Baan Dek

Birthday Celebrations

Thoughts & Reflections

One of the gifts of having a mixed-age environment in a Montessori classroom is getting to have many different ages of birthday celebrations throughout the year. Since we have children in the same classroom for three, or sometimes more, years, we get to celebrate them again and again, and watch them grow with every birthday.

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In our birthday celebrations, we have the opportunity to honor the child who is choosing to share their birthday with us. Not everyone wants to be celebrated, as is their right. They sometimes invite their parents to join us in the classroom, where they walk around the Sun, we sing to them, and we hear what the child was like when they were younger. Our youngest children, sometimes celebrating a third birthday is overwhelming, and sometimes there are even tears. Our oldest children, celebrating a fifth or sixth birthday, stride proudly around the ellipse, carrying the globe with care, often leading the gathering themselves.

Recently, we had the delight of celebrating a five-year-old birthday. We watched as this student gracefully welcomed her parents into the classroom, a special space usually reserved just for the children.

Baan Dek

We got to hear what she was like at one, two, three, as she walked around the Sun, symbolizing the rotation of the Earth that has happened over the course of the last year. She shared photos of herself at these ages. For those of us know have known her since she first began at Baan Dek long ago, this was a moment for reminiscing, for thinking about all she’s done and all she’ll continue to achieve.

When you have the gift of spending every day with a child, it can be all too easy to forget how tiny they once were. We get to see the child as all their current capacities and potentials, and the younger child they once were sometimes becomes a memory.

For the younger students, this was a moment when they realized that one of their heroes, this wonderful Big Kid, was once a baby, just like they were just a baby. She liked to put on her own shoes, and know how to put on shoes too. She liked Elmo, and Elmo is their favorite. It’s one of the first times they realize, hey, that Big Kid was just like me!

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It’s not uncommon, after the Birthday Child has escorted their family from the class with a thank you and a hug, to hear all sorts of stories, from all the children.

“When I was a baby, I drank milk, too.”

“At my next birthday, I’m going to walk around the sun.”

“When I turn five…”

This is a time for hopes and dreams, for celebrating, for standing a little taller. This is a gift we only have in our mixed-age environments, and one of the reasons we love it so. Aspirations are a wonderful thing. Birthdays remind us to reflect, and to look ahead.

Written by:

Charlotte Snyder

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