Monday, August 1, 2011

Morning Montessori in Action

Ishaan making an animal parade
Advay making the bead puzzle and Jian at the toolkit

Naira at her favourite transferring

Ariv is now becoming obsessed with puzzles

Parthvi doing the spindle box counting

Ishaan at the first puzzle that he did and does everyday

Jian at the xylophone



New work- Parthvi at the nuts and bolts

This is how I find the class when I enter
Montessori Absorbent Minds


Naira finally settling down with the bead transfer

Jian trying his hand at the wet transferring

Ishaan at the shape sorter

Adhvik d0ing the colour tablets

Adhvik with his favourite animals

Parthvi at the inset drawings

Rishit at his favourite work Numbers

Adhvik at the shape sorter


Advay doing the pegging

Rishit at the numbers and Parthvi at colouring


Parthvi building castles
Ariv at pouring and Naira doing what she does best
Advay in a phase of copying bro- at pouring
Advik at yet another puzzle
Rishit at the counting beads
Rishit at the sandpaper numbers
Adhvik at the number beads- he did them 5 times in one day
Since Naira loves the phone so much- a way to teach her how to greet
Adhvik at the Pink Tower
Rishit at the spindle box
Adhvik at the sandpaper letters
Rishit at the sandpaper letters
Adhvik at the coffee pot- screwing and unscrewing


Patterns

Its been a while since I wrote a few lines about the class. While there have been some new admissions, the fact that the older children specially in the morning Montessori class for the little ones, seems to have a calming effect on the class in general.





And the kids have all grown up during the long summer break. A case in point is the fact that the children settle down with their favourite activities and start the work cycles even before I set foot in the class. This is a proof of the absorbent mind, so described by Maria Montessori. The didactic material with the exploration and observation that it yields for the children makes the directress rather redundant.

The children who use to cry before the class now come up to me with "Yamini Auntie, lets work". So much so that some of the children have started calling their toys and any new ones bought by their parents as new work! I am in Montessori heaven at the moment.

Yesterday was my birthday and as I was explaining to the children that I have gone around the Sun 37 times(can you believe it) Ariv comes back with the observation that I must have a heat stroke! Bless them.

Also now some clear patterns are emerging....like Rishit's love for numbers, Adhvik's abslute attachment to puzzles and animals, Ariv's fascination with the cylinder blocks and Advay's love for pounding (he just likes the drum like motion I think). Also, Naira's passion for the egg puzzle and the dry transferring, not to mention going barefoot and pretending she runs the class by repeating all my instructions. Parthvi's hunger for praise and reassurance and yet at the same time retention of the cultural subjects is all but a peek into what their minds can achieve if only we go beyond the textbook and rote way of learning.