May 6, 2021 • 57 mins
This episode about Marvin Reyes and sustainability
Such a fun conversation today with Marvin of Vincerola nurseries & preschools in Cologne, Germany. We were planning to interview some of the children but with 4 and 5 year olds whose native language isn't English, well, you'll have to listen to hear how that went. Keeping it real.
Then I got to ask Marvin all about their sustainability projects in their Montessori school. We talked about building bee hotels, nature visits and how they are making children conscious of how much trash they make in a week. Listen to the episode for more!
Links from the show
- The Montessori Baby - register to join our free virtual book tour events
- The Montessori Baby - the book including preorder details for those ordering by 10 May
- 10 ways we can show respect to our child
- Alfie Kohn, Unconditional Parenting
- Alfie Kohn, 5 reasons to stop saying good job
- Vincerola - website / YouTube
- The Earth Project with Montessori Everywhere
Listener question
Today's listener question is from Eve-Marie:
"Hi Simone, thank you so much for all the resources you have put into the world. I listen to the podcast regularly and read the Montessori Toddler while on maternity leave. My 2.5 year old son attends a lovely AMI Montessori School full time here in Canada, and my husband and I try our best to follow the Montessori method at home, although we were both raised in a very different way. His teachers report that our little guy is easy and affable at school, but at home he has lately started to push up on limits very strongly. Although I understand this is exactly what he should be doing, I often don't know what to do after I feel like I appropriately responded to his behavior and he persists in it.
For an example: the first nice warm day of Spring on our commute home from school (I was walking and pulling him in his wagon as usual) we saw another family eating ice cream cones. He started asking for ice cream, repeating the request more and more urgently. I pulled the wagon off the side walk, crouched down to his level to look him in the eye. I calmly explained that I understood that he wanted ice cream, ice cream was delicious and I wished we could have some too. But today we were not going to have ice cream. I couldn't buy him ice cream today (this was true, I hadn't brought my wallet), which was hard, because I understood the he wanted some very much. Today was not the day to have ice cream. Today was that family's turn to eat ice cream and it would be our tun to have ice cream on a different day. Today we were going to the park!. I felt like we had connected and he understood, but as soon as we started walking again he resumed yelling and repeating his demand for ice cream. What to do in this instance? Ignoring him didn't feel very respectful, but I was at a loss how else to move on and ended up diverting him with the slide when we arrived at the playground.
This is an example of something that is happening a lot. I feel like I am communicating that I understand his wishes, explain the limit, and validate his feelings towards the limit. But then when he continues to test that limit (which I understand) what is the best way to respond?"
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Simone Davies (00:11):
Hi, everyone, Simone here and welcome back to
the podcast. I hope you're alldoing really well. Today I'm
going to be sharing aconversation with Marvin Reyes.
He's the director of its role innurseries and preschools in
Cologne. And he's originallyfrom Nicaragua. And his family
moved to the US when he wasabout 11. And he went to London
to study and he's been inGermany for the last 12 years.
(00:33):
So I first heard Marvin speak ata Montessori conference in
London a couple of years ago.
And he was talking aboutsustainability practices in
their nurseries and preschools.
And I found it super inspiring.
And I've recently been workingwith him on the earth project
with Montessori everywhere. Andso I'm delighted that he agreed
to talk to us about some of thefront projects that they've been
doing. But we'll get to thatconversation soon. But first, I
(00:55):
wanted to talk to you aboutshowing respect to our children.
Because I think it's definitelyone of the first things that I
noticed when I first visited aMontessori classroom almost 20
years ago. I mean, if you'veheard me describe that visit
before, you'll know that I wasso surprised by how respectful
the teacher was not just to us,but also to all of the children.
And showing respect to ourchildren, I really think is one
(01:18):
of the most powerful ways thatwe can teach our children how to
respect themselves, how torespect us, and how to respect
other people and theenvironment. And we're modeling
it, and they're picking that upevery day. So I made a list of
10 ways that we can show themrespect. So I'd start with
number one being soft hands, theway we handle them. And like
(01:39):
particularly when they're young,we're changing their diaper,
we're helping them get dressed,we're lifting them up into a car
seat, we're like handling allthem all the time. And when we
use gentle hands, we're treatingthem with an enormous amount of
dignity, a word that Gabrielleused in last week's
conversation, and an enormousamount of respect. So we can
definitely start with softhands, then number two would be
(02:01):
Listen, and really stop andlisten to their words, their
expressions, their face, theirhands, they're giving us a lot
of information. So you'relistening with your ears and
your eyes, I like to say, ofcourse, it's not possible all
the time. But as much aspossible, stop what we're doing,
get to their height, and reallylisten. And even though that
sounds like it can take moretime, it can again save more
(02:23):
time, because they're likelygoing to have feel more heard
and seen. And then they won'tneed to nag you for your
attention. Number three then isusing kind words. And even Yes,
when we're setting a limit,because a lot of us didn't grow
up with great examples ofsetting limits in a kind and
clear way. So I talk about it alot in my book, The Montessori
toddler, because it's likelearning a new language from any
(02:46):
of us, using less commands lessdemands and not dismissing their
feelings. So let's try and usekind words, even when we need to
say I can't let you hit me, or Ican't let you do that.
Number four, I would say isavoid baby talk. The way that we
speak to children can often bequite patronizing. So instead, I
(03:09):
want to show them respect bytalking to them in a respectful
way. I like to tell them whatI'm about to do, if I'm new to
handle them, or where we'regoing, we try to give them time
to respond. And we use lots ofrich vocabulary. And I feel like
that's a really respectful thingto do, because instead of saying
there's a wolf Wolf, we actuallysay there's a dog or if we know
(03:29):
the name of the dog, oh, there'sa Labrador, there's a West
Highland terrier. And I'm stillusing a singsong tone with
babies and young toddlers. Butit's not in a way that talks
down to them. Number five, Ilike to let them know what we
appreciate. So usually when wesay like good job, or Good girl,
good boy, it doesn't give them alot of information. And it can
(03:50):
kind of be patronizing. Andwe've talked before, I'm sure
about it being extrinsicmotivation, instead of building
the intrinsic motivation. And weshow them we respect them when
we instead tell them what weappreciate or what they
mastered, like, Oh, you put allthe blocks back in the basket
ready for the next person. It'sit's like giving them feedback
instead of that empty praise.
Number six, allowed time well,as much as possible, but time
(04:13):
for movement, time forconversation time to walk at
their own pace. And these areall ways that we show respect
like for this speed, whatthey're interested in and their
work, the things that they'rebusy with rather than early ever
looking from our perspective,and what needs to be done and
rushing them through their days.
And then I would say numberseven, include them in daily
(04:35):
life. Like we want to inMontessori, let them contribute,
let them help take part infamily conversations and to make
age appropriate choices. They'renot going to decide which
country we're going to live in,but they can decide which color
shirt they might want to wearthat day. And they want to feel
like part of the family.
Everyone then is like workingtogether rather than only being
about the kids or only about usor even everyone for themselves.
(04:58):
So that's a really beautiful wayto show respect. Number eight is
finding ways to work with them,rather than threatening them,
bribing them or punishing them.
So I don't know if you've readany of Africans work. But in
unconditional parenting, forexample, he describes it as
instead of doing something to achild that's like the
(05:19):
threatening bribing or punishingthem, we're actually finding
ways to work with them. So it'sinstead like saying, Can you
help me carry this heavy boxinside, rather than if you do
come inside right now I'll youknow, and we start threatening
them in some different way.
Number nine, look them in theeye and accept them for who they
are. And I always say like,isn't that what we all wish for
like that we can be acceptedtotally for who we are. for
(05:41):
ourselves, we don't have toapologize for our uniqueness,
but like actually beingembraced. So our role as parents
and educators and carers is toguide and support them, we might
even teach them some new skills,but it's not our job to change
who they are. And then the lastone is number 10. Let them show
us how capable they are. Becauseif we set things up for them to
(06:03):
have success, and we providelots of hands on learning
opportunities that they canmaster by themselves, then they
can have those moments to havethat feeling like I did it. And
that's going to give them somuch confidence. And it's such a
respectful way to be withchildren. But I will give you a
bonus one as well. And that isto be a model of honesty to our
children. So what I mean is whenwe tell them the truth, and we
(06:27):
don't tell any white lies,they're going to also learn to
be honest with us and to trustus too. And I think that's
really, really respectful. Itcan also mean apologizing when
we get it wrong. And instead ofblaming someone else, you know,
I got it wrong. And we've saidbefore, like, what I should have
done is or what I should havesaid is this, and we're modeling
apologizing as well. So I'm notsaying that this means that the
(06:51):
child is allowed to do whateverthey want, and that the adults
not in charge, we woulddefinitely set a limit when we
need to, we're not going to bepassive, but we're not going to
be aggressive. Either we'regoing to we're going to be
respectfully assertive,something like you know, I'm not
going to let you keep eating me,I'm going to put you down, I'm,
I'm going to calm down. Or Ican't let you hurt your friend,
(07:11):
I'm going to sit here in betweenyou. Or it might be that files
can break, I'm going to put itup here and we can find somebody
else to bang. So you'redescribing and being very kind
and clear without threateningand punishing and those kind of
things. So I hope that that's ahelpful reminder, I'll link to a
blog post where you can printthese out to remind yourselves,
particularly maybe on those dayswhen we're feeling a little less
(07:34):
patient. And now it's time formy conversation with Marvin, we
were initially planning tointerview him with some of the
children from the school. Andthe children are around four or
five years old and not nativeEnglish speakers. So well, just
for fun. We'll let you see howthat went first, and then we'll
move on to the conversation withMarvin. So keeping it real,
folks. And I'll be back after myconversation with Robin to
(07:56):
answer another listenerquestion.
Hi, everyone. I'm Simone. Niceto meet you all. Hello, where
are you joining us from?
Unknown (08:12):
Where do you live in Deutschland, which means
Germany in English now.
Simone Davies (08:19):
And just to introduce you to everyone on the
podcast. We are speaking todaywith Marvin and some students
from Vince arola who are inDeutschland are in Germany. And
yes, they are in Cologne. Sowe're going to have a chat today
about some of the things thatyou do at your Montessori
School. Do you speak German andEnglish? You can you can tell
see more?
Unknown (08:40):
Yeah,
Simone Davies (08:42):
German and English. I'm impressed. And
we're very interested inlearning more about your school
because it's a very specialschool that does some very
interesting projects aboutlooking after the earth. And so
we're going to talk about someof the recycling projects that
you do and a new project thatyou did as well called trash
detectives, so maybe we couldstart there and you could tell
us a little bit about how thatproject started. And Marvin you
(09:05):
could translate if you like ifthey prefer to talk in German
that's no problem at all. So howdid it all start? How did you
just become trash detectives
Unknown (09:13):
where you guys trash to?
Remove the heat you're morefamiliar with the German word
which is move that like thepassport in the middle
alright Boston means I graftingin German passport it was
(09:38):
pointed but happier string tobaptism by experience.
You confessingsomething, it's something quite
special came came our way aswell. And this is something that
they want. They were lookingforward to, to show you. Oh,
yes. The end of the day. Theydid something for some kind of
facility. For the Christmasparty, is it okay if I hold the
(10:01):
camera? So you guys be sure?
Yeah. Is that okay for you seemy
Simone Davies (10:06):
That sounds good.
Let's go on to it. And I will beprivate for the people who are
listening on audio.
Unknown (10:11):
All right, we are in the dragons and raccoons group
and the dragons and raccoonswill show you some of the things
that you guys grafted Now, shallwe? Alright, then.
Simone Davies (10:25):
Okay, so we're going on a tour now marvins
picked up the computer, you cansee out the windows into the
garden. Ah, here's somethinghere on the table that's very
big. Look at all of this, it'simpulses that are made out of
some cardboard, and you'reslipping it over your head. And
between the two pieces ofcardboard and over your arms go
(10:45):
to pieces of string to hold thehorse on, and then you've even
got rains. And this is all frommaterials that were found in
your classroom. Look at that.
