Montessori Mornings

Charlie hates snack time.

This Friday marked our first week of Montessori Mornings, a group class for 6 month - 3 year olds. The school is in this beautiful old house up high on a hill, surrounded by trees and a rolling lawn. I was so excited to start this class because I have read a bit about Montessori principles (more about that in another post) and was eager to see them in action for younger kids. The classroom was upstairs in the old house, with big sunny windows, wood floors, and thick wool area rugs. In typical Montessori fashion, the room was very simple and had a carefully edited selection of wooden toys on low shelves, a water play area, little mops and brooms, and miniature tables and chairs. We had 7 children in the class, mostly around Charlie's age but also a 2 and 3 year old. Charlie did okay during the circle time and the self-directed play period, but at snack time everything went downhill...

Mind you, I figured this class would be right up his alley. He hasn't exactly demonstrated his athletic prowess yet, so our classes at the Little Gym consist mostly of us watching all the other little kids crawl around and me desperately pleading with Charlie to "see what Maddy is doing!" and "ooh, wow, look how fast Seth is crawling...go catch him!". Hasn't worked yet. But thankfully, he is always the calm and happy kid in class and usually emanates a blissed-out surf bum vibe...not all bad. So, I figured he would jive well with the whole Montessori spirit and this could be the class where he would shine.

Not so much. At snack time each child got a little place mat and tiny cup, there was a tiny pitcher to pour water and little communal bowls of cereal and apple shavings. Charlie started by throwing his cup on the floor repeatedly. While I'm trying to grab the cup for the third time, he starts squirming off his chair and grabbing the place mats and cups of the poor kids next to him. (Does "How to Win Friends and Influence People" come in a board book??) Then he started screaming. Nice. So, I walked him around the room and tried to interest him in the views out the window while trying to listen to the teacher's discussion at the table. I'm sure we made a great impression on everyone. Next week, he will be napping before class.