We're back!

"The child builds his inmost self 

out of the deeply held impressions he receives."

Maria Montessori

Cara is sitting in flowers.  How perfect is that, for the first day back! 

After a long and mostly rainy Spring Break, the children all tumbled outside today, rejoicing that it wasn't raining and that they were all together in their Chickadee land again.  Ten days away, and the visible signs of our new spring are all around. The "protected areas" in the forest are filled with green, mostly the abundant waterleaf, but many other plants are emerging too. These protected areas have worked out better than I dreamed. The first two I circled with stumps.   Since then I've used whatever branches fall, following the children's natural paths, and now we have a network of different protected areas and running paths and open space.   

So the Indian plum has leafed out - it's always the earliest  - while the big leaf maples are in bud. Sprinkled throughout these areas are trilliums and the first native yellow violets. This green, unfolding, and flowing life is what surrounds your children as they play, and as Montessori wrote in the quote above, the impressions they receive become part of who they are.

Each child has his or her own individual experience, every single day.  Here are some glimpses ..... 

Evangeline found one little mushroom, and she stopped to say hello.  I don't know if anyone else saw it.  More mushrooms will be appearing soon.

Collin greeted the earth by playing with sticks, beating and digging - it was as if he were drumming, saying "Hello dear friendly mother earth, I'm back!"

Cherry found the big yellow dump truck filled with muddy water, and she stirred and stirred for at least fifteen minutes, totally engrossed.  She didn't get a bit of mud on her princess dress either.

As soon as I pulled the tarp back off the sand area, Joey and Eleanor plunked down in their favorite place.

Moving wood and branches and building things is a constant enterprise around here.    Ever since the top half of our neighbor's western hemlock fell across the fence last month, and we were rewarded with a bounty of new branches, the forts have taken on a whole new level of elaboration.  Rex is working on one of them; he told me he was "Bob the Builder."  

Seamus is hauling wood from one place to another. I have resolved to bring in more scrap wood and building materials, after reading a powerful article from The Atlantic, called "The Overprotected Kid."  (Link below.)

Meanwhile some other children discovered the camellia tree by the chicken coop, where the ground is now covered with flowers.  They named it the "Pink Land."     Brady and Cara both climbed up in the tree - imagine the beauty of climbing a tree where flowers fill your eyes.  Julian loves to poke little sticks through leaves and flowers and make little umbrellas and other wonders.  

A fantasy game began, complete with a princess and a wedding.  After lunch the game continued, and Joelle, our new assistant, sent me this photo of Cara in the tree with Evangeline looking up at her, just as I was finishing this post. She too was enthralled.  A pink wonderland!

At our morning circle, Collin had announced that he learned how to ride a two-wheeler during Spring Break. So after playing under the trees for a while, he and Rex headed for the bikes, and helped each other with helmets.    The bikes are the speedy way to move through the forest.

Collin is heading down the side road.  This little hill provides a perfect level of challenge for these biking adventurers.  In this case, the bike and he went down a second later - no upset, he got back up and kept going - he explained that, yep, he needs to practice the foot brake some more.  

Another part of every day are these other members of our community.  We let them out to scratch and explore on their own, and they run about as fast as the kids do when they are set free.  If only I could teach the chickens to stay in the forest and out of the flower and garden beds, they would be out more.   It's quite striking how they like to be close to the kids when they are outside  - I don't know if it is familiarity, or if they feel safer with them around, but the hens will stay down below much longer when the children are playing around them.   They behave differently when they are out and the children are inside, or when no one is here but me.    Then they head for the raised beds and the flower gardens, and scratch scratch scratch....

while the kids run run run ... and climb climb climb ... and dig dig dig ... and build build build ... and grow grow grow.

Here is the link to the article "The Overprotected Kid."  It's long, potent, and thought-provoking (though it seems I can't make a live link....)

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/03/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/

The Forest of Lost Kites

"Of all things love is the most potent."

