Parents Information

Are you familiar with these Montessorian graduates?

• Sergey Brin & Larry Page, Founders of Google
• Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (deceased), editor, former first lady (John F. Kennedy)
• Sean 'P.Diddy' (formerly known as Puffy) Combs, RAP mega-star
• Anne Frank, famous diarist from World War II
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Prize winner for Literature
• Jeff Bezos, financial analyst, founder, AMAZON.COM
• Prince William and Prince Harry, English royal family
• T. Berry Brazelton, noted pediatrician and author
• Julia Child, famous chef, star of many TV cooking shows and author of numerous cookbooks
• Kami Cotler, actress (youngest child on long-running series The Waltons)
• Melissa and Sarah Gilbert, actors

• Stephen J. Cannell, TV writer-producer-director (The Rockford Files and many others)
• Patty Duke Austin, actress
• Cher Bono, singer-actress
• John Bradshaw, psychologist and author
• Yul Brynner (dec.), actor
• Marcy Carcy, TV producer
• Bill & Hillary Clinton, former president/senator, NY
• Michael Douglas, actor
• Shari Lewis (dec.), puppeteer
• Yo Yo Ma, cellist

• Alexander Graham Bell (dec.), noted inventor, and his wife Mabel founded the Montessori Education Assocation in 1913. They also provided financial support directly to Dr. Montessori and helped establish the first Montessori class in Canada and one of the first in the United States.
• Mister Rogers, children's TV personality, strong supporter of Montessori education
• Thomas Edison, noted scientist and inventor, helped found a Montessori school
• President Wilson's daughter trained as a Montessori teacher. There was a Montessori classroom in the basement of the White House during Wilson's presidency
• Jean Piaget (dec.), noted Swiss psychologist, made his first observations of children in a Montessori school. He was also head of the Swiss Montessori Society for many years.

