Nature, an inspiration for all learning

Our outdoor area at both Tawa Montessori Preschool and Little Earth is an integral part of the indoor classroom. It is not just a retreat to go to for a rest, or just another place to sit down with an indoor activity. Instead, it is a carefully prepared environment which is set up to meet the needs of the child.

Care plays an important role in the prepared environment. It is through care our children learn respect and compassion for all living things, including themselves. A key element of our preschool programme is to show our children what caring means. Role modeling and supporting them in their efforts is a much more meaningful experience than just written words.  We focus on observation, patience, and respect for all living creatures, in and outside the classroom.  We do this not only through teaching our children to respect Nature, but also through giving them experiences in the virtues of stillness, wonder, and calmness.

“Not too long ago it was assumed that clean water's not important, that seeing the stars is not that important. But now it is. And now I think we're realizing quiet is important and we need silence. That silence is not a luxury, but it's essential.” 

- Gordon Hempton

We learn about stillness, appreciating the quiet moments to imagine, to  question and to dream, to be alone with our own thoughts. Silence often connects us with our inner selves, something we often forget about. We often sit down with the children in our garden in silence and let them make their own discoveries.

“If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder … so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years.” 

- Rachel Carson

Today's life is hectic for adults and children. At preschool, we show our children how to take a deep breath, slow down, and wonder at the beauty of Nature. Children are curious by nature. To them, everything is a wonder. We encourage our children to stop and look at something with attention and to marvel at the miracles of Nature, be it a spider web, an emerging butterfly or an earthworm.

"Children are not the people of tomorrow, but people today. They are entitled to be taken seriously. They have a right to be treated by adults with tenderness and respect, as equals. They should be allowed to grow into whoever they were meant to be - The unknown person inside each of them is the hope for the future." 

- Janusz Korczak

Calmness is an important part of being peaceful. Calmness is nurtured through a harmonious and beautiful environment based on the principles of freedom of choice, respect for ourselves, others and the environment, and cooperation. We give our children full attention in an outdoor environment where they are able to move freely, and engage in activities for unlimited time without being hurried to move on to the next activity.

Just like Maria Montessori believed in the power of Nature, we too believe that Nature is a source of inspiration for all learning. However, at our preschools we believe that Nature is not just to be seen as a classroom. Indeed, Nature is part of who and what we are. Nature is our own being and we should treat it with uttermost respect, just like we treat ourselves. Nature is not a place to visit now and then, Nature is not a far away land. Nature is here, right where we are. It is our role to give our children awareness and sensitivity to the importance of Nature and the interconnectedness we all have.

- Anja

Why Nature with Capital N - To demonstrate a powerful symbol of the shift in thinking - from a view of nature as simply a source of resources to be extracted to gain capital of the monetary kind, to one of Nature whose natural capital supports life itself, deserving the utmost admiration. For more information see the Earth Values Institute's The Capital N in Nature Campaign.

The Nido - The Partnership Dance and Culture of Respect

“If we continue to actively pursue the path of child-rearing reform and evolution throughout the world, then utopian ideals such as world peace and ecologically sustainable development are entirely within our grasp.” 

- Robin Grille (Parenting for a Peaceful World) 

Late last year we started a new programme at Little Earth, called the Nido. Nido means Nest in Italian. At The Nido we facilitate parent and infant classes, based on Pennie Brownlee’s “Dance with me in the Heart” book and training. The programme acknowledges that the young child will develop according to nature’s plan in a culture of respect where they can be a free and equal human being. Pennie developed the programme based on the learning she gained when she went to the Pikler Institute in Budapest in 2004 to study the work of Dr Emmi Pikler (1902 - 1984). Dr Emmi Pikler’s peaceful approach is ‘all about the baby and child’. Pennie’s programme teaches us to see our baby  and child for who he or she really is, which is the basis for the Partnership Dance, and the Culture of Respect.

The focus of The Nido classes is the relationship and the bonding between parent and infant. This first relationship between the infant and the parent is all for the child. It sets the scene for every other relationship which will follow. The better that relationship is the better the baby’s chances for the rest of her life, contributing to a more peaceful world.



We are nearing the end of our first full ten week course, with only two more classes to go. Facilitating the course has been an incredible experience. During the course we have explored various topics that deepen the parents’ understanding of their important role. We have learned about movement, care moments, play, heart coherence, tuning in, partnership and respect, full attention, and awareness. We have shared beautiful moments, observing our babies and growing the relationship we have with our babies and with ourselves.  The learning not only applies to relationships with babies, but they also work in every other relationship in our lives.

“Once we fully comprehend the far-reaching implication of our collective parenting choices, the idea that a mother or father in the home are of lesser status than an executive in the boardroom, will be dumped in the deepest corner of the trash-bin of history. Parenting or school teaching are no less momentous and influential career choices than joining the diplomatic corps or registering for a Masters of Business Administration. Parents and teachers can be the most powerful and effective social-change agents - as long as they are given the resources and social support they need to fulfill their potential. “

- Robin Grille (Parenting for a Peaceful World)

The most important role the parent has is to grow a healthy working partnership with their baby, a partnership where they and their baby work as one. So instead of doing things to their child parents learn the simple skills of how to do things with their child. If you want to be part of the Heart Dance Revolution, the next 10 weeks course of The Nido “Dance with me in the Heart” classes at Little Earth will start in Term 3 2012. Follow/Like us on Facebook!