Maria Montessori

I am reading the first longer book of the year to the children right now, during our story time before lunch.  This is a new experience for the younger ones, carrying a tale in their memory from day to day, and each day we talk about what happened the day before.  It's not a chapter book.  I read it slowly, and give the illustrations the attention they deserve, so it takes about two weeks to reach the end.   I want to tell you about it here, because this book is like no other, and it's part of your children's day right now....

Bill Steidel is an artist and a long-time resident of Cannon Beach.  He has a magical little studio on Hemlock Street, and most of the time you can find him sitting at his mini-station in the corner, working on his latest creation.   I have visited with him for years, ever since my own boys were growing up.  He creates vivid, colorful fantasy paintings, and he also paints naturalist images of ocean and birds and trees and mountains.  His son Sam works with him, creates with him, and manages the business.  They are a Cannon Beach institution.  Here is his website:  http://www.steidelsart.com/

The lovely painting of a Chickadee in the rain, called "Spring Nap," which hangs in its special place in our main room,  is a Bill Steidel work.  You may have never noticed it, but now you will.  Every time I visited him through the years, I would buy postcards of his art, but one year I took the leap and purchased this print, when my sons were young teen-agers.

So what  does this have to do with reading a book? Well, Bill Steidel also wrote one unique children's book, "Mallory in the Forest of Lost Kites."  In 2001 it wasn't published yet - he had made it available in a binder, with the printed pages nestled inside sheet protectors.  Every page is hand-written, and every page is filled with his illustrations.    It is a collector's item., I have a signed copy dated 2002.  Since then they have self-published a hardbound edition.

So in all the ensuing years, I have read this book to the children around me, 3 times already here at Chickadee, with this reading being the 4th. In the summer of 2011, I read it to the children, and then in August we did a family beach day in Cannon Beach.  It was a dream come true for me:  We went to visit Bill Steidel in his studio, and he leaned back and chatted with the kids, and talked with them about what he was working on at the time, a 3-dimensional painting.  The photo at the top of this post is from that visit, and it sits framed on the mantlepiece, another piece of Chickadee's story that I always keep out, and that most people don't notice.  Those children you see have all moved on now, except Cara, who is the shortest one there, kind of hidden, and not yet 4 at the time.

The boy who is reaching his arm toward the painting is Konrad.  He was with us the first two years of Chickadee, and I had become true friends with his family. They moved back east last June, and sad I was to see them go.  But before they left, Kathy brought me a good-bye gift - she had gone to Cannon Beach and come back with the big print of the "Forest of Lost Kites" to give to me; it is displayed now in the art room above the book shelf - a gift of friendship and memory, which will last for always.

So we are reading the story of Mallory's adventure now, and your children can tell you about that painting.  If you look very closely you will see Mallory - a humble mouse in a magical forest - a mouse who shows heroism in the face of danger, heroism and wisdom and kindness.  I won't tell you the story, you can borrow and read it yourself some day.  But I will quote the last page for you, to share its spirit:

"Was Mallory remembered?  He surely was.  Whenever the moon was full, instead of striking fear in the hearts of forest creatures, they would marvel at its beauty and whisper softly, 'it's a Mallory night.' Whenever a kite fell from the clouds the young would point and shout, 'Here comes a Mallory.'  And whenever a soft evening breeze wove its way through the tree tops causing them to sway, and the forest floor danced with color, it was called 'A Mallory kind of day.'  Was Mallory remembered?  Oh, yes, he was indeed.  Whenever anything wonderful or exceptional happened in the Forest of Lost Kites you could hear someone exclaim, "now THAT was a Mallory."

Many Kinds of Smart

The first duty of an educator is to stir up life, 
but leave it free to develop.

Maria Montessori

Multiple Intelligences!  Is this new news or old news?  I decided that it's worth revisiting, to remind both you and me that your children have multiple intelligences, not just one. Howard Gardner first published his theory of “multiple intelligences” in the early ‘80’s. In his first, groundbreaking work, he questioned the primacy of the IQ test to measure intelligence, and he posited the existence of multiple intelligences in every human being. Progressive educators and thinkers embraced his theory, and expanded upon it, and so did he.  Many Montessorians recognized in his work a new vocabulary to express the benefits of our rich, respectful, multi-sensory learning environments.  (Unfortunately, we do not see a deepening support of multitple intelligences in public schools, rather the opposite.)

