Guidepost Montessori and Academy at Riverside

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10/18/2026

A calmer bedtime comes down to preparation. 🌙

In Montessori, we place a lot of importance on predictable routines, growing independence, and thoughtfully prepared environments. And those same principles can be helpful at home, too.

1. Keep the same sequence every night. Young children thrive on order. When bath, pajamas, teeth, and books happen in the same sequence each evening, the child knows what comes next. The routine itself becomes the signal that sleep is approaching, and there’s less to negotiate.

2. Let the child do as much as they can by themselves. Choosing between two pairs of pajamas, brushing their own teeth, selecting a book from a small set. Each step the child owns gives them a sense of control, which often reduces the resistance that comes from feeling hurried through the evening.

3. Prepare the space for rest. A calm, uncluttered room with dim light and few distractions. Many Montessori families use a floor bed so a child can get in and out on their own, which supports their independence (they just make sure the whole room is safely childproofed).

In Montessori classrooms, children experience the benefits of predictable routines, meaningful choices, and environments designed to support their growing independence. These same principles can help bring calm and connection to everyday moments at home.

What’s one thing that helps bedtime go more smoothly in your family? Let us know in the comments.

10/17/2026

Years before the child encounters algebra, she gets to hold it in her hands.

This is the binomial cube, one of Montessori’s sensorial materials for children around age three. It contains eight wooden pieces: one red cube, one blue cube, three red-and-black prisms, and three blue-and-black prisms. Her task is to rebuild the cube inside its box, guided by color, size, and the pattern painted on the lid.

The arrangement she’s working out is actually a physical representation of a real algebraic formula: (a + b)³ = a³ + 3a²b + 3ab² + b³. Each piece corresponds to a term in the equation.

Right now, her work is to build the puzzle. Again and again and again. As she builds, she absorbs the pattern through her hands years before she’ll meet it on paper.

When the formula is formally introduced in the elementary years, it’s not a set of abstract symbols that boggles her mind. It’s something that intuitively makes sense.

This is why the Montessori approach to math is so revolutionary — by giving the child a concrete experience first, and saving abstraction for later, her understanding becomes rock-solid. Math builds on itself year after year, so a strong foundation is critical.

Wish there was a Guidepost near you? Drop your city in the comments 👇

10/16/2026

Every time a child works with the knobbed cylinder, they’re preparing their hands to write.

The knobbed cylinders are one of Maria Montessori’s sensorial materials: the cylinders vary by height, diameter, or both.

The only way to lift each cylinder is with the thumb, index, and middle finger working together. That’s the same three-finger grasp a child will one day use to hold a pencil.

Long before she’s asked to write, she’s strengthening those muscles and refining that coordination, hundreds of times over, through work she chooses and enjoys.

This is what makes a Montessori classroom so different — skills like this are developed independently, naturally, and joyfully.

10/15/2026

Calling all little sous chefs!

Food preparation is one of the cornerstones of Montessori’s practical life work. Washing vegetables, tearing lettuce, peeling a clementine: each task asks a young child to coordinate their hands, follow a sequence from start to finish, and concentrate on a real goal.

These skills become abundantly useful in an academic context as the child gets older!

But there’s a social side too.

When a child contributes to a meal the whole family shares, she experiences herself as a capable, needed member of the household. ❤️

In Guidepost classrooms, children prepare snacks for themselves and their classmates every day, with child-sized tools and as much time as they need.

10/13/2026

Instead of “be careful,” try: “What’s your plan?”

“Be careful” is one of the most common things we say to young children, and it comes from a loving place. But it’s a vague warning. It tells a child that danger exists without telling her where it is or what to do about it.

Over time, it can teach her to rely on an adult’s voice to sense risk, rather than her own judgment.

More specific language like “What’s your plan?” does something different. It pauses the child just long enough to think: Where will my foot go next? Is this branch strong enough? How will I get back down? It challenges them to identify the risk themselves, and decide how to handle it.