It's got a tail with some wallhanging down, and the legs are
hanging off for a long cardboardtubes. He comes to slay which is
red painted red and black withagain, cardboard on either side
and strings holding it on. Andthese were all used in the
(11:07):
Christmas by they're walkingaround the classroom,
Unknown (11:10):
what they're doing now what they did in the play was
about snakes and years, andthey're just performing badly.
Simone Davies (11:23):
Thank you very much for showing us look at
those. Not to get them off. Youhave to step out of them. There
we go.
Unknown (11:31):
Thank you for showing us.
Simone Davies (11:33):
I actually heard that you have a very special
supplies shelf called Marlin2.0, where you collect all of
your materials.
Unknown (11:41):
But Marvis 2.0 it's right there. Look at that.
Simone Davies (11:45):
So would you like to tell everybody on the podcast
what Marlin 2.0 is, it's aspecial shelf with boxes and
things in it. You guys.
Unknown (11:57):
I think Seymour doesn't know what we do here in this
corner and what we can find inthat cabinet.
Simone Davies (12:03):
Yeah, so the opening the cupboard doors and
lifting off at the very top,there's a long red rolling pin.
This is
Unknown (12:11):
basically a cabinet that was developed to to put all
of the recycled stuff in. We'verealized at one point that is it
can be quite messy when it comesto the creativity corner. So we
made this covenant to put all ofthose messy things in it that
way, the room will stay a bitmore tidy and organized for the
(12:33):
children to find everything theyneed. As you can see, they know
where everything is they findtools, they'll find materials in
it. The teachers are entitled toreveal the cabinet every week,
Simone Davies (12:45):
he found some glue, and there's more Brussels,
Unknown (12:47):
actually empty glue sticks. Like I said everything
that we don't use anymore. Wejust don't throw it away, we
recycle. And we put itsomewhere.
Simone Davies (13:01):
So the idea is to have definitely an upcycling
project and they're starting tolearn about consumption. We're
asking them
Unknown (13:07):
now if they want to continue talking to you or they
want to go outside.
Simone Davies (13:13):
What would you like to do? Would you like to
keep talking? Or would you liketo go outside? That's, that's
okay, too. You're welcome to andmaybe Marvin can answer some
questions. It's been very lovelyto get your creativity going.
So Marvin, tell us about thistrash detectives project that
(13:37):
the children came up with andwhat the results have been from
it.
Unknown (13:40):
Well, a little bit of a background about us is that we
we like to recycle and upcycleand it's actually one of those
things that has been implementedwithin within our curriculum. So
that means that the teachers areentitled to collect things from
the kitchen, from the packagingfrom all the things that we
(14:01):
normally would throw away, wewould just disinfect them and
get them ready for the children.
Okay, this is something that wedo as as adults. But last year
in October, they did thechildren, the ones that are
five, five and a half already,they were quite curious about
where all of these things arecoming from. And so one child
(14:23):
passed by the kitchen they willthey will keep on passing by the
kitchen and they were realizingthat the kitchen was was always
collecting these tetra packstogether because for the tetra
packs is something that we haveto take care of. We have to
clean them we have to disinfectthem otherwise the milk you know
(14:44):
it can get really stinkysometimes. And they kept looking
at that and they kept cominginto the classroom asking why is
the kitchen have the all thetetra packs, why don't we get
them it was because Theyweren't, they weren't, they
weren't. Somehow they weregiving me the feeling that they
were trying to understand. We dohave the tetra packs here. But
(15:05):
for some reason the kitchen hasall of them there. So anyways,
it started there, by them beingaware where, where these things
were coming from. So we said,okay, let's do something, then
let's collect all of the thingsI'll get you guys involved and
the things that we're doing inthe background. It you guys
(15:26):
involved in it, so that you guyssee how much we produce, how
much how much we consume. And soit all started, we talked to
them about it, and we thought wehad some kind of a
brainstorming. And we told themthat we were going to think
collect trash for two weeks andsee how much trash we collect.
(15:47):
So we started like that everyday, at any time, the children
were just going up and down hereand they're collecting the
things that they thought was wastrash, talking to the people
responsible talking to thekitchen, talking to Toby as who
is responsible for the for allthe packages, talking to burn,
who is responsible for cookingwith the children. And yeah,
(16:11):
talking to all of these people,they were then getting all of
these products, or these thingsthat we would normally throw
away, we use the special room toput all of this material in it.
In at the end of the two weeks,we had a mountain of trash. It
was it was incredible. For me itwas it was also quite, quite
(16:33):
impressive to see to see howmuch trash we produce. And of
course, this was only the trashthat we thought could be reused.
Because there was also a lot oftrash that we can't really reuse
not to just fall with or thingslike that. Um, but yeah, after
the two weeks, we're done, thenwe sat down, we made some kind
(16:54):
of a huge circle around the allthe trash. And we talked about
it. We talked about it forabout, I don't know, a long
time. And directly, they juststarted saying, look, we can do
this with that. And we can dothis with that. And we can do a
boat with this. And we can do arobot with this. And we can do
(17:16):
that. I'm giving me the feelingthat they were already in
finding solutions, finding ideasof what to do with all this
material. In the end, we decidedto do what is it? What is it
that the teachers were doing inthe background and told them
(17:36):
look, now we have to solve it,we have to classify them, we
have to put all the cardboardtogether we have to put all the
tetra packs together, givingthem also this sense of order
in, in organization. So that'swhat we did. Together with all
this was a group of eight, ninechildren. And together with them
(17:58):
then we took all the cardboardand we share that into all the
classrooms. And we took all thedata packs and we shared it into
all the graphs and theclassrooms. And we took
everything else is just justshare that with all the
classrooms. That way, then atthe end of the day, they were
very much aware where all thesewere coming from. And they knew
(18:19):
what was what was happening inthe background.
It was it was it was quitetouchy for me to see that
because it was it was it wassomething that we haven't done
up until now. And I think it'ssomething that we will do as as
(18:42):
as a regular project because sofar the teachers we were quite
we are quite conscious about itwe get special trainings for
this and we weren't quiteconscious about it it collecting
things disinfecting them andmaking them available for the
children. But where these thingscome from the children weren't
(19:03):
really aware of in and now ifyou ask them a is Trash Trash I
asked him at the end of theproject is Trash Trash should
new in a way that What are youtalking about? Trash is not
trash?
Simone Davies (19:20):
Yeah, it's making the invisible visible for them
by involving them in theprocess. There were more
Unknown (19:25):
children involved in the project. And we also made a
video while we were doing theproject so we were able to
document it in a more graphicway. And so do you think it's
good to have trash? That'swhen it's going to trash? To me
(19:48):
Do you have any ideas of what todo with all this trash? Oh come
on.
Out Where are these things here?
What are these? Do you think isa lot of trash? Or a little bit?
A lot of trash now? Yeah. And doyou think is good too.
Simone Davies (20:13):
And you also spoke about how sometimes you go
to the waste and storage, youknow, plant to actually see what
happens with the storage or togo to a recycling plant.
Because, again, you put thethings in the recycling, but you
don't ever see and close thepicture of what actually happens
to the recycling. So do you wantto talk about some of those
visits that you've done with thechildren?
Unknown (20:31):
Yeah, these are these are visits that are that are
scheduled within our year plan.
We've been doing a couple ofprojects since since a while
already, and we have been ableto implement a lot of these
visits visits within our dailyroutine. One of the visits that
we one of the field trips, Iwould say we do is to the sewage
(20:51):
treatment plant, which isreally, really nearby. I think
it's about 30 minutes by bus.
And we just go there, to do whatto do something very special to
know exactly what's happening tothe water that we dispose all of
(21:12):
the the water that's in thetoilet, the water the runs down
the sink, the water that wenormally throw away, is water
that is being collected at onepoint is water that has to be
treated at one point so that wecan reuse again, water is one of
those things that is very muchimportant. And we sometimes just
(21:34):
take it for granted. And for uswas quite special for children
to know the actions andreactions of things. If we get
the water dirty, then somebodyhas to put a lot of effort into
cleaning. So in this field trip,there is a special sewage
treatment plant that has aspecial program for children.
(21:57):
Where they do where they doexperiment, one of the
experiment is getting a big bowland they throw all kinds of
things in that bowl until thewire was super, super dirty. And
then they go through theythey've got some they got a mini
little tank with bacteria there.
And then they wonder thechildren can see how this, how
(22:17):
this dirty water is beingprocessed up until it's clean.
And then it goes back into theriver in having this knowledge,
I think is quite important forchildren. Yeah, just to make
them aware of what are theactions and reactions of things.
Another field trip that we do isto the recycling plant, the
(22:38):
recycling plant, it's it's alsoanother special thing because
they also have a special programfor children where they allow us
to go in and see what happens toall of the recycled cardboard or
paper. And now we know that theymake a newspaper out of them.
And if you ask one of thesechildren, they will probably
(23:00):
tell you that Yeah, seitan likethey call it in German is being
made out of it. Or they willtell you that out of the foods,
the wasted food, we makefertilizer, all of these things
that they make out of therecycle stuff, we are able to
see it a life and children arequite impressed to know where
(23:22):
all of these things end up. AndI think it's important for them
if we if we says we recycle alot. Let me show you real quick.
For example, this, we've got anempty classroom, we've got
recycled recycling beans. It wasa plastic paper and the rest.
(23:44):
Yeah. And we put a lot of effortinto recycling everything. But
of course it is it is alsoimportant for children to know
where all of these things endup.
Simone Davies (23:58):
Oh, definitely and be aware of the cycle. And
we should also say that thechildren in your school or go up
to five or six years old. Sothere's a younger children,
they're not the six to 12 yearolds, they're really young
children who are learning aboutthe impact on the environment
and taking it in with theabsorbent mind very naturally.
Because if you start actuallythe young ages, sometimes we
wait till they're six to 12 tohave these conversations and
(24:20):
you're starting they're muchyounger.
Unknown (24:22):
Exactly. And we also don't don't set a strong focus
into wording such as we don'tfocus on on saying now we're
gonna be doing sustainability.
Now we're going to be saving theplanet or anything like that. We
just do things to make itnormal. By by just doing we
think that they're absorbing allof these things, and they're
(24:44):
absorbing the positive thingsout of them. So it might be that
if you ask a child, what do youknow about sustainability?
They'll probably won't be ableto tell you in words what that
is, but they'll probably be ableto show you what it is. They do
with all of these recyclingupcycling and water and how many
tissues you use to dry yourhands and so on. So on. So
(25:06):
they're pretty much absorbingeverything like when they sit
with their absorbent mind.
Simone Davies (25:13):
Yeah, that's beautiful. And actually, I also
loved how you use the papertowels to make you add flour and
some salt. Is it to make thingsthat you can use it for pepper
pepper mash a and as a creativetool? Yeah.
Unknown (25:27):
Yeah, actually, in a after that big project we had, I
don't know, maybe threekilograms of recycled paper
towels. With it something super,super huge. We had to we had to
dry it up quite nicely, becauseit was really big. It was a big
sun. But yeah, we just Magellanjust create things that are,
(25:48):
once you have adult, you can dowhatever, whatever they can
imagine. And sometimes you justdon't know what's going to come
out of their minds, but becausethey just love to create.
Simone Davies (25:58):
Yeah. And so do you have to sanitize the paper
towel before you make it intothis kind of paper mache?
Anything?
Unknown (26:05):
Yet we boil it? Ah, okay. Yeah, directly with that.
Just kill all the germs. Andthat was one of the questions
that parents kept asking, whatabout hygiene? Paper towels? The
first thing we tell them? Ofcourse, these are just paper
towels, where we dry our hands.