Gardner's system still resonates with me, perhaps because I like to organize my perceptions and thoughts about children in different ways. This winter I have found myself remembering it again, as we've focused on space; you'll discover why at the end of this blog.  

It’s important to understand that Gardner’s approach is really a symbolic way to explain our complexities and our unique differences. Our patterns of intelligence cannot actually be separated out and analyzed alone; they always interconnect and support each other. At a lecture by Gardner that I attended perhaps ten years ago, he emphasized that every person has capacities in all nine - that is what makes us human - and that no two people have the same spectrum or blend of intelligences - that is what makes us unique..

In these simplified descriptions, I focus on your children here at Chickadee, showing examples of activities that help develop each intelligence. As you go through them, see if you can more clearly identify your own children’s preferences and unique gifts. Also, you can ask yourself, in what ways are their tendencies similar to yours, and how are they different from you? How can you encourage and support their development in different areas?

1) Linguistic intelligence: These are the children with well-developed verbal skills, and a natural sensitivity to sounds, rhythms, and meanings in words.  To develop this critical area, we have the movable alphabets, vocabulary cards, 3-part cards, command cards, rhyming activities, verbal word games and poems, and the whole sequenced array reading and writing work.  A strongly linguistic child communicates verbally, develops reading and spelling skills with relative ease, has an excellent auditory memory, enjoys poetry and word games, and demonstrates a proclivity for words, names, places, and facts.   Here is Logan, spelling some first words, and Brady, who just freely "wrote" his first sentence with the movable alphabet - learning about space inspired him!   We always love words like 'atmsfr.'  

2) Logical-mathematical intelligence:   From the first activities with 1 - 10, to the "addition strip board" that Rex is using, to more advanced materials like Cara's "multiplication with the colored bead bars," Montessori is rich in math manipulatives. Every child works with them, and every child has the chance to establish the best possible early mathematical intelligence. Those who have a particular flair for logic and math compute in their heads early and easily, enjoy logical puzzles and games, choose science experiments which stimulate thinking, and show an aptitude for logical negotiations. They thrive with Montessori math materials, and with any activities which invite the development of logic.

3) Visual-spatial intelligence:   The sensorial materials help unfold and express every child's concrete spatial abilities. Evangeline has worked with these cylinder blocks many times now, and more variations await her. The children with noticeable visual-spatial strengths experience vivid visual imagery, master complex puzzles, adore paint, and might learn more from pictures than words. At home they love blocks and manipulatives, and at Chickadee they return again and again to the sensorial materials and to our art activities.  They benefit from using the visual movable alphabets, and they master multi-step activities like chair scrubbing.

4) Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence: These children need lots of movement, excel at sports, show excellent fine- and gross-motor coordination, enjoy clay and other three-dimensional art, and thrive with gymnastics and dance lessons. They master all our practical life activities, love the challenge of advanced walking on the line, need lots of playground time and lots of movement . They may have difficulty sitting still for long; they often have trouble remembering that "inside we walk, outside we may run."  Thank goodness Montessori has built-in movement throughout the day!

5) Musical intelligence:   The children with particular musical gifts sing and hum spontaneously, learn songs easily and make up their own, appreciate musical variety and beauty, and move rhythmically.  Gardner considers this the first intelligence to manifest itself – a very early sensitive period. High musical intelligence can be both intuitive and logical/mathematical, and we can help the child develop both aspects. Seamus particularly loves music, and though it's hard to show music in photos, this one gives a glimpse.  No surprise to find out that his grandfather was a music teacher, which surely indicates both a genetic and an environmental influence!

6) Interpersonal intelligence:  Our community life abounds in opportunities to develop budding interpersonal skills.  There is a constant flow of social experiences happening, but two are worth a specific mention: the ever-shifting relationships between the older children and the younger ones, with the older child getting to experience the role of mentor, and the younger, the experience of being cared for. Isabel and Eleanor share the nurturing work of washing each other's hands and rubbing in lotion:  priceless!  

