“To have learned something for the child is only a point of departure. When he has learned the meaning of an exercise, then he begins to enjoy repeating it, and he does repeat it an infinite number of times, with the most evident satisfaction”

 Maria Montessori – The Montessori Method

Children had a great time this week exploring and repeating some of the new materials in the environment. In a Montessori environment, repetition does not necessarily mean that the child has to engage in the same exact work over and over again. Anything that provides the child with practice of a previously learned skill, including extensions and games, is repetition.

 Dr. Montessori said, “Repetition is the secret of perfection.”

Through repetitive exploration your children are able to look at a material from different angles and explore it, letting it become part of their understanding of the world. At the same time, it allows them to self-critique; they look at how they are doing something and make slight changes in order to perfect the action, making it more efficient. The Montessori environment is designed to support exactly this kind of learning. Children choose their own work, allowing their interest to guide them to a choice. They are drawn by desire and that allows them to return to an activity with frequency, working with it until they have perfected it. It is, in fact, a developmental need. A common phrase you can hear in our environment is the children saying, “Again!”  Dr. Maria Montessori wrote, “When a child has attained this stage, of repeating an exercise, he is on the way to self-development, and the external sign of this condition is his self-discipline.”

Based on our observations, this is  just ONE of the works your child seems VERY attracted to lately and enjoys repeating: 

Ella – Flower arrangement 

Shea– Maximum effort using the wagon 

Kian– Object to picture matching- Arctic animals 

Chey–  Dressing and undressing 

Sara–  Transferring water with a dropper 

Maya–  Puzzles 

On another note, children enjoyed exploring a juicy  grapefruit for food tasting. It was a fun and tangy experience! 🙂

Lastly, In our movement area we added the slide to our stair structure and, oh boy, children really enjoyed it! Slides are encouraging to children and invigorating to play on. Children will climb almost anything if it means going down a slide and since they use it over and over, it encourages balance, coordination, and spatial awareness. It also teaches the children social skills and organization. It’s so fun!

Wishing you a fun and safe holiday weekend, 

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria 

Happy New Year, families! We hope you had a wonderful holiday break and you got some relaxation and meaningful time with your families! We are thankful for all of you and for the joy your wonderful children bring to our lives! What an honor it is to see them growing and blooming right before our eyes! We want to thank you also for your generosity through your gifts and encouraging words! Ms. Maria and I love partnering with you through this adventure!

Your children transitioned peacefully after the break and they arrived eager and ready to explore the environment and all the new works on the shelves. We were also  given the privilege to receive a new member and his family into our toddler community this week and we couldn’t be happier.

As we have officially entered the winter season we will be focusing on bringing it into the environment and enjoying different aspects of it.  Water and its different stages will be a main object for conversations and sensorial experiences during this month. 

In the language area we introduced an object to picture matching work, focused on arctic animals. Children learned to recognize a harp seal, an arctic fox, a killer whale, a walrus, a husky, a caribou, a beluga whale, and a polar bear. In addition to this, children enjoyed exploring the solidification of water in the form of snow and creating a habitat for some of the animals introduced. 

At the end of the week children were exposed to creating art using ice cube painting, and oh boy! Most of the students really seemed to enjoy and immerse themselves in this sensorial experience.  

Also, this week children learned a new song in Spanish called: “Copo de nieve” by Super Simple Español. We used our beloved scarves to represent the snow falling from the sky and also practice some body parts in Spanish such as: cabeza (head), nariz(nose), mano (hand). As time goes on we will continue adding and practicing more body parts in Spanish.  We recommend you to add this song to your playlist and sing it with your little one. 

For food tasting children explored broccoli, and even though this vegetable didn’t receive a standing ovation, we can say that 99% of the class tried it and most of them really liked it. 

We are so happy to be back and can’t wait for all the fun we’ll have this month. 

As a gentle reminder, please bring winter outdoor gear for your child in a labeled reusable bag. This includes, snow pants, waterproof mittens with mitten clips, snow boots, winter hat, and jacket. 

