Parents,
To go along with our habit of being proactive we read a book called Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin. The cat gets new white shoes but throughout his day many things happen to those white shoes and they do not stay white. Pete never gets upset. He chooses to remain happy. We will also talk about the compass rose on a map. On Wednesday we will have a leaf party. We would love to have your donations of raked leaves to enjoy at our party. Please remember that there is no school on Thursday or Friday for Fall Break
I always have many parents who ask what their child does while they are in class. This brings up one of Montessori’s core principles. The concept of choice. In a Montessori classroom children are free to choose what they would like to work on – within limits. There are two basic ground rules: you have to have had a lesson and the material has to be available. Maria Montessori said “These children have free choice all day long. Life is based on choice, so they learn to make their own decisions. They must decide and choose for themselves all the time . . . they cannot learn through obedience to the commands of another”. In Angeline Stoll Lillard’s book Montessori: the science behind the genius she talks about the many studies that have been done that support the idea that having choice is a great benefit to education, learning and desire to learn more. Let me share just one with you. A study was done where children were asked to play a computer math game. Half of the children were able to choose the name of their space ship that took them through the game and half were not. The children who were able to choose the name of their space ship liked the game better and played it more than the children who did not name their space ship. They also choose more challenging tasks in the game and asked for fewer hints. They showed greater improvement from pre-test to post-test. “Having a sense of control over one’s environment is associated with better learning and better performance in children. A wide range of positive outcomes stemmed from a very simple choice manipulation” (Lillard, p. 84).
Many parents often confuse “choice” with “no limits”. These two could not be more different. The choices we offer to children need to be appropriate, direct and simple. One example might be “Sally which shoes do you want to wear today? Your tennis shoes or your sandals?” Note that not wearing shoes was not one of the options given. We empower our children when we offer them appropriate choices.
Have a great week!
Ms. Jen & Ms. Jess