed within them. They may then draw connections between the newly learned information and other topics and events in their lives.
This article on mariamontessori.com highlights one family’s experience with individual ownership of learning. In seeing their son Wyatt’s newly developed writing skills, his parents questioned, “Who taught Wyatt how to write?” Wyatt’s response: “I did.”
Foothills Montessori School is proud to initiate its first “Day of Service”,scheduled for April 8th. The entire student body will participate in several acts of service, reaching out to seniors, service men and women and children suffering with serious health issues. We will come together as a whole to turn our collective eyes on a variety of people in our community who are suffering due to childhood illness, being a lonely elderly person, or a soldier dealing with the stress of duty. We recognize that even a small gesture of kindness and acknowledgement can have a positive affect and for a moment in time, help lighten the burden of another.
Foothills Montessori School is philosophically built on four pillars of values including; academic excellence, universal values, global understanding and service. Service is a mindset that is cultivated when time and effort is given to purposely make a difference in the lives of others. It is a form of altruism that arises out of a state of satisfaction and becomes a driving force for the benefit of all. It allows our student body the tangible opportunity to look beyond the borders of our school and to touch the hearts and minds of others in our community.
We are approaching this inaugural service day from a couple of directions. First, we are collecting used (in good condition) books to be distributed to Whitney Elementary School, used eyeglasses, which with the help of Lens Crafters will be given away to people who need but can’t afford them. We will also be collecting Children’s (and young adult )DVD’s and CD’s to be given to the Children’s Heart Foundation and The Ronald McDonald House. Secondly, we will involve the entire school in making thank you cards to be distributed to our service men and women and birthday cards acknowledging our local seniors. We will also be decorating brown paper bags to hold lunches that are given to families staying at the Ronald McDonald House located in Las Vegas. Another donation opportunity we are looking for is for all size clothing to be donated to local shelters.
We thank you for your continued support as we reach out to help and serve the local community!
Call 702-407-0790 to schedule your guided tour today!