We have been requested to share the story mentioned in a previous blog post “A Montessori Language Lesson” The introduction to the story, and all of the text in this blog post, is shared in the book Aid to Life, Montessori Beyond the Classroom (link below). This is a story of the young girl recording her thoughts as she experienced (just like Eloise did in Paris) a hotel with her grandparents (Amala and Baba) and aunt (Lala) during a Montessori conference in Portland, Oregon. Continue reading
Art for the Montessori Primary Teacher
In the summer of 2017 I gave the culture lectures for the first AMI primary (age 2.5-6) teacher training course in Morocco. My friend Lhamo Pemba was the director of training. We had already worked together in several countries, even visiting her family in Northern India, and had become good friends. Continue reading
In the Montessori tradition it is the child’s own original and unique art that is preferred over adult-generated forms to be colored in. This gives the child not only a very good self image, but skill at both observation and draftsmanship. As Dr. Montessori said, we cannot teach a person to be an artist but we can help him develop an eye that sees, a hand that obeys, and a soul that feels. For many years this Michael Olaf Montessori Newsletter has been shared by schools around the world.
The First Year
In the first days and months of life the child’s attention is on the environment. Since the infant cannot yet move about, he is exploring visually. There was a small print that I had brought back from India taped to the wall next to where my second child spend the first weeks of life. Then it was packed away. When it was unpacked many years later she remembered and said that she loved that kind of art all her life. I am sure that it was imprinted on her idea of what should be in the environment, what is “beautiful” in just those first few weeks.
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