Ayelet Montessori

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“Follow the Child” or What we do and how?

Whenever someone talks about the Montessori Methodology, you are bound to hear the term “Follow the child”. What does this term exactly mean and how we work at individualizing the curriculum? At Ayelet Montessori, we promise to offer complete and total development of each Ayeletian. This means all-round development, academics and beyond. Each aspect is given as much importance. Like in a Montessori environment, at Ayelet, we pay attention on a child-focused approach. An authentic Montessori environment encourages love for learning, curiosity and emotional good health of the child. We at the ‘Child’s Happy Place’ know these traits will help the child grow into the best version of him/herself. This is possible due to our individualized programs. It all starts each academic year when the Montessori guides discuss the students who are continuing from the previous year/s and the new students as well. The month of June and most of July goes in understanding the students (new a

Memorable Moments

We touch the lives of little Ayeletians for a few years, but these are the most crucial years of their lives. At Ayelet, we ensure these children learn staying happy, secure, healthy and curious. We witness so many magical moments in our lives; this makes our work as educators so memorable… In the recent discussion we had about birds, children talked about their favourite birds. They spoke about peacocks, parrots, pigeons, nightingale, hummingbirds, ducks, geese, etc. After we were done discussing, Falak told all of them, “you all have made us so proud, because all of you worked really really hard and informed us about so many birds. Thank you!” All children instantly came towards Falak and gave a big group hug. The picture below cannot do justice to the moment we shared. This is just one of many such moments. We absolutely feel blessed.

6 Tips on managing the dreadful Initial Days

What do you think of your child’s first day of school? Dreadful, sad, full of tears, anxiety? As a parent, you start feeling anxious the moment it dawns upon you that your little one will be in another environment without you. If you are a first-time parent, the feeling is worse. Well, one thing we need to understand is that these are normal feelings. Here are a few tips which might help you to deal with those dreadful initial days. Discuss it with your child and treat those initial days as a fun ride. Plan your day ahead, develop a fun routine around it, which belongs to you and your child. A walk from school to home, discussing about what s/he will wear, etc. Plan and go with the plan, the person who drops the child to school ideally should be someone who the child isn’t the closest to. Say a quick good bye, develop your own quick drop off routine and leave. Your child might cry, try to cling on to you, but try and not hang around there where your child can se

Read to them… Read with them!

When you’re a Primary Montessori Guide, you cannot be prepared enough or plan enough of what’s in store for you. Young children can bring different experiences every single day. One thing which stays pretty consistent and which children love is reading and being read to. At Ayelet, reading is a very important part of an Ayeletian’s day. During our read-alouds we read, discuss pictures, the story and children also do art around the book they’ve read. It’s a beautiful experience seeing a bunch of 2-6-year-old children listening to stories from around the world and trying to comprehend what the author of the book is trying to say. Seeing their eyes go wide at certain moments or hearing those giggles have the power to turn any day into an amazing one. Trying to see them sneak in a word or two they heard during the session in their daily conversation is pure magic. The younger ones just might be looking at pictures, but the older ones get excited as the story builds up and they

Lending a helping hand

A Montessori child develops a lot of personality traits, which stay with them for life. One such quality is helping others when needed. If you have a child in a Montessori environment, you’d be aware of the concept of mixed age-grouping. Younger children often take older ones to be role models of sorts. They see how/what the older children are doing and then try to follow suit. This is a development we as directresses and guides are aware of. Last year, came as an eye-opener for me personally, as I witnessed each day, how beautifully it worked on developing children’s social skills. There are so many instances, that re-enforce my belief in this beautiful Montessori Method. Older children assisting younger ones to work with a particular material. Children reading to another child, helping others with their snacks or with winding up their work, reminding them politely about rules, etc. These incidents often take place without us requesting or telling the older children

Grace & Courtesy in a Montessori environment

If you have heard about the Montessori method of education, you must’ve heard about Grace & Courtesy. Some of you might have an idea about what actually is grace & courtesy all about; most of you might be wondering what exactly it is. When we meet prospective parents at Ayelet, when they tour the environment; one question always comes up around grace and courtesy, like; “How do these children work so quietly in the environment without disturbing others?” or “How do these children know how to wait for their turn?” At times, parents get intimidated, whether their child will be able to adjust in such an environment. As generally people expect 3-4-year-old children being loud and ones who don’t follow rules. Frankly, we don’t have a magic wand which makes these little people behave like this. A lot of work and patience as well as consistency goes into this. As a Montessori House of Children, we at Ayelet, treat children with utmost respect, without see