Month: July 2025

BOOK: “Please Help Me Do It Myself, Observation and Recordkeeping for the Montessori Primary and Elementary Class”

SusanMayclinStephenson9 Comments

Note: October 11-15, 2025 there was a free Amazon kindle download. It reached thousands of people in almost 100 countries. If you would like to be notified of free offers like this in the future sign up to receive these blog posts.

Even with the very best intentions Montessori teachers often feel the pressure to revert to the traditional TTI (teacher-text centered, adult scheduled) teaching rather than CC (child-centered, free choice) that is essential in authentic Montessori practice. This means giving group rather than individual lessons, gathering children in daily adult-led circle time, teachers making assignments rather than issuing invitations, and, at the 6-18 level, forgetting that the Montessori teacher’s role at this age is to assist the student in learning to create one’s own individual academic path, make one’s own work plans, and meet both state/country and personal goals. Montessori is not about learning to obey and let others do one’s thinking.

Thanks to my Montessori teacher trainers and mentors (Silvana Montanaro and Judi Orion (0-3), Hilla Patell and Muriel Dwyer (2.5-6+), Margaret Stephenson (7-12), Margot Waltuch who was my official AMI primary and elementary consultant, and our 6-12 course examiner Mario Montessori) I have enjoyed many years teaching 0-18, and consulting/lecturing in over thirty countries.

In the book Please Help Me Do It Myself, Observation and Recordkeeping for the Montessori Primary and Elementary Class, successful child-centered, concentration-protected practice is explained in great detail. Continue reading →

BOOK: Joy and Purpose, the Infant-Toddler Years

SusanMayclinStephenson1 Comment

Joy and Purpose, the Infant-Toddler Years
Book one of the Montessori for Family and Community series
Some excerpts:


(page 2)

I was born during World War II, my parents far from home with no relatives to support them with the birth of their first child. Following the advice of other scientists, when I sobbed my heart out with hunger, father enfolded mother in his arms as she cried along with me. Together they watched the clock till the second hand approached twelve and the four hours were up. Only then was I allowed to nurse. This was 1943 when it was recommended that babies only be fed every four hours to prevent their being “spoiled.”

Now we know two things that would have been helpful. First, the intervals between feedings for a newborn shorten in the early days, and then lengthen, as mother and child adjust to each other. Secondly, it is during these first days and weeks that a child learns that the world is a safe place and that his needs will be met; or he learns that this is not the case. When a newborn is left to cry because the four hours wait-to-eat is not over, his brain might well have created an unhappy view of his world, even resulting in trauma later in life. Continue reading →