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.

Matariki and the wonderful spirit of Giving!

"Everything can be great, because everybody can serve."

- Martin Luther King Jr 

The wonderful thing about the naturalised environment and enviro focus at Tawa Montessori Preschool and Little Earth is that it is never finished! Even having received a silver and a green-gold EnviroSchool award, which some people refer to as ‘the top’, we are by no means standing still. We are still aiming to be a more sustainable community and foster a sustainable mind set in our tamariki and families. It is this positive attitude to growth and change that really sets our preschools apart as a truly environmentally friendly early childhood centre.

While we have been teaching the children at our preschools to be stewards and caretaker of the Earth and its inhabitants for many years, we are also teaching them to be of service to the community. The Montessori philosophy encourages a vision of peaceful communities and service to others. It was Maria Montessori’s vision that a peaceful world, created by children, would make the world a better place.

At our preschools we foster this with the children through learning the joy of giving of themselves, and develop compassion through practical life volunteer experiences. We regularly visit the elderly at the local club, help out with community work like tree planting and we collect and donate gifts to local charities.

This year we are celebrating Matariki in the spirit of community service and giving. Matariki is the Maori name for the group of stars also known as the Pleiades star cluster or The Seven Sisters. In New Zealand the rise of Matariki in the sky and the sighting of the next new moon is celebrated as Maori New Year. Matariki lies within the Taurus constellation and rises only once a year in the eastern sky around the shortest days of the year. Traditionally, The Matariki star constellation marked a time for starting all things new. Today Matariki means celebrating the unique place in which we live and giving respect to the land we live on. It is celebrated as a time to share with each other, for family and friends to come together and share in the gifts that the land and sea have provided for them. This year Matariki is on June 21, New Zealand’s winter solstice. Matariki celebrates the diversity of life. At both our preschools we celebrate and acknowledge what we have and what we have to give, a celebration of spirit and people.

At Tawa Montessori Preschool we organised a “bring and buy”, with children and families bringing home made or surplus produce. These products were for sale for a koha (a small monetary donation). The koha will be donated to the breakfast club at one of the local schools.

At Little Earth we set up a “community service sack”. This sack is passed from family to family. The family will fill up the sack with donated goods and deliver it with their child to a local charity. The empty sack will then be passed on to the next family who in their turn will fill up the sack with donations and deliver.

 “The needs of mankind are universal. Our means of meeting them create the richness and diversity of the planet. The Montessori child should come to relish the texture of that diversity”. 

- Maria Montessori

Our preschool community really is a community of caring and joyful learners! How did you celebrate Matariki this year?

- Anja

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.

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

A visit across the Pacific

Recently I returned from a three week teacher exchange in Arizona, where I visited several pre-k programmes.  I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I am very grateful for the warm welcome I received at the schools I visited.

Arizona has a very different climate from our lush green wet and windy Wellington in New Zealand. This was especially noticeable  in the different outdoor environments that I witnessed. The hot and dry desert climate creates challenges for most schools to establish and maintain a school garden or natural outdoor environment. However, this doesn’t mean it is not possible to create a beautiful, natural garden and outdoor playscape, as the Montessori Center School in Phoenix proved. They have a beautiful outdoor garden where the children and their families can learn and experience nature. It was a real pleasure to visit their beautiful sensory garden, designed to understand and enhance each of the senses - sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. The garden also includes art stations, vegetable gardens, a hummingbird- and butterfly trail and a compass garden. They made good use of plants that grow in their area naturally, including the one plant that thrives in the Arizona desert environment, the cactus.

But it isn’t the climate only that is an obstacle for schools to create more natural outdoor environments. The combination of strict law, regulations and high insurance premiums pushes many schools into creating “soulless” playgrounds with low maintenance plastic toys and meaningless equipment. Combined with, in some cases, an absence of rooms with windows, and I couldn’t help but question what this does to the spirit and soul of the young child. 

