FIRST AMI MONTESSORI PRESENTATION—LIMA, PERU
On August 2, 2016, I presented a Montessori PowerPoint in a beautiful hotel in Lima, Peru. But before telling you about that I want to share a video clip of two Montessori students who gave all of us a charming demonstration of the Marinara dance, which I was so lucky to have studied when I lived in Lima many years ago. Still today children all over the country learn this dance as part of their studies.
After this beautiful and obviously very skilled presentation we were all eager to delve deeply into the potential of the child.
The title of the talk was “Montessori, Education for the Future”
It is based on the book The Universal Child, Guided by Nature, that has now been translated into Spanish as is available on Amazon El Nino Universal
For the English version CLICK: Universal Child
It is clear today that our traditional idea of a curriculum is outdated because the world is changing too quickly to predict even what professions will be valued in 10 years, so certainly then we cannot predict with certainty what subjects need to be studied to prepare for these professions! But there are many skills that are, and will be, vital. The 10 that I selected to talk about are all fostered and supported in Montessori environment.
These are: (1) exploration, (2) work and putting forth maximum effort with no external rewards, (3) repeating an activity until it is mastered, (4) focusing or concentrating on age-appropriate healthy activities, (5) self-control, (6) developing a mathematical mind, (7) communicating, (8) working with others with respect and kindness, (9) caring for the environment, and, (10) solving real problems.
Many of these skills are evident in the early days of life. I am going to give examples of just one of these natural human tendencies or skills, Visual Exploration
FIRST VISUAL EXPLORATION
So often we hear people say, “babies only eat and sleep.” But there is a lot more going on that that. In the video above it is clear that this infant is entranced with the gentle movement of the mobile, that he is focused and concentration on this visual exploration and something important is happening in his brain. This does not happen with just any mobile, but it does with one so light that it moves gently in the air currants of the room. As far as the selection of appropriate mobiles we have learned that 5 elements is the maximum to keep from over-stimulating the child, and it is best to present either abstract shapes or images that he will store in his brain really moving this way, such as birds, butterflies, and fish – NOT elephants, clowns, apples, etc.
EYE CONTACT
The friends I was staying with in Lima have a new baby, Matteo, just celebrating his 8th week of life. At the request of the family I gave the same PowerPoint to the mother and father, the grandmother, two university-age siblings and the boyfriend of Matteo’s sister. And all week we shared Matteo’s experience and discussed Montessori ideas. I will share just a bit of the visual exploration of our rich experience together, observing and meeting the needs of this infant.
As a gift I had brought the Montessori 0-3 book, The Joyful Child: Montessori, Global Wisdom for Birth to Three, and the parents began to read a chapter every night.
For more information, and a link to translations including Spanish:
CLICK: Joyful Child
Right away the family realized that Matteo was trying to sustain eye-contact with them, and they grasped the importance of not looking away from him until he signaled that he was finished looking into our eyes. After the bath, instead of rushing to dress him, being sure that he was warm, the father looked into his eyes until Matteo looked away.
Breast-feeding is a golden opportunity for the baby to look into the eyes of the mother, and at any other time the mother was sure to stop whatever she was doing to engage eye contact.
EXPLORING THE HOME
Before I came the family had noticed that Matteo seems happier when resting on the bed in his sister’s room than the parents’ room, so I suggested we lie down on both beds and see what he was seeing. What we discovered was that the light above the parent’s bed was much larger and gave off more light, too much light. Above the sister’s bed was a much smaller light and it was easier to look around the room. Returning to the parents bedroom we could see that even though there was a mobile on above Matteo’s bed it was large and it didn’t move, not interesting for long. And the ceiling and walls were bare white. While in the sister’s bed there was a lovely image of a tree on one of the walls, and a large wall-TV on the opposite wall. When we placed Matteo on her he moved his back and forth several times, studying both walls, looking at the tree and the TV which provided a high contrast of black against the white wall. What was he thinking about? Whatever it was we did not interrupt him. And of course I explained why it is better to have any TV’s turned off when he was near them.
EXPLORING LIMA
Usually we would not recommend taking a child out into the city at this age, but it was my last night in Lima, so the parents wrapped up Matteo and we headed for the beautiful downtown area of Lima. For 45 minutes Matteo looked at the ceiling of the car just above him. We were astounded. What was he looking at? He craned his neck at times to look at different areas of the ceiling – even though as far as we could see there was nothing but a dark fabric. It makes one wonder if it is true, as some people think, that the very young can see things that we have forgotten to be able to see.
After these 45 minutes of uninterrupted concentration he was hungry and the mother fed him for 15 minutes.
Then he returned to his visual exploration “work” and for another 35 minutes he looked intently out of the window at the buildings, the trees, the streetlights, as we slowly made our way through conveniently, for Matteo, heavy traffic back home. We were all careful not to get between Matteo and what he was looking at, and not to move him is such a way that his concentration was interrupted. Again he craned his neck to see clearly and his eyes were wide open.
It was not only Matteo’s eyes that were open, but ours as well.
Here is a quote by Alheli, Matteo’s mother:
I am very grateful to you as I have learned that I must have not just my eyes but my soul opened to understand Matteo (and also my other “two babies”) and help them to have a positive, productive and most importantly, happy life. Parents are only intermediaries for that, and that’s our privilege.
POST-VISIT MATTEO REPORT
Now I am working in Mexico City and just received the following message, and the above picture, from Matteo’s parents:
Matteo is doing great with his concentration exercises. On Sunday after you left, César (ed. Matteo’s papa) and I took him out to do the shopping and went also to a restaurant and we stayed out from 12:30 until 5:30 pm. That is a complete achievement for us! Before that we used to go out only for very short periods of time, but we are not afraid anymore. We have understood that when Matteo gets upset, it’s not just because he’s hungry, but because he’s bored and needs to get interested in something. When shopping, he just wanted to see everything with his eyes wide opened. He’s become such great company. Then he was so tired that when we went to a restaurant, after nursing him, he fell asleep.
I do hope that this little peek into the value of reaching parents with Montessori information in the early days of life has been interesting to you, and any prospective or new parents or grandparents you might know.
The Joyful Child is available from Amazon in many countries and from the publisher:
It contains much more information that can help children, even in the first three years of life, prepare for a balanced and happy life.
Here is the link to all of the AMI “Assistants to Infancy” 0-3 training courses:
0-3 training courses in the world.
It is easy to imagine how much more is there to be learned since this teacher training was begun in Italy in 1947 when Dr. Montessori realized that it is important to meet the needs of humans in the very beginning of life.
Blessings,
Susan
Fascinating! I wish I had read that before my children were born!
I am constantly amazed at how much you give to the whole world. XoK