When I attended a neighborhood party last night, I noticed a very loving, doting grandmother carrying her 2 1/2 year old granddaughter around on her hip, handfeeding her snacks. Busted…..I suddenly remembered carrying my petite younger daughter around on MY hip when she was still hovering around 18/24 months of age. My excuse? She wasn’t [...]
While searching for a particular book in my office, I stumbled across Daniel Pink’s book, “A Whole New Mind”. I had loved the book and also had enjoyed listening to Daniel give the keynote address at one of our annual AMI/USA Refresher Courses. As I flipped through pages, I realized THIS was where I had [...]
Someone recently told me that one way to keep our brains sharp is to read about subjects we know nothing about. I thought about that the other day as I was perusing magazines at Barnes & Noble. My eyes kept scanning the shelves until they landed on the perfect magazine: Chickens – which, of course, [...]
Do you remember the last time someone made a promise to you – and then broke it? How did that make you feel? Disappointed? Worried? Angry? Not good enough? And how did that broken promise affect your opinion of that person? Did you consider him no longer trustworthy? Would you think twice before making another [...]
It never ceases to amaze me how most children can learn an entire language – or two or more – before age six. I’m decades older and still trudging through Level 1 French using Rosetta Stone (a great program, by the way!). Oh, to have my Absorbent Mind again, so I could simply soak up [...]
Anyone who is involved with Montessori education knows it as a very child-centered approach. Truly “following the child”, preparing an environment that is not only supportive of developmental needs, but beautiful as well, and managing all the other “nuts and bolts” of directing a class can be truly exhausting at times. Yet, the Directress/Child relationship [...]