The other ongoing learning opportunities are in conflict resolution, which in some form or another happen every single day.    Whether it's on the peace rug or in a more informal process, the children slowly, in fits and starts, learn to develop empathy, kindness, a willingness to accept responsibility for mistakes.  Sometimes I wish it happened a little less, and then I remember how critically important this development is.

Gardner's term "Interpersonal Intelligence" has been brought into the public eye now as Emotional Intelligence,  or EQ, with Daniel Goleman's important work.  Recent studies have confirmed that EQ is a greater predictor of success and happiness than other factors like status, IQ, or income.  Children naturally strong in this area make friends with ease, express caring and sympathy to others, enjoy games and group lessons, and often show a natural leadership in their group. They love circle times and gatherings, shared lessons, tea parties, group games.  They learn to handle conflicts in a kind way, and often mediate for others.  Children to whom empathy doesn't come as easily get lots and lots of practice.

7) Intrapersonal intelligence:  These children are the introspective ones, somewhere on the introvert side of the scale.   They enjoy working independently and alone, have a strong sense of self, seem especially tuned to their inner guide, and express their own feelings accurately. They thrive with the open choice given in Montessori, and they cherish the freedom to watch others and to repeat activities. We always emphasize every child's right to work uninterrupted (which proves to be hardest to remember for the highly social ones, no surprise there.)   Introspective children are comfortable playing alone when they're outside, at least for part of the time.  Their intuition and their powers of observation are strong.

8) Naturalist intelligence:     I believe that every child holds this deep intelligence, that it's part of his birthright, and that it only needs to be nurtured in order to flourish.   Again, more recent work like Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods has taken this far beyond what Gardner described, but it still remains true that some children show an innate affinity for the natural world.   They love to explore the outdoor environment in all its minute detail, choose to learn about animals and ecosystems, nurture animals and plants in the school environment or home.  Like Julian here planting his sunflower, they thrive with gardening, hiking, and camping experiences.  In our inside work, some children simply gravitate more than others to the science and nature activities: caring for our plants like Joey, matching rocks or leaves, botany or animal cards, and learning about the biomes.  They are the ones to notice the little details too – the ladybug larvae in the flower garden, a fish who’s not moving, an ant on the floor.  Last week one child found a first ladybug under the overhead bars, cause for a momentary celebration.

9) Existential intelligence:  About 20 years after he published Frames of Mind, Gardner added this one, which he described as the ability to understand things that are too big or too small to perceive, and the proclivity to ponder questions about life, death and ultimate realities. This intelligence manifests more clearly later in childhood or even adulthood, for it concerns the ability to grasp such things as chemistry and the new quantum physics (too small to perceive) and the vastness of space as revealed by the Hubble telescope (too big).   These children ask questions quite early about life and death, why they are here on Earth, and if there is life on other planets. 

In this last month, I have once again observed most of our children showing such an avid interest in space - it's so far from their immediate world, and yet it calls to them so strongly. Could this be a shift in development, for these 21st century children?  I don't know for sure, but I find it striking.  Collin was on fire to draw and write about the space station ("spas stachn"), and after he got it started, every older child wrote their own words and painted their own space reports.    It was a joyful explosion!


Last year I bought a fantastic oversized book, Cosmos, which is filled with Hubble space telescope images; that book has been taken out and leafed through countless times since then; many torn pages, and last week it completely fell out of its binding.  So I try to use words to describe the indescribable vastness of time and space, and I tell them that when I was a little girl, people had never seen any of these images, not even the earth from space; and somehow, within these young souls, it all seems to resonate. Perhaps most important, they express themselves with art about planets, galaxies, supernovas, and space - look at Cherry's "Milky Way galaxy" (she's holding up the Cosmos book). It's all been so wonder-full.  I sit here, writing this, full of wonder.

I hope this post is meaningful to you, I hope that you agree that Gardner's approach to intelligences provides a valuable prism through which to see and understand your children in richer and wiser ways.   For myself, it has taught me that it is especially important to recognize and support those learning styles and preferences that are different from my own.  I love the amazing, challenging, interesting array of traits and strengths that your children display every single day.  Each one of them is "many kinds of smart!"

