Montessori Research
November 20, 2017While we don’t have Tests in Montessori, per se, we do have Evaluations. We’re always moving forward from a place of mastery, and the only way to know if a child has mastered a material →
Geometry Cabinet
November 16, 2017How do you use this material? The Geometry Cabinet is located in the Sensorial Area. There are six drawers, containing various triangles, polygons, quadrilaterals, and curved figures. The first shapes we introduce are circle, square, →
When It All Comes Together
November 14, 2017Amazing things happen every day. Some days, we’re lucky enough to capture them. All the pieces come together, and a child is suddenly reading. It’s as though they have always read. It comes so naturally, →
Principles
November 9, 2017It’s a big responsibility, raising a human. We fall into rituals and routines, we make overt and unconscious decisions, based on how we were raised, a reaction against something we didn’t like about our childhood →
Noticing
November 6, 2017A change is in the air. We’re moving deeper into Fall, and some of us can feel Winter blowing in, just around the corner. Every time there’s a change, a calendar page turning over, a →
Spotlight Montessori-ish Mom
November 2, 2017Christina Clemer is a Montessori student, educator, and mom. She blogs over at Montessori-ish Mom, and shares her beautiful story here. Enjoy! Q: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Your background, your →
How Children Learn Vocabulary
October 30, 2017If you’ve ever been in a language class, you know how exciting and frustrating and brain-rewiring learning a new language can be. Arguably the best way to learn a language is total immersion, where the →
Comparison
October 26, 2017It would be so easy to say, we should never compare. Are there ever times when comparison serves us? Absolutely, though it’s more subtle than we realize. In fact, most of the comparisons we make, →
Conferences
October 23, 2017We 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 →
Spotlight Suzanne Grennell
October 19, 2017Q: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Your background, your interests, your dreams? I was born in Ireland into a large, loving family that included my parents and four brothers. My early →
All Day
October 16, 2017At some point, a decision comes up, of whether or not to have a child stay at school all day. There are a variety of factors here. A child might be in care full-days from →
Communication with Children
October 12, 2017Communication. It’s what we do, day-in, day-out. We’re communicating whether we intend to or not. It’s vital to the human experience, it’s how we bind ourselves in relationships, it’s how we interact. And it’s complicated. →
Moving Up
October 9, 2017We thought the youngest Primary children were small, until the Toddler Program was started. Oh my, these were babies! They’re so little! And yet, so incredibly capable. We were reminded of the magic of Montessori, →
Sandpaper Phonograms
October 5, 2017How do you use this material? The Sandpaper Phonograms are similar to the Sandpaper Letters -- they are cursive letters in sandpaper on a colored board, each one represents a sound, and they are found →
Saying Goodbye
October 2, 2017It can be heartbreaking, walking away from a tearful child. What’s wrong? Don’t they like school? This can quickly unravel into, is something wrong? Did I make a bad choice? Are they not ready? Parental →
Absorbent Mind
September 29, 2017We sometimes think, we got into Education because we love learning. At Baan Dek, one of our Guiding Principles is, we're always learning. We're never done. It naturally follows that we love engaging in continuing →
A Montessori Life
September 28, 2017The Montessori Classroom can feel transformative, magical, mysterious. This weekend, We recently held a Parent Education Workshop on A Montessori Life, about certain principles and activities which are natural to the Montessori classroom which might →
Thinking Chair
September 25, 2017Look around a Montessori classroom, and you might notice a chair or two off to the side, or somewhere unobtrusive. Perhaps it’s near an adult-sized chair, or in a quiet corner. This isn’t a time-out →
Spotlight Debbie Adams
September 21, 2017Debbie Adams is a Montessori parent, grandparent, and advocate. She's working to expand the reach of Montessori in Canadian public schools, and her enthusiasm for Montessori is infectious. Enjoy! Q: Can you tell us a →
Helpers
September 18, 2017There’s this thing that happens in Montessori classrooms. We don’t send home a daily report, we could never summarize “all” a child is learning during the day, for although we are giving one, or two, →
Motivation through Inspiration
September 14, 2017Here we are again, talking about Motivation. We love how the Montessori classroom instills an internal motivation in children, and we’ve recorded 2 podcasts on this topic to accompany this post, and the last one →
Naming Emotions
September 11, 2017It can be surprising how much children are learning. How to walk, how to read, how to interact with others. Emotions are human, we have different names for them, or feel some more deeply than →
Lunch
September 7, 2017It’s the first week back to school, and we could hardly be more excited! It’s so joyful to see new faces, and to see how children have changed over the Summer. Some of us have →
“Go Away”
September 4, 2017Oh, those words break your heart. “Go away.” Uttered by anyone, they are gut-wrenching, but spoken by a child, they can strike a wound. And yet, they are not unfamiliar to hear. Often they emerge →
