Grace and Courtesy

“What is social life if not the solving of social problems, 

behaving properly and pursuing aims acceptable to all?                     

Maria Montessori

"Grace and Courtesy" is the traditional Montessori term for our modeling, and the children's consequent learning and mastering, all the aspects and details needed to live and work together every day in relative peace and harmony.  It involves an extended process of development for your children, piece by piece, over time. They are primed to learn, because social interaction is such a core part of our humanity.  So every year in the fall we pay special attention to very specific lessons in many different areas of our interdependent relationships in this children's house.  Our goal is for each child to feel comfortable, respected, and secure in his or her interactions with others, and for each child to support other children in feeling the same way.

These lessons in grace and courtesy are broken down into categories.   First must come caring for oneself - how to get a drink of water, how to hang a coat, how to put on a jacket independently, how to handle inside-out sleeves, how to wash hands, how to use a tissue and dispose of it, how to cough into one's elbow, and so on.  Each of these basic activities is presented as a lesson, and then another slightly different lesson, and then practice, and daily life unfolding, and help from one another.  For instance, did you know we ask the kids to use the little loops in their jackets to hang them up?  This is helpful for two reasons:  the jacket hangs more securely, and it doesn't hang so low, so as not to obscure our view of the boots.  Of course, every coat doesn't have that handy loop, and that's on our list as a sewing project.  But most of the kids are doing it now.  And most of the kids are mastering most of these other basic skills.

The next category of Grace and Courtesy is caring for our environment - how to clean up a spill using a sponge, how to dust, how to fold our simple laundry, how to sweep using a table crumber,  how to sweep using a broom, and ah, how to sweep cooperatively with another person....

Noah and Charlotte really worked at this sweeping last week, practicing how to make a little pile and then use a dustpan.  Let's just say, it was not an effort without some argument, some small power struggle; I stayed very close by. They'll have many chances to practice some more.

Each of these activities gets specific attention from us, and each needs focused practice by the child.  None of it just comes naturally.  We can't expect a child to know by osmosis how to sweep, or how to clean a table.  Just learning to rinse and squeeze a sponge effectively takes time.   "Oh look, your table is all wet.  Let me remind you how to squeeze out that sponge better.  Do you know where the green cloth is for drying tables?  That's what you should do next....."  Many such mini-lessons happen every single day.

Then there is the whole area of learning to engage in their shared and separate work with respect and cooperation.  A whole series of lessons is included here:  how to use the work rugs, how to walk around rugs, how to put away an activity ready for the next child, how to let one another do their work without interfering or interrupting, and so on.

Here you see Julian, happily using the "ferrous/non-ferrous" magnet sorting work.  Notice how Brady was watching him with his hands behind his back?  There's a whole set of grace and courtesy lessons embedded here.  First, Brady asked, "Julian, can I watch you work?"  He remembered to do this on his own - he's been here more than a year now, and he understands how important this is.  Julian could have said yes or no.  If he said no, Brady would have walked away.    But he said yes, so Brady put his hands behind his back; this helps him remember not to touch or interfere with Julian.  He watched for a while, and then moved on.  Julian kept going.  And think of it - as he played with the magnet, Julian also experienced Brady modeling that respect, which then became part of his own developing awareness of others.

Finally, and so important, we address the interpersonal courtesies which inform and shape our social relationships.  How to greet one another, how to say "excuse me"or "thank you," how to ask a teacher for help, how to ask for a hug, how to offer a snack to a friend, how to listen to one another in group, how to share a conversation....

Collin has done the banana serving many times now - he thrives with the independence of preparing the banana for serving, and he loves walking around offering pieces to his friends.  He is learning to ask politely and not just shove the plate into another child's field of vision.  This is huge for him, to ask,  "Would you like a piece of banana?"  And then in response he hopefully hears, "yes, thank you Collin."  Finally, he completes the cycle by washing his dishes, getting it all ready for the next person.

Learning how to care for one another in such concrete and specific ways, how to interact in a respectful manner, how to co-create a peaceful classroom, is probably the most critical life skill the children are learning here. Grace and courtesy.  Together they are creating something that is greater than the sum of its parts - a daily experience of a warm, loving, safe, and kind learning community.  And with support, that learning will stay with them, as a part of their being, from here on into adulthood.