Celebrating the Pink Tower

"The human hand allows the mind to reveal itself."

Maria Montessori

What is it with the Pink Tower?  Why does it have such a prominent place in Montessori classrooms?  What is its purpose?  And (I am sure some parents ask) when will my child stop playing with blocks and start doing some real academic work?   All good questions, and deserving a good answer….

If only we could witness the growth and the connections happening in a young child’s brain.  We adults can only see the outer evidence, and then we often forget to marvel.  In our Children's House, the glimpses we are afforded through observing their work can inspire awe.  I can think of no work that is more meaningful for your children as they begin, no better learning activity in our classrooms, and none more revealing for us as observers, than the Pink Tower.

The Pink Tower is one of the earliest sensorial activities we introduce to a child, after the Knobbed Cylinders.  All of these concrete materials support the development and organization of the child’s perceptions through the five senses:  sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.  The materials are hands-on, attractive, self-correcting, and fun to use.  Working with the pink cubes specifically develops and refines the child’s sense of size and sequence, through both touch and sight; these are critical skills for future learning.   The cubes are very precisely created too - from 1 cm cubed to 10 cm cubed - so geometry and algebra are wonderfully and quietly embedded in their design.

When first giving this lesson, the teacher carefully demonstrates the carrying and setting out on the rug (one at a time, building movement and memory into the work), and the stacking of the cubes, from the largest to the smallest.  Then the child tries it, and we never expect him to get it right immediately (if he does, the lesson has come too late.)  For me, it is a joy to watch a young child attempt this work for the first time – it is like a window into his development, his temperament, and his readiness. 

Then we watch for and encourage repetition.  Repetition is crucial for children - trying an activity again and again, exploring the possibilities, building muscular memory, and creating no one knows how many synaptic trails and connections in the brain.  Every child has her own inner process to follow every time she gets her hands on the pink cubes.   What sequence of blocks will allow the tower to still stand?  Where does this big one go, that I missed on the way up to the smallest cube?  Can I count them?  What other ways might I arrange the cubes? What else can I build?  How can I put them away when the biggest is on the bottom? 

Some days, weeks, or even months later, at a point initiated by the child’s inner guide, interest, and experience, he will stack them perfectly for the first time.  There is almost always an expression of joy, "I did it!”  Look at Seamus - genuine pleasure and pride!

When the cubes alone no longer hold the same interest or challenge for a child, he goes on to further explorations and creations.  He has been introduced to the Brown Stair in the same careful way. And then one day the child discovers that the pink tower and the brown stair are built to the same relative dimensions, and new possibilities open up.  Lots of new possibilities....

We invite older children who have worked through and mastered most of the sensorial materials to begin to try some of them blindfolded. They have done certain activities blindfolded from the beginning - in particular the Fabric Box and Opening and Closing - so the experience is familiar, but this is a new adventure, sidelining the usually dominant sense of sight.   It's a whole new level of challenge, and always a lot of fun to observe.  

During this extended period of exploration, free building begins for many children, using the pink tower and brown stair as a foundation, and this activity seems to hold an endless attraction. Their creativity explodes.  Early this fall, we had to ask certain older children to stop doing it for a while, because they were setting a rather wild example for the younger ones.  Now we've opened it up again, with some moderation and balance encouraged.  I can't tell you how many different and amazing "marble runs" and "castles" we have seen just over the past year - they have been countless, unique, and mostly not photographed.  

All three of these next photos were taken last year.

The Pink Tower.  Throughout this time working with this one material, from the experience of that first, precious lesson at 2 1/2 or 3 years old, to the shared creation of the sensorial  "grand array" when she is 5 or 6, the child has been ordering her world, both literally and psychically, and she has been developing a muscular, sensory memory and awareness, with a vital neurological base.  I like to imagine the synapses firing and connecting, over and over.  Other higher executive functions like problem-solving, creativity, concentration, and collaboration are beginning to form too, through the child's experience with these beautiful, simple pink cubes.  

So here's to the Pink Tower!  In this age of iPads and movies and all digital media, the Pink Tower shines as a prime example of the importance of hands-on materials, experiences, and learning for young children.  As Dr Montessori wrote long before the digital age, "The hands are the instrument of man's intelligence." 