- Anja

If you want to know more about the Pikler approach, Clare from Nature Play (South East London) has done an incredible job collating a huge amount of information about Emmi Pikler and her approach into one website, The Pikler Collection.

The Natural Childhood report from the UK

The National Trust of England, Wales and Northern Ireland has recently published a report in the UK that presents overwhelming evidence of a long-term and dramatic decline in children’s relationship with the outdoors, building on Richard Louv’s pioneering work, calling for urgent action before it is too late. The Natural Childhood report is written by Stephen Moss and shows that children’s connection with the outdoors is crucial to their development.

The Trust have set up an inquiry to gather evidence and ideas from experts and the public across the UK and other countries, the results of which will be reviewed and a roadmap agreed by UK experts this summer.

As part of the debate, they are running a series of thematic and expert guest blog postings each week at www.outdoornation.org.uk. They are currently running guest blogs about Natural Childhood Around the World. I wrote this weeks contribution from New Zealand, which you can view on their website.

 The full ‘Natural Childhood’ report can be accessed here on the National Trust’s website. Please show your support, get involved and give yourself and your children a daily dose of Vitamine N(ature)!

- Anja

A Culture of Care and Respect

At both our preschools, our environment is one of beauty and harmony, with a curriculum centered on caring. We want our time spent together as a community to be a truly social experience. We play together, we work together.  We learn to make our own voice heard, as well as listen carefully for the voices of others.  We aim to not only respect each other, but show respect in all our interactions.

“We are all connected in the circle of life”

These words, inspired by my beautiful friend Marghanita from Outside with Marghanita, are on our gate and at our entrance.  We live these words in our daily practices. We care for our chickens who then care for us by providing us with eggs.  We use these eggs for making lemon honey, but then crush up the egg shells and feed them back to the chickens for extra nutrients. We plant seeds, water and care for them, nourished with coffee grounds from the local coffee shop.  We  later harvest the vegetables and use them in our food preparation.  Any scraps are given to our animals or put in the compost which will feed our soil. And the circle continues.

The children at our preschools engage their heads, hands and hearts in the garden and beyond.  They are fully involved in the physical work of collecting, transporting, setting up and maintaining the environments.  They show care in making sure the animals are taken care of, the creatures that live in our garden have a safe habitat, and the plants are well looked after.

Caring and creating a culture of respect, nurturing the heart and the emotional well being of each child is at the core of what we do.  We know that to be open to learning and confident to experiment, our ‘emotional fuel tank’ needs to be full. We also know that young children have a strong desire to be independent.  They want to be able to make their own choices, participate in their own daily care, and complete their own tasks.  Children do not want us to serve them, they want us to show them how they can do something for themselves. They need to make their own discoveries in learning.  Deep satisfaction does not come from watching someone else complete a job for you!  Satisfaction comes from repeated attempts, personal growth and eventual mastery.

Childhood is a journey that shapes the child for the rest of their life. In order to keepsake childhood, and to create a culture of care and respect, we need to create a warm haven for our children where they can feel safe and secure, where they can be independent and where they are given time to develop according to nature’s plan. In today’s hurried world, at Tawa Montessori Preschool and at Little Earth, we aim to provide the antidote to the stress and fast pace of our modern lifestyle, through reconnecting our children with nature. Animals, a garden, and a living landscape to explore are key elements of our preschool programme. Awakening the children’s awe and wonder for nature and its miracles are part of their daily experiences. Outdoors is where we ought to be!

- Anja

Celebrating the year - beauty and authenticity

This year, the focus at our preschools has been on providing our children with beauty and as many as authentic experiences as possible. Baking our own bread, collecting eggs from the chickens, harvesting our own fruit, making our own paper, these are just a few of the daily experiences our children have at our preschools. Our beautiful outdoor environment, the ever changing theatre of nature, is the ideal environment where children can be active and concrete learners. It is constantly changing, highly attractive and full of beauty.

A natural environment is as authentic as you can get.  We know it is real because it is not a static environment – our garden is ever changing! One day the climbing logs are dry, the next they are wet and slippery; the daffodils are blooming one week and wilting the next; rain falls one morning and clears in the afternoon. There is no ‘turn off’, ‘pause’, or ‘reset’ button like in technology.  We do not know exactly what nature will give us.  We notice and adapt to changes.

In today’s hurried world, we offer the antidote to the stress and fast pace of our modern lifestyle.  Our garden is therapeutic.  We see both purposeful activities and time dreaming in the garden as both having value, with no time limits.  We believe that deep concentration on any chosen activity lets us discover who we truly are. 

“All of us have moments in our childhood where we come alive for the first time.  And we go back to those moments and think, this is when I became myself”. 