Warmly, 

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria

And just like that, our first trimester comes to an end, filled with great moments and stories to tell. COVID has changed many things for us this year, but will never change the love and connection we have with each one of your children! Our environment is full of love, smiles, curiosity and great fun because of them! We feel honored to be able to see each of your little ones unfolding so beautifully. 

We thank you SO much for your support and trust. We love partnering with you in this adventure!

May the holiday season fill your home with joy, your heart with love, and your life with laughter.

May 2021 be a great year for all of us!

Enjoy a peek from our Pajama Holiday celebration!

Stay safe and see you next year! 🙂

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria

Rhythm is helpful in all sorts of ways. The pattern recognition inherent in rhythm can help your children to be better observers and better learners (also better athletes). Like any motor skill, rhythm needs to be cultivated and developed. It just so happens the exercises that help develop rhythm can also help with language fluency and reading, two other key life skills for young children to develop.

In our environment, music is a daily activity. Whole body movement songs, finger-plays, and instrument times are always part of our morning routine. This week, we had fun adding holiday songs and rocking to the sound of Jingle Bells, Candle Chase, We Wish You a Merry Christmas and of course, Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano. 

In our practical life, we introduced and modeled how the children can independently put their own jackets on. The smiles on the children’s faces is so great to witness as they try what we call the “fliparoo”. We encourage you to add this routine at home as well, so this skill becomes perfected and boosts your child’s confidence. 

For food tasting, children tried sweet potatoes! It’s always so much fun to see their faces when I demonstrate eating the new food item. They just can’t wait to try it themselves! They walk as fast as they can to their tables to open their containers sent from home and try the food themselves. It’s so fun! Sweet potatoes were very well received by most of your children. 

Lastly, we want to take a minute to thank, from the bottom of our hearts, each parent that donated books for our classroom! Books are very special treasures and we appreciate them SO much! 

Have a wonderful weekend, 

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria

Winter holidays are used in our environment as a fun way to keep children engaged, encourage joy of learning, and help us to introduce the passage of time and seasons. Since they bring a sense of light and joyfulness to the long, dark winter months and create a sense of community, we welcome them wholeheartedly. 

In addition to other materials, some of the favorite holiday works in our environment have been placing little ornaments onto the Christmas tree, placing candles on the Menorah, spooning jingle bells and colorful ornaments, tweezing pretend presents, and flipping pretend latkes in the pan. 

Another highlight of this week was the introduction of a beloved work by all the children: a baby doll. Her name is Rosie. Through this work, children practice grace and courtesy, gentleness, and a lot of patience, since everybody wants to take care of the baby. Children enjoy this work so much! Some of them cuddle Rosie with such care while others seem to quietly enjoy observing her and pointing to and naming some parts of her body. 

Also, as children have shown readiness to safely practice climbing up and down the stairs independently, we presented the climber in our movement area. Aside from being a basic life skill, this exercise helps them build leg muscles, strengthens their balance and coordination, and boosts spatial awareness. 

For food tasting, the children tried a fun seasonal fruit, papaya! As always, children were very attentive to this activity and were eager to taste this fruit! I am happy to report that papaya was approved by 70% of the  class! 🙂 I encourage you all to continue exposing your toddlers to this wonderful fruit. For even more sweetness, I recommend you to add a Hawaiian papaya to your grocery list! Yum!

Warm regards, 

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria

Dr. Maria Montessori introduced Practical Life exercises to provide the children with opportunities to perform simple tasks that they have already observed at home. Practical Life exercises enable the children to care for themselves, take care of the environment, and develop respect for others.

Care of environment activities encourage the child to interact with the environment, exhibiting respect and love. These activities help the child form a connection with their environment and find a personal responsibility towards it.

This week we introduced one of the most beloved activities in our Montessori environments: flower arrangement. This is a beautiful activity that offers so much to your child’s development. Through this exercise, children develop a sense of beauty, work on the mental task of sequencing, and learn to exercise their judgment of size and capacity in matching flowers to vases and also in pouring water. This activity also indirectly prepares your child for botany studies in our Primary program and offers a great opportunity to work on independence and concentration.

