Dandy Lion Montessori

03/23/2026

Our young ones at work and taking time to stop and smell the flowers 🌺

01/19/2026

THE GREATEST GIFTS

The Greatest Gifts We Can Give: Roots of Respect and Wings of Kindness.

Respect goes a long way.

Imagine a school/home/community where every adult moves with quiet purpose, where support flows naturally, and where kindness isn't taught—it's lived. That's the vision Dr Maria Montessori gave us, and it's one we can embody right here, among ourselves.

Dr Montessori reminded us that true education begins with deep respect. She said:
“We must respect the child and he must understand that he is respected."

But this principle doesn't stop with our students. It starts with us. When we respect one another—listening without interrupting, offering help without taking over, celebrating each other's strengths—we model the very harmony we hope to see in our classrooms. Because, as she observed:
“Because the adult/teacher respects each child and refrains from interference, the children treat one another with the same respect and kindness."

The ripple effect is powerful. Our mutual respect becomes the foundation for students to treat each other—and us—with the same grace.

Think about the power of presence. Montessori taught us that the greatest sign of success is when "The children are now working as if I did not exist."In our homes/our communities/our staff community, the greatest sign of our strength is when we support one another so well that everyone can thrive independently, yet never feel alone. We give each other “the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence”, not by hovering, but by trusting, encouraging, and stepping back when needed.

And never forget:
“Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed."
Apply this to ourselves. Don't rush in to "fix" a colleague's challenge if they are capable—offer encouragement instead. That act of restraint is love in action.

At the heart of it all is love—the most potent force. Montessori wrote,
"Of all things love is the most potent."
When we lead with love and respect, we create a peaceful environment where everyone feels seen, valued, and safe to grow. We nurture not just individual potential, but the harmony of our whole community.

Finally, let's remember her vision for peace—one that begins small, in daily interactions:
"Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war."

Our schools are microcosms of the world. By choosing love and respect every day—toward our students, toward each other—we are building that lasting peace, one kind word, one supportive gesture at a time.

And so too, in our homes and in our communities… Let’s uphold with love and purpose.

So today, let's commit: to listen deeply, to support generously, to respect fully. Because when we do, we don't just teach—we transform.

Thank you to all who share and lead by example.
Let's carry this forward together.

©️Althea Cutting
Global Montessori Community
19.01.2026
Respect, honesty, decency, faith, hope, love❤️❤️❤️

12/31/2025

Cling, clang, clinggggg
Let the bells ring in a New Year.
Last post for 2025.
Out with the old but the old remains forever to eternity.
Yesterday. 1907.
Today. 2025.
Tomorrow. 2026 and forever.
Montessori. Never ending. Infinite.

A Hope and Wish for 2026.
New Beginnings in Montessori and Beyond

As we step into 2026, let us carry forward a shared hope—a renewal of trust in the child's innate potential, and a collective wish for a world that nurtures peace, creativity, and harmony from the earliest years.

Let us not forget where it all began: in the humble, poverty ridden streets of San Lorenzo in Rome, where Dr Maria Montessori, asa young courageous woman first opened the Casa dei Bambini in 1907, placing absolute trust in the scientific method she had so carefully observed and refined.

From those simple rooms filled with child-sized materials and unbridled curiosity, a revolution in education was born.

With that same unwavering faith in the method, we continue our onward march into 2026—placing complete trust in each and every well-trained and certified Montessori Guide, in accredited Montessori Training Centers that uphold the highest standards, and in parents who embrace this scientific pedagogy with utmost confidence and devotion.

In the spirit of Dr Maria Montessori, who reminded us that "the child is both a hope and a promise for mankind," and that "freeing the child's potential... will transform the world," may this new year inspire us to “follow the child”with deeper respect and patience.

Let us prepare environments where independence flourishes, where hands-on exploration ignites the inner light of intelligence, and where education becomes the work of building lasting peace.

Echoing Rudolf Steiner's vision in Waldorf education, let us "receive the children in reverence, educate them in love, and send them forth in freedom."

In 2026, may we cultivate imagination, rhythm, and a sense of wonder through art, story, and nature, developing free human beings who impart purpose and direction to their lives with enthusiasm and responsibility.

Drawing from Magda Ge**er's gentle wisdom in Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE), may we embrace respectful caregiving: observing more, intervening less, and trusting that "every baby moves with more ease and efficiency if allowed to do it at his own time and in his own way."

Let this new year be one of authentic connections, where we care by being fully present, allowing infants and young children to unfold confidently and competently.