 - Rita Dove

This year we will continue to offer our children beauty and authentic experiences which will create positive, life shaping memories, rich early childhood experiences that previous generations have had – times full of wonder, nature, fun, friendship and timelessness. We hope you will too ! Happy New Year!

- Anja

Letting go - making a mindshift

We know that for a lot of our tamariki leaving something behind is very difficult.  We have seen their discomfort with leaving their clothing, boots, or slippers behind at preschool or when some other treasured possession has been left at home. 

One of our tamariki arrived at Little Earth wanting to show us his tiger worms he had found. His mother had commented to him that they wouldn’t be happy staying in the bug catcher for long so maybe he could find a new home for them at preschool. However, after arriving at preschool, our young friend said that he wanted to take them home.

After showing his friends we suggested he could transfer the worms to our worm bin.  But no, he had different plans, “I’ll put them in my cubby”, he replied. His friends pointed out to him that the worms didn’t have much dirt in the bug catcher, and where was their food?  Our young friend found a quiet space in our window seat and looked at the worms, obviously thinking of all of this.

After a few minutes he came up to us. “My worms are sad now”.  “I wonder why they are sad”, we said, and he told us, “They don’t have enough dirt.  They don’t have food”.  So we asked him, “What would you like to do with them”?  He pointed to the worm bin - “In there”. 

We all joined watching our friend as he transferred the worms from his bug catcher to the worm bin.  We could see he was still feeling anxious about his decision.  We were all so impressed by his choice to put the care of the worms ahead of his own feelings of wanting to hold onto a belonging of his. 

At our preschools, our goal is to not just offer some activities promoting sustainability but to actually help our children and families make a ‘mind-shift’ into more sustainable thinking.  We want the idea of caring for the Earth to be so embedded that conscious choices are made.  The decision to offer the worms a more suitable home is such a wonderful example of informed decision making and is a really exciting part of our children’s journey and growth. The Earth really is a great Teacher!

- Anja

Care and compassion, we are all part of the web of life

 "He nohonga ngātahitanga ahau me te taiāo"

 - We live as one with our natural world -

Kaitiakitanga is the practice of looking after something, just as Tane, in Maori legends, looks after the forest and Tangaroa and Hinemoa look after the oceans.  We have been working with our tamariki to get them to understand that to take responsibility for our environment we need to be caring.

At our preschools we help our children to look after their relationships, not only with the environment, but also with each other, and their place within.  Our aim is to bring harmony and well being to all involved. After all, we are all part of the web of life.  It is important to explore these relationships, to introduce the children to the concept that everything is connected and inter-related, whanaungatanga and whakapapa.  We have a past and a future and our choices and actions make a difference.  We show our tamariki how to be respectful to all that is around us, kaitiakitanga, that we are part of a community and act in harmony with nature.

One means of doing so is the garden at both our preschools.  The garden provides our children with many opportunities to cultivate their curiosity about nature and gives them a sense of community and responsibility.  In the garden, children see and experience how their actions either help or harm the environment.  It nurtures their aroha, a feeling of love for the natural world, and of the urge to protect or take care of it, manaaki.  These are important values we'd like to instill in our children as our future guardians.  Aroha is more than love, it is about compassion for the environment and understanding the environment and our place in that environment, our connection with the natural world.   A connection that, according to Richard Louv in his latest book "The Nature Principle" is fundamental to human health, well-being, spirit, and survival.

Respect, care and compassion underlies all we do at Tawa Montessori Preschool and Little Earth.  This weekend I will be attending The Natural Phenomena, an outdoor nature education early childhood conference in the "Wild Woods" in New Zealand.  I will be presenting a workshop on the interconnectedness and interdependence with the life force of every natural thing and how to introduce our tamariki to care and respect all things and the correct ways to interact with them.  We must care for our natural world, be good guardians or kaitiaki.

If you are attending The Natural Phenomena, come and say hello. 

- Anja

The Natural Phenomena

See you there!

- Anja

The gift of patience

"Let us send the children out into nature to learn from nature just what patience is and how important it is for them to learn patience."

- Bernard Shaw

According to my dictionary, patience is “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset”.  In my experience, being patient is much more difficult when there is some kind of gratification involved as the end product.   In that case, waiting can become an endurance. 

In todays western society, many young children struggle with patience.  They can not wait and they demand instant gratification. They are used to being entertained and in some cases they get served upon instantly. 

The children at our preschools are taught the meaning of patience, not just knowing how to wait for something, but experiencing patience through hands on interactions and experiences.  Our children are given time and space to be outside, in nature, in our garden  to watch the birds, the animals, the insects, the flowers, the trees, the clouds, the wind, the rain, and everything else that is part of nature’s life theatre. 

They learn to be patient when they plant seeds, and wait for the seedlings to grow into plants with beautiful white flowers that grow into yummy red strawberries.

They wait patiently when they place food on the bird feeder for the wild birds to visit, picking the seeds, and giving a live show of tricks.

They discover what patience means when they care for the broody hen who sits on the nest for three weeks, until they arrive at preschool one morning and find fluffy chicks peeking from beneath mother hen.

They are patient when they observe the caterpillar turning into a chrysalis and one day emerge as a beautiful monarch butterfly.

And the ultimate patience is taught when they plant an acorn and wait to finally one day identify a green sprout that resembles an oak!

Instead of playing with computer games or watching tv, commodities that deliver instant gratification, the children at our preschools are outside, engaging their hands, their hearts and their mind in the ever changing life theatre of nature.  Patience is a gift for life, our children deserve it!

Seasons Greetings
- Anja

Sunflowers, messenger of aesthetics and beauty

Time has come for our sunflowers to be taken out. The flowers have wilted: the leaves have died, the seeds have ripened, and the sunflowers are sadly dropping their head. We have thoroughly enjoyed our sunflowers, both at Tawa Montessori and at Little Earth.

Sunflowers are very fast growers, making it one of the best flowers to grow with children. They are also one of the tallest flowers, as they can easily grow up to 3.00 m. When we planted our seeds in the potting shed, we had seedlings within days and it looked as if we could “see the flower growing in front of our eyes”. Sunflowers will need support to stop them from blowing over or breaking, especially in windy weather. Our children have enjoyed taking care of the flowers and watering them dutifully, taking regularly note of its growing length. A milestone was reached once the plants grew taller than the teachers!

When the flower heads open, bees and other beneficial insects will visit for nectar and pollen. Heaps of bumble bees visited our flowers, sometimes as many as five at a time on one head. The nearby bug hilton may have played a role in this! We harvested some of the heads once they started to turn brown and into seed and hung them to dry underneath the roof of our deck. We left some flowers for the birds to feed and some to ripen in the sun.

Sunflowers are used for their oil and for their seeds, which are used in salads, breads and other foods. Sunflowers have called to peoples imaginations for centuries, most famously Vincent van Gogh, whose sunflower paintings are well known. The flowers at our preschools definitely add aesthetics and beauty to our garden, which is a most important aspect of our classroom environment, inside and outside.

Maria Montessori strongly believed that the child should live in an environment of beauty. Although aesthetics is subject to one's taste, and is strongly dependent on sense perception, hence the derivation from the Greek aisthetikos, aesthetics in the classroom are strongly encouraged and nurtured.

Nature provides many aspects of beauty and aesthetics, if not physical, it is emotional or spiritual, making it a perfect classroom. At our preschools we work very hard to keep our gardens, which function as an outdoor classroom, beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. Our sunflowers have been a big part of this.



It is with sadness we pull the dead flowers out, but we will collect the ripened seeds, using tweezers as part of our practical life activities,  and keep them for next season’s planting. This will teach us an important lesson about the cycle of life, close up!

- Anja

What does a three year old REALLY need?

Trust, Stillness, Respect, and Peace

A picture says a thousand words. This snapshot in our garden was taken a few days ago. Where does a three year old go for some quiet time? A familiar place where she goes to smell the flowers, to watch the bumblebees, to look for worms, and to listen to the birds. This is a place she trusts but also where she trusts others in it. A place she knows she will find stillness and be respected. She choose this place and the inner peace needed at that moment in time.
- Anja

Peace (Wikipedia): “The early English term is also used in the sense of "quiet", reflecting a calm, serene, and meditative approach to the family or group relationships that avoids quarreling and seeks tranquility — an absence of disturbance or agitation.”

A no-dig garden, layer upon layer

Last term we transformed our vegetable garden at Tawa Montessori into an insect garden with a bug hotel as our chickens were ransacking our garden. A new garden had to be build, out of reach of the chickens.

Making a no-dig garden is one of the easiest, and one of the most fun and satisfying things we have ever done. The no-dig garden took us one week to make, although it can be done by adults in only a couple of hours of work. At our preschool we wanted the children to be in control and have ownership of the garden, so we spread the work out over several days to keep it manageable for our three and four years old children. Adding the different layers over several days enabled the children to learn first hand about soil - the essence of a no dig garden is that you are basically making your own soil.

After the boxes were made, this is what we did, spread out over the days:

Day 1:
We started with adding the drainage layer. If your no dig garden is on a grass patch you don't need to worry about adding this layer, but since we are building a garden on concrete we decided it would be better to start with a layer of gravel to create a drainage level. On top of the gravel we layed a fiberglass mesh (insect screening), to keep the layers that will follow from washing out through the gravel. We had heaps of fun working together, scooping up the gravel, riding the wheelbarrows and tipping the load into the boxes. Great teamwork!



Day 2:
The following day we added the first "soil" layer. We used alfalfa (lucerne) hay which we sourced from a local horse feeding supplier. Hosing this layer down was another fun activity!



Day 3:
Now we were really getting into it. Every layer added, made our garden "grow", but this layer was a real test for some, as we were now adding the manure. At first the children looked a bit worried at the sound of scooping horse poohs? But with gloves on our hands, and with spades and rakes, it wasn't as bad as it sounds. This layer too got hosed down.



Day 4:
We had some straw that had been outside for several months and had started to decompose, making good stuff for in a garden. We spread this straw out and added some compost from our own compost heap. Again, another hosing to make it wet.



