I would like to share with you something that I've learned recently through Miss Sarah McNeill, a Pediatric Occupational Therapist.  She came to speak to us about a very serious issue which is becoming more common with our children today.  Miss McNeil works with the Poway School district and she also runs her own practice.   

I would like to underline the importance of observation in our environment and how it is a critical part of our work.  The foundation of the Montessori school educational practice is based on observation.  It is through the observation of children that Maria Montessori acquired the knowledge and elaborated the teaching method as well as the materials that hold her name today.  'She believed in innovation in the classroom and her whole approach to education was in the spirit of constant experimentation based on observation of the child.'

By Lena Aburdene Derhally

Written by:  Donna Bryant Goertz

At Home

Since leaving the classroom recently, after thirty-some years in the delightful company of children, I have spent a considerable portion of my time leading the development of the parent education programs for our school.  It has given me a new and different joy, and a great appreciation for parents.  It is an honor to work so closely with parents who are the primary educators of our children, who are the children’s models, their supporters, and their greatest source of love and admiration.

There is a very crucial stage in which children need to be at home or a home-like environment that provides the necessary activities to become independent.  They need to be comfortable and know where things are.  If their environments are to be changing daily there is no structure and therefore no routine.  Children like to have order and they crave it.  They like to know where their things are and where things belong.  They like to know what is expected of them, to have a routine, to have some discipline, and to become confident in that environment.  Many chan