Montessori 3 | House on the Hill

What is Loose Parts Play?

The HotH Team January 2023

4 Beautiful Locations Islandwide At House on the Hill, we strive to embody the true Montessori method and philosophy in every lesson and activity. Book A Tour Play is an important aspect in children’s learning development. When children play, it gives them many different ways and opportunities to learn through play. Information is usually best retained when play experiences are fun and spontaneous. “Play is the work of the child” – Dr Maria Montessori Here at House on the Hill, we want to cultivate and explore this natural creativity and engagement further. Therefore, we are excited to introduce Loose Parts Play, together with gardening and exploration of nature-themed projects as part of our afternoon activities curriculum from 2023! Using the outdoor spaces as our play areas, the children will have numerous opportunities to explore, discover and learn in, about and through the outdoors. The freedom to play with spontaneous ideas and creation using a collection of small objects provides the children with opportunities to make, build, experiment and invent. Loose parts materials can be used in combination, redesigned, pulled apart or put back together, carried around, manipulated, put into patterns or used as visual representations for children’s imaginations. Loose parts also invite children to explore and discover, imagine and create, enquire and experiment, play and tinker about as they build on their developmental skills in a supportive learning environment. The material in itself has limitless use in the world of the child’s creation. At House on the Hill, our loose parts play is about guiding the children to make connections to their daily experiences. We allow the children to recreate these thoughts, ideas and feelings by documenting them using the loose parts material to make their experiences visual and concrete. With our recent trip to the zoo, the children recreated their zoo trip experience using leaves and pebbles from our garden, plus our collection of toilet paper core and ice-cream sticks. How do we include this in our play environment at school? Here is an example of the children’s play experiences after they took a school trip to the zoo: This group of children explored with toilet paper cores, leaves and rocks. They discovered that the toilet paper cores are good for making structure, and so they decided to add the leaves as the shelter. Once they created their structure, they decided that they still needed to renovate the zoo for more details. This meant that the animals were not ready to move in. Instead, they would be in transit from Malaysia! ? Come, join us in our next play and discover if the animals did arrive from Malaysia…. Here is a second group of children playing with the same topic: This group explored with ice cream sticks, leaves and rocks. Each of them created enclosures of different sizes. Some were larger than others to fit larger animals like the elephant. They added animals to their enclosure (using rocks) to represent the elephant, cheetah, hippopotamus and lion. Can you make a guess which is the elephant enclosure? Hint: In that enclosure, there are both elephants as well as lots of food for the elephants. Why do we want to include this in our Montessori environment? The importance and benefits of loose parts play Loose parts play is open-ended; the same material can lead the children to create different uses for it in many different ways. When they play, the fun is all in the process, and not the outcome. For example, a brown leaf can be an elephant in one child’s play, the next time, the same brown leaf can be a skateboard in another child’s play. The possibilities are endless! This means it helps to expand the child’s creativity and imagination to use the same material in many different possible ways for the different play theme setting. Children are the content creators in this play, and teachers act as facilitators to lead and guide them through their story-line. This child-directed play helps the children towards more independent play. Besides fostering imagination and creative play, the children build upon their problem-solving skills, determination, patience, as well as communication skills, to discuss and work together towards a common goal. As the children use the loose parts to integrate in their play, there are many connections and applications to the subject areas. For example, in the subject area of Math, children could apply the concept of sorting and classifying as they arrange the loose parts into different categories or grouping them with similar characteristics together. In the creating the zoo enclosure example, they discovered the differences in size and dimension when they add more sticks. By adding more sticks, the shape of a square also changed into a rectangle. In another subject area of science and geography, the children discovered how to place the toilet paper core to make a more balanced structure using simple engineering skill to create the shelter for their animals. They also learn from one another, when one friend shared about the distance of Malaysia to Singapore, hence the animals were still in transit. These play experiences, when facilitated by the teachers, can help extend their learning. By adding the fun element in play, the children enjoy the whole process of their creation using their child-initiated ideas and imagination. How can parents also include loose parts play with children at home? Similar to our classroom environment, play can also be extended to your home environment. Start with any open-ended materials that can be played with in multiple ways. Common toys will be wooden blocks, magnetic tiles, rainbow blocks, pebbles, assorted flat marbles, play silks, assorted sizes of LEGO bricks, etc. When your child is playing with these materials, allow them to take the lead to shape the content of their creation. Protect your child’s space and time and try not to interrupt or direct them in their thought process. Use lots of observation to have an understanding of what your child is thinking. When conversing with your

