Conferences

Thoughts & Reflections

We love conferences. We schedule conferences twice a year, in the Fall and in the Spring, and look forward to talking with parents about the progress their child is making.

We love this opportunity to sit down with the families of our mutually favorite people and gush about all the ways a child is thriving, succeeding, learning, growing every day. We love to hear what stories come home, how a child can’t believe a parent doesn’t understand what the Bead Cabinet is, or to see what this Dish Washing is that their child does day in and day out, or to learn what songs have become a family favorite.

We love to chat about what’s coming next — division, cutting on lines, spelling words. What challenges a child’s recently mastered, and what they’re excited about taking on next.

We share where we see a child is successful, things that come easily, academic skills that hardly need to be presented, social adeptness where a child shows leadership and grace.

We share where we see a child spending more energy, or perhaps activities a child would rather avoid. It is human nature to seek out areas that come easily, and it is our role as educators to help a child notice challenging areas and work as diligently on those as she does on things that come more easily. We bring families into this conversation, so we can work together to best support a child’s development. We might notice different things about a child, and we can work in tandem to support a child.

We ask questions. How can we help? What questions do you have as parents?

We have the gift of having training and some level of expertise in this particular age group, whether it be two years or twenty-two. We have the gift of seeing This Child in the scope and setting of a Group of Children, This Three Year Old along with many others. Resistance to self-toileting? Moments of feeling argumentative? Intense focus on a task, so much so the rest of the world might not exist? All natural, predictable moments in childhood. Everything is just fine.

“We share where we see a child spending more energy, or perhaps activities a child would rather avoid.”

We’re just touching-base. We might not have the time or ability to give an update every day. Montessori is the long game, and chatting in-depth, reflecting over the course of a few months is actually a more genuine image of a child’s progress than the events of one day; a feature film, rather than a snapshot. Who is this child? Who is he growing into? How can we help her grow into her fullest potential, support all that she could be in the next months, in the next years?

We leave these days with our cheeks aching from smiling, uplifted by the reflections shared on both sides, grateful to be so exhausted from this incredibly fulfilling, joyful, meaningful work, and the relationships that make it possible to support each child into all she could become.