No, no, not paper towels, ornothing like that are just for
(26:26):
drying hands. But still, we willbe one of the most important
things of this process of makingthe paper machine out of this
paper towels is to is to put hotwater in it. But if you put hot
water, you don't reallydisinfect it. So you have to
boil it. We have a big part,where do we just put all the
(26:46):
paper towel and boiler for like,five minutes. And that's it. And
then we let you let it cooldown. And then you put it into a
mixer. You may you may get somekind of make you make a dough
out of it. Very important is toput salt in it. Because it's
gonna prevent it from moving.
Simone Davies (27:09):
Yes. Okay. Same with playdough. Yeah, okay, if
you make your own playdough.
Unknown (27:13):
Yeah.
Simone Davies (27:14):
And the children I you know, do they help in that
process, at least collecting thetowels and things like that, or
is that again, something morethat the adults will do behind
the scenes?
Unknown (27:24):
It depends. Some children, if they have an idea,
they'll know where the papertowel is in the bathroom in
groups has a paper towel. Andsometimes they will just go in
get it most of the times issomething that we do in the
background as well. But that'ssomething that we're now in the
process of finding the best wayto get the children involved in
(27:47):
this process. Now, after thisproject, we become it became
really, we became reallyconscious that the children want
to be involved in these projectsin these processes. So yeah,
that's what we're gonna find outnow, the best way to cope with
the hygiene aspect. Becausealso, if if they go directly
(28:10):
into the bathroom and get thepaper towels directly, then they
haven't been sanitized yet.
Yeah, exactly. So that that'sone of the main reasons why most
of these things were being donein the background so far. And
then being offered to thechildren once everything was
sanitized and disinfected, andso on. But yeah, we're still
brainstorming. And we believethat this is not something
(28:33):
that's going to end right now.
We believe that it's, it's, it'sa process, it's going to be a
long process.
Simone Davies (28:42):
And you've been doing these programs and
initiatives for quite a longtime since you opened.
Unknown (28:47):
No, we've been doing this since 2012. Okay. And it
all started also with a childand tadpoles. Okay. I'm not sure
if you know about this story,but the story made short. One
day in 2012, a child came upwith a bucket full of tadpoles
(29:10):
and he said I've got thistadpoles because my neighbor's
gonna throw them away. What Whatdo you mean throw them away? So
yeah, and, and I thought beforethey throw them away, I wanted
to show it to my friends. Isthat okay? Of course that's
okay. So, um, yeah, we had thetadpoles in the classroom a
(29:31):
couple of weeks. And then werealized that they started to
develop and in the game, backlegs and they started becoming
mini frogs. And it got to apoint where they were too big
for this bucket where we hadthem. And so we did a
brainstorming of ideas with thechildren about what to do with
(29:52):
that post. When idea came up,off, and it was to build upon
for that pause. So we build thatpond. And then another child
said, but what if it jumps outof the pond? There is nothing
around it. There's just carsaround it, by the way, we are in
the middle of the city and is,yeah, you're so analogize it,
(30:15):
but if we do a garden, thenmaybe they can jump into the
flowers. So that would be okaynow. So after that we also did a
guided around the pond. And justlike that one thing led to the
other and now we're just doingeverything we can to to
implement projects concerningsustainability, recycling,
(30:38):
upcycling, social. And, ofcourse, by recycling, you also
have to look at the aspect ofmoney saving at one point, and
so on. So, yeah, it's, it's beena process.
Simone Davies (30:55):
Yeah, definitely.
And there's the whole idea ofreducing the consumption to
start with, isn't there? So it'snever ending? And we have to
keep refining. And I think we'reimproving, but we need to
improve faster.
Unknown (31:06):
Yeah, yeah, I definitely think so.
Simone Davies (31:09):
Yeah, um, I also love that in Montessori, we get
the children involved in youknow, the cooking and the whole
process of those kind of things.
Do you actually have a vegetablegarden there where the children
can get things from the gardento cook in the kitchen?
Unknown (31:23):
Yeah. Normally, what grows here quite nicely are
potatoes. So there are a lot ofpotatoes out there, Patrick as
well. And carrots, they growquite nicely. And I can tell you
this, because we've tried a lotof vegetables. We tried to plant
a lot of little things in thatspot where we have the garden is
(31:43):
quite hot, have chataway. Sothat was also something that we
learned along the way thatchildren also learn, okay,
plants grow better when they areunder the sun, and so on. And so
at one point, we realized thatthose three, four things that
are growing quite nicely arethose things that we continue
(32:06):
and growing. Because after acouple of years, we just
realized that those are thingsthat grow the most. Yes, and
they are things organic. Wedon't put any fertilizers or
anything. And when those whenthose things are ready. You'll
be surprised how tasty they are.
Simone Davies (32:24):
Yeah, home grown with love from the children is
extra tasty.
Unknown (32:29):
Yes, yes.
Simone Davies (32:31):
And they have like a children. Like you said
that one of your teachers cookswith the children every day.
Unknown (32:37):
Yes, I was actually burned just left today today
with the banana pancakes. Ofcourse, no, no vegetables are
growing right now. So weimprovise into cooking and doing
other activities that have to dowith preparing your own food as
well. We focus also quite a loton cooking regional and
(33:00):
seasonal. So so we don't get forexample, avocados that come from
Peru or things that come fromfar away. And we try to consume
the things that are grownlocally. The we have a supplier
that supplies us with local foodin where smaller small
kindergarden. So still okay.
Yeah, it first is also quiteimportant to focus on that
(33:25):
aspect of, of sustainability.
Simone Davies (33:31):
We have a lot of parents who are listening to the
podcast and they struggleprobably just having one child
to get involved with cooking.
And so you're managing with manychildren and setting the table
and sitting to have a cozy mealtogether. Do you want to talk
through what that looks like ina Montessori classroom for those
who can't really picture 30children or sitting down
together to have a meal that youknow, who are under six years
old?
Unknown (33:53):
Or love to show you that this way? Yeah, well, I
think I think that that if youlook at it as a as a process, as
a process would would, would bethe best thing. The children
here are encouraged to deal withsharp knives and with a with
(34:17):
normal plates, not plasticplates, rather normal ceramic
plates, and glasses and thingslike that. And they are being
exposed to the world. They'rebeing encouraged to use this
materials from the beginning on.
So they're quite familiar withit. So a child knows a three and
a half four year old child knowsexactly where the danger of a
(34:39):
sharp knife is. And they knowexactly how to hold it properly
so they don't get cut. Like Isaid, this is this is this is a
process and I at the beginningof course we were with each one
of the children doing individuallessons on how to use Knife
properly, how to cut properly,and they get a lot of support at
(35:03):
the beginning. In the end, thechild is able to do it all
along. But yeah, it can be, itcan be quite complicated if the
child hasn't been exposed tothese dangers. So my advice to
you, mothers, fathers teachersout there listening is do it
(35:23):
with your child, no danger inthat just do it with him and
explain to him where the dangersare. That way the child will be
conscious about.
Simone Davies (35:37):
Yeah, and I love seeing children set the table,
you know, for their friends, andthen they sit together. And I
think it's part of being incommunity as well that the
children don't get up and runaround, they learn. And there's
a mixed age group as well in ourMontessori classrooms so that
the older ones are modeling howwe sit at the table and how we
eat at the table. And then maybethe newer child is the one who
(35:58):
maybe needs to be brought backoccasionally, do you find that
sometimes as well.
Unknown (36:03):
Maybe if it's a child who has just started, was really
who's still learning the rules.
But everybody else knows that ifwe start eating lunch at 12,
then they come back from, fromoutside, wash their hands,
everybody knows that they shouldwash their hands. Everybody
knows that they should only getone paper towel to dry their
(36:25):
hands, then everybody sits down,they grab their own cups and put
their cups next to their friendsor to whomever they want to sit
down with. And they know that ifif, if the lunches are up until
1230, then the teacher will ringa bell and they know that they
will just stay seated talking totheir peers next to them. But we
(36:47):
rarely have children that arestanding up and down, going back
and forth, perhaps has a lot todo with the role modeling that
we do in the Montessori setting,that we as a teacher sit down
with the children. For us, it'squite important that children
know that if we are encouragingthem to do something that we
should do as well, because weare the role models. And if the
(37:10):
child sees that we are sittingdown that we are eating properly
with a fork of knives, they willthey will more likely do what we
are doing is what they callperhaps you can call it
gregorious tendency or perhaps.
Yeah, just the role modeling?
Simone Davies (37:28):
No, definitely.
And I think a lot of nurseriesand places don't actually sit
down and eat with the children.
So they're not seeing that it'sactually a time when you can
communicate and haveconversation and that you're
modeling all of the grace andcourtesies about Oh, can you
pass me the water so that I canpull myself a glass of water and
there's so much they can learnthrough meal process? It's not
just to have the child fed,there's actually so much that
(37:49):
they're learning in that time.
Unknown (37:50):
Yeah, another important aspect of that would also be a
that, for us, it's importantthat the children serve
themselves. First important thatthe child knows and gets to know
himself and to see, okay, howhungry am I now? How much food
will will I put on my plate. Andthey will know that the amount
(38:12):
of food they'll put on theirplate is the amount of food that
they'll eat. Otherwise, youmight run into the problem that
if the teacher would serve thefood to the child and probably
fill up their plate, andprobably the child will only eat
a quarter of that food and thenthe rest is going to have to be
thrown away. And now we'rerecycled back to sustainability
(38:32):
on that as well that we don'tthrow any any food away. So
that's why it's important thatchildren just serve themselves
to see how much they want toeat, and then serve themselves
again. Of course developing finemotor skills in dependency
skills. The same with the water,how much water do I need?
Somebody else needs water hereis the job for you. And so so
(38:56):
it's every table, the tables areset up like this. This is one of
the tables.
Simone Davies (39:01):
That is four tables that are together and
some chairs around it. Andagain, yeah, that's eight
children sitting together.
Unknown (39:08):
Yeah. And then there's always one adult in each table.
Yeah.
Simone Davies (39:15):
Thank you. I think that'd be really helpful.
And I also I read that you havea beam Meadow that the children
can visit as well withbeekeepers and things like this.
Unknown (39:24):
Yeah, that is that's a that's a long life project. We
want our competition where wewere granted a piece of land in
the nearby area in thecompetition was one because the
project is about bees while beespreservation. So what we do
there with the children isrecreate bee hotels.
Simone Davies (39:51):
Sounds sweet, but I know
Unknown (39:53):
Yeah, yeah, it's just amazing. We have walls of the
hotels is great. Because alsothe children get to see the
lifecycle of a bee. And theyalso see that one day, maybe the
whole of that little pipe isopen, and the next day is closed
already, because there isalready an egg in it. I'm not
(40:16):
sure if you know the lifecycleof a bee. But
Simone Davies (40:19):
we want to hear the whole lifecycle tell us?
Unknown (40:22):
Well, normally a B hotel are lots of little, let's
say little pipes, they can beYeah, it can be. Normally we do
them out of bamboo sticks, whichare quite hollow. And we Yeah,
we we make no different sizes ofI think many, many of the
(40:48):
listeners have seen a be therebefore. So it's, yeah, it can be
in different sizes, differentthings. Bottom line is that a, b
would go into the bamboo Hallwill lay the egg in it, and then
would seal it with some kind ofa clay that they make. Okay, and
(41:10):
then, and then they, they layanother egg in it, and then they
seal it again until the pipe isclosed. At one point when the
when the egg is ready, then theegg is just just hatches and
starts eating that. That sort ofcradle. It starts making its way
(41:33):
out. And and that is also quiteinteresting for the children to
see. Okay, yesterday, there wasa hole in it that the bamboo was
hollow, and today is closed. Andin one week. It's already open
the beaconing out already. It'sIt's a beautiful process to see.