Down Under

This image is perfect for us here at Chickadee this summer, as we explore Australia.  It came through my Facebook feed a few weeks ago, so of course I saved it.  It's an image that resonates deeply within our collective human memory, our shared story. The Aborigines have lived for 40,000+ years on their home continent, far longer than any other existing people on earth.  We cannot even imagine it.

The words of this aboriginal proverb is meaningful on many levels too.  Actually, Erin and I live this mission as Montessorians, it could be our mantra: "Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love ....."   And all of us as parents, all of us as children of the earth, have much to learn from this ancient perspective.  So I had to share it with you....

And so we've been "down under" during these weeks of summer.   It's been an ebb and flow of exploration, in the midst of many other joys of the season.   We've had a whole set of biome materials about Australia - I borrowed them from Harmony Montessori, my old school.  Supported by our previous learning about biomes, it didn't take the older ones long to develop an image of the continent, using this puzzle map - orange is the outback desert, yellow the grasslands, green are the temperate forests on the eastern and northern sides, dark green the tropical forests in the north.

Many weeks ago we painted this big map, and then the kids began coloring and tracing animals from the different biomes to tape up on it.  And marsupials!  So many marsupials.  I began writing down a list, one by one, as we came across these animals in our books and stories. These are the ones we have listed so far:  wallaby, bandicoot, marsupial mole, bilby, wombat, quoll, dinnart, numbat, Tasmanian devil, cuscus, wallaroo, tree kangaroo, ningaui, quokka, pandemelon, bettong, sugar glider.....  Amazing.  We will surely add more in the next two weeks.

This Australian theme has been especially blessed by Trevor's mom Amy, who grew up there (I'd forgotten this when I chose it).   Her family saved all their childhood books, and she has many other Australian artifacts.  It's been a treasure trove for us.  She brought in at least 20 books - many must now be out of print - all kinds of books about Australian animals and imaginary stories for children - engaging, unique, and vivid.  So enriching, such a blessing for us.  Thank you Amy!

It was my June visit to the Seattle Art Museum that led me to choose Australia for this summer, after viewing their current, absolutely stunning contemporary aboriginal art exhibit.  So it's been a time for dot painting, and for story telling using symbols from ancient aboriginal rock painting.  The children drew and made up their story as they went, then each child told it to us and we wrote it down.


They are hard to see in this photo.   Ava's is on the middle left:  "A person was gathering some food plants, and then she walked until she came to another person with a shield and a spear.  They walked on until they came to the waterhole where they sat under the sun.  Then it rained."  Or Morgan's on the bottom right, "A girl was sitting by a water hole when she saw a possum walking and an emu running.  She decided to follow the emu, and she caught up with it by the river, and it began to rain.  Then the sun dried up the rain."

The children have painted these same symbols - think of it, images many thousands of years old - on their T-shirts.  This has been a focused, one-on-one project for each child, with Erin helping just as little or much as is needed.

The T-shirt will be one small keepsake from the summer.  Another keepsake are their art projects. And then there are the ephemeral or inexpressible memories that will live in your children in ways we cannot know - music and stories,  ideas and knowledge, about another amazing part of our shared planet.

Echidna, trilling frog, and koala,

     Blue argus butterfly, kookaburra, and tree kangaroo,

         Sugar glider and crimson rosella.

              We are all connected.

Picking peas and planting beans

"The things he sees are not just remembered; 

they form a part of his soul."

Maria Montessori

Look how high Morgan is reaching to pick peas that are over her head!  It's been a "pea season" in our raised beds, that's for sure.  Our cool, wet spring was perfect, so that now, from June into July, the children have been out there picking and munching on sugar peas and snow peas every single day.  We planted five different varieties, and I got a little carried away - it's been hard to find room to plant other veggies, our beds have been so full, our peas so abundant!

Going backwards in time to four months earlier, here is our first digging day in early March, at the very end of the winter. Such joy everyone felt, to get out there with shovels in the sunshine!  Winter wasn't quite over, and two weeks later we even had a surprise late snow on the Spring Equinox.  We had already planted our first seeds.    I lined all the kids up along the edge where the wire trellis is, put seeds in their little hands, and they each pushed the seeds into the soil.

Do the children remember planting those seeds?  Can they describe the cycle that unfolded, from their digging in the ground to little round peas in their hands to the sweet crunch in their mouths?  Yes and no.  Each round of growing a garden, each vegetable or flower becomes part of a child's developing perception of reality.  It's a profound yet unconscious process, as the children begin to recognize their intimate link with the earth that feeds them.