During early childhood the brain is shaped by our daily experiences, necessary for growth. If we keep our children away from nature, limiting their experiences with the natural world, stifling the development of their biophilia, which is their natural love for the Earth, we will create a generation that suffers from nature deficit disorder, a term introduced by Richard Louv, and biophobia, a fear for the natural world. If that happens, who will be our future Earth Stewards? How can we expect our children to take care of our planet if they themselves have not developed any empathy, nor love, for the Earth they live on. Caring does not come naturally, it needs to be fostered. A lack of exposure to the nature experiences, combined with the rigid learning programmes that are more common in pre-k programmes, and the fear for safety, resulting in less time for free unstructured play and we are raising a generation of children far removed from a connection with the natural world. 

"We survive because we can love. And we love because we can empathize."

- Bruce Perry (“Born for Love”)

Bruce Perry, in his book ”Born for Love: Why Empathy is Essential - and Endangered”, writes that three-, four-, and five-year-old children need to have lots of time for unstructured play. They need to explore, to negotiate the rules of made-up games with friends; they need  opportunities to practice compromise, negotiation, and sharing. Early childhood is a crucial time of life for the development of empathy.

And empathy is what we need if we want to have healthy relationships, not only with other human beings, but also with the natural world, our home the Earth. What other good way to develop empathy than providing children with authentic, natural environments. Environments that are not over regulated by adult rules and societal priorities, but environments where children learn to manage dangers and risks, and where they can have those lifeshaping experiences that shape not only their brain, but also their soul.

Many of the teachers I talked to would like to introduce more free play and nature into their programmes. As I shared with them our Little Earth programme and environment, they were enthusiastic and hopeful that with initiatives like  “Leave no child inside” and the “Let’s go outside’ movement” more support for more outdoor and natural experiences will become available. I hope that one day, soon, their school district and regulating bodies will share their hope and give them their full support.

- 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

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

Touch the Future - Introducing the Nido

Our youngest people are our stakeholders! 

Little Earth is currently developing The Nido, a new parent/infant programme, geared towards sustainable parenting practices, based on a culture of respect.

Last month we opened The Nido room at Little Earth, a special place where parents can come for classes and workshops, to learn and to share knowledge and to connect with other parents.  Our philosophy is inspired by the works of Maria Montessori, an Italian educationalist, and guided by research from Joseph Chilton Pearce and Emmi Pikler, pioneers in parent and infant relationships.

The aim of our Nido programme is to tighten the bond between parent and child in their journey of creating a magical childhood, based on respectful relationships and in harmony with nature.

The first 3 years of life is a critical period in a child's life.  The young child is constantly learning, absorbing everything in her environment.  At the Nido we acknowledge 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.  The Nido classes will explore various topics that deepen the parents’ understanding of their important role as the child’s first teacher.

This weekend I will be attending the 'Heart Dancing Class for Facilitators',  a course facilitated by Pennie Brownlee.  This course is the first facilitator course in the 'Heart Dance revolution'.  It is a dream  coming true for Pennie who is a well know early childhood educator facilitator in New Zealand. She has worked tirelessly for nearly forty years educating parents and teachers in respectful parent - infant relationships with the aim to grow communities which have the well-being of children central, communities based on respectful partnerships.  I feel privileged to be one of the inaugurate course participants and to be able to spend a whole weekend in the companionship of Pennie and other great people who are passionate about adults - children partnerships. 

For those who would like to know more about the 'Heart Dance Revolution', I recommend Pennie's book "Dance with me in the Heart, the adults guide to great infant-parent partnerships".  You can also read 'The Partnership Dance', one of her many published articles.  Here at Little Earth we are excited about our Nido classes and the prospect of creating a caring compassionate community.  If you want to join us at the Nido or want more information visit our website.

- Anja

Healthy eating (4), making our own egg spread

With Spring in full bloom, our chickens at Tawa Montessori Preschool and at Little Earth are laying eggs again.  The hen at Tawa Montessori has gone broody, but at Little Earth we thought we can make egg spread for on our bread.  This healthy snack is fast and easy to make.

This is how we make our own egg spread:

Ingredients: a dash of salt, two eggs, melted butter.

Boil two eggs and let  them cool.

Shell the eggs and mash them in a bowl.

Crunch the shell and feed it to the chickens or worm farm.

Add a dash of salt and melted butter and mix it together.

Yummy, especially with pesto!

Slowly our garden is able to sustain our needs for our food preparation at preschool.  The children put a lot of love and care into the garden and animals and they are now enjoying the fruits of their labour.   We have noticed that they are more and more connected to the garden and the animals and taking more ownership.  “The egg is from our hen,” they will say, “I will feed the chickens now. They will give us more eggs”.  We are not only eating healthy, we are also developing a more sustainable and caring community.

- Anja

 Links:
- Healthy eating (1), making our own pesto
- Healthy eating (2), making our own lemon honey
- Healthy eating (3), making our own bread
- Healthy eating (4), making our own egg spread 

Healthy eating (3), making our own bread

At both Tawa Montessori Preschool and Little Earth we bake our own daily bread. We used to have our freezer stocked with supermarket bread to make our morning and afternoon snack. We noticed there was quite a lot of wasted bread in the compost bowl. Now we have less waste and healthier bread. Our children love to bake and are used to different baking technique. They are independent with the skills associated with baking. Making our own bread is another ritual in our day that contributes towards our  sustainable and respectful community.

Here is how we make our daily bread:

Ingredients:

4 cups high grade flour
1 tablespoon yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1.5 ups lukewarm water
1/4 cup oil (we use rice bran oil).

Directions:

- Mix yeast and water and let it stand for a while.
- Combine flour and salt in a bowl.
- Pour the yeast mixture and the oil into the dry ingredients.
- Mix all the ingredients thoroughly and then knead until the dough isn't sticky anymore.
- Cover and let the dough rise (about 45 minutes).
- Knead and then cut the dough into 12 parts.
- Shape the dough into buns.
- Bake at  220 C for 10-15 minutes or until brown.

In the morning, the yeast, oil and water are added to the flour and salt.

Then the mixing begins! Lots and lots of kneading until the mixture is not sticky anymore.

The dough rises in the warm classroom, then the buns are rolled and shaped ready to be cooked. Once the buns have cooled down, we cut them. They are now ready for morning and afternoon tea.

 

We have noticed how the children enjoy contributing to the morning and afternoon tea.  They work with care and attention, wanting to do a great job!  We hear comments like “The crust tastes GOOD!” and  “I like the bread.” It is a good reminder that we, the adults don’t have to make the bread for the children (serve), but we can help them to do it themselves.

We also learned that having whole wheat grains in our bread is much healthier than white bread so now we bake whole wheat bread every morning. It is yummier and much better for our bodies.

The gift real work brings to a child is independence.  Maria Montessori noted that one who is continually ‘served’ instead of being ‘helped’ is deprived of becoming independent, of being truly free.

(The Discovery of the Child, pgs 55, 56, 57)

- Anja

Screen-free week 2011

At Tawa Montessori Preschool we have a great community of parents who are passionate about the environment our preschoolers live in. This year we are taking part in a screen free week, to be held from the 9th to the 13th of May, organised by one of our parents, Andrea Bubendorfer.

A wealth of research has been carried out on the effects of TV on young children, such as summarised by the American Academy of Pediatrics and by Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood who run international screen free week (coinciding with our school holidays).

We all know that direct experiences are real and meaningful, multisensory and interactive, and that's something we want for our children. So the children in our class came home with cards to put their ideas forward of things we can do instead of watching TV. They know they can run, jump, hide, play with balls, play games, read books. We plan to organise a set of afternoon activities, we're lucky to live close to parks, libraries, bush reserves, the beach. Maybe we'll even take along some rubbish bags & clean up an area as we go. Our children were so proud of themselves recently for cleaning up neighboroughing Kowhai Park (thanks to the two mums who organised this!).

But it's not always possible for children to spend their time at leisure, life goes on with plenty of things that must be done. Although it's easy to forget when they are hungry, tired and cranky, our kids are incredibly capable. At preschool they routinely harvest vegetables, collect eggs and prepare food... These kids even make their own bread and recycle their own paper - I expect they achieve more than I do!

Preschoolers also learn a lot by mimicry and love to be included, so rather than just the absence of entertainment, I'd like to invite all the parents to think about screen free week while they cook dinner. Perhaps your preschooler could peel a carrot or wash broccoli alongside you. Their sense of achievement as they have contributed meaningfully is better than the highest praise.

In the first week of term, I'll put out a handout on a few ideas that preschoolers love, to keep them busy during busy times. Any ideas or input from the preschool community will be gratefully received.

- Andrea Bubendorfer

Welcome to a new friend!

Last month, one of our families moved to Ireland. Unfortunately they not only had to say goodbye to their preschool friends, they also had to leave their cat behind. And if that wasn’t hard enough, they had been unable to find a foster home for their beloved pet. At both our preschools we have several pets and animals, and it didn’t take us long to decide that we would adopt the cat and re-home her at one of our preschools. We organised a back up plan and an alternative foster home in case the re-homing did not work out.

And so it was that Jas, the cat, walked into the lives of our preschoolers, and teachers, at Tawa Montessori Preschool. And what a joy it has been. Those who meet Jas for the first time may think she is a cousin of Garfield, as that is what she looks like, huge and fat! She is also the most gentle natured cat I have ever met and she couldn’t be more perfect for a preschool setting.

Jas took to her new home like a duck to water. After two weeks of inside supervision, she ventured outside, and never looked back. Our covered deck is Jas’s new home. She sleeps on the verandah couch,  or wherever she can find the warmest and sunniest spot. Sometimes she disappears for some quiet time underneath the deck, where it is cooler and the only company would be the odd brave mouse! She prefers to sit on the teachers chair, to great hilarity of the children. Sometimes she wanders inside, finds a spot in the middle of where all the action is, stretches out and goes to sleep.

Jas has added a whole new dimension to our preschool community. She absolutely loves cuddles and pats, and she makes sure she gets lots of them throughout the day. After all, there are twenty pair of little hands available to stroke her at any time! She will stretch out where ever she pleases, as if she is the queen of the castle, be it on top of the stairs, in a doorway, or in the middle of our deck.

The children are absolutely great with her. While some little ones, at first, were reluctant to go near Jas, as she is big, they now are so used to her presence, neither one blinks an eye. One of our children was rather reluctant to go near Jas until one day he came running up to us and excitingly announced that he had “patted Jas and was not scared anymore”. The look in his eyes and the grin on his face was priceless and no well planned early childhood programme can cater for that sense of pride and self-esteem that comes with overcoming fear.

Jas, and our other animals, bring a unique dimension to the programme, one that only animals can do. Caring for animals  fosters a sense of responsibility and compassion. It encourages a respect and reverence for life and other living beings. Our children have learned to walk around Jas, to not chase her around and never pull her tail, attitudes that foster a sense of inner discipline and empowerment. They feed and give her water, and gently move her away when she is trying to eat the chicken pellets. They alert the teacher when Jas shows a more than curious interest in our free roaming guinea pigs. They have developed a communal sense of responsibility that comes with taking care of an animal like Jas.

Caring for animals in an early childhood centre should not be taken lightly. Animals do need special care and attention. Close supervision is needed to ensure the safety and well-being of both the animals and the children. Done well, keeping animals can be a most rewarding addition to your programme.

- Anja

A proud Earth Hour Awards finalist

The amazing The Point Preschool in Oyster Bay, NSW, Australia, has a very strong commitment to the environment and education for sustainability.  Children at The Point Preschool look after their own gardens and animals, they learn about environmental health, they compost and recycle, and they grow their own food.  They learn about responsible use of water and energy, about waste reduction, fair trade, and living in peace with each other and nature.  Children at The Point Preschool are actively involved in sustainable practices every day and have every opportunity to connect with the earth.

The children of The Point Preschool and their teachers have been nominated in the top 20 national finalists for the first Australian Earth Hour Awards.  You can vote for The Point Preschool by going to the Earth Hour website and clicking on the picture on the right top row, a picture of the children with a baby possum.

In a time where too many children spend their early childhood years either inside playing with plastic toys or outside in an artificial environment composed of concrete, plastic, steel and rubber, we welcome preschools like The Point Preschool.  A preschool wholeheartedly committed to natural outdoor environments and involving the children in developing lifelong practices to ensure the respect and protection of each other and our planet.  Catherine and her team do an amazing job empowering and engaging sustainable young minds.  Please support the work of Catherine and her team at The Point Preschool and give them your vote.

You can read more about this amazing preschool at The Point Preschool website.

Update 27 March 2011: Congratulations to Catherine Lee who won The People’s Choice Award. The children at The Point Preschool can be very proud. Thank you to all who voted.

- Anja

Authentic experiences, involving the senses

Earlier this week we had the inaugural Nature Action Collaborative for Children (NACC) community forum meeting in Wellington. It was an inspiring evening.

Listening to people talking about experiences in nature that stood out for them made me realise how these  experiences have one thing in common. Usually they are real or very close to real, and they involve the senses. They are more often than not, authentic experiences.

As an early childhood teacher, authentic experiences are one of the core of my practice as I believe authentic experiences provide the real lessons we can learn from. They are meaningful and often purposeful. They teach, rather then entertain.

Our children’s world is inundated with toys, plastic or not, that only simulate or provide fake experiences that are short of purposeful engagement and leave nothing left to the imagination. Children have readily access to virtual worlds where all they have to do is to push a button to reset or restart without any lasting consequences. While many of these games are marketed under the banner “educational”, much can be said about the educational aspect of these games. They certainly do not teach  children to take responsibility nor do they provide crucial real life consequences. If a child doesn’t like the outcome or loses the game, a push of the button provides a new canvas to restart. Reality is that real life does not have reset buttons. It is easy to be a hero in a fake fantasy world, it is another story to show compassion, caring and love in real life. For that to learn, children need authentic experiences, experiences that nurture the heart.

Authentic experiences involve the senses. Many of the experiences in nature or natural outdoor play areas have the potential to be authentic, to be real, to be a first. Children feel the warmth of the sun, hear the singing of the birds, see the beauty of the butterflies, smell the fragrance of the roses, and taste the flavour of the blackberries. When all these senses are involved it increases the likelihood of becoming a memorable experience. Experiences that are enjoyed and remembered, that leave footprints on our children’s hearts, or in the words of Benjamin Zander, create shining eyes.

As teachers we owe it to our children to expose them to authentic, relevant experiences many children are lacking today. 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 we have available for our children at our preschools. Running barefoot through grass, hiding behind a berry bush, jumping in a mud puddle, 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. And on top of it all, it is authentic.

- Anja

Join me in connecting our children with nature

Last October I spend an amazing four days at the Working Forum on Nature Education for Young Children at the Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska. This forum was attended by delegates from around the world and I felt privileged to be there. It was inspiring and encouraging to listen and talk to so many people from many different backgrounds, who all share the passion to reconnect our young children with nature.

The purpose of the Working Forum was to nurture the future generations of environmental stewards by creating action plans to reconnect the world's children with nature. During the forum the new Environmental Action Kit was launched. This Kit is available online for free and if you are involved with young children I strongly recommend you have a good look at it. The Kit is full with ideas, recommendations and research. An important section of the Kit is the Tools for Advocacy which includes the Universal Principles for connecting children with nature, developed by The Nature Action Collaborative for Children (NACC). Below is a video about the principles.



At the forum I was a member of the New Zealand team. It is our mission to take back both inspiration and knowledge we gained in Nebraska and to spread the message about the importance of children’s connection with nature. The team has decided to develop community forums in New Zealand, starting with one in Auckland and one in Wellington. The first Auckland meeting took place on Thursday 17 February. The first Wellington meeting is taking place on Monday 28 February.

