Fine Motor Skills and Montessori Materials: A Perfect Combination
We tend to throw around the phrase "fine motor skills" a lot without really thinking about what it means. What are fine motor skills? How are they best developed? To…
Soothing Work for Troubled Kids
Many children today have trouble adjusting to the pressures of schooling. Causes are varied: they can be external, like the loss of a loved one or an acrimonious divorce. Other…
Do Logical Consequences Really Work?
Parents and teachers in today's world seem to be diligently seeking ways to teach kids discipline and self-control. A quick look at any bookstore will turn up hundreds of books…
Does Jessica Seinfeld Ever Take Her Kids to McDonald’s?
The recent publication and Oprah coverage of Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook Deceptively Delicious has stirred up a kettle of buzz in the kitchen and across the web as curious parents test…
Real Work for Real Kids
It's a quiet afternoon, and I have been looking through a Michael Olaf Company catalog with a sense of thankfulness that this business has dedicated 25 years to giving us…
How Children Benefit from Adult Conversations
We hear so much about the importance of talking and singing to babies – and how it aids in their brain development - but not as much is said about…
On Planting Fall Bulbs and the Montessori Method
Across the United States, we are feeling that nip in the air, watching skies darken, watching trees take on glorious hues. It's a time of old things and new things.…
Television and the Montessori Child: Part 3
If you've read Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, you'll know that television can be very good or very bad, depending on the content, but that we as…
Television and the Montessori Child: Part 2
As I mentioned in the first post of this series, television today seems like a "must" for most households. Since it is ever present, we become habituated to it -…
Television and the Montessori Child: Part 1
Television has always been an option - never a life requirement, but you wouldn't know this from the following statistics:* The average child spends nearly 4 hours per day watching…