Parenting Archives • Raintree Montessori

Do What You Say
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Do What You Say

Parenting

Do What You Say

Heather2025-01-07T19:05:28-06:00January 7th, 2025|Categories: Parenting|Tags: brain development, freedom, parenting|

Another great article by Maren Schmidt! “Throw rocks into the pool one more time and we’re leaving the party,” Jonathan’s parents told him. It was a surprise party for his grandparents’ anniversary. When Jonathan threw in the next handful of pebbles, nothing happened. Empty threats. It is an easy trap to fall into. We think if we mention the possible consequences of an action, our child will stop, or if not, at least others will see that we “tried” to make Jonathan stop. If Jonathan’s [...]

If I Had to Live My Life Over
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If I Had to Live My Life Over

Parenting

If I Had to Live My Life Over

Heather2024-10-10T16:47:22-05:00October 10th, 2024|Categories: Parenting|Tags: community, happiness, love, parenting, soft skills|

Over the past few weeks, my sister and I have been clearing out our parents’ garage. We aimed to box up items that we'd examine more closely later. This includes treasures from both sets of grandparents and great-grandparents, along with other inherited memorabilia. It’s been a challenge not to peek at a wartime letter addressed to our grandmother or sift through old report cards and marvel at a collection of early 1900s postcards. In a box that seemed like a random office drawer dump—complete with [...]

Science Says: Eat with your Kids
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Science Says: Eat with your Kids

Parenting

Science Says: Eat with your Kids

Heather2024-10-10T17:16:47-05:00September 29th, 2024|Categories: Parenting|Tags: community, food, Grace and Courtesy, manners, parenting|

Liz Struble, guide in the South community writes: Grace and Courtesy Lessons are always the first lessons we begin with when we return to school. Remembering how we move about the room, what utensils are appropriate for which foods, where we place our shoes, how we carry a chair, the list goes on and on. Our focus lately has been centered around lunch time. We have been practicing placing our napkins in our laps, using our hands ONLY for finger foods and keeping our knees [...]

Raising Adults
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Raising Adults

Parenting

Raising Adults

Heather2022-12-11T19:07:52-06:00December 11th, 2022|Categories: Parenting|Tags: community, freedom, grit, independence, parenting, soft skills|

Raising Adults Last week I was listening to NPR and was quite touched by a short interview with Michelle Obama on her latest book, The Light We Carry. In this interview Obama talked about her mother and the way she was raised. Her mother “had a clear philosophy about parenting, which is unusual for somebody of her generation. She said, I'm not raising children, I'm raising adults.” It reminded me of Dr. Montessori’s writing, “The education of even a small child, therefore, does not aim at [...]

My Amygdala Made Me Do It
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My Amygdala Made Me Do It

Early Childhood, Parenting

My Amygdala Made Me Do It

Heather2024-05-25T07:46:32-05:00May 25th, 2021|Categories: Early Childhood, Parenting|Tags: brain development, parenting, self-regulation|

Written by Maren Schmidt (5/3/2014) Learning to control impulses is an important task for our children, and all of us, to learn. Until our children learn to control urges to hit, kick, punch, pinch, bite, spit, name call and more, we’ll see all those behaviors emerge when life becomes overwhelming. How is self-control established? Let’s look at the young child’s brain. Our brains are perhaps best viewed as three brains in one. Our reptilian brain (cerebellum) takes in all sensory information and handles issue of basic survival, [...]

The Child’s Inherent Love of Nature
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The Child’s Inherent Love of Nature

Parenting

The Child’s Inherent Love of Nature

Heather2022-05-15T20:17:59-05:00May 15th, 2021|Categories: Parenting|Tags: nature, parenting|

by Maren Stark Schmidt What do you do to find yourself when you are out of sorts? Frustrated? Sorrowful? Despairing? If you are like most people, you try to find a quiet spot to commune with nature and seek peace or solace. Solace, a word from the Latin sol for ''sun,'' meaning ''to find the sun.'' We have to be close to nature to find the sun, and in the process we find ourselves. This connection to peace is formed within each of us as [...]

Siblings: Your Child’s First Friendships
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Siblings: Your Child’s First Friendships

Montessori, Parenting

Siblings: Your Child’s First Friendships

Heather2021-04-14T16:36:16-05:00March 14th, 2021|Categories: Montessori, Parenting|Tags: love, parenting|

By Jennifer Baker Powers, M.Ed. A Montessori classroom is by design an extension of the home and family environment. Just as the child learns developmentally appropriate practical life skills at school, the Montessori classroom also provides ample opportunity for learning social skills and relationship navigation. The mixed-aged classroom, a unique hallmark of any Montessori environment, may in many respects mimic the dynamics of siblings in a household. If this is true, you may ask, then why does my child behave so differently at school with [...]

Freedom with Responsibility: from the classroom to your home.
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Freedom with Responsibility: from the classroom to your home.

Montessori, Parenting

Freedom with Responsibility: from the classroom to your home.

Heather2021-04-14T16:18:20-05:00February 14th, 2021|Categories: Montessori, Parenting|Tags: freedom, Grace and Courtesy, independence, parenting, responsibility|

by Jennifer Baker Powers One of the first things a child learns upon entering a Montessori classroom is the unspoken relationship between freedom and responsibility, or as Maria Montessori called it “liberty.” In 1964, she wrote “discipline must come through liberty” and “when he [the child] is master of himself and can therefore regulate his own conduct when it shall be necessary to follow some rule of life”. In the Montessori classroom, the child quickly comes to know certain benign boundaries to this freedom such [...]

Functional Learning Posture
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Functional Learning Posture

Parenting

Functional Learning Posture

Heather2021-04-14T16:19:26-05:00January 14th, 2021|Categories: Parenting|Tags: health, yoga|

by Jennifer Baker Powers Classroom teachers at all levels, both in Montessori schools and in the public sector, are observing a noticeable decline in some students’ core strength. Core strength encompasses the muscles that engage the stomach, back, gluteus and pectorals. These muscles work together to provide an optimal posture for learning. Children with a weak core often demonstrate an inability to sit cross legged on the ﬂoor without bracing their knees for support rather propping on one arm/hand for assistance or leaning forward for [...]

The Grace and Courtesy of Giving and Receiving
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The Grace and Courtesy of Giving and Receiving

Parenting

The Grace and Courtesy of Giving and Receiving

Heather2020-12-29T13:26:44-06:00December 1st, 2020|Categories: Parenting|Tags: community, empathy, Grace and Courtesy, manners, parenting|

By Jennifer Baker Powers Although for many of us the upcoming holiday season is going to look a little different this year, I imagine that there will still be a fair amount of giving and receiving of gifts. Perhaps even more so as parents and grandparents try to make up for the loss of time with extended family and the lack of seasonal travel. Here are a few tips to help children, who are generally outspoken and honest by nature, navigate both getting and giving [...]