(41:54):
Yeah. And sometimes we findthese on flowers as well. Yeah,
Simone Davies (41:59):
you are helping the bee population, definitely,
I'm sure. And these children, Ilike to call them Junior
explorers. And you have someprograms where you have nature
days, and they take the thingsthat they've made like their
boats to the river. Do you wantto tell us a little bit about
some of those nature days andwhere you get to? Because if
you're in the middle of thecity, how do you get there?
Unknown (42:18):
Yeah. Yeah, this is also something that has been
implemented within the dailyroutine and the year schedule.
So twice a month, and we go tothe forest. And luckily, we're
quite lucky because the forestis more or less nearby. It's
around about 15 kilometers fromhere, we can take the public
(42:39):
transportation is around aboutseven stations, do we get them?
So we will walk to the trainstation, get on train, get off
on the forest and walk, justexplore the forest. And
sometimes we do differentactivities, such as collecting
leaves, collecting data, things,the seasonal things, or we will
(43:04):
just experiment. And many times,I'm sure you heard Maximilian
saying that he built the boat.
Yes. So he already asked me whenwe're going to go to the river
and throw the boat in it. Yeah,so I gotta hurry up and see if I
can organize something likethat. Right now we Corona, it's
a bit more complicated becausenow we're not allowed to get on
(43:27):
to public transportations withchildren. So we have to use our
own fan, we're on transportwhere we can only transport six
children at a time. Instead ofnow instead of doing it twice a
month, we're doing it once amonth, because just because we
have to go back and forth manytimes and do it in, in in, in
(43:50):
three days, actually, ratherthan in one day. But yeah,
forests visit to the forests arequite important to us. Luckily,
there is a little creek at theforest where we just let the
boats go.
Simone Davies (44:07):
It sounds like they getting such a rich
education that's very holisticand all those things as well.
And I read as well that from oneof these forest visits, they
came up with the idea of a superRobo, something that would
collect trash. Yeah. andseparate the rubbish out.
Unknown (44:23):
Yes, yes. Actually, this project was done in
Auckland in one of our othersettings. Okay, this roller has
three different settings in wehave implemented this, all of
these sustainability aspects inwithin our curriculum. And the
children in this urban settinghad the idea of Yeah, of
(44:46):
building a robot that will justclean the streets for them. I
thought it was really full,because the robot is quite huge
and they wanted it to be big.
They said because the streetsare big right? Huh. So they
built something yet a big robotthey call they even called
somebody, somebody would helpthem to weld everything. So a
(45:08):
professional, that will alsohelp him in this setting in his
clothes to do an engineer, afactory. So they also call some
engineers to come and help himbuild the robot. It was a it was
a whole process. And this, thisproject also won a state prize.
(45:31):
They won the first prize wasquite nice. The children were
super proud.
Simone Davies (45:39):
Yeah, I'm sure I mean, and I love that it's not
just a one day project, theyhave a lot of research that they
need to do they get help, whichis also like going out of the
classroom into the community to,you know, get advice from
people. And so they're learningOh, if we don't know how to do
something, we go and find out.
And that's what we love, youknow, showing our Montessori
children.
Unknown (45:59):
Yeah,
Simone Davies (46:01):
I also found it really fun to have a look at
some of the themes that you havein your classrooms during the
year. And like you start theschool year, with the theme
that's like, I'm in school, nowwe're a class, and you spend a
couple of months I guess,getting to know each other in
the community. Would you like totalk to that?
Unknown (46:19):
Yeah, we have a reception class program. And
this is a, this has now beendone as a as a separate group.
Very important is, especiallynow in Corona, we started
implementing technology, andwe're using a couple of
applications to help us withthat. And for us was quite
(46:40):
important for German at thebeginning of the reception class
to know where they are and whatthey are in terms of what
classroom and what kind ofpreparation they're going to be
getting in this classroom beforethey go to school.
Okay.
Right now, they normally pickdifferent projects throughout
the year. And right now they'redoing horses projects, I would
(47:03):
love to go out and show you somesome murals that they they just
did last week, and it waslearning all about the horses.
And the teacher is quitecreative there as well, because
then she tries to implementmathematic aspects and literacy
aspects of pretty much you canyou can implement everything in
(47:26):
within this project now. Yeah,of course, sometimes parents are
concerned. For example, yeah,horse project, but it's not
really doesn't have anything todo with literacy or mathematics.
Right? My child learning and themathematics, I mean, aren't any
numbers then. So. So we have to,we have to explain parents
(47:48):
quite, quite carefully, quite alot about what is it that the
child is getting from theseprojects, that most of the
times, it's not just aboutlearning about literacy or
mathematics, but also aboutsocial skills, social emotional
skills in getting to know yourenvironment? No.
Simone Davies (48:08):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I love that about theinterdisciplinary nature of
subjects, you know, it's veryhard to isolate maths from the
rest of the world, you know, youcan be counting the number of
legs of a horse, or how fast ormeasuring the length and there's
many opportunities that arebuilt into a topic area. And
then there's language around it,there's always vocabulary in the
parts of the horse. And, youknow, anyway, there's so many
(48:30):
opportunities for learning. Soit's fun to educate parents
along the way. And so that theyunderstand what the children are
benefiting from that process.
And we found
Unknown (48:42):
our also a nice tool was called seesaw where we have
included the parents in thisproject, because of the same
reason that sometimes they get abit lost on what is my child
learning. So we have grantedthem access to this to this
application, we would do theproject here in the kindergarden
and we upload it onto this ontothis application or platform,
(49:06):
and parents are able to seedirectly from home, what is it
that the children are doing? Andsometimes children will also
take some kind of a homework athome, not from our side, rather
from their side saying, well, Iwant to I want to do this at
home. And so they will justcontinue what they were doing in
the kindergarten and they willjust continue doing it at home.
And automatically parents areinvolved in it. So involving
(49:30):
parents is quite important forus as well. And education has to
be teamwork thing.
Simone Davies (49:37):
Definitely. I mean, I think it's so important.
And we're realizing more andmore in COVID times how much the
parents also need to be onboard. And hopefully they're
also including many of thesesustainability ideas in their
own homes as well. So as we comeinto the end, is there anything
else that you'd like to talkabout any of the other projects
have been Sorolla or some of theother things that you do? Are we
(50:01):
covered most things,
Marvin (50:02):
there are. Yeah, I will say there are a lot of things
that we're still doing. But oneof the most important things
that I think everybody shouldtake home is that aspects of
sustainability can beimplemented in the delivered in.
And we have been getting lotsand lots of benefits from it.
(50:23):
And the gentlemen have gotten toa point where they do see those
things as normal. And the amountof creativity and imagination
that children would get by beingexposed to all of these abstract
material, I would say, It'sincredible. You can see that if
a child sees a tetra pack or apiece of cardboard, you can
(50:48):
almost see how their brain isgoing around into finding ideas
and solutions, or are ways touse this thing into and convert
it into something different. SoI can only say that aspects of
sustainability can beimplemented in the daily
routine, and is working outquite well for us.
Simone Davies (51:10):
Yeah, and the children's creativity is also
being sparked from a verysimple, natural process. So
that's beautiful. Marvin, wereally appreciate your time.
Thank you so much for joiningus. And I know that you want to
get back to the children and getout to the river and float those
boats. So thank you again.
Unknown (51:27):
Thank you. Thank you.
Simone Davies (51:42):
So sustainability can also be a lot of fun, right?
I'll definitely put links toMarvel's website and to some of
the videos showing some of theprojects in the show notes so
that you can check them out. Andnow it's time for our listening
question. And today's questionis from Yves Marie. It's a long
one but I'm going to read it allout as it's something I kind of
get asked a lot about thesekinds of situations. So it says
(52:05):
I two and a half year old sonattends a lovely ami Montessori
school full time here in Canadaand my husband and I try our
best to follow the Montessorimethod our home although we were
both raised in a very differentway. His teachers report that
our little guy is easy andaffable at school. But at home
he has lately started to push upon limits very strongly.
Although I understand this isexactly what he should be doing.
(52:25):
I often don't know what to doafter I feel like I
appropriately responded to hisbehavior and he persists into,
for example, the first nice warmday of spring on our commute
home from school. I was walkingand pulling him in his wagon as
usual. We saw another familyeating ice cream cones. He
started asking me for ice creamrepeating the request more and
more urgently, I pulled thewagon off the sidewalk crouched
down to his level and look himin the eye. I calmly explained
(52:47):
that I understood that he wantedIce cream Ice cream was
delicious. And I wished we couldhave some to but today we
weren't going to have ice cream.
I couldn't buy him ice creamtoday. This was true. I hadn't
bought my wallet, which washard, because I understood that
he wanted some very much todaywas not the date have ice cream
today was that families turnedeat ice cream. And it would be
our turn to have ice cream on adifferent day. Today we were
going to the park. I felt likewe'd connected and we understood
(53:10):
but as soon as we startedwalking again, he resumed
yelling and repeating his demandfor ice cream. So what to do in
this instance, ignoring himdidn't feel very respectful. But
I was at a loss how else to moveon and ended up diverting him
with the slide when we arrivedat the playground. This is an
example of something that ishappening a lot. I feel like I'm
communicating that I understandhis wishes explain the limit and
validate his feelings toward thelimit. But then when he
(53:32):
continues to test that limit,which I understand what's the
best way to respond? So everythanks for your question. I
think that how you responded tohis disappointment was
appropriate. You know, youdidn't deny his feelings or
moralize about how we don't getto eat ice cream every day or
give a big lecture. It was quitea long explanation. But it
depends on the child. Okay. Andit sounds like you were trying
(53:54):
to see his perspective, and hestill wasn't happy about it. So
the only other thing is maybeI've talked before about having
a notebook. So if it's somethingthat you'd be happy to do
another day, you could alsowrite it down. So you remember
to come back for ice cream, andyou can cross it off once it's
done. And the reason we do thisis like it just feels super
important when you write it downon a piece of paper. So they can
(54:14):
feel really acknowledged. Andthen also when we cross it out,
they're learning that we meanwhat we say. Then afterwards,
the only thing I'd say is thatI'm also okay. When they're sad
about it still, you know, we area safe place for them to let out
their big feelings. And ifthere's time and space, I'd find
some way to sit and ask if hewants to be held or not. And sit
with him as he feel sad. I mean,we aren't giving into him, we're
(54:37):
just simply saying we're a safespace, even when you feel sad or
angry or disappointed. Andrather than distracting him as
much as possible. I'd let him toget it all out. Because
otherwise what often happens islike the next thing happens, and
there'll be in tears over that.
And then the next little thingwill make them you know, get
upset again. So I'd rather letthem get it all out of their
(54:58):
system and where they're at Theyhelp the processor with a total
of, for example, you often likehear them, like laid out this
big sigh, and then you'll knowthey're pretty much calm again.
But if you have to be somewhereit as much as possible, keep
moving forward and keepacknowledging their feelings.
It's not always practical tostop everything. So we're doing
our best to manage like bothgetting where we need to go and
(55:21):
our child's feelings at the sametime. And then they are going to
be some of those days, when wego to have had enough ourselves
after five or 10 minutes like,and then we also need to be
aware of our own limits.
Otherwise, if we go past them,we'll end up getting angry and
snapping. And then it's betterto say like, usually I've got
patients, but today, it's nearlyall gone. We're going to keep
going to the playground, and Ihope you feel better soon. And
if within most of the time onthese occasions, we're gonna
(55:44):
have to know that we're doingthe best we can. And our child's
gonna know that too. So it'sokay when I get sad. In fact, I
think it's when we show up inthese moments that they learned
that we love them at their bestand at their worst. So it Marie,
I hope that helps. And I justwanted to remind you all that
it's just a few days left untilthe Montessori baby book
(56:05):
officially launches on the 11thof May. So I hope you'll be able
to join us at one of our bookevents and I'll put a link to
that in the show notes. And ifyou're hearing this on before
the 10th of may Don't forget youcan upload your order details
and received some beautifuldigital bonuses. And because
they digital, you can beanywhere in the world to receive
them. It's being organized bythe publisher. So just to warn
(56:26):
you if you miss it up is up asthey say in Dutch, which
translates roughly to like goneis gone. But basically like just
to let you know there's a strictcut off. It's just a pre orders
who've submitted the detailsbefore the 10th of May. And if
you do miss out, just rememberyou still get to get the book,
which I hope will bring you lotsof comfort and peace and
Montessori wisdom for applyingMontessori with babies. And
(56:50):
that's it for today. Thank youso much for joining me lovely to
chat with you all and I'll beback next week with another
episode of The Montessorinotebook podcast. Bye, everyone.
