Spotlight Nduoma

Spotlights

It is an honor to spotlight Junnifa Uzodike of Nduoma. We love seeing her photos on Instagram and reading about her life with her sweet family in Nigeria. We think you’re going to be equally enamored by her story.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Your background, your interests, your dreams?

My name is Junnifa Nduoma Uzodike. I am a Nigerian, christian, wife and mother of two amazing and joyful little souls. I moved to the United States on my 17th birthday to study Computer Science in college. After graduation, I moved from Pennsylvania to Maryland and worked with a company DC for a year before moving to Atlanta to get my MBA. After graduation with my MBA, I was recruited by an automotive supplier in Michigan into a leadership development program that allowed me to work for three years in different areas of the company and different locations including one year in South Wales, UK. After this program, I took a position as a Strategy Manager in one of the company’s divisions located in Northern Kentucky and it was while working there I discovered Montessori in 2011. In 2012, after 11 years in the US, I decided I wanted to move back to home to Nigeria and explore this new interest. I moved to Portland, Oregon to take the Assistant to Infancy course and then moved back to Nigeria to build my family with my husband with hopes of contributing to development in my home country. My first son was born exactly one week after graduation from the Assistant to Infancy course and I have applied Montessori principles since he was in the womb. I had my second son in March of this year and then in May, I moved to Perugia, Italy with my two boys to start my AMI 3-6 training course.

We are back home in Nigeria now and I spend most of my days with my boys. I also consult for schools and families providing parent support, parent education and environment design. In my spare time, I work on at least one of my Montessori projects which include organizing pop-up Montessori inspired play spaces, running parent-child classes, and writing about Montessori. I am also quite active in the online and Facebook Montessori community. I am one of the administrators of the Montessori 101 group as well as the Assistants to Infancy group. My most recent project was launching a Parenting e-Course and that has taken a lot of my free time recently. I am really thankful to be living my passion fully daily and doing work that I love.

As you may be able to tell from my background, I love adventure! I love traveling, visit new places and having new experiences. I also enjoy reading, swimming and planning surprises. I have so many dreams. Some of them are to make quality AMI standard Montessori training accessible to Nigerian teachers. Another is to introduce all parents to Montessori before the give birth so that they can provide this education from birth to the child. I would also like to impact educational policy change in such a way that Montessori core practices become the standard and the norm in both public and private schools… Ultimately, I want every child to be brought up the Montessori way.

Q: Now that the hardest question is out of the way: What’s your favorite color?
It’s a sunshiney happy place between yellow and orange. I think it’s called burnt yellow.

Q: Do you have a favorite book? How about a film?
The Absorbent Mind for sure. Reading it sealed my faith as a Montessori educator.
The Sound of Music has been my favorite film since I was a child. I can’t wait to watch it with my boys.

Q: When you close your eyes late at night, and imagine waking up and starting a new adventure: what is that adventure?
This is a hard one for me because my life has always been and continues to be filled with adventure. We will be returning to Perugia next summer so that I can complete my 3-6 training. I guess that’s the next big adventure on my horizon. I hope I can make time to see more of Italy and Europe since I won’t have a newborn this time.

Q: What first appealed to you about Montessori?
The stark contrast of Montessori to my educational experience. Everything about the children, the beautiful environment and the adults called to me but I will say the strongest impact was the grace and courtesy of both the children and adults.

Q: What advice do you have for new Montessori adults?

The training lays the foundation for sure but it is the children who truly train us, at least from my experience. So with this in mind, be humble and don’t assume you know it all. There is so much depth to the work that we do so seek daily to know and understand more. Dig deeper by observing and following the child and also by reading. I highly recommend re-reading Montessori’s books. I also really enjoy the NAMTA journals, AMI journals and conference proceedings.

When in doubt, go back to the source – Maria Montessori’s writings. She wrote so much and touched a lot of topics in her writings so when wondering, search her words.
One of my dreams is to create a reference guide to all the Montessori books to make them easier to navigate.

