Red Maple Montessori

Does it feel like everyone forgot the classroom expectations this month?

They didn’t.

June places enormous demands on children’s executive functioning.

Changing routines.

Field trips.

Concerts.

Celebrations.

Transitions.

Goodbyes.

Less structure.

More excitement.

More uncertainty.

Children are asked to use more inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility at exactly the time they are mentally and emotionally tired.

That’s why observation matters.

Rather than asking:

“Why are they behaving like this?”

Ask:

“What has changed?”

Observe.

Document.

Reflect.

Then respond.

Perhaps the child doesn’t need another reminder.

Perhaps they need more predictability.

More movement.

More connection.

More visual support.

Support doesn’t lower expectations.

Support builds capacity.

As June comes to a close, remember:

Children don’t suddenly lose their skills.

They simply have fewer resources available to access them.

What changes have you noticed in your classroom this month?

BehaviourReflectsSkill ChildDevelopment InclusiveEducation ObservationMatters

Executive function is one of the most important predictors of long-term success.

And yet…

it isn’t built through pressure.

It is built through practice.

Children are not born knowing how to:

✔ stop an impulse

✔ persist through frustration

✔ remember multiple directions

✔ shift flexibly when plans change

✔ regulate big emotions

These are developing brain skills.

Like reading, writing, or riding a bicycle, executive function improves through repeated opportunities to practice.

This is one of the reasons I love Montessori.

Practical Life isn’t preparation for the “real work.”

Practical Life is the real work.

When children pour, polish, sweep, prepare food, carry a tray, walk on the line, or practice Grace and Courtesy, they are strengthening attention, inhibitory control, sequencing, persistence, and self-regulation.

These experiences lay the foundation for later success in language, mathematics, and problem solving.

The question isn’t:

“How do I get this child to behave?”

The question is:

“Which executive function skill needs more opportunities to practice?”

Support doesn’t lower expectations.

Support builds capacity.

What Practical Life activity do you think strengthens executive function the most?

PreparedAdult

“Why do they keep testing the limit?”

Because limits are not truly limits until they are tested.

Testing is part of child development.

Children test limits to answer important questions:

Is this predictable?

Will the adult stay calm?

What happens when I struggle?

Am I still belong here when things are hard?

But observation matters.

Because not all repeated limit testing means the same thing.

Sometimes:

✔ the behaviour is developmentally expected

And sometimes:

✔ a child is showing us that a skill is under strain.

Repeated struggles with limits often point us toward skills that need support:

🧠 inhibitory control

🧠 emotional regulation

🧠 frustration tolerance

🧠 cognitive flexibility

This is why observation matters.

Not:

“They are difficult.”

But:

What exactly am I seeing?

What skill is this child still developing?

Children need limits.

Clear limits matter.

But limits work best when paired with calm, predictability, and responsive support.

Because children are not only learning the rule.

They are learning what happens in relationships when things get hard.

ConnectionBeforeCorrection Neuroaffirming InclusiveEducation ChildDevelopment

“If they know the expectation… why aren’t they doing it?”

Because knowing and doing are not the same.

A child can know:

✔ how to line up
✔ to raise their hand
✔ to walk indoors
✔ to use kind words

…and still struggle to do those things consistently.

Why?

Because follow-through requires executive functioning.

Children rely on developing brain skills to:

🧠 pause before acting

🧠 remember information

🧠 regulate emotions

🧠 stay focused

🧠 shift flexibly

Children struggle when executive function demands exceed current capacity.

This is why repeating:

“You know better.”

does not help.

A more useful question is:

What skill is this child still developing?

Then support the skill.

✨ visuals
✨ movement
✨ shorter instructions
✨ co-regulation
✨ practicing together

Support is not lowering expectations.

Support builds capacity.

What skill do you notice children working hardest to develop right now in your classroom?

PreparedAdult MontessoriTeacher InclusiveEducation ChildDevelopment

“Some stress is good for learning.”

Actually… not really.

At least not in the way many of us think.

When children experience ongoing stress or overwhelm, the brain shifts energy toward survival.

And learning becomes harder.