Thanks for joining me for theMontessori notebook podcast. The
podcast was edited by Luke Daviefrom Filmprov media and
odcast are by here, mine. Toind out more about me and my
(57:12):
nline courses visit theontessori notebook.com. Follow
e on Instagram at theontessori notebook for pick up
copy of my book The Montessorioddler for its new pre call the
ontessori baby from your localookstore. Amazon are where
ooks are sold. They're alsovailable as ebooks, audiobooks
nd have been translated intover 20 languages. I'll be back
(57:33):
n a week with more Montessorinspiration. And in the
eantime, perhaps she'll join men spreading some more peace and
ositivity around the world.
Hi, everyone, Simone here and welcome back to
the podcast. I hope you're alldoing really well. Today I'm
going to be sharing aconversation with Marvin Reyes.
He's the director of its role innurseries and preschools in
Cologne. And he's originallyfrom Nicaragua. And his family
moved to the US when he wasabout 11. And he went to London
to study and he's been inGermany for the last 12 years.
(00:33):
So I first heard Marvin speak ata Montessori conference in
London a couple of years ago.
And he was talking aboutsustainability practices in
their nurseries and preschools.
And I found it super inspiring.
And I've recently been workingwith him on the earth project
with Montessori everywhere. Andso I'm delighted that he agreed
to talk to us about some of thefront projects that they've been
doing. But we'll get to thatconversation soon. But first, I
(00:55):
wanted to talk to you aboutshowing respect to our children.
Because I think it's definitelyone of the first things that I
noticed when I first visited aMontessori classroom almost 20
years ago. I mean, if you'veheard me describe that visit
before, you'll know that I wasso surprised by how respectful
the teacher was not just to us,but also to all of the children.
And showing respect to ourchildren, I really think is one
(01:18):
of the most powerful ways thatwe can teach our children how to
respect themselves, how torespect us, and how to respect
other people and theenvironment. And we're modeling
it, and they're picking that upevery day. So I made a list of
10 ways that we can show themrespect. So I'd start with
number one being soft hands, theway we handle them. And like
(01:39):
particularly when they're young,we're changing their diaper,
we're helping them get dressed,we're lifting them up into a car
seat, we're like handling allthem all the time. And when we
use gentle hands, we're treatingthem with an enormous amount of
dignity, a word that Gabrielleused in last week's
conversation, and an enormousamount of respect. So we can
definitely start with softhands, then number two would be
(02:01):
Listen, and really stop andlisten to their words, their
expressions, their face, theirhands, they're giving us a lot
of information. So you'relistening with your ears and
your eyes, I like to say, ofcourse, it's not possible all
the time. But as much aspossible, stop what we're doing,
get to their height, and reallylisten. And even though that
sounds like it can take moretime, it can again save more
(02:23):
time, because they're likelygoing to have feel more heard
and seen. And then they won'tneed to nag you for your
attention. Number three then isusing kind words. And even Yes,
when we're setting a limit,because a lot of us didn't grow
up with great examples ofsetting limits in a kind and
clear way. So I talk about it alot in my book, The Montessori
toddler, because it's likelearning a new language from any
(02:46):
of us, using less commands lessdemands and not dismissing their
feelings. So let's try and usekind words, even when we need to
say I can't let you hit me, or Ican't let you do that.
Number four, I would say isavoid baby talk. The way that we
speak to children can often bequite patronizing. So instead, I
(03:09):
want to show them respect bytalking to them in a respectful
way. I like to tell them whatI'm about to do, if I'm new to
handle them, or where we'regoing, we try to give them time
to respond. And we use lots ofrich vocabulary. And I feel like
that's a really respectful thingto do, because instead of saying
there's a wolf Wolf, we actuallysay there's a dog or if we know
(03:29):
the name of the dog, oh, there'sa Labrador, there's a West
Highland terrier. And I'm stillusing a singsong tone with
babies and young toddlers. Butit's not in a way that talks
down to them. Number five, Ilike to let them know what we
appreciate. So usually when wesay like good job, or Good girl,
good boy, it doesn't give them alot of information. And it can
(03:50):
kind of be patronizing. Andwe've talked before, I'm sure
about it being extrinsicmotivation, instead of building
the intrinsic motivation. And weshow them we respect them when
we instead tell them what weappreciate or what they
mastered, like, Oh, you put allthe blocks back in the basket
ready for the next person. It'sit's like giving them feedback
instead of that empty praise.
Number six, allowed time well,as much as possible, but time
(04:13):
for movement, time forconversation time to walk at
their own pace. And these areall ways that we show respect
like for this speed, whatthey're interested in and their
work, the things that they'rebusy with rather than early ever
looking from our perspective,and what needs to be done and
rushing them through their days.
And then I would say numberseven, include them in daily
(04:35):
life. Like we want to inMontessori, let them contribute,
let them help take part infamily conversations and to make
age appropriate choices. They'renot going to decide which
country we're going to live in,but they can decide which color
shirt they might want to wearthat day. And they want to feel
like part of the family.
Everyone then is like workingtogether rather than only being
about the kids or only about usor even everyone for themselves.
(04:58):
So that's a really beautiful wayto show respect. Number eight is
finding ways to work with them,rather than threatening them,
bribing them or punishing them.
So I don't know if you've readany of Africans work. But in
unconditional parenting, forexample, he describes it as
instead of doing something to achild that's like the
(05:19):
threatening bribing or punishingthem, we're actually finding
ways to work with them. So it'sinstead like saying, Can you
help me carry this heavy boxinside, rather than if you do
come inside right now I'll youknow, and we start threatening
them in some different way.
Number nine, look them in theeye and accept them for who they
are. And I always say like,isn't that what we all wish for
like that we can be acceptedtotally for who we are. for
(05:41):
ourselves, we don't have toapologize for our uniqueness,
but like actually beingembraced. So our role as parents
and educators and carers is toguide and support them, we might
even teach them some new skills,but it's not our job to change
who they are. And then the lastone is number 10. Let them show
us how capable they are. Becauseif we set things up for them to
(06:03):
have success, and we providelots of hands on learning
opportunities that they canmaster by themselves, then they
can have those moments to havethat feeling like I did it. And
that's going to give them somuch confidence. And it's such a
respectful way to be withchildren. But I will give you a
bonus one as well. And that isto be a model of honesty to our
children. So what I mean is whenwe tell them the truth, and we
(06:27):
don't tell any white lies,they're going to also learn to
be honest with us and to trustus too. And I think that's
really, really respectful. Itcan also mean apologizing when
we get it wrong. And instead ofblaming someone else, you know,
I got it wrong. And we've saidbefore, like, what I should have
done is or what I should havesaid is this, and we're modeling
apologizing as well. So I'm notsaying that this means that the
(06:51):
child is allowed to do whateverthey want, and that the adults
not in charge, we woulddefinitely set a limit when we
need to, we're not going to bepassive, but we're not going to
be aggressive. Either we'regoing to we're going to be
respectfully assertive,something like you know, I'm not
going to let you keep eating me,I'm going to put you down, I'm,
I'm going to calm down. Or Ican't let you hurt your friend,
(07:11):
I'm going to sit here in betweenyou. Or it might be that files
can break, I'm going to put itup here and we can find somebody
else to bang. So you'redescribing and being very kind
and clear without threateningand punishing and those kind of
things. So I hope that that's ahelpful reminder, I'll link to a
blog post where you can printthese out to remind yourselves,
particularly maybe on those dayswhen we're feeling a little less
(07:34):
patient. And now it's time formy conversation with Marvin, we
were initially planning tointerview him with some of the
children from the school. Andthe children are around four or
five years old and not nativeEnglish speakers. So well, just
for fun. We'll let you see howthat went first, and then we'll
move on to the conversation withMarvin. So keeping it real,
folks. And I'll be back after myconversation with Robin to
(07:56):
answer another listenerquestion.
Hi, everyone. I'm Simone. Niceto meet you all. Hello, where
are you joining us from?
Unknown (08:12):
Where do you live in Deutschland, which means
Germany in English now.
Simone Davies (08:19):
And just to introduce you to everyone on the
podcast. We are speaking todaywith Marvin and some students
from Vince arola who are inDeutschland are in Germany. And
yes, they are in Cologne. Sowe're going to have a chat today
about some of the things thatyou do at your Montessori
School. Do you speak German andEnglish? You can you can tell
see more?
Unknown (08:40):
Yeah,
Simone Davies (08:42):
German and English. I'm impressed. And
we're very interested inlearning more about your school
because it's a very specialschool that does some very
interesting projects aboutlooking after the earth. And so
we're going to talk about someof the recycling projects that
you do and a new project thatyou did as well called trash
detectives, so maybe we couldstart there and you could tell
us a little bit about how thatproject started. And Marvin you
(09:05):
could translate if you like ifthey prefer to talk in German
that's no problem at all. So howdid it all start? How did you
just become trash detectives
Unknown (09:13):
where you guys trash to?
Remove the heat you're morefamiliar with the German word
which is move that like thepassport in the middle
alright Boston means I graftingin German passport it was
(09:38):
pointed but happier string tobaptism by experience.
You confessingsomething, it's something quite
special came came our way aswell. And this is something that
they want. They were lookingforward to, to show you. Oh,
yes. The end of the day. Theydid something for some kind of
facility. For the Christmasparty, is it okay if I hold the
(10:01):
camera? So you guys be sure?
Yeah. Is that okay for you seemy
Simone Davies (10:06):
That sounds good.
Let's go on to it. And I will beprivate for the people who are
listening on audio.
Unknown (10:11):
All right, we are in the dragons and raccoons group
and the dragons and raccoonswill show you some of the things
that you guys grafted Now, shallwe? Alright, then.
Simone Davies (10:25):
Okay, so we're going on a tour now marvins
picked up the computer, you cansee out the windows into the
garden. Ah, here's somethinghere on the table that's very
big. Look at all of this, it'simpulses that are made out of
some cardboard, and you'reslipping it over your head. And
between the two pieces ofcardboard and over your arms go
(10:45):
to pieces of string to hold thehorse on, and then you've even
got rains. And this is all frommaterials that were found in
your classroom. Look at that.
It's got a tail with some wallhanging down, and the legs are
hanging off for a long cardboardtubes. He comes to slay which is
red painted red and black withagain, cardboard on either side
and strings holding it on. Andthese were all used in the
(11:07):
Christmas by they're walkingaround the classroom,
Unknown (11:10):
what they're doing now what they did in the play was
about snakes and years, andthey're just performing badly.
Simone Davies (11:23):
Thank you very much for showing us look at
those. Not to get them off. Youhave to step out of them. There
we go.
Unknown (11:31):
Thank you for showing us.
Simone Davies (11:33):
I actually heard that you have a very special
supplies shelf called Marlin2.0, where you collect all of
your materials.
Unknown (11:41):
But Marvis 2.0 it's right there. Look at that.
Simone Davies (11:45):
So would you like to tell everybody on the podcast
what Marlin 2.0 is, it's aspecial shelf with boxes and
things in it. You guys.
Unknown (11:57):
I think Seymour doesn't know what we do here in this
corner and what we can find inthat cabinet.
Simone Davies (12:03):
Yeah, so the opening the cupboard doors and
lifting off at the very top,there's a long red rolling pin.
