A point of arrival

Thinking back on most of the blog posts I realize that I've mainly looked at where the children are going and how they're going to get there. Kind of what I was thinking about when I named this blog "The Points of Departure" But the Montessori process isn't just about departing, it's also about arriving. However there is no 'final' arrival point for human being, but rather many. I didn't realize it during class, but looking back today I'm pretty amazed at where we've gotten.

C started out the year barely speaking, Today he spoke in so many full sentences that I wasn't able to count them. And so many of them happened without prompting. And were on topic with something going on in the classroom. In a way the other children could understand. It's not that he doesn't have any more language skills to build, but he's transformed so much that it's almost ridiculous.

O is finally starting to recognize when he's not moving consciously. He now immediatly responds when I remind him to 'walk carefully' or to 'sit down until you're in control of your body'. And he can do these things. This is the little boy who used to lean on a table so hard that it would slide 2 feet, and yet he wouldn't notice that he was basically falling over as his top half followed it and the bottom stayed behind.

M settled in to the Montessori routine like she was made for it. Choosing work and keeping herself engaged was no problem for her. What was a challenge was speaking up. Today she has no trouble letting her classmates know if she doesn't want them to touch her work, or remind them how to do something. She was the one who started the singing as I finished emptying the dish water and she sang the loudest today when we practiced "I've been working on the railroad".

C used to get more self contained when I gently asked her to find something to do without me. She'd usually go sit in the library, sucking her thumb. Today she happily gets up when I tell her that it's time to do something on her own. With a simple "Ok" she conf

idently sets off to work with another child or take something off the shelf.

W was the child who couldn't stand the idea of having to solve a problem on his own. In the beginning of the year he'd been reduced to tears when I told him that I needed to leave the coat room without him because all the other children were ready. Nowadys he's not thrilled about it, but he's comfortable having to try something on his own. When his zipper gets stuck he checks in with me (just in case I've changed my mind from all the previous days and will just do it for him!) then he'll go back by his hook and start over to see if he can fix it.

And S....well S was gone today but earlier this week she polished all the glass objects in the room. And I mean everything. The girl I needed to explain about how practice made perfect repeated the polishing activity so many times that I needed to restock the cotton balls and rein her in from polishing the food dishes since she was running out of material.

Of course I still have goals for them but I'm really happy with where they are right now too. I can't wait to welcome some new children to our class and have my 'old hands' show them the ropes!