Art Discovery Experiences for Children

Amanda November 2022

Dr. Maria Montessori wrote “Free the child’s potential and you will transform him into the world”. Her philosophy is something that we hold close to our hearts here at House on the Hill as we relate this to the art experiences we provide for the children in their preschool years. Children are naturally inquisitive from birth. They make sense of what is happening around them by learning through observation and exploration. Through the process of art experiences, they make interpretations and form connection of how things work around their environment. These opportunities will also help to enhance their brain development and growth. Engaging in art activities is also a form of self-directed discovery which fuels creativity in children. It encourages risk-free exploration and freedom, which helps to builds confidence. Free expression also enables children to express their emotions and feelings, especially when children are still learning to use words to verbalise their thoughts. Art experiences in House on the Hill include activities that encourage children to explore through art elements such as lines, colours, shapes and textures. Examples of art activities include painting using crepe paper and foam, as well as crayon resin and cellophane collage. In House on the Hill, we strongly believe in the importance of reuse, reduce and recycle materials in our daily activities. We are appreciative of the support coming from the parents to have recyclable materials passed on to the school for the children to be purposefully engaged with. For example, the use of plastic bottles bases and toilet cores are useful in the process of printing outlines. Here are some suggestions of what adults can do to support in this process: 1.Support and don’t lead your child, allowing them to have freedom of choice to use materials in a safe environment In House on the Hill, we do this via the well thought out lesson plans by the teachers. With the objectives of the lesson in mind, the next crucial component includes ensuring that preparation of the materials is ready before the lesson. The children have the freedom to be engaged in using the readily available art materials to work on their masterpieces. 2. Keep it open- ended, instead of having a specific expectation. Let your child explore, experiment, and use their imagination. This is a crucial part of encouraging and building their creativity. Focus on the process, not the product. Do encourage the effort of the child as the process of exploration is more important than the end product. Acknowledge the child’s effect in the process. In the classroom our teachers use encouragement such as “I like the colours that you have chosen for your painting. They are colourful and vibrant”. This helps children to develop their self esteem and confidence. There is no right and wrong in Art Expression, every child has the ability to create their own unique art pieces. They are the masters of their artwork! 3. Art experiences in the home Art experiences do not have to happen in school settings only. Besides the art activities we have written about in this article, other examples of art experiences you can try with your child at home includes monoprinting where the painted image is transferred to another sheet of paper, while the use of playdough encourages creativity, when they can build and construct 3D sculptures. Lastly, an important takeaway for parents is to allow art discovery opportunities at home. They are a great way to encourage social-emotional development and enhancing fine motor skills. In addition, it creates moments for quality interaction and bonding with your children. Do have a go with providing similar art discovery experiences at home and be amazed at the wonders that children will create! Some suggested further reading: Keep Up the Good Encouragement Montessori at Home: Hanging Artwork

Social/Cultural Upbringing in Montessori

Amanda June 2022

“Within the child lies the fate of the future.“ – Dr. Maria Montessori We are a proud Montessori school and hold fiercely to the tenets of the Montessori Method, as laid out by Dr. Maria Montessori. A central and core component of our schools’ curriculum is the social and cultural curriculum. We encourage kindness and respect, building an understanding of harmonious living amongst our students, which we hope they will take to heart and carry on as they develop into adults. Every experience is thought through and purposeful. In their daily activities and interactions, our children develop social and emotional awareness as they relate to their classmates, teachers, and surroundings. Children learn the world they live in and the various cultures through subjects that include science, zoology, geography, history and art. In their mixed-age classrooms, children experience mutual learning opportunities and collaboration. Through daily interactions and group activities, our students develop social skills necessary to relate and participate in a harmonious society. It is our belief and hope that in helping to set this fundamental foundation for our children, we have set wheels in motion. They start to learn self-awareness and awareness of their surroundings. This helps eases difficult transitions and inculcates a sense of confidence and comfort as they age and develop. Social Development the Montessori Way Humans, by natural design, are social creatures. In the real-life world, interactions with others occur regardless of differences amongst us (e.g. race, religion, age). A Montessori classroom of different age-groups seeks to mirror this. Mixed-aged grouping is a classic part of a Montessori curriculum. Montessori pedagogy believes in peer-learning through mixed-aged grouping as it avoids competition amongst them and promotes a healthier learning adventure. Every day in class, the children develop the social skills necessary to relate and participate in a harmonious society. In a class of different ages and skills, the older children become more sensitive to the younger children’s needs and through their own, personal experiences, can predict and help problem-solve the challenges a younger child might currently go through. It is often common in our schools to see an older child wiping tears off a younger child’s face and holding their hands to calm them down! On the other hand, younger children feel less ‘pressured’ in a new environment – especially for new additions to the class. We see that the younger ones have trust and support in, relying on the older children for guidance. This mimics the siblings-at-home relationship, and we have seen many interactions where the younger children are inspired by the older ones, who in turn ‘lead’ play and lead the way. Having the experience of being helped, and admiring or looking towards the older kids for inspiration imparts confidence and a sense of security in the younger children. We also encourage them to see that one day, they too, will be older and can pay it forward to other newer, younger children. Cultural Development the Montessori Way Cultural lessons/experiences enliven a child’s understanding of the very much adult world around them, and helps them make sense of it through their discoveries. Admittedly, the Cultural exploration in Montessori curriculum is very broad in content, but it does tend to be quite specific in its intent. Typical topics such as Botany and Zoology are well-received by children of various ages as they tend to be worlds that children experience in a daily sense and therefore can relate. Experiences such as observing caterpillars morphing into butterflies, growing seeds into edibles, rearing stick insects or even nursing injured birds back to health give children concrete and tactile understanding of the essential needs in life. They develop emotional depth as love and care naturally pours out while taking care of the animals and plants, as well as a deep-rooted understanding of one’s sense of self. Travelling to different parts of the world at a much younger age is common for many of our students. Deeper and more complex topics such as History and Geography – just to name a few – makes sense as well. Going through the puzzle maps of the countries of the world helps them relate to their travels and to the different countries they’ve been. The act of the Montessori birthday walk tracks and marks a child’s year in life in a simple but essential history lesson. It drives a child to understand how ‘much’ they have grown. This in turn, helps them to make that connection to the milestones they have gone through to get to where they are currently. It helps to facilitate a lifetime habit of pausing, self-reflection and acknowledgement of growth. Comments such as “I was so small and could only cry!” or “I could only crawl then!” are common throughout birthday walks and mark a child’s understanding of their physical and emotional growth. It is a natural inclination for people to seek connections through their experiences, especially with young children. The cultural concepts taught through the Montessori pedagogy aim to help children connect and make sense of the world through their own discoveries and experimental journeys.

Helping Children To Be More Independent At Home

The HotH Team May 2022

“Independence is an ongoing and organic process. As a child learns to pour water, put on his/her shoes, or clean his/her workspace, he or she becomes a more confident, independent individual which will lead to ongoing benefits throughout life.” – Dr. Maria Montessori A lot of parents are amazed at what their children can do in school. At House On The Hill, our children have the freedom to follow their instincts and choose the activities that call to them, developing their independence. Having seen how they are in school, some parents have asked me “why is my child not doing things on her/his own at home?”, “how do I let my child be a little more independent at home?”, “why is my child not doing anything by him/herself at home?”, or “they are always making a mess when they do things on their own”. Baby steps need to be taken to foster independence in children. The Montessori Method promotes independence by giving a child the ability to make their own choices, providing gentle guidance and allowing them to learn at their own pace. To share my personal experience; I’m a parent to 2 girls. I started with simple tasks in their daily routine at home to encourage independence, such as putting their clothes away in the laundry basket, wiping their eating mat after mealtime, putting their shoes away, packing up their toys after playtime, self–feeding during mealtime…etc. It took some time, and mess (part of the learning process) for them to be confident enough to tell me that “I can do it”. Once they were comfortable with these simple tasks at home, they started to approach me to help out with my chores. I realised that they wanted to learn how to complete more challenging tasks. So I began to let them help out by completing tasks like making their beds after waking up, folding and keeping the laundry away, sweeping their bedroom etc. Most of the time, my first child finds joy in doing all these by herself and often comes to me to say “Can I help you a little more?” with a cheeky smile. My younger one looks up to her sister and will follow what her elder sister does at home. Getting them involved in chores also allows me to have a little bonding session! I believe that encouraging independence in children can start from a very young age, it helps them to be confident and makes them happy when they can do things on their own. Also, an independent child means that you have fewer tasks on your plate! Here are some tried-and-tested recommendations from me to nurture independence at home, based on my personal experience: Tips for fostering independence at home: Learn to let go (trust your child!) The first step in getting your children to be more independent is for you to stop doing everything for them. Instead of doing it for them, show them how to do it. Let go, and you will be amazed by what your child can do! Build in extra time Children take time to complete a task on their own, especially in the initial stage. Building in extra time keeps the pressure off you and also allows children to have enough time to learn at their own pace. Don’t strive for perfection We don’t want them to be afraid of making mistakes. Letting children learn from their mistakes helps build resilience and is essential to raising a confident and happy child. Allowing them to struggle and sometimes fail, allows them to develop important social and emotional skills. Applauding their effort Giving your child positive feedback when they complete a task and appreciating their effort works wonders in promoting their confidence! Provide choices Allow your child to make choices and decide on things they want to do themselves. Giving choices within parameters provides children with safe boundaries within which they can practise doing things for themselves. Letting your child develop independence can be challenging for parents but it is very rewarding. There are so many ways to prepare your child for independence and it should be a gradual process from a young age. “Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.” – Dr. Maria Montessori.

5 Reasons Why We Love Montessori Maths

Amanda October 2021

Pre-school aged children have natural mathematical minds. They have the capacity to reason, to calculate, and to estimate. They are intensely conscious of quantity – counting skips on the way to school or the steps going up a hill. The concrete Montessori mathematical materials allow these sensorial explorers to begin their mathematical journey from the concrete to abstract through manipulation, experimentation and exploration. Here are five reasons why we love Montessori Maths! 1. Child-Centric Approach / Individualised Learning In Montessori, we adopt an individualised learning approach where learning progresses according to each individual child’s pace. Children have the freedom to choose (but of course, within boundaries!) to work on any activity that they would love to do. This makes learning enjoyable. Moreover, with the individualised learning approach, children are not pressured to meet a certain learning benchmark, ensuring that they fully grasp a concept before moving on to another! 2. Concrete Materials Dr. Maria Montessori believed that children learn by using their senses – whatever they touch, they learn. Children learn Mathematics through tactile experience such as the Sandpaper Numerals where it has a tactile texture. Likewise, rods, spindles and beads are some of the concrete tools used to symbolise mathematical abstractions. The child does not merely learn to count, she understands the concept of ‘how many’ because she holds the amount in her hands. Learning through the usage of concrete materials create a strong foundation for children. The child is able to perform the operation of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division in increasing complexity as part of a natural progression. 3. Concrete to Abstract Approach As the child progresses, she continues to gather from her environment but in a different way. Her inner drive now is to give order to the impressions. She takes the concrete experiences and turns them into more abstract ideas. Her concrete work in the earlier stage literally laid the foundation for complex abstract ideas and thinking. A prime example of this approach can be seen when the child is working on the Number Rods and Cards. After mastering the Number Rods, the child will be introduced to the Number Cards where she proceeds to match the numerals to the corresponding rods. This one-to-one correspondence allows the child to grasp the value of quantity behind each number. 4. Sensorial Exploration In a Montessori classroom, Sensorial activities are as vital as numbers and counting. They allow exploration and experimentation on the part of the child and because they are easily explored, they encouraged children to spend a great amount of time in this exploration. Through working on the many Sensorial activities, children learn several mathematical concepts such as size, length, height, volume, visual discrimination and more! The child develops her mathematical mind through this process of materialised abstraction. The exactness of relationships between the materials makes for the development of a concrete understanding of gradation and order. For instance, the building of Knobless Cylinders requires more than just hand-eye coordination. It involves the child’s ability to be able to identify which cylinder is bigger or smaller. 5. Control of Error Montessori values independence, confidence and self-reliance. This is one of the reasons why Montessori materials were made to be precise. One of such material is the Spindle Box where children learn to associate numerals (0 to 9) with loose quantities (spindles). There are exactly 45 spindles. When a child is done working with the Spindle Box and should there be any short or leftover, the child will know if something went wrong. At the end of the activity, there should be no spindles left, or any shortages. These precise-made materials are more than just enhancing the child’s academic abilities. It helps to promote their social-emotional development as well. Children learn independence and self-reliance as they are able to self-correct themselves. This also helps to boost their confidence as they are able to learn independently without the teacher’s intervention.

Building a Better Future

The HotH Team July 2021

Racial Harmony Day is observed on the 21st of July every year to remind all of us the importance of maintaining racial and religious harmony in Singapore’s multicultural and multi-ethnic society. At House on the Hill, we’re also taking the opportunity to celebrate the broad cultural diversity we have here at our school. On this day, the children will get to capture memories with their friends dressed in their traditional cultural outfits, at a photo booth set up for the day. They’ll have the opportunity to share about their culture with their friends at Show-and-Tell. They will be involved in a Harmony Day Bracelet craft activity and our teachers will be reading stories about teamwork and acceptance. It is a chance for our students to celebrate their diversity together, a value that is a core facet of what makes our House on the Hill community so very special. As Early Childhood educators, we are often asked about why we have chosen this profession. For most of us, it is because we understand our children to be the future, and we want them to have and to build the best future possible. As Dr. Maria Montessori said, “The child is both a hope and a promise for mankind” (Education and Peace). Educating the future is no small task! In addition to wanting our children to understand the world around them, we must also teach them to be valuable participants in it.  The House on the Hill team at one of our training sessions (Photo taken pre-Covid) Dr. Maria Montessori and her work were both greatly impacted by the World Wars. In 1939 Dr. Montessori herself was barred from returning to Europe from India when World War II began, and she remained there for the duration of the war. The devastation of both wars affected her greatly and she saw education as the answer to preventing such hostility between people. She believed children must learn about the world–both its physical and political landscape– in order for peace to be a reality in their lifetimes. This took shape as the fifth subject of the Montessori curriculum: Cultural Studies. Today at House on the Hill, our children learn from Dr. Montessori’s curriculum as well as from one another. We are a diverse community where both teachers and students are engaged in daily cultural exchange, working towards a peaceful future. Dr. Montessori may never have imagined classrooms as diverse as ours when she first began her schools in Italy. Across our three campuses, we have children representing dozens of nationalities, languages and cultures. Our teachers and staff also hail from places within and beyond Singapore! We have an overarching ethos of practicing kindness and respect for each other. It is ingrained in our school culture, and colours and guides everything that we do, from who we welcome through our doors to how we treat each other. The House on the Hill team at our 2019 staff retreat (Photo taken pre-Covid) Passionate, dedicated and highly-qualified, our teachers and staff members are all hand-picked to ensure the very best possible experience for each child in our school. In a competitive landscape, we take pride in the strength of loyalty amongst our team as evident from a very low staff turnover at House on the Hill. As an employer, we provide not only a nurturing environment for our young students but also an exciting and supportive one for our teachers as well. From further studies to professional training and personal development, we encourage our staffing team to become the best they can be. At House on the Hill, our approach towards ensuring we have diverse and happy staffing is to recruit with an open heart and mind. We have teachers of many nationalities, ethnicities, backgrounds, genders, shapes and sizes! We believe that it is beneficial for students to see and learn about as many cultures and communities as possible and encourage our teachers to share their stories about their heritage from as early as possible. The world is made up of people from all kinds different backgrounds. Our children today are global citizens and it is vital that they are equipped with the foundational tools for navigating interpersonal relationships from a young age. We treat each other with kindness and respect as a given, both as models for our students and as good policy. Children learn from example! Our Hari Raya 2021 Celebrations This cascades down to our classrooms and how we interact with one another. Various aspects of Montessori education combine to teach skills that go beyond academics. Mixed-age, vertical learning teaches leadership and patience. Having just one of each material in the classroom teaches sharing and kindness. Individual pacing and instruction allow children to grow their curiosity and love learning. The care we expect for our classroom environment grows to be a care for the Earth’s environment. These are only the tip of the iceberg; every day our work is to help children grow into kind, responsible, and curious members of the world. Montessori philosophy advocates the use of natural materials, our toys are mostly made from sustainable timbers such as alder, beech and rubberwood and therefore neutrally coloured. This naturally encourages colour neutrality for the use of both genders. The focus instead is on imaginative play and refining their sensory perceptions with toys whose designs reflect years of thought, tradition and craftsmanship. To build critical thinking skills and creative independence, we create and weave in experiences that help with fostering a lifelong love of learning. Storytelling and reading assist not only with important literacy skills, but also with opening minds, encouraging a sense of adventure, and helping to imbue our children with a lasting sense of positivity to seize every moment of life. Our curriculum team use all resources possible to build our collection of books. The emphasis is on finding books that are in line with our ethos and values. They look for suggestions from libraries all over the world, consult the internet for anything new and interesting in the world of young children’s literature and constantly keep an eye out for stories that are fun, engaging and are able to help our children to discover, learn and grow. We take special care to incorporate cultural activities into our curriculum throughout the year, and are especially mindful to be

Everything (and we do mean everything) you Need to Know about Creating the Ideal Space for Learning in the Home

The HotH Team February 2021

“He has no need of adult influences to call out his activity, a tranquil environment suitable to the interests of his age and freedom to follow the promptings of his own inner need are sufficient for him. This child has true spontaneous activity: his development unfolds from within through his activity working purposefully on the objects in his environment” Dr. Maria Montessori, Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents Introduction to the Montessori Method The Montessori method was started in the early 1900s by Dr Maria Montessori. In those times, she saw the need for a system of education that understood the child’s development and world. Since then, her method of education has changed education around the world, and it is still trusted today as a method that nurtures each child, adapts to individual paces and needs, and inspires in children responsibility, independence, and the love of learning. An idea fundamental to Montessori philosophy is that the child has an innate desire to develop her/his human potential in all its dimensions. Equally intrinsic to Montessori philosophy is the belief that the young child has an “absorbent” mind. Maria Montessori believed that just as a baby learns to walk and talk spontaneously and without the direction of an adult, so is the child able to absorb and process all sorts of information from her environment, and in effect, to teach herself. Thus, Maria Montessori believed that the primary job of childhood is for the child to “create” her/himself. There are many benefits to the Montessori style of teaching. Every child is born unique and full of potential. Montessori practice gives them the gift of independence through structured freedom and by allowing to learn at their own pace. This in turn enables the child to learn and grow, unimpeded, encouraging discovery and development. We pride ourselves as a leading Montessori pre-school where each child’s creativity and talents are nurtured in a socially aware, stimulating and warm environment. But Montessori practice shouldn’t end when school ends – starting and continuing the Montessori approach at home is of great benefit to your child. Conditions for the Ideal Environment We believe that with the right conditions, the full potential of a child can be realised. In order to achieve this, we must create the ideal learning environment for them. It needs to be structured by careful preparation, to aid the child’s life and natural growth. At House on the Hill, all our classes are carefully and purposefully designed to help our children to develop well, based on Dr. Montessori’s learnings. This is the first environment. “The second environment the child encounters is that of the home. How perfect that will be depends entirely on how clearly the child’s needs are understood and how lovingly and unselfishly these needs are provided for. We must consider the needs of the child just as analytically as we would consider the needs of a plant we were about to grow. One could not expect a perfect plant to develop if the need of the plant for sunlight were ignored; or if the sunlight were provided and the need for water ignored; or, if both of these needs were remembered but the plant were forced to grow in poor soil.”¹ How do you create this ideal learning environment at home? If you think about what an ideal environment for you to work in is like, the same would apply for children. Peaceful, quiet surroundings enable concentration. A beautiful environment helps to motivate. A place that is orderly and tidy. Here are our top tips for creating the ideal environment! 1) Follow your child – Observe your child’s interest and development 2) Invest in open shelves and baskets – Create an organized and peaceful environment 3) Choose some of your child’s nicest toys – Do they inspire and nurture? Which ones sparks your child’s imagination? 4) Limit quantity of toys available for the child to select. 5) Natural Materials – try to use materials that are beautiful and delicate to the touch 6) A home for everything and everything in its place 7) Accessible space – giving children the opportunity to be independent in their own space. 8) Get support – don’t be afraid to ask for help! It could be from anyone at home who is actively participating in raising your child, other parents from the same school or from your child’s class teacher. Here are real life examples of how the right conditions can be beneficial from our parents: “After I reorganised his toy area to have more space and less toys, S started to return his toys to where he had originally taken them from. The other day, S started to not properly play with them. I explained how sad I was and how we had made an effort to make them organised and neat. Suddenly he returned them and started to play nicely. How amazing is that? I do not need to get angry or tell him the same thing many times.” “Although the number of toys and books are limited, he never gets bored! It’s an eye opening discovery for me. Before the workshop, I worried about the number of toys and books whether they are enough for my son. After selection of toys and books, Z seems to be more conscious about pack up, keep them in original location.” All Childhood Experiences Have an Impact on their Later Personalities Let’s dig a little deeper into this. “He learns everything without knowing he is learning it, and in doing so he passes little by little from the unconscious to the conscious, treading always in the paths of joy and love” Dr. Maria Montessori, the Absorbent Mind If there is one Montessori term that you should know, it’s the Absorbent Mind! The Absorbent Mind was Maria Montessori’s most in-depth work on her educational theory, based on decades of scientific observation of children. This book helped start a revolution in education. Since then, there have been both cognitive and neurological studies that have confirmed what Maria Montessori knew decades ago. Maria Montessori calls the child’s mind between the ages of birth to six, ”The Absorbent Mind”. In this period, the child possesses

