The Children are Amazing

The children are becoming quite accustomed to visitors in the classroom.  We are generating a lot of interest in Community Montessori so parents are coming to observe the classroom.  Today, we had a Mom visit our classroom.  A couple children were curious about who she was and why she was there, but for the most part, children went on about the business of their day.  I'm working in the front room this week (Everyday Living, Sensorial, Art etc.).  I was able to talk with our visitor and answer her questions for about 35 minutes while the children were completely self sufficient.  It was an awesome sight!  I pointed out what specific children were working on:  A child was doing floor scrubbing and another was painting.  A little girl engaged in marble painting and yet another working on The Pink Tower extension~she was tracing each cube and gluing it on a piece of paper.  Three children were having snack and another child was shelf cleaning.  A couple different times, a child had a question, but before I could walk to the child and address him/her another child moved in and solved the issue.  I was able to explain that in a Montessori environment, cooperative learning and helping one another is highly encouraged.  It's one of the magical aspects of the classroom, that isn't necessarily explained, but children pick up on very quickly.  We invite older children to assist younger children and we believe they are fully capable of doing so.  Also, since children are given the freedom to develop their independence, they feel quite capable answering questions from one another or stepping in naturally to help a friend.  I also was able to observe another beautiful sight-A new student joined our classroom on Friday, so today was his third day in class.  One student saw that this little boy was interested in choosing snack, but he seemed unsure of what to do.  The little girl started explaining to him what he needed to do.  She did it so patiently and, what else I loved about it was that she would tell him a step, then allowed him to do it himself.  She then had snack with him and was able to tell him the clean up process as well-this to me is simply beautiful!  The new student accepted her help willingly and seemed genuinely appreciative of her assistance.  Oh what lessons the children can teach us!

www.CMontessori.com