Alelmeno Peace Academy

Happy June ! The sun reached its northernmost point in the sky at 8:25 UTC (3:25 a.m. CST) this morning. The sun is now rising farthest north along your eastern horizon. And it's setting farthest north along your western horizon. That's true no matter where you live on Earth's globe!

Read about the solstice at: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-june-solstice/

📸 NASA Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio.

In a Montessori environment, some of the most meaningful moments are not defined by instruction, correction, or direction, but by restraint. What may look like simple quiet or independent work is often something far more significant: a child fully engaged in the slow, careful construction of understanding.

To not interrupt is not passivity. It is a deliberate choice to protect concentration long enough for it to deepen, stabilize, and become the child’s own. In these moments, the adult is not absent they are present in a different way, holding space with attention rather than intervention.

When we resist the impulse to step in too early, we allow the child’s work to remain intact. We trust the process of repetition, exploration, and discovery to do what it is meant to do without interruption.

Much of Montessori practice lives here in what is not done, in what is not said, and in the quiet respect for a child’s unfolding work.

THE TURTLE YOU CARRIED BACK TO THE POND JUST CROSSED THE ROAD AGAIN

You saw her in the middle of the road — a painted turtle, moving slowly, one deliberate step at a time. You pulled over, scooped her up, and carried her back to the pond she obviously came from. You drove away feeling good. She turned around and walked right back into traffic.

She was not lost. She was not confused. She was heading to her nesting site — a sunny patch of soft soil she may have used for years, possibly decades. Turtles know exactly where they are going. When you moved her backwards, you did not save her. You doubled the number of times she has to cross.

In May and June, the majority of turtles on roads are females looking for a place to lay eggs. They may be heading away from water — this is intentional. Nesting sites are on land, sometimes hundreds of yards from the nearest pond. A turtle heading away from a creek is not a turtle in trouble. It is a turtle on a mission.

The rule is simple and it comes from every wildlife agency in the country: always move a turtle in the direction it was already heading. Even if that direction seems wrong to you. Even if it leads away from every body of water in sight. The turtle knows. You do not.

Pick her up gently with both hands on either side of the shell, behind the front legs. Keep her low to the ground. Move her to the far side of the road in the direction she was traveling. Set her down and walk away. For snapping turtles, grip the rear of the shell only or slide a car mat underneath — their necks are long enough to reach your hands at the sides.

She has been making this crossing since before the road was built. Move her forward, not back.

Bored yet? There is still time to register for a camp.

💃Dance or Experiment This Summer!🔬 Ages 6 and up!

Students who get tutoring in middle school through ALELMENO Peace Academy go on to graduate with honors from the top high school in the state! Congratulations!!!!