P.S.  This blog post needs a postscript.  Remember the smallest pink cube, only 1 cm cubed? It is a favorite tiny object for the younger children, one that disappears and then reappears in Montessori classrooms everywhere.   Just this fall, two have gone missing.  The first was in September, and after a month, I replaced it with my last extra (I opened Chickadee with 3 extras).  A few weeks later, it was gone again, and this time it disappeared while the cubes were out on a rug, in use, in full view.  Ten were brought out, nine put away.    Pockets and cubbies were checked, rugs were lifted, shelves were searched.  We looked everywhere.  I have no more extras stashed in the basement.  In past years, more than one parent has found the tiny pink cube in a pocket at home, but not this time. So any day now I will order some more extras from a supplier, along with some pink paint to touch up the cubes. Because nine pink cubes are just not enough....     

Outside: 30 minutes: October 10

"The child builds his inmost self 

out of the deeply held impressions he receives."

Maria Montessori

I grabbed the camera as we went outside today.  Every day, every hour out there is different.  Some seem taken over by one upset after another; on other days almost all the kids play and run together in a group game. Today I found a kaleidoscope of different activities, little groups and kids playing solo, shifting and moving in the mellow light of an autumn day. Their unfolding friendships, actions, and discoveries revealed themselves up and down and all around,  as I walked from one area to another with camera in hand, all in about 30 minutes..... 

I found Eleanor and Joey happily and peacefully playing in the sand circle, while Brady and Cara were engaged in some industrious shovel work in the digging area behind them.

Just beyond those two, Charlotte, Isabel, and Seamus were "baking chocolate cake" in that special spot sheltered by a Western Red Cedar and a Douglas Fir.  The top photo belongs here, Seamus bringing back a heavy bucket of more "chocolate."

A little further down behind this group, Collin was running along a path on his own, and then he stopped at this stump to balance and do big jumps.  I needed a faster lens for this photo - can you see him jumping?

I circled over to the stick house.  The kids have been covering it with green fir branches all this week, making it feel more enclosed and almost cozy.  Logan was hanging out in there, having a quiet moment.  

Collin ran over to show me the magnificent mushrooms in that protected area, and then he crawled into the "secret room" they had made on one side of the stick house,  and poked his head out the back.

I left them and headed back up past the overhead bars, and found Cherry and Evangeline on the side road playing with two of our "outside animals," the donkey and the bear.  Such sweet play has been happening between these two this week.    "They are friends," Cherry said to me, quite clearly, referring to the animals; she could also have been speaking about the two of them. She spoke quite a few short sentences today.

I found Ethan up there too, walking proudly along the retaining wall.  "Look how high up I am!"  He had been jumping (not from that high edge, but down a little further),  jumping just as his brother had been doing down in the forest.

Meanwhile, the great bike adventure of fall 2013 continued.  Noah, Rex, and Julian ride two-wheeled bikes every single day, more than anyone else - first round and round up in the concrete area, and then they ask if they can ride down into the forest.  Helmets are the rule now, when they head down the side road. Imagine this slope from their perspective!  They ride down the side road and all the way to the back fence, and then they are supposed to bring the bikes all the way back up again; sooner or later they get it done, right away if a friend is waiting.  

While I was watching the bike riders, Noah got tired of waiting for Rex to come back up, so he headed over to what we call the "nature fort" -  the huge, inviting rhododendrons just below the chicken pen - to show me how high he could climb.

We came upon the three hens in there.   Now that it's fall and nothing in the garden is critical, I let them out in the middle of the day for some free scratching and roaming.  All three are starting to molt, an annual affair, their coop full of feathers, and no laying eggs until it's over.  They are leading their own precious lives, and they're part of the story too.   

And the chicks?  Well, as I came around the house at the end of this journey, I discovered that once the kids stopped visiting them, they had settled in to rest on their perch, behaving just like the hens they will become.

As I read back through this simple sharing of this morning's play with you, Kahlil Gibran's wonderful and wise words come to mind:

  

"Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself."