Recognition Dinner

Around this time every year, we honour the work our Master year children have achieved during their time in the Primary program.  We do this with a special night out called the Recognition Dinner.

 From the time these children entered the school at three, we have watched them  move through the materials and lessons constructing themselves concept by concept.  This incredible self-construction is something none of us take for granted. Oh, we are there to offer lessons which connect the children to the classroom environment and then protect that connection, but the children really do all the work.  If you have been following this blog, you have probably gleaned just how much work that is.

A child in our Master year class is in the third year of the Primary program.  This is also the final year of the first plane of development. (Read more about Dr. Montessori's four planes of development here.)

 High Tea at the The Grand Hotel

Like most traditions at the school, the dinner has evolved over the years and a few guidelines have had to be imposed.  For example, only two adults may accompany the child.  As we've grown, so has the size of our Master year class.  It is almost impossible to find an appropriate dining room large enough to accommodate 40 to 60 people.

The dining room at Cuckoo's

We also ask that this be an evening just for the Master year child and that siblings do not attend.  We realize that this is not easy for some families but trust you will understand there are some very good reasons for this guideline. The Masters are the stars of the evening and the spot light should be on them.  In years past, we have had siblings dissolve in tears when the Master year presents were handed out. (Please don't tell.  The gifts are a surprise.) And there have been many other expressions of sibling emotion over the years which made this guideline necessary. In order for the evening to be truly about the Master children, only the Master children should be at the dinner.

Receiving a gift from his teacher

The Recognition dinner isn't a graduation ceremony.  There are no caps and gowns worn,  and no degrees or diplomas are handed out.  There are no speeches and the children do not have to get up on a stage and perform anything.  However, the skills that these children have mastered during the first 6 years of their lives cannot be overlooked nor should we take credit.  We can simply observe, recognize and celebrate as they move into the second phase of development.

Looking at a special gift with Mom and Dad

In The Absorbent Mind, Dr. Montessori wrote, " The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to age six.  For that is the time when man's intelligence itself, his greatest implement is being formed. " The Recognition Dinner is a gentle, respectful acknowledgement of the completion of that first  period.

Imaginary Countries

In Montessori classrooms all over the world,  one can find a stack of puzzle maps - a set of wooden maps, one for the world and one for each continent (except Antarctica).    Each continent map is divided into pieces for each country and the knobs are placed where each country’s capital is found. There are also maps to represent the children's own country in which the pieces are cut into provinces, counties, states, etc.

They often come in their own stand,

 

 

or can be found on a store-bought shelving unit – one map per shelf. 

  (Thanks to www.myhomeschoolstyle.com for the picture)

Puzzle maps are a favourite material in the classroom and on any given day one or more of the maps will be taken out and worked on by students.   Younger children work with the maps to learn the names of the continents or countries with a teacher (using the 3 period lesson).  Other children might be sorting out animals according to the continent on which they are found,  

 

and older children can be found making their own maps by tracing, colouring and labelling the countries on large pieces of paper. 

 In one classroom I've visited, the children like to stitch the hemisphere together and hang them from the ceiling. 

Like most Montessori materials the learning possibilities inherent in this material are endless.  Unfortunately, some of the pieces are very, very small and no matter how diligent the teacher, some of those little pieces go missing.

 

In training, Montessori teachers are taught to remove a material from the classroom if it is broken or incomplete, and not to returned it until repaired.  The reason for this becomes obvious when preparing to give a lesson to a child only to discover that something is missing from the activity. 

Unfortunately, removing larger materials, like a puzzle map, is easier said than done.  Individual replacement pieces can be purchased as long as the map itself is not an old one, and replacing an entire puzzle map when a piece goes missing can become very costly. Many of us make the decision to leave the maps on the shelf so that our students won't be held back from learning the names of all the other countries. That is why I found the following anecdote so funny.  

We are currently holding conferences with parents of our Primary (3-6 year old) children.We were discussing how many of the maps the child had learned when the mother said, "My daughter came home and told me that she will soon be learning the names of the imaginary countries."  

She was referring, of course, to the little holes left by all those missing puzzle pieces. Time to buy some new maps, I think. :)

Just For Fun....and a reminder?

KEEP CALM

AND

FOLLOW

THE CHILD

Thoughts and Prayers

 On behalf of the staff, parents and children of Discover Montessori School and Oceanside Montessori School, I send our sincerest thoughts and prayers to the families affected by the tragedy at Shady Hook Elementary School.

Reflections on the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and that Big Guy in the Red Suit…….

     Before I began my Montessori training and the boys were very small, I perpetuated the Santa Claus myth with a vengeance.  On Christmas morning there was a big, muddy footprint on the floor in front of the fireplace and on the mantle was a letter from the jolly old elf himself.  The cookies and carrots so carefully left out on Christmas Eve had disappeared and there were two new Elf-made  presents under the tree addressed to each boy in shaky North Pole hand writing.  Needless to say, the boys were staunch believers.  

     The lies always bothered me – a little.  How could I justify telling such fibs to my children when my husband and I expected them to be honest and truthful.   In our own  feeble defence, Santa was never used as a threat and the boys never received coal in their stockings.  However,  somewhere in my not-so-subconscious I knew that our investment in the myth was larger than the boys.

     Then the lecture about Dr. Montessori's views on fantasy and imagination came along in my training, and I had to swallow a big lump of sooty guilt.  I knew we'd probably made a mistake and that, at some point, the lie would come back to thump me on the head. I was right.

     A few years along, my younger son lost a tooth and the "Tooth Fairy" forgot to place a coin under his pillow.  Luckily, the boy didn't check under his pillow immediately and the Tooth Fairy thought she had enough time to slip the coin under it while he was in the washroom.  This act of parental deception was witnessed, unfortunately,  by his older brother.

      A few minutes after returning to my bedroom, the older boy walked in with a thoughtful expression on his face.

     "Mom?", he asked.  "Are you the tooth fairy?"

     I looked at the almost-9-year old boy and said, "Of course I am!  I thought you knew that."

     There was a long pause and then he threw himself onto the bed, wailing, "Now I suppose you're going to tell me that you are Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, too!!"  He was heart broken – not so much because the characters weren't real but that we'd lied.  His trust in us was broken and restoring it took some work.

                    

                                                 *              *                *                *

     I’m writing this with the hope that other parents might learn from my mistake.  Santa Claus is a big part of this country’s culture whether one adheres to the religious aspects of Christmas or not.   It is especially important that at this time of year we remember our children look to us to help them sort out the world around them.       

     As Montessori families most of us strive to offer the “real” world to our children.  We buy them real, child-sized tools, trust them to help with the household chores, and set up our homes to include the children in every room.  It behooves us to think very carefully about how we present our cultural myths to our children because at some point, we will be asked if there really is a Santa Claus. 

     I don’t have a definitive answer.  When talking to friends and colleagues, I found there are many different ways of handling the Santa Claus question.  Some people tell their children that they don’t know “but it is fun to pretend.”  Others tell their children that ”some people believe in Santa” and let their children fill in the blanks.  Still other parents turn the question around and ask “What do you think?’ as a way of opening up a discussion giving the child the opportunity to work out their own answer.

     Whatever you decide to say when the time comes (and it will) it is good to be prepared.  The Christmas Holidays are busy enough times without being blindsided by the Santa question.