This is the kind of thinking Montessori classrooms are built to nurture. Children carry glass cups, use real tools, and move freely through their space, because judgment develops through practice, not through being protected from every possible misstep.

10/11/2026

Toddlers LOVE to help.

Why? Because they want to do what you’re doing!

But they don’t want the toy version of your tools — they want the real thing with real consequences.

A broom built for their size that still sweeps just like a big broom is the golden ticket.

It makes them feel capable because they get to actually contribute to their environment in a practical way.

Feeling capable = feeling confident, which begins to bolster the child in every other area of life — whether struggling through tying shoes or zipping their coat, they know they can handle it because they know they can handle hard things.

It’s a confidence we build every day in a Montessori classroom, with small wins just like this.

10/10/2026

This is not a toy (though it looks enticing and exciting and even a little mythical). It’s math. 🧮

Each color is a number. String those bars together into a chain and a child can literally count her way through skip counting, and later, see what “squared” and “cubed” mean long before she ever writes them down.

No one is drilling her with flashcards. She has the freedom to choose this work herself, she can reach it on her own (no one has to get it down off a shelf for her), and she’s free to stay with it as long as she wants. Which sounds like a much better relationship with math than we had growing up!

In a Montessori environment, math isn’t just something they’re told. It’s something they can see, touch, and discover for themselves.

Could you picture your child learning math this way? Tell us where you’re watching from 👇

10/09/2026

Potty training is an eternal parenting struggle. But in Montessori, it’s different. In Montessori we actually call it “toilet learning” to reflect that it’s not something we’re “training” the child to do, but something we’re helping the child learn to do for themselves, with the right support. 👇

1️⃣ Follow the child’s cues. Interest in the bathroom, telling you after they’ve gone, staying dry longer, hiding to go. Readiness comes from the child, not the calendar.

2️⃣ Set up the space. A small potty or a step stool, underwear and spare clothes on a low shelf, and pants with easy elastic waists. When everything is within reach and the child can do most of the work themselves, they gain confidence.

3️⃣ Make it part of the routine. Offering the potty at natural moments (after waking, before meals, before heading out) makes it just another part of the day, not a big event or a battle.

4️⃣ Let the child do it themselves. Pulling pants down and up, flushing, washing hands. Every step they own builds the confidence to do the next one.

5️⃣ Stay calm about accidents. “You’re wet. Let’s get dry clothes.” The child helps change and wipe up, no shame, no lecture. Accidents are part of learning, not a failure.

No sticker chart or candy required. In Montessori, the goal is to let growing independence become its own motivation. With time, practice, and the right support, “I did it myself” becomes a pretty powerful reward. 💛

10/08/2026

One parent told us the hardest part of their day is a toddler who keeps breaking glass. Here’s what helps. 👇

1️⃣ Understand the why: To a toddler, throwing a glass might just be an exciting science experiment: let go, it falls, CRASH. They’re exploring cause and effect. Knowing that it isn’t defiance can make it much easier to respond calmly.

2️⃣ Give the urge to throw a safer “yes.” Toddlers need to throw, so they get something they’re allowed to throw. A soft ball outside, a basket to toss dirty socks into. “Glass stays on the table. Balls are for throwing.”

3️⃣ React “boring”. A big gasp or a raised voice can make the crash even more exciting, and suddenly it’s a game. A calm, matter-of-fact response takes the fun out of it.

4️⃣ Put it away, and try again later. “Glass is for drinking. I’ll put it away and we’ll try again at snack time.” You clear the sharp pieces while your child helps with a towel or the dustpan. Then the glass comes back next time, because it’s a skill they’re still learning, not a punishment.

A child who throws glass for fun isn’t being defiant. They just haven’t learned yet that some things aren’t for throwing, and that’s exactly what you’re teaching.

What’s the hardest part of YOUR day right now? Tell us below!

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10300 Riverside Drive
Palm Beach Gardens, FL
33410

Telephone

+15612231202

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