This is an open invitation to any one who is involved with our young generation, be it as a teacher, professional, or parent, to join us in our global effort to unplug our children and to get them outside to connect with nature. If you can’t make it to the Wellington meeting, but would like to receive more information, email us. If you want to find out more about NACC initiatives in your country, contact your Leadership team member.

- 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

A precious moment

Friday morning at Tawa Montessori Preschool ...

- Anja

Photos copyright Tawa Montessori Preschool/Little Earth® Montessori

Creating memories!

One of my most precious childhood memories involves the campfires we had when I was a child. Growing up in potato country Holland, we would put a potato at the end of a stick and roast it above a fire lit with twigs and branches inside a small circle of rocks. If we didn’t have a potato, we would use a piece of apple. Marshmallows were unheard of in those days. The flickering of the flames, the smell of burning wood, the shadows of our comrades, the smoke up in the sky. There was just something magical about those campfires.

Living in New Zealand, a few years ago my family gathered around a campfire celebrating a birthday at one of the local beaches. The children, and their friends who accompanied us, had an unforgettable time, playing with sticks in the fire, toasting marshmallows and singing silly songs. We supervised and made sure the fire wouldn’t get too big or get out of control. My children, and their friends, fondly reminisce about our first campfire on the beach.

My oldest daughter recently left New Zealand to be a Camp America camp counselor in the US. When she asked me, the day before leaving, if I knew of any campfire songs, I realised that our children today are hardly exposed to campfires and the traditional songs we, and our parents, and even our grand parents or great-grandparents learned as children and that have been around for many years. Is the singing of campfire songs becoming burned out?

As I look around I see children, as young as four, singing and dancing to Miley Cyrus songs. As our preschools are about building precious, life shaping childhood memories the idea was born to teach our children some traditional campfire songs, in an effort to keep the art alive and to create some memories for the children based on generations who have gone before us. We organised a sing-a long evening, for parent and child where we would sing traditional songs, enjoy each others company and drink warm chocolates with marshmallows.

Ideally this would all take place around a real campfire, but as Tawa Montessori is in a suburban residential area strict regulations and permit applications tossed the idea of a real campfire into the “too hard” basket. Given also that we are in the middle of winter, here in New Zealand, we decided to organise an indoor gathering.

A few weeks ago, we had given the parents the words of the songs we were teaching the children, so they could practice at home. The sing along night arrived and fairy lights, wooden logs, an old brazier, red and yellow cellophane and some hessian with scattered twigs and pine cones all helped us to create the ambiance felt with a real campfire (that almost looked like real!) Dimmed lights and candle lanterns hang around the room, way out of reach of little hands.

Words cannot describe the excitement of the children when they arrived at their preschool, in darkness! Each child brought one parent and we all sat in a semi circle, parent and child seated together. One of our teachers, together with a parent, sat at the front and they played the ukulele, leading us through the songs. Waltzing Matilda, You are my sunshine, and many other favourites echoed through the classroom. Both young and old were singing their hearts out, clapping their hands and stamping their feet to the rhythm. The campfire may have been staged, but the magic was definitely there. Precious childhood memories, that only took an hour to create, but will hopefully last a life time and keep the sing a long alive.
- Anja

About Linchpins, Wii’s and Wisdom, or do preschoolers really need a Wii?

It is a holiday weekend in New Zealand. A good time to catch up on some reading. I am in the middle of Linchpin (Seth Godin), just started Business Stripped Bare (Richard Branson), as well as reading (in Dutch) Vrij spel voor natuur en Kinderen (Willy Leufgen and Marianne van Lier) and I have just finished What the dog saw (Malcolm Gladwell). I am taking in a wealth of wisdom, inspiration and thought provoking ideas. My mind is overloaded, and I am looking for a moment to reflect on what I am reading, when my eye catches this headline in the news, “Wii for the wee ones”   - three- and four-year-olds at early childhood centres are being encouraged to play games on the arm-waving Nintendo Wii gaming consoles, post comments at online blogs and Skype other children.

