Joyous Celebration with Adele Diamond, 4 Special Days in Vancouver, BC

Joyous Celebration with Adele Diamond,
4 Special Days in Vancouver, BC

This was the most amazing and generous and important gathering I have ever attended. Because of her declining health Adele Diamond invited 500 friends and colleagues from 41 countries, to join her for several days of sharing and making connections. 90 of the group gave 15-30 minute presentations over the four days. We all paid our own transportation and hotel and Adele fed us all for the entire event! Here is the description of the gathering in her words: Continue reading

Recognition of 50 Years of Montessori Work

Susan Mayclin Stephenson first began explaining Montessori in 1971, through a school newsletter that helped families of her students understand the essence of Montessori. She has continued to write and speak, based on personal experience, since that time.

Here is a quote from the upcoming book on observation and record keeping for the primary and elementary class, Please Help Me Do It Myself:

Rather than focusing first of all on the academic work in class, when I had a meeting with parents, I showed the parents the concentration graphs for their child. This kept the focus on the value of their child learning to independently choose work, to experience deeper and longer periods of concentration, and the positive results of this experience.

I found that this was an excellent way for parents not only to begin to understand Montessori, but to look for, and hesitate to interrupt, their child’s concentration at home.  

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Post-Earthquake Montessori Help for Children in Nepal

A Forgotten People

Forgotten Children of the Himalaya
Because I worked  with these children in Nepal a few years ago I have had many requests from Montessorians around the world on how their school children can help, especially fellow Montessori children, with the earthquake situation. Even though it is no longer on the news today, the need for help remains. I have heard from several schools outside of Nepal who have sponsored fundraisers and sent money to help SMD. This is a video slide show that explains who are the children attending SMD (Shree Mangal Dvip) school in Kathmandu where I consulted. It was created before the earthquake as you will see. Continue reading