Day 5:
This was the ultimate fun. We added the long awaited bales of straw. There was straw in our hair, straw in our pants, straw in our shirts, and an irresistible straw fight. And then we got to jump on top of it in an effort to compact it down. What is more fun at preschool then jumping in a pile of straw?



Day 6:
We finished it of with another thin layer of compost, nicely raked and watered.



Day 7 and onwards:
Planting, watering, nurturing, weeding. We planted tomatoes, broccoli, beetroot and various companion plants.



Making a no-dig garden is easy and can be done nearly anywhere, as long as the place gets a minimum amount of around 6 hours sun. You don't need boxing, you can put your garden straight onto the ground, although this may cause some run off. If you build straight onto grass, you may want to put down a soaked layer of newspapers first to keep down the weeds. If you build on concrete you may want to add a layer of gravel for drainage first. After that you start with adding alternate layers of fine and course organic materials. We started with lucerne, then horse manure, then compost and mulch, then another layer of straw. We finished with a layer of compost. You can add more or less layers, as suits you. For planting we used seedlings. Watering is crucial as a no-dig garden needs plenty of water.

Our no-dig garden is keeping us busy. It will be interesting to see how everything grows.
- Anja


This post is part 6 of the series "Going Green"
- Going Green part 1 - Recycling
- Going Green part 2 - An enviro care code
- Going Green part 3 - An edible garden
- Going Green part 4 - Composting with young children
- Going Green part 5 - Our very own Bug Hilton

Growing Love

“Grow what you love. The love will keep it growing.”

- Emilie Barnes

"When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace." - The Dalai Lama

Wishing you lots of love for the new year to come

- Anja

Just This Day

One Stillness

visit Just This Day - The Power of Stillness

Beauty as a foundation for education?

"A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

- Albert Einstein

What is beauty? Does beauty bring joy? Joy to who? Is beauty a perception, or a subjective interpretation? Is beauty a concrete concept, or is it a deeper abstract? Is what we find beautiful a reflection of our personality? Can we learn about ourselves from what we find beautiful? Is creating beauty a human urge, used to focus the mind? Why does beauty matter?

Philosophers have discussed beauty for centuries. I don't have the answers to the above questions, although I have my own thoughts and interpretations, as I am sure, you will have too. What is important to me, however, is the important role beauty plays in the life and education of our young children.

Renowned Harvard University professor Howard Gardner, says that the essence of education should be learning to think - What children need is a deep understanding of truth, beauty and goodness, a training that will help them better understand why the world is as it is and how life can and should be lived. Maria Montessori too, emphasised the importance of beauty when educating the young child. The Montessori preschool prepared environment is characterised by order, simplicity and beauty which meet the needs of the child. Real tools, beautiful ornaments, china ware, glass crockery, and real art, our Montessori classrooms are a place of beauty and aesthetics.

“The child should love everything he learns. Whatever is presented to him must be made beautiful and clear. Once this love has been kindled, all problems confronting the educationalist will disappear.”

- Maria Montessori

As teachers we have an overloaded curriculum to adhere to. We are expected to load our children with facts and knowledge, we give them a taste of a topic and move on to the next. We are forever racing against the clock, preparing them for the next test. What if we take the time to give the child the tools so that in turn they can discover the universe on their own? What if we, as teachers, provide the foundation, so the child can build the structure? A building is only as good as its foundation though. The child can not build on a shaky foundation! Will a child take delight in building its own structure, and therefore gain a deeper understanding? Will beauty play a role in it?

Montessori’s global vision was not the specific presentation of a few lessons but the impact of the lessons themselves, the deepness and true understanding. An understanding of truth, beauty and goodness. In Zen, beauty rests on simplicity, requiring patience, creating a calm, reflective mind. Creating simplicity and nurturing patience in the live of the young children at Tawa Montessori and Little Earth plays an essential part. In our preschool classrooms we pay great attention to the inner needs of the child which include stillness, reflection, a reverence for nature, and appreciation of the interconnectedness of all things, and the cultivation of peacefulness, compassion, generosity and love.

Traditionally, beauty is often interpreted as being in balance and harmony with nature, effecting our emotional well-being. Nature plays an important role in bringing beauty into the lives of our young children. Nature affects our moods and our experiences. For the children in our preschools at Tawa and at Paraparaumu, the daily work of sweeping the deck, raking the sand, caring for the plants, is a time of serenity and peace. They are learning to become more aware of nature, which in itself effects the way they look at things and in the way they feel about themselves, giving them strength and endurance to build their structures. This in itself brings beauty, inner beauty, outer beauty. Does it bring enjoyment? Does it reflect the personality of the child? Does it involve the mind? Does it matter? What are your thoughts?
- Anja

Preparing the outside environment for summer

Two weeks of school holidays finished today. Our Tawa Montessori preschool was closed and we have used that time to have a good look around our garden, reflect on our practices, and to think about our next garden projects. We have several projects lined up and it is important we carefully think about how we are going to implement them with the children, in order to give them ownership and a sense of pride and belonging.