Inspired by Loris Malaguzzi and the Reggio Emilia approach, where the child possesses "a hundred languages" of expression, may we stand aside to observe, listen, and co-construct knowledge with curiosity. As Malaguzzi urged, let creativity emerge from rich experiences and a sense of freedom to venture beyond the known, making learning a shared journey of discovery, collaboration, and joy.

Together, these visionary approaches—rooted in respect, trust, and the holistic development of head, heart, and hands—remind us that true new beginnings start with the child. Irrespective of race, culture, or creed, may we stand together in unity, honoring our shared humanity and the universal rights of every child to grow in freedom, dignity, and love.

In 2026, let us renew our commitment: to slower, deeper rhythms of growth;
to environments that honor each unique spirit; and to a world healed through the compassionate, capable adults these children will become.

Wishing you and all who nurture young lives a year filled with wonder, connection, and transformative hope. The future is in our hands—and in theirs.

We thank you for your support in bygone years. We thank you. We honor you.

In peace
In love
With hope
Althea Cutting
Global Montessori Community

12/31/2025

Why Montessori Isn’t Meant to Be Easy

In a culture obsessed with convenience, Montessori can feel uncomfortable, sometimes even stressful.
It asks us to be present when everything around us tells us to stay busy. It asks us to prepare, not perform.

When Dr. Montessori developed her method, she wasn’t designing something convenient. She was building something revolutionary … an education that demanded patience, precision, and transformation from the adult as much as from the child.

Today, Montessori is often marketed as simple, natural, or intuitive.

“Just follow the child,” we’re told.
“Just choose from this list of activities,” they say.

But Dr. Montessori never described her work as easy. She described it as scientific—a method that requires observation, precision, and the deep preparation of the adult.

When she opened her first Casa dei Bambini in 1907, she didn’t hand parents or teachers a checklist or step-by-step instructions. She offered guidance and handed them an experiment. She was a scientist observing how human beings learn, how concentration emerges, and how independence develops when the environment is prepared with care.

That process required her to stop doing and start seeing—to learn through patience, repetition, self-reflection, and the humility to question her own assumptions.
It still does.

The reason Montessori feels hard for many adults today is because it asks us to do something countercultural: to slow down. To trust what we observe more than what we plan. To value development over data, process over product, and observation over instruction.

It calls us to unlearn control, perfectionism, and immediacy—to quiet the urge to fix, direct, and perform.

It asks us to retrain ourselves—our mindsets, our limiting beliefs, our need to “do,” buy, or say—before we ever teach the child.

That’s why Montessori isn’t meant to be easy. It’s meant to be earned through consistency, reflection, and the quiet courage to grow alongside our children.

And yet, modern parenting culture has softened this truth to make Montessori more palatable … or, dare I say, marketable.

Social media has turned Montessori into an aesthetic of ease: neutral shelves, minimalism, quiet children, thematic units, and “independent play.” It looks effortless, but it hides the real work behind the curtain—the inner discipline, the consistency, the clarity of purpose within the adult who guides it.

Montessori isn’t easy because it’s not a set of activities (no matter how much we want that to be true). It’s a system of human development.

It’s not child-led chaos or adult-led control; it’s the delicate balance of freedom within limits, held by an adult who is calm enough to see the difference.

“We must prepare the adult who is calm, even, but strong, an adult who knows how to dominate everything that occurs by her observation. This is observation.” — Maria Montessori

The adult’s work (our work) is to build that calm. To create order within ourselves so we can create order around the child. To stop performing “peacefulness” and start practicing it. That’s the part you can’t buy or print.

Because Montessori isn’t a shortcut to independence or peace. It’s not found in plug-and-play curriculums or thematic activities. It’s a lifelong study of how those qualities are cultivated … through rhythm, repetition, and relationship.

The method works, but not because it’s easy. It works because it calls us to grow—to practice restraint, to hold attention, to learn to concentrate, to be willing to unlearn so we can be more present and more attuned to the child before us.

Montessori doesn’t ask us to make life harder.
It asks us to make it truer.
And that’s what makes it worth it.

Essays exploring self-organization, development, and the adult work that shapes learning. Click to read The Unseen Work, by Lynda Apostol, M.Ed, a Substack publication. Launched 9 months ago.

12/19/2025

STOP ENTERTAINING YOUR BABIES
A Loving Call to Young Mothers in a Screaming World

STOP ENTERTAINING YOUR BABIES.

Let the words land gently, but let them land.

Our world is a constant screaming mess—
advertising booming from every corner,
billboards shouting “Buy, buy, buy…
Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe.
Join our Membership, join, join..
Freebies….Freebies….
phones buzzing with notifications that steal the moment,
social feeds blasting perfect lives, perfect toys, perfect milestones.
Toys….Toys….Toys…
Useless plastic that lay around everywhere without purpose.
Even the supermarket aisle assaults the senses with flashing packages promising to make your baby smarter, calmer, advanced.
Busyboards…busier than the name with no intent except to waste precious time.