A stressed nervous system often struggles with:

🧠 attention
🧠 working memory
🧠 problem solving
🧠 emotional regulation
🧠 cognitive flexibility

This is why children under stress may appear:

➡ distracted
➡ reactive
➡ forgetful
➡ oppositional
➡ avoidant

And why “try harder” often doesn’t work.

This doesn’t mean avoiding challenge.

Children grow through challenge.

But challenge works best when paired with safety, connection, and support.

In Montessori we often talk about following the child.

Part of that means noticing:

When is this child challenged…

and when are they overwhelmed?

Because overwhelmed brains struggle to learn.

What are signs you notice that tell you a child’s nervous system may be overwhelmed?

PreparedAdult BehaviourIsCommunication ConnectionBeforeCorrection MontessoriTeacher InclusiveEducation

The child who challenges us most is often the child receiving the most correction.

And sometimes…

the least connection.

This can be hard to admit.

Because when a child is dysregulated, oppositional, impulsive, or constantly struggling, our instinct is often:

➡ more reminders
➡ more correction
➡ more consequences

But many children need something different before they can access those things.

Connection.

Not as a reward.

Not as permissiveness.

Not instead of limits.

But as the foundation that makes regulation, trust, and learning possible.

Sometimes connection looks surprisingly ordinary:

✨ singing together while cleaning
✨ sitting beside them during play
✨ inviting them to help with something meaningful
✨ sharing a laugh
✨ taking a walk together
✨ following their lead for a few minutes

And yes — often the child pushing you away is the child who needs relationship most.

This doesn’t make challenging behaviour easier.

But it can help us understand it differently.

What are ways you intentionally build connection with the children who challenge you most? ❤️

Neuroaffirming ChildDevelopment MontessoriTeacher InclusiveEducation CoRegulation MontessoriLife

Before children develop an inner voice…

They borrow ours.

The way we speak to children becomes the way they eventually speak to themselves.

Especially on the hard days.

Especially with the children who challenge us most.

The child who hears:

✨ “I can see this feels hard.”
✨ “I’m here to help.”
✨ “We’ll figure this out together.”

begins to build a very different inner story than the child who repeatedly hears:

⚡ “Why are you always…?”
⚡ “You know better.”
⚡ “What’s wrong with you?”

This doesn’t mean avoiding limits or expectations.

Children need boundaries.

But they also need dignity.

Correction and connection can exist together.

This week, notice your own language.

What words do the children in your classroom hear most often from you?

And if they borrowed your inner voice… what would it sound like? ❤️

Save this for the hard days.

ConnectionBeforeCorrection InclusiveEducation MontessoriTeacher ChildDevelopment NeurodiversityAffirming MontessoriLife

Sometimes educator overwhelm is not a resilience problem.

It’s a systems signal.

By late spring, strain becomes visible.

Educators are holding:
• emotional labour
• competing priorities
• behaviour challenges
• increasing fatigue

And too often the response becomes:

More resilience.
Better time management.
Push through.

But leadership teams may need to ask a harder question:

What is the system asking educators to carry right now?

Because sustainable schools are not built on heroic effort alone.

They are built on systems that make good work possible.

💬 What is one thing schools unintentionally ask educators to carry that leadership should own instead?

When educators feel overwhelmed, we often assume the answer is resilience.

Try harder.
Manage time better.
Push through.

But sometimes overwhelm is information.

Information about:
• cognitive load
• unclear systems
• emotional labour
• too much living in one person

Strong classrooms — and strong schools — do not rely on heroic effort alone.

They rely on systems that make the work sustainable.

Because when adults feel supported, children benefit too.

💬 What part of your system is helping right now — and what feels heavy?

Behaviour isn’t the problem.

It’s the signal.

When behaviour changes, escalates, or feels challenging, it is often telling us something important:

A child may be overwhelmed.
A skill may still be developing.
Stress may be getting in the way.

This doesn’t mean expectations disappear.

But it may mean support needs to increase.

Observation helps us move from:
“How do I stop this?”

to:

“What is this child showing me?”

💬 What is behaviour telling you right now?