A few thoughts on Competition
Competition is a tricky concept in Montessori. We thought we would take this opportunity to try to elucidate the conditions of competition and offer a few thoughts on competition and why Montessori employs collaboration instead →
The Tedium of Blossoming
© The Great Discontent The good folks at The Great Discontent, who you should definitely follow, published a wonderfully candid interview with Maria Popova, of whom we are a great admirer. You can read the →
Barnes and Noble Book Signing
On Saturday, December 1, at 2:00 p.m. we'll be participating in a book signing at Barnes and Noble, here in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. While we're a little embarassed to be signing books (exclamation point!), →
Spotlight Lindsay Dewald
We had the great pleasure to chat with Lindsay Dewald, from the wonderful blog, Little One Love. We've long been fans of her passions and relished the opportunity to hear her perspective on life, Montessori →
The Origins of Discipline
Discipline has a very punitive connotation in our society. The origins of the term, however, are much different. Discipline derives from the latin, discipulus, which literally means, "to learn". Disciple, of course, has a very →
Montessori For Everyone
In this Spotlight, we were fortunate enough to chat with Lori Bourne, from Montessori for Everyone. Starting out as a teacher, designing and creating her own materials for the classroom, she soon identified a need →
Abrams Appleseed Books
Our friends at Abrams Appleseed were nice enough to provide us with an assortment of their new collection of books. Beneath our John Lennon quote, of which Sir Ken Robinson is fond, we decided to →
Happy Birthday, London
Today, November 6, 2012 is a special day at Baan Dek. It's London's 5th birthday! It's so hard to believe that she's turning five. She's been with us since the start: eager and excited and →
Five Days a Week
There are a lot of misunderstandings about why Montessori requires five days a week. We thought we'd take this opportunity to address a few of them. First, we think that it's really important to remember →
Happy Montessori
As a school operating in the Midwest of the United States, one of our greatest challenges is imparting the sense of importance that we attribute to early childhood education. In our estimations, it truly is →
The Future of Learning
"Has knowledge become obsolete?" This is one of the many fascinating questions that the folks at Ericsson have prompted, one that is laid out in their new video on the "Networked Society". There are a →
Preparing for Literacy
For those that couldn't make our first parent education workshop of the year, "Preparation for Literacy", and for those joining us from around the world, we thought we'd put together a few of our notes →
The Art of Writing
We're starting a new project to help inspire children to continue to learn the art of writing (cursive) and we need your help. We want to send you a postcard and we'd love it if →
Only Two Years Old
Once a child enters the Montessori environment, we completely forget how old they are, and focus entirely on their capabilities. We come to learn what they struggle with and what we know in our hearts, →
We’re Looking to Hire
Greetings from Baan Dek! We're growing, and we're looking for someone to grow with us. We have a unique culture. We think it's a pretty special place. We also think you can help us make it better. Interested? We want people who imagine things differently, individuals who want to be a part of something bigger than any one of us. We don't want employees. We want passionate, hard working optimists. Of course, rigor and precision are important, but so is joy and attitude. We strongly believe that quality teachers are our best assets.