But to make the process more concrete, to get into the science of a sprouting seed and create a more conscious learning experience, we need to slow it down.  We used beans, the best teaching seed of all.  

A few weeks ago we gathered in a group and started our classic experiments.   We placed some seeds on a tray between wet paper towels, settled some more on the inside edge of a jar filled with paper towels, and put both on our little nature table.  In the next day or two, we planted the same beans in trays and pots outside.

Over the next two weeks we got to observe the sprouting seeds up close and personal.  The first sprout, the roots reaching down, the stem reaching - and reaching - for the light.  Every day we witnessed the changes.  Using a great set of wooden puzzles, made by my friend Jake of Early School Materials up in Lafayette,  as companions to the actual sprouting seeds, we introduced vocabulary like seed coat, primary root, and cotyledon.

Last week, on the day of this photo, the sprouting experiment reached its peak. We gathered outside, laid out all the puzzles, the jar and the tray, and the beans planted in soil.  We compared the seeds growing in the pots to the ones that had been inside.  What do plants need?  Sunlight!  Soil!  Warmth!  Water!  Are the seeds in the jar "happy," do they have what they need?  No.  Were they a great teacher for us?  Yes!

This week we started to take out the pea plants, one section at a time.  The kids are carrying the luxurious vines to our compost bin, which is another great natural life cycle.  Today or tomorrow we will put out the bean plants which are bursting out of their seed-starting pots.  We'll sing our bean-planting song a few more times.  And soon the peas will be a sweet memory, until next spring comes around.

And that brings us back around to the Maria Montessori quote which began this blog:
"The things he sees are not just remembered; they become a part of his soul."

How many senses do we have?

"The senses, being explorers of the world, 
open the way to knowledge."

Maria Montessori

We typically think of ourselves as having five senses - sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.  Through these senses the world outside of ourselves is mediated into our brain, and then into our awareness and experience.   It's impossible for us to remember as adults, what it was like to be babies perceiving such a complex and ever-changing world for the first time, learning about it, sense impression by sense impression.  The first sounds, the first music - the first sight of a face, the first sight of a tree - the first touch of mother, the first hurt - the first sweet smell, the first ......  You get the idea.  So many first experiences, and this process which begins in infancy continues on through early childhood.  It's truly amazing neurologically.

In this area of sensory education Maria Montessori once again excelled.    She carefully examined the five senses and thought about how to help the children clarify, order, and deepen their experiences.  She developed an array of materials which work with one sense at a time - what we call the "sensorial materials," the two shelves right in the middle of our room.  She also further refined the work into nine areas by adding more specific senses:  the chromatic or color sense, the thermic or sense of temperature, the baric or sense of weight, and the stereognostic, which is the tactile or muscular sense.

The many sensorial materials and the different ways they can be used are at the heart of our work with children.  In these first  photos, you can see Konrad working with the sequencing of colors, from darkest to lightest shade.  No other sense is involved, it is pure color awareness.
Megan was matching the sound cylinders, again a single-sense experience, simply hearing.  Trevor was using the colored cylinders to build towers - his sight, touch, and  stereognistic senses were involved.  Terra was using only her tactile sense to sort and replace the knobbed cylinders (after several younger years of experience with eyes open).

In the last ten years, psychologists and therapists have delineated even more categories which are valuable additions to our understanding of the complexities of sensory development.  Proprioception is the sense of our body's and limbs' position in space.  The vestibular sense is the information from the inner ear, one's sense of position in the world, how head and body move through space. These muscular senses develop at very different rates in different children, and in recent years a whole specialty of sensory integration support has developed among physical therapists.    So these three-year-olds in their spontaneous shared yoga pose?  They are exercising their sense of balance - or our new word, proprioception!


In recent weeks we've had the tasting work out.  It is another carefully isolated activity, exposing the children to sweet, salty, sour, and bitter in a pure form.  In classic Montessori there are two sets of dropper bottles, for matching, but for myself, I decided years ago that it was too tedious to match each taste.  So it is purely experiential, and so much fun to observe how each child handles the experience.

Ava has been most equanimous, willing to taste the "pleasant" and "unpleasant" equally, every time she does it.  The others, not so much! There's no mistaking which taste Lucas was experiencing here - ah the uniqueness of bitter.  I always tell them that the bitter taste is made from plants that are good for their bodies (it's actually "Swedish Bitters" from New Seasons, diluted.) Funny how Erin and I find that the sweet dropper bottle becomes empty faster than the others do!