While I can understand the value of using technology for posting comments on blogs and using Skype with others, I can not comprehend the value of a Wii in early childhood education. Using technology as a tool to communicate, if used wisely, can be a learning experience. However, a Wii used for playing games, is no more then mere entertainment. I have always seen, and I will continue to see, myself as an educator, not an entertainment provider. I question what children learn from Wii games.

The Head Teacher of the kindergarten* in the article is quoted as saying, “Wii was introduced at the start of the year as a fun introduction to numeracy, literacy and fine motor skills, while also providing social interaction.” Really?

What happened to counting apples, picking flowers and looking up bugs in nature books? What about carefully planting a seedling in the garden, measuring the amount of food to fill up the rabbit’s food bowl and finding the letter N on a compass outside? Or how about threading beads, using scissors for cutting, pasting, collage, drawing and painting, picking berries, sweeping up leaves, and watering plants? Does a three year old need a Wii to be introduced to fine motor skills. Really?

How meaningful is a Wii game in teaching numeracy skills anyways? Here comes three year old Johnny. Parent of Johnny: “Johnny is able to do additions, Johnny, how much equals 3 plus 4?” Johnny answers “7”.  I give Johnny a handful of beads and ask him to show me three plus four. Johnny can’t sit still to do the task, Johnny does not know how to arrange the beads, Johnny has no idea what three plus four means. But Johnny has a good memory, Johnny has knowledge, he knows that three plus four equals seven. But Johnny does not have wisdom, Johnny does not understand the concept of addition. Johnny is three years old and Johnny needs concrete introductions to numeracy and literacy skills, for his brain to develop the wisdom and understanding of abstract concepts and thought. No Wii game is going to teach Johnny the concrete skills he will be learning when he is engaged in normal play and daily tasks.

The Head Teacher continues, "It's really great to watch them teaching each other." Really? What exactly are they teaching each other?

The words of Seth Godin come to my mind. In his latest book Linchpin, Seth comments about the current public schooling system: “We train the factory workers of tomorrow. Our graduates are very good at following instructions. And we teach the power of consumption as an aid for social approval.”

Isn’t that what a Wii game does too? Head down, just follow the instruction of the game, no need to create, no need to connect. The cog is standing by, waiting for instructions (in Seth’s words).

Seth has this idea about what school should really look like: “We teach people to take initiative and become remarkable artists, to question the status quo, and to interact with transparency. And our graduates understand that consumption is not the answer to social problems.”
Seth writes about the importance of creating art. With art, he is not specific referring to music, or painting, but to a gift that causes a change in the receiver. This can be a smile, a gesture, or a product design, as long as it is a gift of generosity. Creating “art” is the work of linchpins and linchpins are the essential building blocks of our future. I am not sure how playing a Wii game during early childhood years teaches children to take initiative, to use their creativity and to become a remarkable “artist”.

Previous I wrote about wisdom and teaching in the post Grow your wisdom. Young children need concrete experiences. The best teaching occurs when the emphasis is more on joining the child in hands-on interaction and discovery than on imparting knowledge. More then anything, young children need the chance to develop their skills and attitudes and to grow their wisdom. In another post I mentioned Barry Schwartz and his 2009 TED talk on our loss of wisdom, "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."

The preschool years are a critical time for brain development. While watching TV and other electronic media can increase children’s knowledge, rapid-fire stimuli and passively absorbing images can create negative outcomes for the rapidly developing brain and foster restlessness, impulsivity and disruption in attention. At our preschools, Tawa Montessori and Little Earth, we strongly believe in the value of hands-on, concrete learning experiences that are meaningful and purposeful. We believe in authentic interactions, interactions that involve people, animals and the natural world, rather than a screen or a game console. We believe in the potential of each individual child. Every minute spend on a Wii is another chance missed for great learning and creating great art.

It is sad to read that in a time when research increasingly confirms the importance of outdoor, natural, authentic, learning experiences and real life connections, an increasing number of early childhood centers, including our kindergartens, are introducing our children to more screen time, rather than more green time. Our children deserve better!

- Anja

* In New Zealand, Kindergarten is the public preschool for 2, 3 and 4 year olds