There is the new potting shed which needs a place and assembling. Then there are the vegie gardens which need replanting after winter and then we have the chickens who "love our vegie gardens too much". We also would like to attract more beneficial insects to our garden and what better way to do this then building an insect hotel.

The vegie garden versus chickens issue poses a real dilemma. After careful thinking we decide to move the vegie garden out of reach of the chickens, rather then moving the chickens out of reach of the garden, as the latter would mean the chickens wouldn't have access to the compost heap anymore. Somehow I have this idyllic picture in my mind that a compost heap needs to have scratching chickens.

Moving the garden it is. Actually, moving isn't really an option, as the garden boxes are well fixed to the ground. We are going to have to build new ones. The only available spot we have is an unused patch of concrete, at the side of the classroom, accessible only through a pathway. It is not the most ideal area, but it will make good use of the concrete patch and a gate to keep the chickens out can easily be installed, if deemed necessary. As we are now going to garden on concrete we will have to make a no dig garden. This in itself adds another dimension to the project as the children will have to think about what ingredients are in soil and how to make a good soil for in the planterboxes.

Making a no dig garden in another part of the garden means we are going to be left with two big planter boxes in a prime spot. One is currently growing an abundance of broad beans. It is obvious the chickens don't like beans, something I can emphatise with. The other planter box is empty. Recently the children dug in fresh compost and the soil in this box is rich and mulch. An ideal place to transform into a flower garden with an insect hotel. Hopefully this way we can attract more butterflies, weta, ladybugs and other little creatures.

While the children are away on holidays, we re-arrange our bottom deck to cater for the new projects. A prepared environment is the cornerstone of an authentic Montessori classroom, inside and outside. It is important we cater for the developmental needs of the children at the right time, while at the same time providing an environment where children can be independent and work at their own pace, following their own interests. An environment like this requires careful thinking about what to provide and what not to put in the environment.

For the garden to be successful it is important the children have ownership. We want our children to be actively engaged in our garden, and to be independent and not too reliable on the teacher. Having access to the right tools and ingredients is crucial. Spades, wheelbarrows, bales of hay and straw, gravel and all kinds of little natural objects that can function as an insect hiding place need to be accessible to the children. The frames for the new planter boxes have been put in place and the old shelf that is going to function as a bug hilton is planted in the garden. These items will undergo a complete transformation as the children will fill up the new planter boxes with layers of hay, manure, straw and compost and then plant the seedlings. Bamboo sticks, branches, old bricks, bark and other suitable object they will find at preschool, at home, in the park or in the bush, will be added to the bug hotel.

With Summer less then two months away we are going to be busy for weeks to come!
- Anja

Grow your wisdom

New Zealand's new entrant children are ill prepared, and parents play a role in this, according to an article in the Press. Children are not used to using pencils and pens, they can't count up to 20 and some have a poor understanding of what numbers are. Concerns are raised about how parents engage with their children. Some children have never been to the beach or gone for a walk in the park.

This is an alarming trend. In today's society, children do not have the opportunities and time we had as children to explore their outdoor environments and have meaningful experiences in the natural world. Children's connection with the natural world is diminishing and this is effecting their mental and physical health.

Todays children are growing up with television and internet and with 24 hour access to information technology. From a young age they watch programmes like Little Einsteins, Blues Clues and Sesamestreet, and they play computer games that introduce them to numbers, letters and colours. Personally I believe that our children today are more knowledgeable and know more facts. But I also believe that our children are less wise. They know their numbers, they know their letters and they know their colours, but they don't know what to do with or how to apply this knowledge. They have the knowledge, but lack the wisdom. Wisdom that comes with uninterrupted free play, outside, in a natural environment. I wrote about experiences and the lack of practical wisdom in today's society in in my post about happiness.

Children need to make a connection with, take an interest in, and have hands-on experiences in the natural world in order to make sense of their world. They need opportunities to develop their skills and attitudes in meaningful ways in a natural environment. They need concrete experiences to understand what they are learning. Young children develop their emotional and affective values earlier than their abstract, logical and rational perspectives. This is why a trip to the beach or a walk through the park is so important.

Realising that our children are exposed to information and bombarded with knowledge from a very young age, we consciously create a time and space at our preschool for the children to experience their outdoor world hands-on, with meaningful experiences and purposeful engagements. We provide them with an environment where they can explore and discover, apply their knowledge and grow their wisdom.

This happens on a daily basis at our preschool. With Spring arriving, our garden is slowly waking up to the early spring sunshine. Looking for spiders under rocks provides opportunities to apply our new number skills as we count the number of legs to make sure we have a member of the arachnids. This is only one example of a hands-on, meaningful experience.

That these experiences in the natural world have a long lasting effect, beyond the school grounds, proves one preschooler who, when on a family outing, enthusiastically points out the fungus to her younger sister, after she had examined fungus at preschool.

The spontaneous discovery of fungus at our preschool turned into one of these meaningful experiences, when I moved the fungus, that I found growing on an old bale of hay, to a central spot in the garden. It didn't take long or a whole group of children was looking at the fungus, and asking lots of questions. We got our magnifying glass and a knife, and dissected the fungus. With the help of our Montessori puzzle of the "parts of the mushroom", we identified the lamellae, the stipe, and the cap. We had some interesting questions to explore; why is a mushroom called a fungus?