Peek into our Nest: How our Infants ‘Work’ in the Nido

The HotH Team January 2021

Welcome into our Nido! Every day in our Nido children as young as two months are busy at work. Infants work harder than most adults! At this sensitive age, their primary purpose is to absorb the world around them. They watch, listen, taste, smell and touch everything within their reach (and once they start crawling, almost everything is within reach!). Dr. Maria Montessori described the absorbent mind of children; they are unconsciously taking in everything in their environment. It is a critical age for children, where we want to keep them safe but also give them the right amount and kinds of opportunities to help them develop. We began our Nido to provide just this kind of care. Leading Montessori Infant Care in Balmoral From birth to age 3, your child’s brain is developing more rapidly than at any other time. Book A Tour Infant Pink Tower We are the first in Singapore to provide true Montessori for infants. We believe that children should be in stimulating, educational, fun, nurturing and warm environments in their earliest months. They need more than just caretaking; they need exposure to language, activities that engage their senses, and the opportunity to move about (practicing those fine and gross motor skills!). Take a look around our Nido to see what we are doing, beyond the routine care, to make sure our little ones are happy and engaged. Careful Attention It seems like each day your baby is learning and demonstrating something new! Development at this age can be rapid, and also a bit confusing! There are many milestones that parents worry their child may not be hitting on time, or they might not know what to expect at all! That is where our expert teachers come in. They bring with them years of experience working with infants and together with our curriculum they help guide both baby and parents. Much of their work involves observation. We’ve written previously about how crucial observation is the Montessori classroom, and it is no different in the Nido! Teachers are always observing sensory, motor, social, emotional, language, and cognitive development. It is all about the details. Teachers observe a child’s response to different sounds, if they display a preference for soft or rough texture, if they roll a ball to their friend, if they transfer something from one hand to another, if they kick their legs, and if they sort objects by category. All of these observations occur over the long term, with no rush or pressure for a child to do something on a particular day. We understand that children develop as individuals, with individual schedules! Our work is to understand each child and their progress and provide them with the materials and experiences that will help them along. Intentional Activities An essential part of a baby’s day is their unique routine: when they sleep, when they eat! We are careful to observe each child’s schedules and needs, but throughout the day we also provide intentional activities that excite their interests and encourage sensory exploration. Every few weeks we introduce a new theme topic for our Nido children, for example “Feelings”, “My Face”, or “All About Me!” In those weeks children participate in music and movement associated with the theme. You may walk in to find an energetic rendition of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes or a somber verse of If You’re Sad and You Know It. The benefits of music in young children’s lives cannot be underestimated! Musical activities build connections between the children and their teachers, promote language development, support their spatial awareness and gross motor development (who can listen to music without dancing?), help them understand emotions, and let them experience beats, patterns and counting, just to name a few! There are also always sensorial activities to experience. In our Nido we like to get our hands messy when we make dough or play with cornstarch. We head outdoors to blow bubbles and to feel the textures of leaves and grass. We make funny faces as we smell new scents for the first time! Each of these activities is engaging and fun for our babies, but they also have developmental intentions. Dough play is good for strengthening grips and developing fine motor skills, and blowing and watching bubbles helps us track objects as they move around a space. Come visit us at the Nido to see it all in action!

An Education for Peace

The HotH Team November 2020

Dr. Maria Montessori and her work were both greatly impacted by the World Wars. In 1939 Dr. Montessori herself was barred from returning to Europe from India when World War II began, and she remained there for the duration of the war. The devastation of both wars affected her greatly and she saw education as the answer to preventing such hostility between people. She believed children must learn about the world–both its physical and political landscape– in order for peace to be a reality in their lifetimes. This took shape as the fifth subject of the Montessori curriculum: Cultural Studies. Today at House on the Hill our children learn from Dr. Montessori’s curriculum as well as from one another. We are a diverse community where both teachers and students are engaged in daily cultural exchange, working towards a peaceful future. The Culture Curriculum The cultural curriculum includes both political and physical geography. With interactive land and water form trays children learn the names and shapes of archipelagos, straights, peninsulas, isthmuses, and more. There are maps and globes that show physical land features as well as political demarcations. Children learn where in the world different countries are, flags of different nations, and even which animals are found in that part of the world. The cultural materials are always available to children to explore, and they are often a mere starting point for discussion with children about life in different parts of the world. Different land features impact people’s lives, for instance living on an island is different from living in the middle of a continent! Climate is also a part of the conversation and we talk about how life is affected in colder, wetter, drier, or hotter parts of the Earth. The Next Generation As Early Childhood educators, we are often asked about why we have chosen this profession. For most of us, it is because we understand our children to be the future, and we want them to have and to build the best future possible. As Dr. Montessori said, “The child is both a hope and a promise for mankind” (Education and Peace). Educating the future is no small task! In addition to wanting our children to understand the world around them, we must also teach them to be valuable participants in it. Various aspects of Montessori education combine to teach skills that go beyond academics. Mixed-age, vertical learning teaches leadership and patience. Having just one of each material in the classroom teaches sharing and kindness. Individual pacing and instruction allow children to grow their curiosity and love learning. The care we expect for our classroom environment grows to be a care for the Earth’s environment. These are only the tip of the iceberg; every day our work is to help children grow into kind, responsible, and curious members of the world. Our Community Dr. Montessori may never have imagined classrooms as diverse as ours when she first began her schools in Italy. Across our three campuses, we have children representing dozens of nationalities, languages and cultures. Our teachers and staff also hail from places within and beyond Singapore! We take special care to incorporate cultural activities throughout the year. Our Mandarin Lao Shi incorporate their various cultures into their teachings, giving our children first hand experience of not only the language but the myriad of traditions from China. For our Lunar New Year celebrations, they lead children in calligraphy, food preparation, and song and dance! Learning about Deepavali/Diwali in class Each year we celebrate different holidays from various traditions. For example, we’ve had Easter, Christmas, Deepavali and Halloween over the years. We read stories, play games, and do crafts that help children understand the festival and their friends who celebrate it. Dr. Montessori said, “Education is the best weapon for peace.” (Dr. Montessori, 1937 lecture in Copenhagen). At House on the Hill we are working each day to impart values and critical thinking skills to our children that will help them be socially conscious citizens who make Dr. Montessori’s dream of peace a reality.

