“The insatiable vagabond explorer” (12-24 months)
AN ONLINE COURSE ABOUT CHILDREN IN THEIR SECOND YEAR AND MONTESSORI CORE VALUES AND EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES FOR RAISING PEACEFUL CHILDREN
Online
“We observe children who are around 18 or 20 months, who I have called the vagabond explorer that seem to be aimlessly roaming around doing nothing, but in reality they are very much taking in everything in the environment.
And they find objects that they can use according to their own modality. This phase of development must be written into the genetic code, otherwise how could it be common to children this age everywhere.
But at the same time, no child experiences this modality in the same way as any other, every child is unique.
Seeking to discover how objects relate, the child launches himself into a continuous search for things in the environment that open and close, that go in and come out.
These actions we have called the alphabet of human work because whatever we do, play a violin, make a cake, invent a machine... there is always - take an object and put it there, open something and close it, put things in and take things out - that is characteristic of every kind of act of human life.”
Grazia Honegger Fresco, The Cosmic Task of the Youngest Children
Topics
Exploration and Freedom
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The Key Person and 'Ambientamento'
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Continuous Observation of the Child
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Small Group Discussion
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Pikler and Montessori and Movement
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Spontaneous Socialization
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Eating and Sleeping
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Small Group Discussion
The Montessori 0-3 modality presented in the e-course is based on the work of Maria Montessori, Adele Costa Gnocchi, Elinor Goldschmied and Emmi Pikler. These four women carefully observed the youngest children and observed their developmental human needs.
The 8 sessions will offer you an understanding of human tendencies during the second year of life so that you can provide the security and stability a child needs in order to feel safe and explore his or her world. You will take away many ideas about how to create an environment for endless explorations and what kind of materials to offer.
Online course format:
Each topic section will have two presentations on video as well as supplementary reading materials/videos/audios on the topic and will be completed online at your own pace. A group discussion, a session uniquely for your questions - following your curiosities and interests - will be held for each topic. This online class meeting will give each topic a container and a chance for us to meet each other.
EXPLORATION AND FREEDOM IN PLAY
We will learn about providing for the need to explore using all of the senses and what are the developmental instincts that we can learn to identify and follow. These urges are human tendencies and are an important passage in the second year of life. The child wants to relate objects together, inserting and stacking, but not only, it is all an expression of the binary nature of activity. The importance of recognizing concentration in motion and the role of gross motor movement as a passage to fine motor and hand development requires getting to know “the Vagabond Explorer”. What are the materials that provide for these opportunities?
"AMBIENTAMENTO" AND ADAPTATION IN TRANSITIONS
So important to building trust is how we handle transitions and big changes, designing it according to the individual needs of each parent/child. What is important to know about the ‘sensitive period of order’? How can we peacefully handle transitioning children into another person’s care (away from the primary caregiver) respecting the child’s need for a secure base? How can we feel empathy with the young child’s modality and increase our adult capacity to identify with sensations of separation, and have compassion for the psychic world that children live in, one based on emotions rather than rational thoughts.
OBSERVING AND NOT INTERVENING
Observation means waiting and watching before interrupting or correcting the behavior of your child. We must work on ourselves first and foremost and our ability to not intervene. Letting go of controlling the child by offering an environment where he or she can safely explore allows you to just watch and learn!
MOVEMENT DEVELOPMENT
After the child has reached the standing position and is able to explore more freely there is also the newly gained intellectual capacity of turing intension into action. Movement is now refined enough that it is a the service of inner motivation. Before this, cognitive exploration was about measuring space and understanding relationships. Now it is about balance, but not only. It is about unbalance. Balancing and finding positions that take the body out of balance becomes very interesting. Before the small child is ready to carry a flat tray with something on it to a table, he or she needs to understand adjusting equilibrium based on these movement explorations. So the environment must have open spaces where this can develop and materials that allow the child to explore these movements. These materials will give the child the possibility to do the research for balance and equilibrium.
SPONTANEOUS SOCIALIZATION
We will talk about what Montessori called spontaneous socialization. Spontaneous activities are those which the child is engaged in because of an inner urge. To educate means to prepare a space, removing obstacles and to let the child be free to choose what to do and to be able to move about freely in doing them. So we can imagine how socialization can be seen in the same way, preparing or providing for a social environment in which the child has the freedom to explore being a contributing member of the community and participating in it's functions.
SLEEPING AND EATING
Learning to trust your child's body to self regulate these two big areas of health and well being is a big leap for many parents. Yet we are all born with the capacity to do so. All we need are the right conditions that allow us to do it. As a newborn, we are now given freedom to decide when and for how long to breastfeed so why should it be any different for toddlers? Montessori insisted that this competency of the child must come with the basic right of self-governance. But, we also must ask, how does one's inner sense of well being effect the ability to create healthy eating and sleeping habits? And how might eating and sleeping issues be simply symptoms of discord or problems in one's life.
To receive information about when this course will be available
e-mail: info@montessori-for-life.org
To receive information about when this course will be available
e-mail: info@montessori-for-life.org