Young children need these meaningful, concrete experiences. We have to be careful to not overload their minds with abstract knowledge that, at their young age, is meaningless to them. The best teaching occurs when the emphasis is more on joining the child in hands-on interaction and discovery than on imparting knowledge. School readiness is not just knowing numbers and letters. It is also knowing, more then anytime, how to behave, how to relate and how to take responsibility. More then anything, young children need the chance to develop their skills and attitudes and to grow their wisdom. And being outdoors is just the right place to be.
- Anja

Nature makes many eyes shine

"If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man's future"

- Maria Montessori

What is the first goal of teaching young children? Is it academic standards, or nurturing the heart. In The Tao of Montessori, Catherine McTamaney asks the question why we put so much emphasis on reading and math. "... what kind of adults are we preparing them to be, if we are always telling them that what they know is more important than how they behave?" What comes first? Do we sacrifice the heart in exchange for the mind?

At our preschool, we take our children on regular "treasure walks" through our preschool garden. Only the other day we found, in the time frame of fifteen minutes and an area of only a couple of square meters, several fascinating "miracles". We found fungus growing on pine cones, worms digging under a rock, acorns sprouting out of the ground, spiders hiding under a log.

We looked, we marveled, we carefully touched, we shared and delighted in the experience. The children were mesmerised and fully embraced the sweet and short moment of stillness and wonder. A powerful moment for both of us. As a teacher I am expected to teach our children their sounds and letters, build words and read books, I am expected to teach them numbers, to tallycount and perform mathematical operations. But what we were experiencing at this moment was something very different.

The children at our preschool are exposed to a rich language and math curriculum, but just as important, if not more, is the nurturing of their heart. By taking them out on nature walks, exposing them to the earth, connecting them with nature first hand, the children learn about the interconnectedness of all living things and the great responsibility each of us shares in the ecosystem. As a teacher of young children it is my responsibility to nurture the mind, the hand and the heart.

"When you are facing the child whose heart is open and overflowing, find yourself in that child. Remember the adult you loved dearly. Respond as you wish that adult had responded to you. When you are facing the child whose heart is locked away, find yourself in that that child, too. Remember the adult who you feared. Respond as you wish that adult had responded to you."

- Catherine McTamaney (The Tao of Montessori)

Feeding the heart of a young child is an important task. There is no second chance, there is no "money back guarantee", no warranty, no exchange. So how do you know you are doing the right thing?

Benjamin Zander, whose famous 2008 TED talk about Music and Passion I have written about before, talks about the conductor of an orchestra, who doesn't make a sound but depends on his power to make other people powerful. It is our role as early childhood teachers to empower the children in our care. Zander mentions the "shining eyes".

"To awaken possibilities in other people, look at their eyes. If their eyes are shining, you know you are doing it. If their eyes are not shining, who am I being that my children's eyes are not shining?"

- Ben Zander

This is what I believe, we as early childhood teachers, need to be doing more. When we are creating new footprints on our children's heart, we should be looking at their eyes. Can we see any shining eyes? Maybe it is time to take the child outside, to introduce them to the ladybugs in the garden, the butterflies on the flowers, the worms in the soil, the grass underneath their feet. And when you do so, look at your children's eyes. Nature is bound to make many eyes shine.
- Anja

The Tao of Montessori. Reflections on Compassionate Teaching (2005, 2007) by Catherine McTamaney, Ed.D. iUniverse Star. Lincoln, NE

All in a day's work

"The very purpose of life is happiness, the very motion of our life is toward happiness"
- The Dalai Lama

Previously I wrote about happiness: Happiness is all about experiences. Happiness for your child is giving them experiences that will enrich their lives, create long lasting memories and cultivate wisdom. Let me share two such experiences with you, all in a day's "work" at our preschool.

Last week, one of our youngsters at our preschool brought something very special to share with her friends. No, it wasn't the latest Ben 10 or Transformer toy. It was something far more exciting and precious, a pair of real life geckos. They arrived in a beautiful set up reptile tank, with moss, bark, branches and plants. Our four year old youngster enthusiastically told us about the geckos, what they eat, how they move, but also that they are reptiles and are coldblooded. We were allowed to hold a gecko very carefully in our hands so we could feel their skin, and how delicate their body is. We had to be sooooo careful. The children were mesmerized. Geckos are common in New Zealand, but it is not often you really see them, unless the cat drops them onto the doormat ... :(

Later, that same day, the sun disappeared behind the clouds and it started raining. We were on our outside deck and listening to Vivaldi's largo movement from Winter (the Four Seasons), performed by Gheorghe Zamfir on panflute. The rain was ticking on our roof and the beautiful panflute music was coming out of the player, creating one of these seldom found moments of serenity, where you can dream away and feel your inner core of love inside yourself. When our daily "meditation" time finished, we where ready to go inside, after all, it was raining. But the children had other plans. They wanted to go for a walk in the garden, something we often do after our meditation. "We have raincoats", they argued, "we want to go into the garden". I was pleasantly surprised that the rain was not deterring them at all, and that they were adamant to go on their walk, rain or sunshine. So, I too, put on my jacket and joined them.

