Every child is born with the natural tendency to imitate, respond, repeat, imagine and explore! Now how do we help these specific tendencies come together to CREATE?
When one creates, they delve into personal experiences and learnings and use that information to transform resources around them to create!
Giving the opportunity to young children to be in environments that provide rich, real experiences will actually help them think creatively not only while practicing art but also while problem-solving! Early Montessori environments hope just to do that!
“This strength of imagination in the child under six is usually expended on toys and fairy tales, but surely we can give him real things to imagine about, so putting him in more accurate relation with his environment.”- Dr Maria Montessori
Check out the beautiful anecdote in the Reflections section from a parent who was wowed by the creative problem-solving that was shown by children running a carnival!
Also, apart from real experiences, we want to help you find interesting resources, art ideas, and more for children (See the sections below).
Also, scroll down to see upcoming events and Montessori training courses from IMC!
Reflections!
Shopping at a carnival run by children! -Subashini S (parent)
I was informed by my daughter about a carnival that is going to happen at her school. She told me it would be like a trade fair, where the children could sell their products. She also informed me that they had already formed teams and that she was a part of the team that sells food items. The menu card was designed and drawn by hand by my daughter. The prices for the items on the menu were discussed among teams and they came up with a rate card.
On the day of the carnival, we packed what we would need and went to school. The beautifully set up space brightened up when the children came in! The children proudly displayed all of their creations and. each item at the stall was created with so much thought.
As a parent, I felt amazed when I contemplated on the thought-process that had gone into displaying those beautiful display cards/banners for each stall. The group work of the children was very evident. One child would collect the money, another did the calculations required to give back the right amount of change to the buyer. There were hiccups which needed the buyers to pause as the children sorted it out. When it was soon to be closing time, the children came up with strategies to sell items. They had combo and buy-1-get-1 free offers to sell more. Some children actually took the eatables towards people in crowded spaces. Their strategy worked!
The learnings in the classroom were used and applied to this carnival. Once the fair ended, the money that they made was accounted for, sorted by denominations and given back to the adults for safe keeping. All of them had great fun as did I!
Montessori At Home!
By Aishwarya Dwarakanath
Activity 1: Kick the cup!
- Get your child moving and learning with this activity.
- Place some cups upside down on the floor and label them differently. Eg: Names of colours, shapes, letters of the alphabet., etc.
- Have some chits of paper for your child to pick. These chits will have the names that were mentioned on the labels.
- Whichever label they pick, they have to kick a ball from a distance and knock that cup down!
- Call out a word and ask your child what was the last sound they heard.
- Stress on the sound so that your 2-3 year old can hear it better. Ex: “Skinnn. What was the last sound you heard in skinnn?”
- Once, they’ve got a hang of this, try separate activities for first sounds and middle sounds. in words For the ‘middle sounds’ activity, ensure that there are only 3 sounds in the word. It doesn’t have to be a 3 letter word For ex. Sh-i-p has three sounds. C-l-i-p has four sounds.
By Shakina
Absorbent mind – The fundamental concept presented by Dr. Maria Montessori. The child’s brain upto age 6, has the capacity to unconsciously assimilate intense work from its environment, quickly and effortlessly.
Ground rules – The rules in the Montessori environment is referred as “ground rules” They are established behaviour in the classroom. In any Montessori environment, children are free to work with the materials in the environment provided they respect the material, the environment, and others in the environment.
Here’s an extract of the lecture by Mrs. Meenakshi Sivaramakrishnan “Towards Independence”
“….The first step towards independence may be- birth itself. From that time the child is inexorably urged to grow in independence. He makes maximum effort towards this goal. As an infant the child needs to find his bearings in this world.
To aid such development, firstly, a well-maintained scrupulous order in the environment is essential which ensures that the sense of security…” Click here to read the entire article on IMC’s blog!
Library corner!
By Nivedita
Book 1: The Librarian Who Measured The Earth
Art for the Heart!
By Anbu Selvi
Children are constantly creating while also learning about the natural world around them. Often, their chosen follow-up is to draw about what they are learning. Creating an evolving wilderness corner in the classroom brings focus to this type of work and allows for adding details over a long time period. This corner can evolve to become a particular biome or can be a fun art corner where every nature inspired creation can find space.
- Set up a space in the classroom/home with trays to collect sticks, stones and other objects of interest.
- Fill a large tray with sand.
- Keep coloured card paper, glue and other stationary handy.
- Children can start by making trees with sticks and coloured paper and creating a jungle like environment on the sand tray. They can then add more details by observing specimens around them or from their research.