Another highlight of our week was our first lesson on food tasting. As children grow beyond the infant stage, they begin the journey to independence as toddlers. Many parents notice this change in their children when it comes to mealtime, as they begin to hear a resounding “no!” when it comes to eating the foods they once loved and trying new ones. In order to help families, we have integrated food tasting into our toddler program as a way to ease children into the idea of trying new foods by teaching them all about the food and encouraging them to participate as a group. 

This week we introduced some delicious yellow peppers. 

Children were really excited to see the food tasting tray covered. They knew there was a surprise and they immediately gathered quietly around the tray. They were attentive at the moment we removed the towel that was covering the pepper.  The pepper was presented as a whole first, then cut in front of them, presented as half, and then served individually while following all COVID safety guidelines. In our conversation we included such adjectives as cold, big, smooth, yellow, and tasty to keep adding to our vocabulary.

Children observed while I slowly picked up a piece of pepper and placed it inside my mouth, tasting it slowly and dramatically, with the purpose of encouraging curiosity and expectation when it was their turn to taste. They immediately started to ask for their turn to taste it! They really liked it! 

From now on, these two exercises will be available in our environment every week! Thank you SO much to the Mica family for the gorgeous flowers they donated this week and thank you all for your support providing your own child’s food tasting. Your support is greatly appreciated. 

Happy weekend, 

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria 

The crisp in the air, the change of colors in the trees, and the smell of pumpkins tell us fall is finally here, and we celebrated in a special way this week. Due to COVID we are making adjustments to different events and traditions we hold dear in our hearts here at FWM, but that didn’t stop us from having fun at our little Fraser Farm.   

Our little ones got very excited when we told them we were going pumpkin picking. We told them they needed to keep their eyes open and let us know if they saw some nice pumpkins. They walked quietly as a group around the school’s halls until they were able to spot the pumpkins displayed in our beautiful Zen garden. This is a new place they have never visited before as a group. As they entered the garden,  they not only focused on the pumpkins, but on the whole new environment. They explored the trees, the benches, the bridge, and contemplated the sky. Something they seemed to enjoy was hearing their steps while they walked on the tiny rocks.

Each child chose a pumpkin and used their muscles to carry it around and place it into the wagon to be transported to the classroom. In the classroom, children had some extra fun freely painting their chosen pumpkin.

We want to give a big shout out to the Cinquegrana family for the pumpkin donations for the class! We are always so appreciative of the support of our families! 🙂 

Also, thank you all for meeting with Ms. Maria and I last week during Parent-Teacher Conferences! It was really great to spend some time with each one of you and share stories and the progress each of your children have made so far! 

It’s truly an honor to be able to see your children grow in our community!

Enjoy the pictures,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria

Hand-eye coordination is one of the most important parts of the learning process. It helps your child track the movements of their hands with their eyes, which is essential for reading and decoding. Because your child also uses their visual system with hand-eye coordination, it can greatly impact their writing skills and handwriting as they use their eyes to guide, direct, and control their hand movements across the page as they write letters and words.

Our Toddler environment is set up in a specific way, looking to sharpen and challenge these skills while meeting your child exactly where they are developmentally. Each material is displayed in progression order, from easiest to hardest, and from left to right. This logical structure encourages children to organize their thinking and absorb the outcome of the material at their own pace. The left to right orientation of the materials also assists children with preparation for reading and writing, and is the way that the brain naturally processes information.

Some fun highlights from this week were the introduction of water transferring using a dropper. It’s a challenging work but children were so proud of themselves when they were able to make the dropper work and hear the sound of the water touching the silver bowl. The children named this work “Squeeze and Open” as they worked hard to coordinate their hand movement while repeating those words. 

The children also received a surprise this week! They were able to work their gross and fine motor skills while using chalk or brushes and painting with water on our new giant chalkboard.  They seem to love it so much! 

Children also enjoyed making pumpkin sun catchers and taking sunflower seeds out of a huge mammoth sunflower head, strengthening their pincer grip.  

Ms. Maria and I can’t wait to “see” you next week for our Parent- Teacher Conference through Zoom and to talk more in detail about your child’s progress. 

Enjoy the pictures,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria