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Helpful Hints

How We Montessori: A Montessori View on Chores

By Helpful Hints, Montessori Basics, Parenting No Comments
Chores: the word has such a negative connotation.  But does it need to be that way?  Following on from our post last week about chores being beneficial for all ages, we wanted to share a post from 'How We Montessori' about the benefits of chores for children at three years of age. It’s not about making children do chores.  Instead, it’s about encouraging and supporting your children to recognise and...
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Chores: They’re Good for Your Kids!

By Helpful Hints, Montessori Basics, Parenting No Comments
Chores: the word has such a negative connotation.  But does it need to be that way?  Do you remember doing chores when you were growing up?  For some of us, we remember them as a negative consequence.  For others, we never had them and it took us a while to learn how to do them as adults.  Still others remember helping around the house but not thinking it was a...
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Mutual Respect & Making Deposits

By Helpful Hints No Comments
Montessori classrooms depend upon a web of mutual respect. This culture of respect is established from the very beginning: from how the classroom is arranged and sized for the children, to how we greet each other at the start of the day, to how the adults refrain from interrupting children’s concentration. Dr. Maria Montessori emphasized that, as adults, we must have the utmost respect for children, because they are in...
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The Power and Potential of Sleep

By Helpful Hints No Comments
We work so hard to provide the best for our children. When they are young, we may try to find innovative toys, sign up for parent-infant programs, or research brain-boosting foods. As they get older, we might enroll them in enrichment programs, pursue assessments, or invest in tutors. But what if the best thing we could do was completely free, within our own household, and could provide a lifetime of...
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How to Encourage Joyful Readers

By Helpful Hints, Parenting No Comments
Proficient reading skills set our children up for success in so many ways. Cultivating a love of joyful reading provides them with a lifetime of inspiration, entertainment, and knowledge.  Do teachers teach kids to read? Of course. What parents do at home also plays an enormous role in a child’s perspective and success. Here are our tips to support learning and make reading a positive experience that your child will...
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5 Ways to Take Learning Outside

By Helpful Hints, Montessori Learning No Comments
It’s that time of year again. The clocks have changed.  The mornings and evenings are cooler. The daylight is gracing us with its shorter presence and the Sydney sunsets are awe inspiring!  While we believe in the importance of finding fun ways to be outside all year round, prolonging the hold on summer seems to pull us there without the need for any convincing.   Parents often ask us how they...
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Establishing the Flow: Your Guide to a School Year Started Off Right

By Helpful Hints No Comments
It’s that time of the year again. Over the course of the summer, and even with the best of intentions, some of our routines tend to dissolve and give way to relaxation and adventures. Which is great!  The school year, however, has begun.  Now is the perfect time to consider what your family will do to get back into the groove.  Unless this is your child’s first year heading to...
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Food Glorious Food – Home Edition

By Helpful Hints, Parenting No Comments
Food preparation as a skill is an integral element of any Montessori classroom. While specific lessons feature most prominently during the Toddler and Pre-School  years, our lower and upper primary educators  find ways to teach children these important skills throughout the year as well.  Learning one’s way around the kitchen is a skill that couldn’t be easier to translate at home. Parents - you can support this important learning as often as you like;...
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Book List: Help Me Do It Myself

By Helpful Hints, Montessori Learning No Comments
“Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.” -Dr. Maria Montessori   One of the most critical values of Montessori education is the fostering of independence. Our children need our support, but we are tasked with the gradual release of this support. Doing so is a challenge, for no two children are exactly alike and we are required to observe carefully and be flexible in...
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Books About Kindness

By Helpful Hints, Montessori Learning No Comments
“Let us treat them, therefore, with all the kindness we would wish to develop in them.”  Maria Montessori Tomorrow, Friday 13th November is World Kindness Day.  If there is any year our generation has needed kindness in the world, it’s been this year.  Are you finding that people around you are kinder?   I am.  I’m also finding that people have slowed down and stopped rushing around being busy for busy...
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