So here are your children at Chickadee, absorbing and ordering their impressions about the world, step by step, using every single sense separately and together.  This development continues over their months and years of primary Montessori, and this work has a tremendous cumulative effect, in building sensitivity, intelligence, and awareness.  It's not something they will be able to tell you - "Mom, I was working with my tactile sense today."   At most, you might hear, "I love the tasting work," or, "I built the tallest tower."   But you can know that every sensorial activity has multiple benefits, and you can remember that, in Montessori's words,  "A child is by his nature an avid explorer of his surroundings, because he has not yet had the time or the means of knowing them precisely."

Outside on a sunny spring day

“Let the children be free; encourage them;  let them run outside when it is raining; let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water; and, when the grass of the meadows is damp with dew, let them run on it and trample it with their bare feet . . .”   Maria Montessori

On our recent, gloriously warm and sunny Monday, I kept the camera at hand for half an hour while we were outside.  Here is just a bit of what I saw....

Our new overhead bars have seen a constant flow of children discovering what they can do -  hanging, crawling across the top, learning to drop, taking turns and giving each other a little space.  The kids will definitely be getting stronger arms!  We are all thrilled about this reclaimed and wonderful addition to our outside, and so grateful for your generous work party, and especially to Cara's dad Craig, who put a lot of time into making it a free-standing piece of equipment.  

We also added a small "rock-climbing wall" to the side of the stump.  Here I witnessed another flow of kids going up and down.  Before now, access to this magnificent stump was limited to the children who could scramble up on their own - I almost never lifted them up.  And with lots of use over these 18 months,  the first natural handholds had broken off.  

Pretty soon, Cara and Zoë headed for the chicken pen.  Cara picked up three hens one after another  - Blue Star in this photo, then Blackberry and Silver Water.  She is one of our dedicated "chicken whisperers," and goes in there often.  It's so nice when it's not so muddy!   Zoë is just getting to know the girls, and watched Cara with admiration.  She checks for eggs every day.  Soon she will be picking them up too.

Meanwhile, Leo and Brady saw me digging out the old straw in the corner of the pen (it makes great, rich mulch and compost material, and right now I am trying to do a bucket or two every day). They said, "Let us do it!" and ran for shovels.  They were seriously digging and filling that wheelbarrow ... until they found a most amazing worm.  It must have been at least 10 inches long, maybe a foot when it was moving.   

So we took the worm out to a garden bed in front, and a group gathered around to watch it crawl.  It decided to put on a show, and inched and slithered and made its way halfway across the bed before finally digging in. Once I persuaded them that it really wasn't a snake, the kids decided to call it  a "snake worm."  We're happy to know it lives there now.

Then I found June Marie, who, inspired by the sunshine, had remembered an experiment we did last spring and went to get the magnifying glass, all on her own.  I found her squatting down with a dry leaf, trying to get it to smoke!  She didn't remember how to really focus the sunlight through the lens, so I showed her, and we watched a tiny curl of smoke wisp its way upward. And yes, I asked her to be sure I was with her when she tried it again.

Now the energy had shifted out to the front yard, and I found three kids just chatting and snuggling on the grass, and another two on the picnic blanket - pure joy.  The morning play time closed with a most wonderful outside picnic.  Today, just two days later, it's back to mud boots.

Art for art's sake!

Art is constantly happening at Chickadee, from quickly-done scribbles, to drawings and paintings, to focused art lessons, to illustrations and story pages about animals and people, to special projects which we set up and support.  All of these experiences are a rich aid to the children, as they begin to discover and express the immense creativity which lies within, such a vital part of being human. 

And what are our goals in supporting and encouraging all this art?  Not all Montessori schools have such an extensive and active art curriculum, but through the years I have come to feel very strongly about its importance.  I believe that it awakens within the children the potential for creative thought and imagination, for making connections, for awareness of beauty, and for self-expression.   It celebrates their differences and honors their developing skills.  It stimulates different parts of their brains and weaves a rich neurological web.  And it's fun....

   

Look at Megan proudly holding her "haunted house" from last Halloween. I do love these special projects!  The younger ones, three or four years old, couldn't have done a collage like this successfully on their own, but with our assistance and guidance, they were totally engaged in making their own scene.  Our "assistance" might mean holding the paper for a younger child while she cuts with scissors, or pointing out how the roof can be a triangle. None of it is done for them, they feel fully empowered.  When finished, the kids all loved having them up together, and then they had a keepsake to take home for Halloween, and with luck and your support, discover again next October!