We spend a good amount of time in the drizzling rain. The logs were slippery, the rocks were wet. We looked at the lemons, which are ripening on the tree, they surprisingly looked more shiny and a bit more yellow. We found grubs underneath the rocks and somebody spotted a hole in the ground, speculating it would have been a worm. We were getting a little bit wet, and a little bit more muddy, but we were having a real good time. None of the children wanted to go back inside. They were literally soaking up the experience. They came up with one idea after another: "Lets look at the compost, lets move this log, lets see what is in the weta hotel". When they found a worm, they wondered whether the geckos would eat worms.

Experiences with the natural world, inside and outside, is an essential part of our children's holistic development. The natural world is a means through which children find well-being and happiness, as well as physical, intellectual, spiritual and emotional stimulation. At our preschool, there are infinite treasures in our outdoor garden. Joy and happiness are abundant, wisdom is nurtured, friendships are formed and memories are created. All in a day's work!
- Anja

Links:

• Happiness is all about experiences
• Nature is for everybody

Happiness, it is all about experiences

Philosophers since Aristotle have questioned the meaning of happiness. We are all in pursuit of happiness. Some find it, some find it and loose it, and some never find it. People tend to relate happiness to money. Social scientists have always warned that more money does not mean more happiness. People who have enough money to buy food, and other basic life necessities, are not always more happier with more money. While more money may enable you to buy more things, these things do not always give you a more happy feeling.

A recent study at San Francisco State University has found that buying experiences, such as holidays and going to the movies, gave people more happiness than buying material things. The initial joy of acquiring a new object fades over time as people become accustomed to seeing it every day. Experiences, on the other hand, continue to provide happiness through memories long after the event occurred. An experience that gives richness to your life will create a feeling of happiness that will last for months or even years to come. For whatever you can afford, you'll maximise your happiness, and the happiness of others around you, if you spend it on a life experience, experts say.

How many of our children today have shelves, cupboards and boxes full with material things or toys at home? While already possessing plenty of toys, how many of these children are regularly receiving a new toy or object? What message are we giving our children if we place so much importance on material things. We say, "Look at me! I have a Barbie doll, a Dora the Explorer backpack, a Ben 10 t-shirt." We are giving these children the message to measure their self worthiness on what toys or material things they have. If they haven't got the latest toy craze they feel inadequate.

"[Children] are not understood, because the adult judges them by his own measure: he thinks that the child's wish is to obtain some tangible object, and lovingly helps him do this: whereas the child as a rule has for his unconscious desire, his own self-development. Hence he despises everything already attained, and yearns for that which is still to be sought for...His own self-development is his true and almost his only pleasure."

- (Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method, 1912, p.356)

Children in our "rich" countries do not need more toys or more gadgets, they need experiences to aid their self-development. Barry Schwartz in his recent 2009 TED talk on our loss of wisdom, talks about the lack of practical wisdom in today's society: "Wisdom depends on experience, and not just any experience". Schwartz continues how we need practical wisdom "because it's what allows other virtues -- honesty, kindness, courage and so on -- to be displayed at the right time and in the right way."


Driving your child from soccer practice to ballet dancing, from piano lessons to language lessons, may make your child more knowledgeable or skillful or even brilliant, it will not make your child more wise. While children do need to become knowledgeable and skillful to be successful later in life, they also need unscheduled free time to have a childhood of play and exploration where they can have experiences that will give them wisdom and enrichment.

Two trends are developing: children's health is declining with an increase in obesity, diabetics and depression and children's exposure to the natural world outside is diminishing. Research is showing there is a link between these two trends. The spirit of nature runs through all living things and connects us to each other and to our natural environment. Research shows that outdoor experiences help reduce negative stress and protect psychological well being in children. Access to the outdoor world of nature is crucial to a child's healthy development. We, as adults, can change the trend of children's disconnection with nature.

Rather then buying more toys, we can "buy" our children more experiences. And the good news is, this can be free. Your own backyard, and your own neighbourhood provides plenty of opportunities for your child to have meaningful authentic experiences. At our preschool we do not have a shed full of outdoor toys. But we do have a whole yard full of experiences. There is weeding to be done, compost to be turned, holes to be dig, logs to be climbed on, seeds to be scattered, pets to be fed, grass to be cut, insects to be observed, flowers to be watered, rocks to be turned over, stumps to be jumped of, bark to be ripped and a whole lot more. Bethe Almeras (the Grass Stain Guru) writes in her blog about "10 can't-miss childhood moments" and "10 more can't-miss childhood moments", moments that create long lasting childhood memories. Positive childhood memories contribute to a feeling of happiness in later life.

Happiness for your child is giving them experiences that will enrich their lives, create long lasting childhood memories and cultivate wisdom. And with the world of nature at your doorstep, you can start right now!
- Anja