Montessori Education Week

It's Montessori Education Week! This is my celebration post and small tribute to Dr. Montessori. I'm finding, via personal messages and comments, that many of you are using my blog as one of your ways to learn about Montessori, so I hope to soon have a post that will talk more in-depth about Montessori philosophy and what it entails from my understanding thus far. It is certainly a difficult concept to summarize!

Dr. Maria Montessori

[1870-1952]

“The secret of good teaching is to regard the child’s intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds maybe sown, to grow under the heating flame of imagination. Our aim is to not only make the child understand, and still less force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his innermost core. We do not want complacent pupils but eager ones. We seek to sow life in the child rather than theories to help him in his growth, mental and emotional as well as physical and for that we must offer grand and lofty ideas to the human mind”   

 --Dr.Maria Montessori

For a video on how Montessori works, view "Montessori Education for the Early Childhood Years" by The American Montessori Society here: http://www.youtube.com/v/OM1Gu9KXVkk

For simple ways to celebrate and practice Montessori in your home or classroom this week (or always!), visit this link: http://www.forsmallhands.com/articles/?article=080225&type=newsletters