So we keep the basic tools of art available all the time - water colors and oil pastels, crayons and pencils, easel and tempera paints, scissors and lots of paper.   We give basic lessons in how to use the different art mediums, we encourage, and we observe.  We always honor that the process is more important than the product.  At the same time, usually when asked, we also describe what we see in detailed and concrete terms, without false praise, affirming their efforts, asking questions, listening to their perceptions. 

We also give focused art lessons, like this recent, wonderful sequence on the values of color - the tints and shades which make color, paint, and paintings so interesting. What a discovery for them!  We gave individual lessons in how to create the tints by mixing white into a color on a pallet, bit by bit, and watching the resulting sequence, and then the shades, using black instead of white.  As always, each child had his or her own experience and learning when we gave these lessons.  Then as they happened, we put the color strips up for each other to see, which made the experience more impactful.

The part I had never done before was to have them use tints and shades in an earth-and-sky painting, based on a Van Gogh landscape - a lesson idea I found online, as I read more about tints and shades.  It was amazing!  Each of these seven children became so totally engrossed, and I simply sat near them, giving only the smallest amount of guidance.   The child's creative process always includes elements of joy,  peace, excitement, and wonder, and for each one, it is very personal.  I try to draw your attention to these projects by using the big bulletin board and walls, but unfortunately, it's not possible to share the magical process itself.   You can, however, find ways and create opportunities to witness it yourself, at home.

Another new and more formal aspect of our art curriculum is a great set of many sequenced folders of art postcards.  I purchased them and prepared and organized all the folders during Winter Break, and since then the children have been exploring the folders little by little.  The postcards are organized, first pairs of very different and distinct works of art, to two pieces by each of five or six different artists, to themes, and finally, to styles of modern art like Impressionism.  It's a wonderful, open-ended introduction to fine art.

Last week I sat down with Ava as she did this folder in the second set, two pieces by each artist, to match and examine, with six artists - Degas, Audubon, Chagall, Goya, Mondrian, and Manet. She looked so closely at each painting, almost enraptured, and I managed to write down some of her comments: "How did he paint the glass vase?" [We looked in detail at the colors he used.]  "Look at that tiny person."  [I reminded her again that these are small reproductions of big paintings.]  "I wonder how he got that white right there on the horse - maybe he just did a little tiny dot." "How did he make that ballerina look like she is moving?" "I'm thinking about how he did the windows in the house...." 

  

Which leads us full circle to Trevor painting the flowers at the top of this blog.  He had just looked at a set of postcards, all vases with flowers done by one artist, Redon.  He chose the one he liked the most,  and he proceeded to paint his own version, and another the next day.  This was part of a new explosion of "art from art."   Cara just did her impression of the Turner sea painting above, and on another day Terra tried a Mondrian.  So now you know where these postcards are coming from.  And now, who knows what your child will do this week!?

Give the Child the World

"

What does it mean to "give the child the world?"   How can we convey a sense of what the globe really signifies?  How to explain the vastness of the countries that look so small on a puzzle map?   What are impactful, child-friendly lessons about another culture?  These are all questions that Erin and I consider as we introduce geography to the children - we think about possibilities, we experiment, we observe what works.   This year, we chose Asia as our focus continent, after North America, and we are still immersed in learning about it, one day and one experience at a time.

The big picture comes first:  for the 3-year-old child, we always begin with the globe, and it remains central through time, as they begin to recognize and name continents, then countries, and even states.  The globe is of course part of our birthday ritual; its journey around the sun is witnessed again and again, as one child after another counts the years of his life.  

When we're looking at the globe, I often point to my poster on the wall, next to the living room closet - that famous image of the Earth seen from space.  This poster has been with me for years.  I tell them that it was taken by astronauts as they journeyed to the moon in a spaceship, and looked back at Earth.

Then we introduce the flat puzzle map of the earth, with its two hemispheres, and with the continents in their iconic Montessori colors - North America orange, South America pink, and so on.  We sing the song of the continents often, we match animals to their home continents, we play games like "take this boat from North America to Africa."  Little by little it comes together in the child's mind.

