Remember who it's for

I'm pretty bad at owning up to when I'm wrong about something. I've gotten better over the years, learned how to admit it out loud (the hardest part!). Though apologize to the kids in my classroom was easier. How could I expect them to own up to their mistakes if they never saw me do it?

But it took me 3 years to admit that I'd been lying to myself about the classroom blindfolds.

They just need to be a bit older to really get it, I thought as I watched my class of three year old struggle to velcro the straps behind their heads tight enough so it wouldn't slip all the way down to their mouths.

Next year, watching them confidently help classmates fasten on a blindfold....only to have it slip down off their nose. It's just all that slippery hair, if they put up above her ponytail....

Then that third year some of our blindfolds needed repairs so I borrowed a few from another teacher for a few weeks. These soft, flannel blindfolds, with their stretchy elastic bands kept mysteriously appearing on the top of the blindfold basket. I kept putting my original ones back on top, trying to keep the borrowed ones only as 'backups'.

To prevent wearing them out, I told myself.

Yet multiple times I watched the children dig through the basket to bring up a borrowed elastic headband.

It's because they're pink.

It took until the end of the school year for me to just give up and admit that I'd failed. The blindfolds I'd lovingly made, spent hours piecing together, just didn't work really well and the students knew it. They saw something better and they used it.

And finally, finally I reminded myself that these things were supposed to be for them. To use, to enjoy. Not for me to smile about and think how proud I was to have made this great tool for them. They were for the children's pleasure, not mine.

So the next time I had to make blindfolds? Well they've definitely got elastic. They're made of nice, soft, fuzzy fleece. But they're not pink. I still don't think that was the reason they were the favorite....was it?

Repair Box

"It was an accident!" the four year old had immediately blurted out when the crash of breaking glass subsided. He didn't quite have a look of terror on his face, but he was certainly concerned that he was in trouble. I told him that I knew (though inside I was thinking "How on earth am I going to replace that?!??!) and asked him to carefully take a step back so I could go and get the broom. I swept up the glass while he cleaned up the rest of the food prep activity. The rest of the class either kept working or wandered over for a quick peak then went about their business.

Mistakes happen, especially when you're learning something for the first time.

Things break all the time in the classroom or pieces go missing. As Montessori guides we always try to help children learn first how to be careful to try and avoid these things; and then when they inevitably happened anyways we show them how to pick up the pieces (thought not literally in the case of broken!).

Some kids get petrified when they break something. Others seem to not even notice. I'd rather they fall somewhere in between. In our classroom we have what we call the repair box. It's a plain plastic storage bin that's tucked into the cupboard by our resupply items so the children have full access.

Whenever a child breaks something, or finds something broken we encourage them to put it in the repair box if it's not an easy fix. We also use it for empty bottles of polish, glue, soap, etc; hence the location right next to our resupply area! Basically we explain to the children that the repair box is for something that needs the teacher's attention later.

Most times I know why/how something ends up in there. Usually the children tell me when something breaks, but sometimes random pieces of work show up in there and I wonder what happened. While it seems like this might end up being a "get out of jail free" card, I feel like the ability to take the pressure off those more sensitive kids is worth it.

With our repair box we're saying "It's ok, mistakes happen. Let's try to fix it."