By Jennifer Ashton, Primary Guide
When the children arrive in the morning, there are many things to tend to, and first is the tying of their shoes! In the classroom we have a Bow Tie Frame that the children can us to practice tying a bow, and this week we have two more children successful with this task! The exclamation of joy was heard across the room, “I DID IT!” We also have a lacing frame, which is usually introduced after the bow tie frame (about age 3 1/2 to 4) but I am observing 2 1/2 and 3 year olds working on it with extraordinary concentration! They have seen older children lace up shoes and they are watching me lace up their shoe over and over, (because oh, how fun it is to take the laces out of shoes!) The children love to do these things for themselves and they are learning to be careful and precise in their movements as they are refine their muscular coordination.
Once the shoes are tied, they are ready to begin their day. As I am often in the cubby area greeting children as they arrive, by the time I get into the classroom, activity is in full swing. Children are folding and laying the napkins and glasses on the community table, others are preparing food (so the classroom always smells delicious!) A group of children with untied shoes is sitting (or rolling around) on the center rug, waiting for help from me or an older friend, and another child is often sitting with a basket of clothes and washcloths to be folded from the previous days laundry.
There are a myriad of ways to look after the classroom throughout the day, such as sweeping up spills, dusting, watering plants, and polishing. The children take great interest in the tasks of daily life, which helps them connect to their classroom, slow down and settle their bodies, and develop concentration. Consequently, when I sit down to give them the lessons of reading, writing or math, they are ready to enjoy and receive it. Maria Montessori refers to this as education of movement. We give the children something to handle: trace an outline of a letter with their finger, hold a thousand cube in their hand, or manipulate a binomial puzzle. We are interacting with children in a way that is natural to them and they are learning at the same time!
These daily actions involve judgement and will, self-disciple and an appreciation of orderliness, all of which are growing in the children each day that we are together and reminds me of a song we often sing in the classroom, “the more we are together, together, together; the more we are together the happier we’ll be!”