Checking in........

Hello, everyone!  I am checking in to let you know that I'm here, but may not post much this week.  I have a pretty hectic (more so than usual) two weeks coming up.  We are doing lots of fun things in the classroom and I will try to post SOON to keep you informed.  Until then.......see you soon!

Comments

[Amanda]

Hi Yeedie, I know I don't have the great montessori wisdom (I have no training at all in montessori) but I can tell you are very upset about your son so I thought I would give you my personal opinion on the matter. I teach in a toddler room (19-30 months) with 12 children, I have been working in this room for three years now. I wish I could say otherwise but things such as pushing, hitting and even biting are very age appropriate for this age group. I think the best thing you can do for your son is talk him through this, but if that doesn't help keep questioning the teachers and see if they can help you out more. Talk to him about what happened, did he get pushed? did he fall down? did it hurt? did he see a friend get pushed as well? what do you say if someone pushes you? no, or no pushing, etc. talk to him about telling a teacher if he gets pushed (this is a bit over his head but putting the thought in his head at this age is definitely doesn't hurt) hopefully talking through this kind of event will help put your son at ease, he will know how to deal with it so he wont be feel so helpless. Your sons teacher who is now aware of the situation should be able to keep a close eye on said child and help work through these developmental stages. I hope this helped some, it's a hard subject because children definitely have a mind of their own.

[Yeedie]

Hi I just found your website through a yahoo group. This is so lovely. Since you are such a dedicated teacher, I have a question about a situation and I wonder how you will respond to it.

My son is 20 months old, enrolled in a Montessori school, with total 10 children, two classes, one called the toddler class (six children), one called the casa class (four children), five full time teachers, two for the toddler class and three for the casa class. The teachers teach English, Chinese and another local language, each. One of toddler class teacher left so one casa teacher is dividing her time between the two classes. My son is in the toddler class.

Everything went okay till this weekend. Before his nap on Saturday, my son started repeating "push K" many times, mentioned his friends' names, and then said "fall down" and acted on it to show me what he meant and then said "hurt". He repeated it so many times, I got worried about the message he was trying to say, but I could not understand exactly what was the message. "K" is a boy in the casa class. It seemed to have made him so upset that he could not fall asleep and I had to ask my husband to come and help. Sunday night, he repeated it again, and again I could not make him sleep so I asked my husband to help. And then Monday morning, this happened again. I was so alarmed, I decided to tell his teacher, a very experienced Montessori teacher about it.

When I dropped him off in the morning, he was normally letting me go easily and then joining his friends in the playground or the play room. But today when we went to the play room and he saw "K" in it, he turned and refused to go. It took me long time in the school trying to figure out his reaction to "K" and it seems that he is bothered by the sight of "K". Even though "K" was very friendly towards him.

The teacher told me that she was not always there to watch the children so she does not know what was happening. I wonder what you will do in her place?

I don't know if asking this question makes sense to you, but I found you such a dedicated teacher, I would like to have some opinions from you.

Many thanks,
Y

[Susana]

Thank you so much for always being so generous in sharing! You've always got lot's of Montessori eye candy and ideas!

Take Care!
-Susana
http://www.montessoricandy.com

[Isabel Z]

You are always missed when you don't post but I'm glad that you are having fun in the classroom. Our home lives and work do keep us busy, don't they? Looking forward to future posts.