This is
Unknown (12:11):
basically a cabinet that was developed to to put all
of the recycled stuff in. We'verealized at one point that is it
can be quite messy when it comesto the creativity corner. So we
made this covenant to put all ofthose messy things in it that
way, the room will stay a bitmore tidy and organized for the
(12:33):
children to find everything theyneed. As you can see, they know
where everything is they findtools, they'll find materials in
it. The teachers are entitled toreveal the cabinet every week,
Simone Davies (12:45):
he found some glue, and there's more Brussels,
Unknown (12:47):
actually empty glue sticks. Like I said everything
that we don't use anymore. Wejust don't throw it away, we
recycle. And we put itsomewhere.
Simone Davies (13:01):
So the idea is to have definitely an upcycling
project and they're starting tolearn about consumption. We're
asking them
Unknown (13:07):
now if they want to continue talking to you or they
want to go outside.
Simone Davies (13:13):
What would you like to do? Would you like to
keep talking? Or would you liketo go outside? That's, that's
okay, too. You're welcome to andmaybe Marvin can answer some
questions. It's been very lovelyto get your creativity going.
So Marvin, tell us about thistrash detectives project that
(13:37):
the children came up with andwhat the results have been from
it.
Unknown (13:40):
Well, a little bit of a background about us is that we
we like to recycle and upcycleand it's actually one of those
things that has been implementedwithin within our curriculum. So
that means that the teachers areentitled to collect things from
the kitchen, from the packagingfrom all the things that we
(14:01):
normally would throw away, wewould just disinfect them and
get them ready for the children.
Okay, this is something that wedo as as adults. But last year
in October, they did thechildren, the ones that are
five, five and a half already,they were quite curious about
where all of these things arecoming from. And so one child
(14:23):
passed by the kitchen they willthey will keep on passing by the
kitchen and they were realizingthat the kitchen was was always
collecting these tetra packstogether because for the tetra
packs is something that we haveto take care of. We have to
clean them we have to disinfectthem otherwise the milk you know
(14:44):
it can get really stinkysometimes. And they kept looking
at that and they kept cominginto the classroom asking why is
the kitchen have the all thetetra packs, why don't we get
them it was because Theyweren't, they weren't, they
weren't. Somehow they weregiving me the feeling that they
were trying to understand. We dohave the tetra packs here. But
(15:05):
for some reason the kitchen hasall of them there. So anyways,
it started there, by them beingaware where, where these things
were coming from. So we said,okay, let's do something, then
let's collect all of the thingsI'll get you guys involved and
the things that we're doing inthe background. It you guys
(15:26):
involved in it, so that you guyssee how much we produce, how
much how much we consume. And soit all started, we talked to
them about it, and we thought wehad some kind of a
brainstorming. And we told themthat we were going to think
collect trash for two weeks andsee how much trash we collect.
(15:47):
So we started like that everyday, at any time, the children
were just going up and down hereand they're collecting the
things that they thought was wastrash, talking to the people
responsible talking to thekitchen, talking to Toby as who
is responsible for the for allthe packages, talking to burn,
who is responsible for cookingwith the children. And yeah,
(16:11):
talking to all of these people,they were then getting all of
these products, or these thingsthat we would normally throw
away, we use the special room toput all of this material in it.
In at the end of the two weeks,we had a mountain of trash. It
was it was incredible. For me itwas it was also quite, quite
(16:33):
impressive to see to see howmuch trash we produce. And of
course, this was only the trashthat we thought could be reused.
Because there was also a lot oftrash that we can't really reuse
not to just fall with or thingslike that. Um, but yeah, after
the two weeks, we're done, thenwe sat down, we made some kind
(16:54):
of a huge circle around the allthe trash. And we talked about
it. We talked about it forabout, I don't know, a long
time. And directly, they juststarted saying, look, we can do
this with that. And we can dothis with that. And we can do a
boat with this. And we can do arobot with this. And we can do
(17:16):
that. I'm giving me the feelingthat they were already in
finding solutions, finding ideasof what to do with all this
material. In the end, we decidedto do what is it? What is it
that the teachers were doing inthe background and told them
(17:36):
look, now we have to solve it,we have to classify them, we
have to put all the cardboardtogether we have to put all the
tetra packs together, givingthem also this sense of order
in, in organization. So that'swhat we did. Together with all
this was a group of eight, ninechildren. And together with them
(17:58):
then we took all the cardboardand we share that into all the
classrooms. And we took all thedata packs and we shared it into
all the graphs and theclassrooms. And we took
everything else is just justshare that with all the
classrooms. That way, then atthe end of the day, they were
very much aware where all thesewere coming from. And they knew
(18:19):
what was what was happening inthe background.
It was it was it was quitetouchy for me to see that
because it was it was it wassomething that we haven't done
up until now. And I think it'ssomething that we will do as as
(18:42):
as a regular project because sofar the teachers we were quite
we are quite conscious about itwe get special trainings for
this and we weren't quiteconscious about it it collecting
things disinfecting them andmaking them available for the
children. But where these thingscome from the children weren't
(19:03):
really aware of in and now ifyou ask them a is Trash Trash I
asked him at the end of theproject is Trash Trash should
new in a way that What are youtalking about? Trash is not
trash?
Simone Davies (19:20):
Yeah, it's making the invisible visible for them
by involving them in theprocess. There were more
Unknown (19:25):
children involved in the project. And we also made a
video while we were doing theproject so we were able to
document it in a more graphicway. And so do you think it's
good to have trash? That'swhen it's going to trash? To me
(19:48):
Do you have any ideas of what todo with all this trash? Oh come
on.
Out Where are these things here?
What are these? Do you think isa lot of trash? Or a little bit?
A lot of trash now? Yeah. And doyou think is good too.
Simone Davies (20:13):
And you also spoke about how sometimes you go
to the waste and storage, youknow, plant to actually see what
happens with the storage or togo to a recycling plant.
Because, again, you put thethings in the recycling, but you
don't ever see and close thepicture of what actually happens
to the recycling. So do you wantto talk about some of those
visits that you've done with thechildren?
Unknown (20:31):
Yeah, these are these are visits that are that are
scheduled within our year plan.
We've been doing a couple ofprojects since since a while
already, and we have been ableto implement a lot of these
visits visits within our dailyroutine. One of the visits that
we one of the field trips, Iwould say we do is to the sewage
(20:51):
treatment plant, which isreally, really nearby. I think
it's about 30 minutes by bus.
And we just go there, to do whatto do something very special to
know exactly what's happening tothe water that we dispose all of
(21:12):
the the water that's in thetoilet, the water the runs down
the sink, the water that wenormally throw away, is water
that is being collected at onepoint is water that has to be
treated at one point so that wecan reuse again, water is one of
those things that is very muchimportant. And we sometimes just
(21:34):
take it for granted. And for uswas quite special for children
to know the actions andreactions of things. If we get
the water dirty, then somebodyhas to put a lot of effort into
cleaning. So in this field trip,there is a special sewage
treatment plant that has aspecial program for children.
(21:57):
Where they do where they doexperiment, one of the
experiment is getting a big bowland they throw all kinds of
things in that bowl until thewire was super, super dirty. And
then they go through theythey've got some they got a mini
little tank with bacteria there.
And then they wonder thechildren can see how this, how
(22:17):
this dirty water is beingprocessed up until it's clean.
And then it goes back into theriver in having this knowledge,
I think is quite important forchildren. Yeah, just to make
them aware of what are theactions and reactions of things.
Another field trip that we do isto the recycling plant, the
(22:38):
recycling plant, it's it's alsoanother special thing because
they also have a special programfor children where they allow us
to go in and see what happens toall of the recycled cardboard or
paper. And now we know that theymake a newspaper out of them.
And if you ask one of thesechildren, they will probably
(23:00):
tell you that Yeah, seitan likethey call it in German is being
made out of it. Or they willtell you that out of the foods,
the wasted food, we makefertilizer, all of these things
that they make out of therecycle stuff, we are able to
see it a life and children arequite impressed to know where
(23:22):
all of these things end up. AndI think it's important for them
if we if we says we recycle alot. Let me show you real quick.
For example, this, we've got anempty classroom, we've got
recycled recycling beans. It wasa plastic paper and the rest.
(23:44):
Yeah. And we put a lot of effortinto recycling everything. But
of course it is it is alsoimportant for children to know
where all of these things endup.
Simone Davies (23:58):
Oh, definitely and be aware of the cycle. And
we should also say that thechildren in your school or go up
to five or six years old. Sothere's a younger children,
they're not the six to 12 yearolds, they're really young
children who are learning aboutthe impact on the environment
and taking it in with theabsorbent mind very naturally.
Because if you start actuallythe young ages, sometimes we
wait till they're six to 12 tohave these conversations and
(24:20):
you're starting they're muchyounger.
Unknown (24:22):
Exactly. And we also don't don't set a strong focus
into wording such as we don'tfocus on on saying now we're
gonna be doing sustainability.
Now we're going to be saving theplanet or anything like that. We
just do things to make itnormal. By by just doing we
think that they're absorbing allof these things, and they're
(24:44):
absorbing the positive thingsout of them. So it might be that
if you ask a child, what do youknow about sustainability?
They'll probably won't be ableto tell you in words what that
is, but they'll probably be ableto show you what it is. They do
with all of these recyclingupcycling and water and how many
tissues you use to dry yourhands and so on. So on. So
(25:06):
they're pretty much absorbingeverything like when they sit
with their absorbent mind.
Simone Davies (25:13):
Yeah, that's beautiful. And actually, I also
loved how you use the papertowels to make you add flour and
some salt. Is it to make thingsthat you can use it for pepper
pepper mash a and as a creativetool? Yeah.
Unknown (25:27):
Yeah, actually, in a after that big project we had, I
don't know, maybe threekilograms of recycled paper
towels. With it something super,super huge. We had to we had to
dry it up quite nicely, becauseit was really big. It was a big
sun. But yeah, we just Magellanjust create things that are,
(25:48):
once you have adult, you can dowhatever, whatever they can
imagine. And sometimes you justdon't know what's going to come
out of their minds, but becausethey just love to create.
Simone Davies (25:58):
Yeah. And so do you have to sanitize the paper
towel before you make it intothis kind of paper mache?
Anything?
Unknown (26:05):
Yet we boil it? Ah, okay. Yeah, directly with that.
Just kill all the germs. Andthat was one of the questions
that parents kept asking, whatabout hygiene? Paper towels? The
first thing we tell them? Ofcourse, these are just paper
towels, where we dry our hands.
No, no, not paper towels, ornothing like that are just for
(26:26):
drying hands. But still, we willbe one of the most important
things of this process of makingthe paper machine out of this
paper towels is to is to put hotwater in it. But if you put hot
water, you don't reallydisinfect it. So you have to
boil it. We have a big part,where do we just put all the
(26:46):
paper towel and boiler for like,five minutes. And that's it. And
then we let you let it cooldown. And then you put it into a
mixer. You may you may get somekind of make you make a dough
out of it. Very important is toput salt in it. Because it's
gonna prevent it from moving.
Simone Davies (27:09):
Yes. Okay. Same with playdough. Yeah, okay, if
you make your own playdough.
Unknown (27:13):
Yeah.
Simone Davies (27:14):
And the children I you know, do they help in that
process, at least collecting thetowels and things like that, or
is that again, something morethat the adults will do behind
the scenes?
Unknown (27:24):
It depends. Some children, if they have an idea,
they'll know where the papertowel is in the bathroom in
groups has a paper towel. Andsometimes they will just go in
get it most of the times issomething that we do in the
background as well. But that'ssomething that we're now in the
process of finding the best wayto get the children involved in
(27:47):
this process. Now, after thisproject, we become it became
really, we became reallyconscious that the children want
to be involved in these projectsin these processes. So yeah,
that's what we're gonna find outnow, the best way to cope with
the hygiene aspect. Becausealso, if if they go directly
(28:10):
into the bathroom and get thepaper towels directly, then they
haven't been sanitized yet.
