Art for the Montessori Primary Teacher

Art for the Montessori Primary Teacher

In the summer of 2018 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

Art & Montessori, From Birth to Age Twelve

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. . .  more at the link below.
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Learning at Home during COVID

SEVERAL HELPFUL MONTESSORI BOOKS

It is not possible to learn everything from a book, but there are are several, based on Montessori experience at home and in the classroom that have been found to be very helpful to parents and teachers during these days. They are all written by a Montessori teachers trained at 0-3, 3-6, and 6-12 levels, and with many years of experience with children and young adults from birth to 18 years of age. Continue reading