Vista Montessori School, Inc.

"Today I did...."

It sounds backwards, but the research is clear. Children who are allowed to take small, age-appropriate risks learn to read their own limits. The ones who aren't, don't.
"Risk-averse" childhoods don't produce safer adults. They produce less confident ones.

Let them climb the tree. 🌳

Children are washable ☺️

via @ Early Childhood and Family Service

Happy Earth Day!

This is so important -- Time outside, time in nature, contact with nature... Let's make them a priority for our kids.

“Children and gardens need the same things - patience, love and someone who will never give up on them”
Nicolette Sowder

Yes!!!!

In a Montessori classroom, following the child is one of the most repeated phrases in the philosophy. It is also one of the most misunderstood.
It doesn't mean stepping back and letting things unfold without us. It doesn't mean abandoning our knowledge or our role. It means developing a different kind of attention. A finer, more patient way of reading what is actually happening in front of us.
The child who drifts away from an activity is telling us something. So is the child who returns to the same work day after day. The one whose body can't settle, the one who lingers at the shelf without choosing, the one who lights up at something we didn't plan for — all of it is information. All of it is the child showing us where they actually are, what they genuinely need, what the environment is and isn't offering them right now.
Following is the practice of learning to receive that information. Not just the obvious signals, but the subtle ones. The quality of a child's engagement. The energy in the room before anything has been said. The thing a child reaches toward and the thing they quietly avoid.
It takes practice to develop this kind of fluency. And it begins with the willingness to let the child lead.