Making Sense of Mathematics

The HotH Team September 2020

Dr. Maria Montessori believed in the holistic education of the child, and she created a curriculum that followed children’s natural development in five key areas: mathematics, sensorial, language, culture, and practical life. Mathematics and sensorial development are often discussed together because sensorial materials help develop a child’s mathematical mind. The mathematical mind is what makes Montessori’s method of teaching mathematics uniquely effective. Instead of expecting children to only memorize sequences or processes, we teach children to understand and appreciate the logic and beauty of mathematics through hands-on materials and exploration at their own pace. They learn numeration, geometry, arithmetic, and even algebra with a firmer foundational understanding of the concepts than if they had just memorized facts. What exactly is the mathematical mind? Dr. Montessori believed that all children have mathematical tendencies and can enjoy mathematical study and work. Children like order, exactness and orientation, and they are also capable of imaginative, abstract thought. Montessori materials incorporate these traits into their design, allowing the child to manipulate materials to create order and exactness, and to create a concrete basis for abstract thought. Mathematics begins long before children can count. Dr. Montessori knew that children learned best through sensory engagement, so she created a whole curriculum for sensorial development. Sensorial materials develop the mathematical mind by introducing children to concepts such as shape, size, dimension, sequence, order, precision, and even mathematical language. These materials include: The Pink Tower This classic material is made of 10 cubes. The smallest of which measures 1 cm cubed and the largest is 10 cm cubed. In this way children are exposed to the concept of base ten, which is also taught through Brown Stair. As children work with these base ten materials they can practice language such equal to, bigger than, and smaller than. Red Rods Children begin with the red rods, learning visual discrimination of length and how to order from smallest to greatest. The next step is the number rods, a mathematics material which are the same length as the red rods but with the element of quantity. Now children are adding degree to their understanding of order. Binomial Cube One of the most unique Montessori materials is the binomial cube. It is a box containing two cubes and six prisms of specific colors. The direct aim is to solve the puzzle and correctly put the blocks in the box, but children are indirectly learning the concept of (a + b)³, wherein each block represents a term in the algebraic expression. Children in Montessori primary schools will revisit this material when they begin algebra. At about age four children enter the sensitive period for numbers. It is no longer enough to know the relative length or amount of something, they want to know the exact measurement! All mathematical learning begins with the concrete before it moves to the abstract and progresses through natural stages. Children must learn to associate numbers with quantity before they can begin addition and subtraction! Children start to work with materials such as: Spindle Box After learning numbers using the sandpaper numbers, and quantity with the number rods, children will learn to combine these two concepts. The spindle box is one of the first introductions to matching quantity and symbol, or number. The spindles that they count represent the concrete quantity, while 0 – 9 painted on each box represent the abstract numbers. This material also introduces the concept of zero. After counting all the spindles and placing them correctly, there will be no more spindles for the box labeled “0”. This is a hands-on way for children to discover and understand the concept of zero on their own. This is quickly demonstrated in this video clip: Decimal System Children are introduced to units, tens, hundredths and thousandths with beautiful beaded materials. Units are represented by a single bead, tens by a bar of ten beads, hundredths by a square of one hundred beads, and thousandths by a cube of one thousand beads. This is a tangible way for children to learn about the decimal system. They will use these materials to physically represent abstract numbers and to do functions such as addition and subtraction. As children master concepts they will begin to introduce more abstract work–writing and doing paper calculations– and will at times move away from the materials and return when learning new concepts. Because of these materials children have a robust understanding of mathematics that will help them in all future studies.

Category: Montessori