Last Friday, as part of the Combined Sydney Montessori Staff Development Day for 2024, FMS staff were treated to a live presentation from clinical psychologist, Dr. Andrew Fuller. Dr Fuller is a psychologist, author and (very entertaining) speaker. He specialises mental health and wellbeing for young people and their families, working with schools, communities and individuals in Australia and around the world. According to his website, Dr Fuller ‘puts the…
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Last week we introduced a variety of ways to set up your home to make it easy for toddlers and young children to successfully engage in practical life tasks at home (read it again here). We shared tips for the kitchen, bathroom and living areas. We were reminded that engaging in simple household tasks not only helps young children develop skills, it nurtures their growing sense of agency, the…
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As Montessori families, you know how many practical life activities your children engage with each day at school. Most families are interested in learning how they can continue to develop these practical skills at home. To help, we have prepared this simple-to-follow list, broken down according to room/location within the home. It is ideal for families with toddlers (2-3 years) and young children, up to 6 years old. Some of the most important aspects of…
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Earlier this year we shared an article titled ‘Strengthening the Family-School Connection.’ In this article, we identified 3 elements we believe are central to building strong school-family connections. They were communication, education and participation. Today, as we prepare to share your feedback from the most recent FMS parent survey, we’d like to add an additional element for the ongoing strength of our school-family connection, and that is collaboration.Collaboration is the…
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Last weekend, 4 educators from our birth to 6 community headed off to Brisbane for the 2024 Early Childhood Best Practice Conference. This was a wonderful opportunity for our staff to connect with Montessori colleagues, sharing their experience and expertise while learning best practice in early childhood from leading Montessori educators. Our team was delighted to reconnect with past FMS staff members, Linda Strom and Natasha Williams, currently a Montessori…
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In a celebration of Montessori excellence, principals and leaders from across Australia, were hosted by their Perth colleagues for the MSCA Head 2 Head (H2H) conference. This annual event, aims to build collegiality, share ideas and delve deeply into the world of leadership in a Montessori way. The four day experience from Thursday 21 to Sunday 24 March 2024 was planned as an immersion to allow for new learning and reflection…
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In Montessori, you know your four year old loves their classroom and their work. You know their teachers are guiding them to learn early mathematical skills. But what, exactly, does that look like? And how does it change as they get older? Montessori mathematics materials are nothing short of amazing. While they look quite different than what we used growing up (pencil, paper and textbooks) there are intentional reasons for…
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One of the top questions parents ask about Montessori is: How do teachers deal with children avoiding work they don’t want to do? This is a really important concern and becomes increasingly so as children get older. Most families know Montessori centers on student choice, and it can be hard to envision that value working in conjunction with accountability. The good news is it’s something we take very seriously. In…
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During their primary years, it can seem like our children are only focused on friends (and frenemies!). We hear about what happened at recess or who they sat with at lunch. They come home with elaborate accounts of being wronged. It’s easy to begin to wonder what they are really learning at school! In Montessori we always try to understand what is happening developmentally, so we can address children’s needs…
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What, exactly, is the role of the Montessori teacher? How is it so different from that of any other teacher? Sometimes it’s easiest to begin by explaining what a Montessori teacher isn’t. A Montessori teacher is less like the traditional idea of an instructor, and more like a gentle guide. They don’t consider it their job to give a child information. They rather lead children in the general direction and…
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