Current research suggests that nature experience and the cultivation of environmental literacy among students contributes to creative thinking, improved academic performance, and positive relationships with the natural world (Children and Nature Network, retrieved June 2013). Author Kelley Johnson saw this in her own childhood, which was blessed…

This article vividly describes the indoor and outdoor components of what Montessori calls Home Sweet Home. Her vision of a domestic Children's House contains many facets: rooms of varied space, beautiful flooring, gardens that educate and evoke collaboration, and places for year-round exercise. This is a definitive yet rare Montessori article that…

Polli Soholt writes about advanced practical life and demonstrates that adding more challenge and complexity for older children leads to more social cooperation. Activities such as washing dishes, polishing, sewing, and food preparation take the child beyond the need to refine basic skills. The older primary children find more reality in tasks…

Maura Joyce's clear approach to initiating parent education is to recognize where the parents are on their own journey as parents. By listening to the parents' hopes, fears, and desired outcomes for their children acknowledges the family's perspective and brings mutuality into a shared community. Maura Joyce encourages the use of questionnaires…

Family Star Montessori School is well acquainted with "under-three" child care having served 3000 children over the last twenty-three years. Many of the children come from below the poverty line and bring strong diversity to the enrollment of the program. More than half of our faculty are also diverse, coming from Peru, Bulgaria,…

Audrey Sillick's article, first printed in 1988, provides a theory base for Maria Montessori's foundational emphasis on the biological sciences and the sustainability of a living, organic planet Earth as part of the educational process "of becoming more fully human." Ms. Sillick helps link primary-level biology with the special energy…

The children and staff at Council Oak Montessori enjoy a unique opportunity to experience Dr. Montessori's theory of Cosmic Education through all of its stages--from the 3-year-old who first comes to the school to the 15-year-old who completes its Middle School program. And it makes the author thinks much more actively about how the faculty and…

Cheryl Ferreira vigorously pursues the Montessori principles that are implicit for preparing a classroom where "children find all that is needed to work at self-formation and to maximize their inner potential." The Montessori philosophy is precisely conveyed as Cheryl Ferreira details the specific elements and principles, both physical…

Recognizing Maria and Mario Montessori's reverence for the hand, Pat Ludick takes the reader into the wonder of the human body, mind, and spirit and across the planes of education, into the making of a whole personality and grounded intelligence that is ready for the adult world. Putting the hand front and center, she lyrically evolves an overview…

Since Dr. Maria Montessori's discovery of the true nature of childhood over a century ago, children around the globe have benefited from Montessori education. However, even parents who have children enrolled in Montessori schools could derive further benefits through the implementation of Montessori principles and practices in the home. Helping…

Numerous observations in Montessori classrooms led veteran Montessorians Pamela W. Trumble and Eleni Bokas to the conclusion that a universal need exists to bring integrity back to Practical Life, especially for 5-year-olds. Maria Montessori's observations over a century ago revealed the importance of Practical Life and its relationship to the…

John McNamara's historically rich descriptions of his adolescent community life in one school where he taught the same children from grade one to grade eight sends a warm message of the merge of elementary and middle-school personalities as they are beginning to understand the wonder of growing up. Their letters and speeches remember the impact of…

The Montessori early childhood classroom provides a seamless web of language experiences. As Montessori teachers, they are mindful of the many ways Practical Life, Sensorial, Geography, Science, and Mathematics lessons contribute to and support Language Arts. Within the Language Arts curriculum itself, there are multiple stages of learning. The…

Getting to know one's child's teachers will help parents know where they are coming from and why they are teaching. It might also give parents insight into the relationship they have with their child or children. This article illustrates what the author means through a story. The author suggests that parents need talk to their child's teachers.…

The roots that Dr. Maria Montessori established are strong. Her understanding of children and learning continues to be relevant today. The content, sequence, and presentation of lessons still provide relevant learning experiences for today's students. Montessori teachers continue to present these lessons in ways that strike the imagination and…