President Barack Obama visited an the College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center in Decatur, Georgia, in February. This school visit follwed his State of the Union Address, which included his intention to support public funding to make early childhood education more available to four-year-old children across the nation. While it is clear from the photograph that the College Heights Learning Center is not a traditional Montessori classroom, Montessori educators noticed that President Obama had an opportunity to explore with Montessori sensorial materials on his classroom visit.  At The Montessori Toddler, you can read educator Ryan Bell’s take on Obama’s experience and some ways that the pink tower and brown stair are used in Montessori toddler classrooms. These sensorial materials are present in the Early Childhood (3-6) classroom, as well. Often children will work collaboratively with the pink tower and brown stair to come up with extensions on how to build with these materials. Both the brown stair and pink tower are a set of 10 blocks that vary incrementally in size. These materials provide children with a strong visual and kinesthetic sense of height, width and weight. Carrying these materials from the shelf is an experience that builds motor control, a sense or order and a sense of sequence. The sequence of 10 blocks prepares the mind and hand for work with sets of 1-10 while using math materials. Working together with a peer to create extensions (like the ones shared with President Obama) allow the child to experience team work, shared problem solving and practice in communicating ideas...

Students at Winfield Children’s House were singing along to their favorite ukulele band, Dos Eckies, on Friday, March 7, 2013. The children from toddlers to Kindergarten were a wonderful audience at a concert given by Kris and Joel. Our preschool teacher, Kate, joined in on guitar for a few songs. Joel is a luthier who specializes in building ukuleles, so he brought a few models to show us how ukuleles can vary in shape and size. The children sang along to favorite tunes, like “The Wheels on the Bus” and “Yellow Submarine.” They also practiced how to be a polite audience by listening to some of the songs that Joel and Kris brought, like “Teddy Bear.” The children were fascinated by Joel’s musical saw. He brought it in a violin case, and the children guessed what might be inside. They were quite surprised to see a saw and even more surprised to hear the eerie sounds it made when Joel played it with a bow. Joel reminded us not to try this at home! The students at Winfield Children’s House enjoyed hosting our special guests. The students in the Children’s House visited the playroom in two groups to hear the concert. Kris and Joel brought their show to the Toddler House for our younger friends to enjoy, as well. Thanks to Dos Eckies for a great...

In our quest to be loving, kind and respectful with toddlers, there are lots of bumps in the road. How do you respond when a child ISN’T listening? There are so many parenting books that get into the philosophical reasons for taking a loving and collaborative approach to communicating with young children. Reading these books make teachers and parents feel good, but when the real world hits we wish for a tool box of strategies, not a world-view. When there are Cheerios all over the floor for the fifth time at breakfast, what do you say? When your child hits you after you said stop, what do you do? Parent educator Janet Lansbury is busy filling in the gaps between the philosophy of being loving, kind and respectful and the real world situations that challenge us to stay in loving relationship with children. Her blog, Elevating Child Care, is a great read. Janet takes on real world examples from her readers about young children’s behavior. Janet is trained in the Resources for Infant Educarers approach, developed by Magda Gerber. Incorporating a deep respect and appreciation of the baby as more than a helpless object, the Educaring approach encourages infants and adults to trust each other, learn to problem solve, and embrace their ability for self-discovery. When allowed to unfold in their own way and in their own time, children discover and inspire the best in themselves and in others. You might start with a blog entry from January 2013, 5 Reasons Toddlers Won’t Follow Directions and go from there.  ...