Yeah, exactly. So that that'sone of the main reasons why most
of these things were being donein the background so far. And
then being offered to thechildren once everything was
sanitized and disinfected, andso on. But yeah, we're still
brainstorming. And we believethat this is not something
(28:33):
that's going to end right now.
We believe that it's, it's, it'sa process, it's going to be a
long process.
Simone Davies (28:42):
And you've been doing these programs and
initiatives for quite a longtime since you opened.
Unknown (28:47):
No, we've been doing this since 2012. Okay. And it
all started also with a childand tadpoles. Okay. I'm not sure
if you know about this story,but the story made short. One
day in 2012, a child came upwith a bucket full of tadpoles
(29:10):
and he said I've got thistadpoles because my neighbor's
gonna throw them away. What Whatdo you mean throw them away? So
yeah, and, and I thought beforethey throw them away, I wanted
to show it to my friends. Isthat okay? Of course that's
okay. So, um, yeah, we had thetadpoles in the classroom a
(29:31):
couple of weeks. And then werealized that they started to
develop and in the game, backlegs and they started becoming
mini frogs. And it got to apoint where they were too big
for this bucket where we hadthem. And so we did a
brainstorming of ideas with thechildren about what to do with
(29:52):
that post. When idea came up,off, and it was to build upon
for that pause. So we build thatpond. And then another child
said, but what if it jumps outof the pond? There is nothing
around it. There's just carsaround it, by the way, we are in
the middle of the city and is,yeah, you're so analogize it,
(30:15):
but if we do a garden, thenmaybe they can jump into the
flowers. So that would be okaynow. So after that we also did a
guided around the pond. And justlike that one thing led to the
other and now we're just doingeverything we can to to
implement projects concerningsustainability, recycling,
(30:38):
upcycling, social. And, ofcourse, by recycling, you also
have to look at the aspect ofmoney saving at one point, and
so on. So, yeah, it's, it's beena process.
Simone Davies (30:55):
Yeah, definitely.
And there's the whole idea ofreducing the consumption to
start with, isn't there? So it'snever ending? And we have to
keep refining. And I think we'reimproving, but we need to
improve faster.
Unknown (31:06):
Yeah, yeah, I definitely think so.
Simone Davies (31:09):
Yeah, um, I also love that in Montessori, we get
the children involved in youknow, the cooking and the whole
process of those kind of things.
Do you actually have a vegetablegarden there where the children
can get things from the gardento cook in the kitchen?
Unknown (31:23):
Yeah. Normally, what grows here quite nicely are
potatoes. So there are a lot ofpotatoes out there, Patrick as
well. And carrots, they growquite nicely. And I can tell you
this, because we've tried a lotof vegetables. We tried to plant
a lot of little things in thatspot where we have the garden is
(31:43):
quite hot, have chataway. Sothat was also something that we
learned along the way thatchildren also learn, okay,
plants grow better when they areunder the sun, and so on. And so
at one point, we realized thatthose three, four things that
are growing quite nicely arethose things that we continue
(32:06):
and growing. Because after acouple of years, we just
realized that those are thingsthat grow the most. Yes, and
they are things organic. Wedon't put any fertilizers or
anything. And when those whenthose things are ready. You'll
be surprised how tasty they are.
Simone Davies (32:24):
Yeah, home grown with love from the children is
extra tasty.
Unknown (32:29):
Yes, yes.
Simone Davies (32:31):
And they have like a children. Like you said
that one of your teachers cookswith the children every day.
Unknown (32:37):
Yes, I was actually burned just left today today
with the banana pancakes. Ofcourse, no, no vegetables are
growing right now. So weimprovise into cooking and doing
other activities that have to dowith preparing your own food as
well. We focus also quite a loton cooking regional and
(33:00):
seasonal. So so we don't get forexample, avocados that come from
Peru or things that come fromfar away. And we try to consume
the things that are grownlocally. The we have a supplier
that supplies us with local foodin where smaller small
kindergarden. So still okay.
Yeah, it first is also quiteimportant to focus on that
(33:25):
aspect of, of sustainability.
Simone Davies (33:31):
We have a lot of parents who are listening to the
podcast and they struggleprobably just having one child
to get involved with cooking.
And so you're managing with manychildren and setting the table
and sitting to have a cozy mealtogether. Do you want to talk
through what that looks like ina Montessori classroom for those
who can't really picture 30children or sitting down
together to have a meal that youknow, who are under six years
old?
Unknown (33:53):
Or love to show you that this way? Yeah, well, I
think I think that that if youlook at it as a as a process, as
a process would would, would bethe best thing. The children
here are encouraged to deal withsharp knives and with a with
(34:17):
normal plates, not plasticplates, rather normal ceramic
plates, and glasses and thingslike that. And they are being
exposed to the world. They'rebeing encouraged to use this
materials from the beginning on.
So they're quite familiar withit. So a child knows a three and
a half four year old child knowsexactly where the danger of a
(34:39):
sharp knife is. And they knowexactly how to hold it properly
so they don't get cut. Like Isaid, this is this is this is a
process and I at the beginningof course we were with each one
of the children doing individuallessons on how to use Knife
properly, how to cut properly,and they get a lot of support at
(35:03):
the beginning. In the end, thechild is able to do it all
along. But yeah, it can be, itcan be quite complicated if the
child hasn't been exposed tothese dangers. So my advice to
you, mothers, fathers teachersout there listening is do it
(35:23):
with your child, no danger inthat just do it with him and
explain to him where the dangersare. That way the child will be
conscious about.
Simone Davies (35:37):
Yeah, and I love seeing children set the table,
you know, for their friends, andthen they sit together. And I
think it's part of being incommunity as well that the
children don't get up and runaround, they learn. And there's
a mixed age group as well in ourMontessori classrooms so that
the older ones are modeling howwe sit at the table and how we
eat at the table. And then maybethe newer child is the one who
(35:58):
maybe needs to be brought backoccasionally, do you find that
sometimes as well.
Unknown (36:03):
Maybe if it's a child who has just started, was really
who's still learning the rules.
But everybody else knows that ifwe start eating lunch at 12,
then they come back from, fromoutside, wash their hands,
everybody knows that they shouldwash their hands. Everybody
knows that they should only getone paper towel to dry their
(36:25):
hands, then everybody sits down,they grab their own cups and put
their cups next to their friendsor to whomever they want to sit
down with. And they know that ifif, if the lunches are up until
1230, then the teacher will ringa bell and they know that they
will just stay seated talking totheir peers next to them. But we
(36:47):
rarely have children that arestanding up and down, going back
and forth, perhaps has a lot todo with the role modeling that
we do in the Montessori setting,that we as a teacher sit down
with the children. For us, it'squite important that children
know that if we are encouragingthem to do something that we
should do as well, because weare the role models. And if the
(37:10):
child sees that we are sittingdown that we are eating properly
with a fork of knives, they willthey will more likely do what we
are doing is what they callperhaps you can call it
gregorious tendency or perhaps.
Yeah, just the role modeling?
Simone Davies (37:28):
No, definitely.
And I think a lot of nurseriesand places don't actually sit
down and eat with the children.
So they're not seeing that it'sactually a time when you can
communicate and haveconversation and that you're
modeling all of the grace andcourtesies about Oh, can you
pass me the water so that I canpull myself a glass of water and
there's so much they can learnthrough meal process? It's not
just to have the child fed,there's actually so much that
(37:49):
they're learning in that time.
Unknown (37:50):
Yeah, another important aspect of that would also be a
that, for us, it's importantthat the children serve
themselves. First important thatthe child knows and gets to know
himself and to see, okay, howhungry am I now? How much food
will will I put on my plate. Andthey will know that the amount
(38:12):
of food they'll put on theirplate is the amount of food that
they'll eat. Otherwise, youmight run into the problem that
if the teacher would serve thefood to the child and probably
fill up their plate, andprobably the child will only eat
a quarter of that food and thenthe rest is going to have to be
thrown away. And now we'rerecycled back to sustainability
(38:32):
on that as well that we don'tthrow any any food away. So
that's why it's important thatchildren just serve themselves
to see how much they want toeat, and then serve themselves
again. Of course developing finemotor skills in dependency
skills. The same with the water,how much water do I need?
Somebody else needs water hereis the job for you. And so so
(38:56):
it's every table, the tables areset up like this. This is one of
the tables.
Simone Davies (39:01):
That is four tables that are together and
some chairs around it. Andagain, yeah, that's eight
children sitting together.
Unknown (39:08):
Yeah. And then there's always one adult in each table.
Yeah.
Simone Davies (39:15):
Thank you. I think that'd be really helpful.
And I also I read that you havea beam Meadow that the children
can visit as well withbeekeepers and things like this.
Unknown (39:24):
Yeah, that is that's a that's a long life project. We
want our competition where wewere granted a piece of land in
the nearby area in thecompetition was one because the
project is about bees while beespreservation. So what we do
there with the children isrecreate bee hotels.
Simone Davies (39:51):
Sounds sweet, but I know
Unknown (39:53):
Yeah, yeah, it's just amazing. We have walls of the
hotels is great. Because alsothe children get to see the
lifecycle of a bee. And theyalso see that one day, maybe the
whole of that little pipe isopen, and the next day is closed
already, because there isalready an egg in it. I'm not
(40:16):
sure if you know the lifecycleof a bee. But
Simone Davies (40:19):
we want to hear the whole lifecycle tell us?
Unknown (40:22):
Well, normally a B hotel are lots of little, let's
say little pipes, they can beYeah, it can be. Normally we do
them out of bamboo sticks, whichare quite hollow. And we Yeah,
we we make no different sizes ofI think many, many of the
(40:48):
listeners have seen a be therebefore. So it's, yeah, it can be
in different sizes, differentthings. Bottom line is that a, b
would go into the bamboo Hallwill lay the egg in it, and then
would seal it with some kind ofa clay that they make. Okay, and
(41:10):
then, and then they, they layanother egg in it, and then they
seal it again until the pipe isclosed. At one point when the
when the egg is ready, then theegg is just just hatches and
starts eating that. That sort ofcradle. It starts making its way
(41:33):
out. And and that is also quiteinteresting for the children to
see. Okay, yesterday, there wasa hole in it that the bamboo was
hollow, and today is closed. Andin one week. It's already open
the beaconing out already. It'sIt's a beautiful process to see.
(41:54):
Yeah. And sometimes we findthese on flowers as well. Yeah,
Simone Davies (41:59):
you are helping the bee population, definitely,
I'm sure. And these children, Ilike to call them Junior
explorers. And you have someprograms where you have nature
days, and they take the thingsthat they've made like their
boats to the river. Do you wantto tell us a little bit about
some of those nature days andwhere you get to? Because if
you're in the middle of thecity, how do you get there?
Unknown (42:18):
Yeah. Yeah, this is also something that has been
implemented within the dailyroutine and the year schedule.
So twice a month, and we go tothe forest. And luckily, we're
quite lucky because the forestis more or less nearby. It's
around about 15 kilometers fromhere, we can take the public
(42:39):
transportation is around aboutseven stations, do we get them?
So we will walk to the trainstation, get on train, get off
on the forest and walk, justexplore the forest. And
sometimes we do differentactivities, such as collecting
leaves, collecting data, things,the seasonal things, or we will
(43:04):
just experiment. And many times,I'm sure you heard Maximilian
saying that he built the boat.
Yes. So he already asked me whenwe're going to go to the river
and throw the boat in it. Yeah,so I gotta hurry up and see if I
can organize something likethat. Right now we Corona, it's
a bit more complicated becausenow we're not allowed to get on
(43:27):
to public transportations withchildren. So we have to use our
own fan, we're on transportwhere we can only transport six
children at a time. Instead ofnow instead of doing it twice a
month, we're doing it once amonth, because just because we
have to go back and forth manytimes and do it in, in in, in
(43:50):
three days, actually, ratherthan in one day. But yeah,
forests visit to the forests arequite important to us. Luckily,
there is a little creek at theforest where we just let the
boats go.
