This is written by Donna Goertz Bryant, a experienced parent, grandparent, Montessori teacher and school leader from Austin, Texas. We were fortunate to have Donna and her husband Don, come to New Zealand in 2010 for our annual conference. Donna writes so well and it is a pleasure to gain some of her perspective. This…
Read moreDr Maria Montessori strongly believed that an adult’s pace of life is not the natural pace of childhood and too often, children are expected to speed up rather than having the adults around them slow down. I was really aware of this before I had my son Lincoln and so I came into parenting with some…
Read moreThe activities are from the Practical Life curriculum in the Montessori classroom. In a class for three to six year olds, this area is set up with many different activities and experiences that have underlying benefits and often subtle messages for our children. Practical life exercises such as table or window washing or pouring exercises…
Read moreI met a Persian Bahá’í lady when I was a young teenager living in Tonga with my Tongan mother and New Zealand father. She was an owner/teacher of a Montessori preschool in Samoa. This was when I first became aware of Montessori principles and practices. As a Bahá’í, I was raised with the understanding that a…
Read moreIn 2012 the Montessori community is celebrating 100 years of Montessori in New Zealand. MANZ marked the New Zealand centenary at the 2012 Conference in Auckland. We invited our community to help build a timeline at the conference; many photos of early classes, people, events, teacher meetings, workshops were contributed to build a pictorial history for Montessori…
Read moreI come from Ireland where there are many small Montessori schools. As a teenager I baby sat the children of Montessori teacher and she told me about Montessori. When I left school I decided to begin Montessori training in Dublin. During my training I began to realise that I hadn’t really understood what I was enrolling in….
Read moreMANZ is developing a new strategic plan for 2015-19 and one focus of this work is around leading the development of a viable, sustainable Montessori qualified workforce for Montessori early childhood centres and schools in New Zealand. To begin this new focus MANZ gathered baseline data from Montessori current employers and the existing workforce. The…
Read moreI had found my experiences in state early childhood and primary frustrating as it always seemed to be ‘busy work’ or playing. On my teaching practices with the primary age group I felt like I didn’t teach anything and that the children didn’t learn anything. All I was doing was classroom management; ‘Sit down, stop…
Read moreThis is from a blog called Montessori Seeds written by Mathew Simberg. Here he reflects on views about child-discipline over the last few decades and what discipline may look like in a Montessori 6- 12 community. What ‘freedom’ means and how it is balanced by ‘responsibility’ in a Montessori community. Discipline for the Elementary (6-12…
Read moreIn one of her last books, The Absorbent Mind, Dr Montessori makes this comment; “Passive children are thought to be good. Noisy and exuberant children with vivid imaginations are thought to be spiritually brilliant.” (p. 201) Dr Montessori believed that the goal of children is to ‘aim energetically and directly towards independence’. The Montessori method…
Read moreJeanne-Marie Paynel of Voila Montessori in the USA talks about how expectant parents can prepare their home for arrival of a new baby. She explains how the environment can be prepared to welcome the new baby with points of reference for the infant in the home. Jeanne-Marie includes the preparation of the adult and gives…
Read moreThe development of a young child is facilitated by the absorbent mind and unique periods of sensitivity to the environment that nurture skills, knowledge and understanding of the material, social, natural and social worlds in which the child participates. It is a distinctive flow of relationships and experiences of which the young child becomes increasingly…
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