A Little Something for the Mind and the Soul plus a Diary Date!

 A New Article - Playful Learning and Montessori Education

Dr Angeline Lillard,  professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, author of Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius, as well as several academic articles on Montessori, and Montessori speaker and advocate, has a new article in the American Journal of Play: Playful Learning and Montessori Education. It’s a must read!

David Ayer on the mariamontessori.com blog gives an excellent summary of the article, he says,

“Because the world of public education depends on academic studies and research, the article has all kinds of implications for the expansion of Montessori [ECE] to many more children.  It also offers a lot of theory and data for conversations with curious or skeptical non-academics.  This one should be on the coffee table in the admissions office at every Montessori school out there.

I encourage readers to read take the time to read the whole thing. Here’s the executive summary:

• Play, as opposed to didactic learning, is a big deal in the world of Early Child Education.
• Montessori has been generally considered anti-play (when it is considered at all).
• Which seems strange, since freely chosen, open-ended activity is what we do!
• In fact, Montessori has many of the elements identified as part of playful learning (to wit, structure, objects, interactive lessons, free choice, peer interactions, intrinsic rewards, and fun).
• What Montessori doesn’t do is pretend play, such as dress-up, toy kitchens, and fantasy.
• When you look at the research, the evidence for pretend play (as opposed to play in general) isn’t all that strong one way or the other.
• Consequently, we don’t really know if adding pretend play to Montessori environments would help or hurt.
• But we can look to see if the other elements of “playful learning Montessori style” is helpful to children’s learning.
• This can be problematic because Montessori is practiced under a range of interpretations.
• But if we control for certain elements of “high-fidelity” Montessori, we see improved social and cognitive outcomes”

Here’s the link to download the article yourselves http://www.journalofplay.org/sites/www.journalofplay.org/files/pdf-articles/5-2-article-play-learning-and-montessori-education_0.pdf

Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of  the Pentatonic  Scale at the World Science Festival in 2009.

Thanks to Connie Black presenter at the Montessori Aotearoa Conference in April 2013 – we were delighted to this wee gem:

Assistant Certificate Course – April 2014

We promised we’d give you lots of notice for the next Assistant Certificate Course – well here it is!

Tuesday 22nd April – Friday 1st May 2014 (9 days)
Friday 25th April - Anzac Day -& and Sunday 27th April will not be study days

Venue- Auckland University of Technology (AUT)

We are delighted that Philippa Romig AMI 3-6 Auxiliary Trainer will be delivering the course.

Philippa, born in Britain, raised in New Zealand and Australia, discovered Montessori just after  completing her BA in California, USA. She spent a year as an assistant in a 6-9 environment before taking the 3 – 6 training course at the Maria Montessori Training Organisation, London.

She worked for many years at the International School of Geneva before starting a small bi-lingual Montessori Children’s House in 1996. This school has recently expanded to take children from 18 months to 6 years of age.

Philippa trained with the Association Montessori Internationale to become a Montessori trainer. She has participated in Montessori training courses in London, Ireland and Geneva.

Philippa and her husband raised their family - and now live - in Switzerland.

She is a board member of the Association Montessori (Suisse) romande et italienne.

Registration forms will be sent to schools later in the year.

Please email mmef@ihug.co.nz with your comments, thoughts and suggestions.

Ka Kite,

Carol, Tia, Anna, Shirley, Lynne
MMEF TRUSTEES