Simone Davies (44:07):
It sounds like they getting such a rich
education that's very holisticand all those things as well.
And I read as well that from oneof these forest visits, they
came up with the idea of a superRobo, something that would
collect trash. Yeah. andseparate the rubbish out.
Unknown (44:23):
Yes, yes. Actually, this project was done in
Auckland in one of our othersettings. Okay, this roller has
three different settings in wehave implemented this, all of
these sustainability aspects inwithin our curriculum. And the
children in this urban settinghad the idea of Yeah, of
(44:46):
building a robot that will justclean the streets for them. I
thought it was really full,because the robot is quite huge
and they wanted it to be big.
They said because the streetsare big right? Huh. So they
built something yet a big robotthey call they even called
somebody, somebody would helpthem to weld everything. So a
(45:08):
professional, that will alsohelp him in this setting in his
clothes to do an engineer, afactory. So they also call some
engineers to come and help himbuild the robot. It was a it was
a whole process. And this, thisproject also won a state prize.
(45:31):
They won the first prize wasquite nice. The children were
super proud.
Simone Davies (45:39):
Yeah, I'm sure I mean, and I love that it's not
just a one day project, theyhave a lot of research that they
need to do they get help, whichis also like going out of the
classroom into the community to,you know, get advice from
people. And so they're learningOh, if we don't know how to do
something, we go and find out.
And that's what we love, youknow, showing our Montessori
children.
Unknown (45:59):
Yeah,
Simone Davies (46:01):
I also found it really fun to have a look at
some of the themes that you havein your classrooms during the
year. And like you start theschool year, with the theme
that's like, I'm in school, nowwe're a class, and you spend a
couple of months I guess,getting to know each other in
the community. Would you like totalk to that?
Unknown (46:19):
Yeah, we have a reception class program. And
this is a, this has now beendone as a as a separate group.
Very important is, especiallynow in Corona, we started
implementing technology, andwe're using a couple of
applications to help us withthat. And for us was quite
(46:40):
important for German at thebeginning of the reception class
to know where they are and whatthey are in terms of what
classroom and what kind ofpreparation they're going to be
getting in this classroom beforethey go to school.
Okay.
Right now, they normally pickdifferent projects throughout
the year. And right now they'redoing horses projects, I would
(47:03):
love to go out and show you somesome murals that they they just
did last week, and it waslearning all about the horses.
And the teacher is quitecreative there as well, because
then she tries to implementmathematic aspects and literacy
aspects of pretty much you canyou can implement everything in
(47:26):
within this project now. Yeah,of course, sometimes parents are
concerned. For example, yeah,horse project, but it's not
really doesn't have anything todo with literacy or mathematics.
Right? My child learning and themathematics, I mean, aren't any
numbers then. So. So we have to,we have to explain parents
(47:48):
quite, quite carefully, quite alot about what is it that the
child is getting from theseprojects, that most of the
times, it's not just aboutlearning about literacy or
mathematics, but also aboutsocial skills, social emotional
skills in getting to know yourenvironment? No.
Simone Davies (48:08):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I love that about theinterdisciplinary nature of
subjects, you know, it's veryhard to isolate maths from the
rest of the world, you know, youcan be counting the number of
legs of a horse, or how fast ormeasuring the length and there's
many opportunities that arebuilt into a topic area. And
then there's language around it,there's always vocabulary in the
parts of the horse. And, youknow, anyway, there's so many
(48:30):
opportunities for learning. Soit's fun to educate parents
along the way. And so that theyunderstand what the children are
benefiting from that process.
And we found
Unknown (48:42):
our also a nice tool was called seesaw where we have
included the parents in thisproject, because of the same
reason that sometimes they get abit lost on what is my child
learning. So we have grantedthem access to this to this
application, we would do theproject here in the kindergarden
and we upload it onto this ontothis application or platform,
(49:06):
and parents are able to seedirectly from home, what is it
that the children are doing? Andsometimes children will also
take some kind of a homework athome, not from our side, rather
from their side saying, well, Iwant to I want to do this at
home. And so they will justcontinue what they were doing in
the kindergarten and they willjust continue doing it at home.
And automatically parents areinvolved in it. So involving
(49:30):
parents is quite important forus as well. And education has to
be teamwork thing.
Simone Davies (49:37):
Definitely. I mean, I think it's so important.
And we're realizing more andmore in COVID times how much the
parents also need to be onboard. And hopefully they're
also including many of thesesustainability ideas in their
own homes as well. So as we comeinto the end, is there anything
else that you'd like to talkabout any of the other projects
have been Sorolla or some of theother things that you do? Are we
(50:01):
covered most things,
Marvin (50:02):
there are. Yeah, I will say there are a lot of things
that we're still doing. But oneof the most important things
that I think everybody shouldtake home is that aspects of
sustainability can beimplemented in the delivered in.
And we have been getting lotsand lots of benefits from it.
(50:23):
And the gentlemen have gotten toa point where they do see those
things as normal. And the amountof creativity and imagination
that children would get by beingexposed to all of these abstract
material, I would say, It'sincredible. You can see that if
a child sees a tetra pack or apiece of cardboard, you can
(50:48):
almost see how their brain isgoing around into finding ideas
and solutions, or are ways touse this thing into and convert
it into something different. SoI can only say that aspects of
sustainability can beimplemented in the daily
routine, and is working outquite well for us.
Simone Davies (51:10):
Yeah, and the children's creativity is also
being sparked from a verysimple, natural process. So
that's beautiful. Marvin, wereally appreciate your time.
Thank you so much for joiningus. And I know that you want to
get back to the children and getout to the river and float those
boats. So thank you again.
Unknown (51:27):
Thank you. Thank you.
Simone Davies (51:42):
So sustainability can also be a lot of fun, right?
I'll definitely put links toMarvel's website and to some of
the videos showing some of theprojects in the show notes so
that you can check them out. Andnow it's time for our listening
question. And today's questionis from Yves Marie. It's a long
one but I'm going to read it allout as it's something I kind of
get asked a lot about thesekinds of situations. So it says
(52:05):
I two and a half year old sonattends a lovely ami Montessori
school full time here in Canadaand my husband and I try our
best to follow the Montessorimethod our home although we were
both raised in a very differentway. His teachers report that
our little guy is easy andaffable at school. But at home
he has lately started to push upon limits very strongly.
Although I understand this isexactly what he should be doing.
(52:25):
I often don't know what to doafter I feel like I
appropriately responded to hisbehavior and he persists into,
for example, the first nice warmday of spring on our commute
home from school. I was walkingand pulling him in his wagon as
usual. We saw another familyeating ice cream cones. He
started asking me for ice creamrepeating the request more and
more urgently, I pulled thewagon off the sidewalk crouched
down to his level and look himin the eye. I calmly explained
(52:47):
that I understood that he wantedIce cream Ice cream was
delicious. And I wished we couldhave some to but today we
weren't going to have ice cream.
I couldn't buy him ice creamtoday. This was true. I hadn't
bought my wallet, which washard, because I understood that
he wanted some very much todaywas not the date have ice cream
today was that families turnedeat ice cream. And it would be
our turn to have ice cream on adifferent day. Today we were
going to the park. I felt likewe'd connected and we understood
(53:10):
but as soon as we startedwalking again, he resumed
yelling and repeating his demandfor ice cream. So what to do in
this instance, ignoring himdidn't feel very respectful. But
I was at a loss how else to moveon and ended up diverting him
with the slide when we arrivedat the playground. This is an
example of something that ishappening a lot. I feel like I'm
communicating that I understandhis wishes explain the limit and
validate his feelings toward thelimit. But then when he
(53:32):
continues to test that limit,which I understand what's the
best way to respond? So everythanks for your question. I
think that how you responded tohis disappointment was
appropriate. You know, youdidn't deny his feelings or
moralize about how we don't getto eat ice cream every day or
give a big lecture. It was quitea long explanation. But it
depends on the child. Okay. Andit sounds like you were trying
(53:54):
to see his perspective, and hestill wasn't happy about it. So
the only other thing is maybeI've talked before about having
a notebook. So if it's somethingthat you'd be happy to do
another day, you could alsowrite it down. So you remember
to come back for ice cream, andyou can cross it off once it's
done. And the reason we do thisis like it just feels super
important when you write it downon a piece of paper. So they can
(54:14):
feel really acknowledged. Andthen also when we cross it out,
they're learning that we meanwhat we say. Then afterwards,
the only thing I'd say is thatI'm also okay. When they're sad
about it still, you know, we area safe place for them to let out
their big feelings. And ifthere's time and space, I'd find
some way to sit and ask if hewants to be held or not. And sit
with him as he feel sad. I mean,we aren't giving into him, we're
(54:37):
just simply saying we're a safespace, even when you feel sad or
angry or disappointed. Andrather than distracting him as
much as possible. I'd let him toget it all out. Because
otherwise what often happens islike the next thing happens, and
there'll be in tears over that.
And then the next little thingwill make them you know, get
upset again. So I'd rather letthem get it all out of their
(54:58):
system and where they're at Theyhelp the processor with a total
of, for example, you often likehear them, like laid out this
big sigh, and then you'll knowthey're pretty much calm again.
But if you have to be somewhereit as much as possible, keep
moving forward and keepacknowledging their feelings.
It's not always practical tostop everything. So we're doing
our best to manage like bothgetting where we need to go and
(55:21):
our child's feelings at the sametime. And then they are going to
be some of those days, when wego to have had enough ourselves
after five or 10 minutes like,and then we also need to be
aware of our own limits.
Otherwise, if we go past them,we'll end up getting angry and
snapping. And then it's betterto say like, usually I've got
patients, but today, it's nearlyall gone. We're going to keep
going to the playground, and Ihope you feel better soon. And
if within most of the time onthese occasions, we're gonna
(55:44):
have to know that we're doingthe best we can. And our child's
gonna know that too. So it'sokay when I get sad. In fact, I
think it's when we show up inthese moments that they learned
that we love them at their bestand at their worst. So it Marie,
I hope that helps. And I justwanted to remind you all that
it's just a few days left untilthe Montessori baby book
(56:05):
officially launches on the 11thof May. So I hope you'll be able
to join us at one of our bookevents and I'll put a link to
that in the show notes. And ifyou're hearing this on before
the 10th of may Don't forget youcan upload your order details
and received some beautifuldigital bonuses. And because
they digital, you can beanywhere in the world to receive
them. It's being organized bythe publisher. So just to warn
(56:26):
you if you miss it up is up asthey say in Dutch, which
translates roughly to like goneis gone. But basically like just
to let you know there's a strictcut off. It's just a pre orders
who've submitted the detailsbefore the 10th of May. And if
you do miss out, just rememberyou still get to get the book,
which I hope will bring you lotsof comfort and peace and
Montessori wisdom for applyingMontessori with babies. And
(56:50):
that's it for today. Thank youso much for joining me lovely to
chat with you all and I'll beback next week with another
episode of The Montessorinotebook podcast. Bye, everyone.
Thanks for joining me for theMontessori notebook podcast. The
podcast was edited by Luke Daviefrom Filmprov media and
odcast are by here, mine. Toind out more about me and my
(57:12):
nline courses visit theontessori notebook.com. Follow
e on Instagram at theontessori notebook for pick up
copy of my book The Montessorioddler for its new pre call the
ontessori baby from your localookstore. Amazon are where
ooks are sold. They're alsovailable as ebooks, audiobooks
nd have been translated intover 20 languages. I'll be back
(57:33):
n a week with more Montessorinspiration. And in the
eantime, perhaps she'll join men spreading some more peace and
ositivity around the world.
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