• Read about Montessori education and philosophy and how it applies to your child.
• Take the time to stand back and observe your child carefully and note the characteristics he/she is displaying.
• Make sure your child gets sufficient sleep.
• Make both going to bed and getting up a calm and pleasant ritual.
• Have a special shelf where your child's books are kept and replaced after careful use.
• Read together daily. With younger children stick to books with realistic themes.
• See that your child gets to school on time.
• Allow sufficient time for your child to dress himself/herself.
• Allow your child to collaborate with food preparation and encourage your Extended Day child to take at least some responsibility for preparing his or her own lunch.
• If possible allow your child a plot of land or at least a flower pot in which to experience growing things.
• Take walks together at the child's pace, pausing to notice things and talk about them.
• Help your child be in a calm and prepared mood to begin school rather than over-stimulated and carrying toys or food.
• From the earliest age give your child the responsibility to pick up after himself/herself, i.e., return toys to place, put dirty clothes in laundry basket, clear dishes to appropriate place, clean off sink after use, etc. Assign regular household tasks that need to be done to maintain the household to your child as age appropriate. (Perhaps setting silverware and napkins on the table, sorting, recycling, dusting, watering plants, etc.)
• Arrange time for both parents to attend parent-teacher conferences. Speak together in preparation for the conference and write down questions to ask.
• When talking to your child, physically get on his/her level, be still, and make eye contact.
• Sing! Voice quality does not matter. Sing together regularly. Build a repertoire of family favorites.
• Refrain from over-structuring your child's time with formal classes and activities. Leave time to "just be," to play, explore, create.
• Teach your child safety precautions. (Deal with matches, plugs, chemicals, stairs, the street, who to call in an emergency, etc.)
• Teach your child his/her address, phone number, and parents' names.
• Count. Utilize natural opportunities that arise.
• Tell and re-tell family based stories. For example, "On the day you were born..."
• Look at family pictures together. Help your child be aware of his/her extended family, names, and relationships.
• Construct your child's biography, the story of his/her life. A notebook is ideal so that it can be added to each year. Sharing one's story can become a much loved ritual. It can be shared with the child's class at birthday time.
• Assist your child to be aware of his/her feelings, to have vocabulary for emotions and be able to express them.
• Play games together. Through much repetition children learn to take turns, to win and lose.
• Together, do things to help others. For example, take food to an invalid neighbor, contribute blankets to a homeless shelter, give toys to those who have none, etc.
• Refrain from giving your child too much "stuff." If there is already too much, give some away or store and rotate.
• Put up a bird feeder. Let your child have responsibility for filling it. Together learn to be good watchers and learn about the birds you see.
• Whenever you go somewhere with your child, prepare him/her for what is going to happen and what will be expected of him/her at the store, restaurant, doctor's office, etc.
• Express appreciation to your child and others and help your child to do the same. Send thank you notes for gifts. Young children can dictate or send a picture. Older children can write their own. What is key is learning the importance of expressing appreciation.
• When food shopping, talk to your child about what you see -- from kumquats to lobsters. Talk about where food items come from. Talk about the people who help us by growing, picking, transporting, and displaying food.
• Provide your child with appropriate sized furniture: his/her own table and chair to work at; perhaps a rocker in the living room to be with you; a bed that can easily be made by a child; a stool for climbing up to sink or counter.
• While driving, point things out and discuss -- construction work, interesting buildings, vehicles, bridges, animals.
• Teach the language of courtesy. Don't let your child interrupt. Teach how to wait after saying, "Excuse me, please."
• Analyze any annoying behavior of your child and teach from the positive. For example: door slamming -- teach how to close a door; running in the house -- teach how to walk; runny nose -- teach how to use a tissue.
• Help your child to have positive connections with people of diverse ethnicities, language, and beliefs.
• Laugh a lot. Play with words. Tell jokes. Help your child to develop a sense of humor.
• Share your profession or occupation with your child. Have him/her visit at work and have some appreciation of work done in the world.
• See that your child learns to swim -- the younger the better.
• Have a globe or atlas in the house, and whenever names of places come up locate them with the child.
• Make sure your child has the tools he/she needs -- child size broom, mop, dust pan, whisk broom, duster, etc., to help maintain the cleanliness of the household.
• Arrange environments and options so that you end up saying yes more than no.
• Alert children to upcoming events so they can mentally prepare, e.g., "In ten minutes, it will be time for bed."
• Help children to maintain a calendar, becoming familiar with days and months, or counting down to special events. Talk about it regularly.
• Get a pet and guide your child to take responsibility for its care.
• Refrain from replacing everything that gets broken. Help children to learn the value of money, and, the consequences of actions.
• Take a nighttime walk -- listen to sounds, observe the moon, smell the air.
• Take a rain walk. Wear coats and boots to be protected, but then fully enjoy the rain.
• If you must travel without your child, leave notes behind for him/her to open each day you are gone.
• Expose your child to all sorts of music.
• Talk about art, visit statue gardens, and make short visits to museums and look at a couple of pictures. Make it meaningful and enjoyable. Don't overdue.
• Help them become aware of sounds in words. Play games: what starts with "mmmm?" "What ends with 't'?"
• Aid the child in absorbing a sense of beauty: expose him/her to flowers, woods, and natural materials, and avoid plastic.
• Talk about the colors (don't forget shades), textures, and shapes you see around you.
• Provide art materials, paper, appropriate aprons, and mats to define the work space. Provide tools for cleaning up.
• Refrain from doing for a child what he/she can do for himself/herself.
• Provide opportunities for physical activity -- running, hopping, skipping, climbing. Teach them how. Go to a playground if necessary.
• Teach children how to be still and make "silence." Do it together. Children love to be in a meditative space if given the opportunity.
• Read the notes that are sent home from school.
• Alert the teacher to anything that may be affecting your child -- lack of sleep, exposure to a fight, moving, relative visiting in home, parent out of town, etc.
• Provide a place to just dig. Allow your child to get totally dirty sometimes without inhibitions.
• Refrain from offering material rewards or even excessive praise. Let the experience of accomplishment be its own reward.
• Don't speak for your child to others. Give the space for the child to speak for himself/herself, and if he/she doesn't it's okay.
• Apologize to your child when you've made a mistake.
• Play ball together: moms and dads, boys and girls.
• Tell them what you value in them. Let them hear you express what you value in others.
• Always tell the truth.
• Go to the beach and play in the sand.
• Ride the bus; take a train -- at least once.
• Watch a sunrise. Watch a sunset.
• Share appropriate "news" from the newspaper: new dinosaur was discovered; a baby elephant born at the zoo; a child honored for bravery; the weather forecast.
• Let your child help you wash the car and learn the vocabulary of the parts of the car.
• Talk about right, left, straight, turn, north, south, east, west, in a natural way so your child develops a sense of direction and the means to talk about it.
• Place a small pitcher of water or juice on a low refrigerator shelf and a glass in a low place so your child can be independent in getting a drink.
• Enjoy life together!