Atreya Vidyaniketan
Every passing day with the children in the environment was like a revelation of their nature and a reflection of Dr. Montessori’s words. The work at school was embedded and rooted in Montessori philosophy and pedagogy and within 2 years, we had to face the constant question from the very happy parents…” What next after three years of Primary Montessori? Can we continue here?” With this new vision to go beyond the primary years, extensive study, research, and effort led us to the start of Elementary Montessori at Atreya Vidyaniketan in 2008.
Support from parents who were very keen on continuing their children’s education in Montessori way made us plunge into work with the children between the age group of 6 to 12 years. This saw the birth of the first Elementary Community with three children in the first year and today we have a community of 100 children. Our journey with children has been deeply rewarding and beautiful. Today we stand to face another persistent question from our parents, “When can we expect the start of the Montessori Adolescent Program – Erdkinder instead of leading children into the conventional ways? This question has once again set the ball rolling and our answer lies in the near future.
- A Montessori conclave was organised by Drox forth International Montessori Institute in which Mr. Anantha Padmanabha,Vice-President, International Relations, conducted a seminar on ‘Correct or Connect the Child’ Perinthalamanna in Kerala. It was attended by about 250 trained Montessorians.
- Webinar initiated by the Vietnam Montessori Centre- Latha Rao
Virtual meetings have become an integral part of our lives. The web session on Sunday, 11th September, hosted by VMC was an initiative taken by the group to address concerns raised by parents. This session was an introduction to help us initiate future workshops. It was overwhelming to see an attendance of over 150 that too on a Sunday morning. It revealed the sincere and genuine need of the parents.
Though there are no set standards for parenting, as each child is unique and their needs are different and varied, yet the principles are based on child development. So, who better to quote than Khalil Gibran. I was thrilled to use his poem ‘On Children’ as the backdrop to discuss theories that help us understand the essence of parenthood and parenting. This has sparked interest, as we will be setting out to explore further from 25th September. There will indeed be the necessity to translate the talk into Vietnamese, but the language of love for our children is universal.
Your children are not your children
They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself
They come through you but not from you
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you…
Calendar for Sep 15th- Oct 15th
- IMTC Chennai and Erode announce the 49th Montessori Primary Teacher Training Course between September 2022 and August 2023. The course commences on Friday, 30 September 2022.
This is a blended Diploma Course of 450 hours Online and 120 hours of in-person sessions. Online Classes will be held on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays
In-person Practical Class will be held once a month Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays
Practice Classes will be held in Chennai, Erode, Coimbatore and Thalassery.
For further details contact:
Email: admissions.imtcc@gmail.com Visit: www.imtcchennai.org
infoimtcerode@gmail.com
Chennai Erode and Coimbatore Thalassery
+91 94449 36263 +91 83006 70390 + 91 97109 18833
+91 90253 46867 - Indian Montessori Training Courses – Elementary announces its next batch of Elementary Teacher Training Course in Bangalore.
The course is a blend of online and onsite training being held in Basavangudi, South Bangalore from November 2022 to December 2023.
Diploma in Montessori Elementary Education is awarded on successful completion of the course.
For further details contact
+91 9972123099; +91 9902251956
elementary@indianmontessoricentre.org - Mr. Anantha Padmanabha, Vice-president, International Relations will be conducting an online seminar for parents whose children attend House of Childrens by IMTC Students in Vietnam on the Title ‘Connect or Correct’ on September 18th, 2022.
- On October 2nd, 2022, A two-hour refresher program for working Montessorians in Vietnam has been announced. The session will be conducted by Gita Nityananda. This will be an introductory session followed by a few exclusive sessions on different topics for which dates are yet to be finalized
- IMTC Elementary-Chennai is hosting a talk online on the topic ‘The needs and tendencies of adolescent children’ on the 15th of October. The speaker is Brindha from Chisel Montessori school. Its from 10am to 11.30am.
Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/
Meeting ID: 655 941 9696
Passcode: 624669
- Ms. Kavitha Gunasekaran, Director of IMTC Elementary Course, Chennai will be addressing parents on the topic “The Needs and Characteristics of the Elementary Children” from 10:00- 11:30 am at two venues :
On 17th September 2022 at Scholar’s Academy, Injambakkam, Chennai
On 24th September 2022 at Aroha Montessori Learning Centre, Panaiyur, Chennai
- the different training centers- (Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurgaon, Vietnam),
- HOCs (House of Children),
- IMC Members (click to be a member)
- and IMTC Alumni!
If you are a Montessori guide, school, trainer, or parent, you can also contribute to this newsletter and communicate your ideas to others!
Just write to us via email: newsletter@
To learn more about the Indian Montessori Centre, visit our website. www.indianmontessoricentre.org
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Looking forward to hearing from you as well!