Finally, it is also important to have a network of like minded adults that you can discuss, debate and problem solve with. I find this so crucial to my development as a Montessori adult

Q: Did you have a “Montessori Moment?”
My first encounter with Montessori was my Montessori Moment. My mother who is an educator and school owner (not Montessori) was visiting and wanted to visit schools so I looked up schools in my area and one of them happened to be a Montessori school. I called to inquire about visiting and was told it was the last day of school before they let out for the summer but I was welcome to observe if I could get there in 15 minutes! I had a meeting scheduled but as I was on the call, a cancel notification came in for the meeting. I took it as a sign to go. I went home and picked up my parents and sister and we headed to the school. We made it just in time and were shown to a room with a one way mirror. We were all so amazed. We watched in awe as these little children went about their business. They would stand up and push in their chairs. Choose something off the shelf and return when done. I didn’t see the teacher until the end of our time observing. At one point, a few children started setting up a table for lunch. They moved the tables together, put the table cloth, glass plates, cups, pitchers, silverware and the food and then they all sat down, held hands, sang a song and started to eat. All these with almost no adult intervention. My moment was somewhere amongst those moments. I went home and ordered all the Montessori books that were available on Amazon.

Q: What’s your favorite Montessori quote?
I have so many! I’ll go with the one that guides my current work.
“The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth. From this almost mystic affirmation there comes what may seem a strange conclusion: that education must start from birth.”

Q: What inspired you to share your Montessori story on your blog?
I attended the Montessori congress which held in Portland in 2013. I was completing my training and also heavily pregnant. There were Montessorians of different ages, races etc. from all over the world. Many of them stopped me to ask about my pregnancy. When they heard I was completing my training, each of them had the same response/reaction. They told me how lucky I was to have discovered Montessori and gotten the A to I training before having children. This had a big impact on me. I felt like I had a responsibility to use the knowledge I had acquired and also to share it with others who were not lucky enough to have the same opportunity. I believe this is one of the best ways to lay the foundation for a good life for every child.

Q: What advice do you have for new parents trying to incorporate Montessori at home?
It is so easy to focus on the materials but the theory and the intangible parts of Montessori are so important to really reap the best benefits of Montessori. To this end, take time to really understand the philosophy. This can be by reading Montessori books or finding other resources to help with this. This is the focus of my e-courses… to help parents understand the reasoning and ideas behind the materials.
There’s so much information on the Internet and it can be hard to filter what is really Montessori from what is not. I suggest finding just a few perhaps a handful of online resources/blogs and limiting yourself as much as you can.
If possible, find a Montessori mentor or friend that you can ask questions and just share thoughts and ideas with.

Remember that Montessori developed her philosophy and method by observing and following the child so after reading all the information and gathering all the resources, remember that the best guide to your child’s development is your child so take time to watch them and follow them.

“The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth. From this almost mystic affirmation there comes what may seem a strange conclusion: that education must start from birth.”

Finally, trust your instincts and let the love you have for your child guide you.

Q: What do you think is the best introduction to Montessori?
Observing any age group at a quality Montessori school or an infant/toddler in a well prepared Montessori home.

Q: What continues to inspire you about Montessori?
My children. They are truly joyful and amazing. I want to see them continue to blossom and reach their potential. I can only imagine what the future hold for them but I know that applying Montessori has been the best thing we have done for them so far.

Also the knowledge that the method has been applied all over the world for over a hundred years and continues to remain relevant to the child at every stage of development from infancy to adulthood. That is so amazing to me and I just want to understand the entire continuum and soak it all in.

Q: In what ways do you envision the future of education?
I envision an education that follows the natural laws of human development. One not based on competition with others but on the development of each person to their own potential. I also envision an education that places at least as much emphasis on what we refer to as practical life skills in Montessori as it does on academic skills.