And now we're in Asia. We began with some classic Asian animals,  like the panda and the tiger.   I purchased a full set of the Asian biome materials in December, after the kids worked through the North American cards so energetically before Christmas.  So we have the Asian biome map, very different from Asia's map of countries, and out on the shelf are sets of cards about Asian animals and peoples from different biomes - desert and mountains, tropical forest and grasslands.  The kids used these cards as inspiration for January's wonderful Asian animal art project.  

We also have the Asia biome readers, which they often use to guide their writing and drawing in their "story pages."  The biome booklets each have 6 cards to illustrate them.  The first booklet (about the nice, phonetic yak) can be read independently by our early readers, and then each one adds more phonetic elements and words to each page.

But what about the people, the cultures, the incredible diversity of our human family?  Again, we can only give glimpses.  I sat down with the whole group last week, and asked them, "What do people really need to live?"  We talked about "needs" versus "wants" and it began to click.  We brainstormed this list, which I wrote down with them watching, and it wasn't just the older children either - Morgan just lit up when she said, "People need water!"  So, this is their list: people need ______to live:  

* air - and another child said oxygen
* houses or shelter (I introduced the term 'shelter')
* water        * food
* someone who cares about them    
* clothes    
* transportation

Here is some more of their art:  Terra's Mongolian felt yurt, in the high grasslands; Trevor's desert home, made of mud and straw; and below, Konrad's mountain biome home where "...the pepol liv in stone hous"; and Cooper's grand Russian "casul" with golden domes.

After thinking about houses, we shifted to transportation, which led to our listing animals that people use.  The kids came up with all these: horse, camel, elephant, yak, dog, oxen, pony, donkey.

At the same time, we started a list of things people want but don't need.  We'll keep adding to this one, it's pretty much a lifelong lesson, isn't it?   I could just see the wheels turning as the kids thought of things they take for granted but maybe don't really need - socks, plants, fish, cars, art, treats, toys....

Another aspect they're exploring are the flags of Asia.  Over time, the kids begin to understand that each country has its own flag.  I chose 13 for Asia (out of 40+ - not an easy choice!)  We have flags from north, south, east, and west Asia, the main countries, and then a few with fabulous flags, like a dragon flag for Bhutan, sword for Saudi Arabia, and of course the Nepalese flag, the only one in the world made with triangles.  In the top photo above, you can see Kai matching the countries to their flags and labels.  All of the older children have been working with these flags and this puzzle map.  

We also celebrate with occasional, special projects that engage everyone, like last week, when Noriko brought in her mochi maker.  We put out little bowls with three kinds of rice for them to see, including the tiny sweet mochi rice, and talked about how important rice is in Asia. This special rice soaked overnight, steamed in the morning, and then Noriko began the grand making of mochi.  So much fun, and most kids loved the mochi!

On the same day, we watched a Youtube of a "mochi festival" - it showed the men pounding the mochi with huge mallets instead of the modern electric version, accompanied by taiko drums.  Very impressive!

Origami projects are ongoing, again thanks to Noriko.  She's told us that it's a core experience for children in Japan, they work on their origami skills for years, and it's excellent work for them developmentally.  You've probably seen your children's origmai projects coming home.  There's a lot of careful folding in each one.  Right now, the kids are learning to do a little folded fish, with the added delight of a magnetic fishing pole.

While writing this, I stepped into the art room, and found Megan sitting with Noriko, in full folding concentration, so I grabbed the chance for one more photo to go with the finished fish below. Fifteen minutes later, Megan came into the office with fishing pole in hand: "Look what I made!"


Yet another thread in this Asian fabric we weave are all the stories and books about Asia.  A few weeks ago I read my full set of Jataka Tales, ancient Buddhist tales which have been adapted for the children of today, beautifully illustrated, tales about animals that celebrate the power of action motivated by compassion, love, wisdom, and kindness.  So positive and uplifting. They listened to these tales with such attention, and I heard them talking about them afterwards.

Finally, have you seen these characters lying on the first shelf inside the door?  One is the Japanese character for "tree," the other is the character for "forest."  Wonderful! Forest and trees - it seems symbolic of this work, sometimes looking at the single trees, sometimes seeing the forest....  Ava is practicing on the "Buddha Board" which also sits there - it's a water-painting board whose images evaporate, and the technique is much like using the brush and ink that calligraphers use.

And so Asia unfolds here in our children's house, each day, little by little.  We cannot know what experiences will make a difference in a child's awareness, or which will have a lasting impact.   What we do know is this, in Montessori's words:

"We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe, and are connected with each other to form one whole unity."

"