Into this madness we bring our tiny, sensitive babies; little humans.
And then, exhausted by the noise, we feel we must add our own:
songs, toys, videos, constant chatter,
because silence feels like failure
in a culture that equates quiet with neglect.

You do not need to match the world’s volume.

Your baby does not need more stimulation.
Your baby needs refuge.

Magda Ge**er, who watched infants with the reverence they deserve, would say softly:

“Do less; observe more; enjoy most.”

And:

“What infants need is the opportunity and time to take in and figure out the world around them…
Let them be.
Let them struggle a little.
Trust them to learn.”

Fifty years ago, young mothers—often starting families even younger than today—lived in a quieter weave.

The house was the world:
sewing tiny clothes from scraps,
knitting booties that didn’t match,
baking lopsided birthday cakes with real butter and too much icing,
gardening beside toddlers who ate half the peas straight from the pod.
Meals were cooked daily—simple, seasonal, shared at a table without phones.

Breastfeeding was a quiet rhythm, skin to skin, without a phone in the free hand scrolling for validation or distraction.

Children played.
Outside until the streetlights came on.
Inside with board games—Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, Scrabble with made-up words allowed because laughter mattered more than rules.
Backgammon and Monopoly.
Parents met their friends for card game nights, Canasta, Rummy, Poker nights.

Boredom was allowed.
It was trusted.

Television was limited; advertising was background, not bombardment.

Today, the screaming is everywhere.

Billboards, buses, phones, televisions, even children’s apps wrapped in ads.
The message is relentless:
You are not enough.
Your child is not enough.
Buy this to fix it.

Young mothers absorb this roar and believe they must amplify it at home:
constant entertainment,
enrichment classes before the child can walk,
screens to fill every gap.

But the child’s nervous system, so new and tender,
was not built for this volume.

Ge**er’s wisdom cuts through the noise:

“Allow the child to be bored.
Boredom is the precursor to creativity.”

And the gentlest truth:

“When we do less, the child does more… and becomes more.”

From a holistic view—Montessori’s prepared environment, Steiner’s rhythmic days, Malaguzzi’s hundred languages, Ge**er’s respectful care—we know development happens in calm,
in real touch,
in slow observation of dust motes or rain on glass,
in the satisfaction of folding a cloth or stirring dough.

Young mother,
turn down the world’s volume in your home.

Create one small island of quiet.

Put the phone away for one feeding, one playtime, one walk.
Let the baby lie on a blanket and watch the ceiling fan,
or the leaves moving outside the window,
or simply your face—
undivided,
unhurried,
unperforming.

Bake a simple cake together—messy, imperfect, delicious.
Plant a pot of herbs on the windowsill.
Sit on the floor and let the child explore a wooden spoon longer than any app would allow.

The world will keep screaming.
You do not have to echo it.

Your baby needs refuge in you—
calm presence,
trust in their own unfolding,
space to simply be.

Stop entertaining your babies.
Start protecting them from the roar.

Start trusting that quiet,
real life,
and your loving, imperfect attention
are more than enough.

©️Althea Cutting
19th December 2025
©️Global Montessori Community

08/16/2024

Back to school! Our 2024 - 2025 session begins Tuesday September 3rd. We can’t wait to see you all.

10/13/2023

Great things are happening here. The monarchs are active.

10/04/2023

🐛🐛🐛🪴We have caterpillars in our milk w**d.

10/02/2023

🏫🦁🍎 September flew by as we became familiar with new friends our classrooms and teachers. We learned the rules that help keep us safe. We became familiar with instruments of the orchestra through our composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. We witness a change of seasons and color from our artist of the month Claude Monet and his water Lily pond. We learned to be truthful from our story and project The boy who cried Wolf. We learned our place in the solar system and the planets around us.

10/02/2023

🦁🏫🍎Back to School. We have had a great start to the 2023-24 school year. Picture day will be October 11th, We are looking forward to our field trip to the Avila Valley Barn Pumpkin Patch on Oct. 25th then Oct 27 we will enjoy a Halloween parade Party for all enrolled children.

06/12/2023

🍎🏫🎨🖌️🖼️ We had another amazing art show last week as we reflected on North American continent. The children very much enjoyed panting and glueing together some very fun art pieces. Thank you to our parent volunteers for being able to help out and also to our creative staff. Another great year and another great success.

10/09/2022

Enrollment is up and we have job openings. Give our office a call.