1. Go to the toilet when needed

10. Not to be tested involuntarily instead, tested by free choice when ready to receive feedback on learning progress

11. Not to be punished instead, accompanied with respect to become more self-disciplined

12. Not to be compared with peers instead, acknowledged as an individual student with individual talents, opinions, and characteristics

13. Not to be judged for being different

Written by Carmen Gamper
www.NewLearningCulture.com

Our answer was of course, NO!
We would nurture the flower, water water, expose it to sunshine, protect it from pests and help it get strong for the Winter. Why don’t you think we should do the same with children?

Instead of creating unnecessary hardships for children, we need to nurture them best we can. Life will bring hardships in its own time, and then a child will be strong and feel ready to overcome any obstacle.

Warmly,
Carmen Gamper
www.NewLearningCulture.com

From birth on, eating healthy foods, drink clean water and breathe fresh air

 
THE RIGHT TO BE IN THE STREETS OF THE VILLAGE / TOWN

To play freely in the center plaza and walk the streets safely

THE RIGHT TO BE WILD

To build a shelter or fort in the woods, to have to hide-out in reeds, to climb the trees

THE RIGHT TO SILENCE

To listen to the wind, the singing of birds, the splashing of water

 
THE RIGHT TO OBSERVATION

To see the sunrise and sunset, to admire the night, the moon and the stars

For both operations, children should already have multiplication experience.

Performing square roots becomes very easy with the board, because one can see that is it the opposite of squaring. In order to square a number, it must be multiplied with itself: 2×2=4
One can see that this operation always looks like a square on the board; thus it is called “squaring”.

To find out the root of 4, we count the beads on one side. There are 2 beads, which means the root of 4 is 2:

This works easily with all numbers from 1 to 9. Instead of beads, we can also use pebbles, blocks or buttons:

With numbers greater than 9, we need beads in various colors. Maria Montessori developed the following simple system:
Green = 1
Blue = 10
Red =100
Light green = 1000
Light blue = 10,000
Light red = 100,000

We see the board just like an x-y graph system. Each bead on the x-horizontal line is multiplied with each bead on the y-vertical line. The result is placed in the right color at the point where the two lines meet. Here you can see what 12×12 looks like:

And these photos show the process step by step: 12 = 2 green beads for the ones and 1 blue bead for the ten:

Then we place the same beads on the vertical line:

Then we can start calculating: 1×1 =1 :

10×1=10 and 1×10= 10 :

10×10=100 and that’s the complete square:

To find out the result, we add the value of all beads: 4×1 plus 4×10 plus 1×100 equals 144. Here:

Even with large numbers, this technique remains simple. One can observe a specific variety of color patterns which increase regularly. For example, here is 122 squared:

After all beads are placed, we can start adding: (1 x 10,000) + (4 x 1000) + (8 x 100) + (8 x 10) + (4 x 1) = 14,881

The root of 14,881 is one side of the square – 122:

After we have learned to use the board to SEE the way squares grow, we can now learn the opposite process – finding the root of a number. First, we lay the square pattern using the appropriate amount of beads and then count one side.

The square root board helps to understand what the concept of square root actually means. It takes away the fear from this process that is usually only taught on paper.

I remember that I could not understand square roots when I went to school and I am happy to have found the square root board!
Try it!
Carmen

Right #5: The Right To Use Hands

Hands-on Learning is the foundation of child-centered education. All the subjects and topics of the elementary and middle school curriculum can be learned/tought and explored with hands-on learning materials from maria Montessori and other educators. It is sooooo much easier for children to learn something they can touch, see, smell and manipulate! PLEASE educators and parents use hands-on learning materials!

He invented the Kindergarten and did groundbreaking work to help children grow with joy and ease. He developed a series of teaching toys, the Froebel Gifts, which were enthusiastically used by Buckminster Fuller.

He left us with truly inspirational texts which are as valid today as they were over hundred fifty years ago. To quote Friedrich Froebel:

“The mind grows by self revelation. In play the child ascertains what he can do, discovers his possibilities of will and thought by exerting his power spontaneously. In work he follows a task prescribed for him by another, and does not reveal his own proclivities and inclinations — but another’s. In play he reveals his own original power.”

Excerpt from “The Froebel Kindergarten Philosophy” by Scott Bultman, Founder Froebel USA

– Humans are creative beings.

– Teaching should always be joyful, fun and easy.

You can read the full text at www.froebelfoundation.org
You can see and order the Froebel Gifts at WWW.FROEBELUSA.COM

Here is a clip about the Froebel USA Conference 2010:

We are planning to organize the next Froebel Conference (2011) here in the San Francisco Bay Area! Please comment or e-mail if you are interested!

With joy,
Carmen
www.NewLearningCulture.com

4) THE RIGHT TO DIALOGUE. Being allowed to participate in adult’s conversations, and to be heard “

We need to be more aware of the presence of children. Often we talk about a child as if he/she wasn’t in the room, even though they are right next to us. We assume children don’t understand, don’t listen, or are not interested. However, quite the opposite is true. Children often listen very carefully to adult’s conversations, most of all, when we are speaking about them!

Many children grow up feeling invisible, and keep this feeling into adulthood. It’s not true. Everybody counts. Everybody has a voice that contributes to the whole.

Let’s compromise on our topics when children are in the room, and include them as well as possible into our conversations. Children’s age-specific wisdom might sound silly to us sometimes, however, when we allow ourselves to see the world with children’s eyes, many things children say, will start making a lot of sense.

With joy,
Carmen Gamper
www.newlearningculture.com

Together, we wrote an article for Common Ground Magazine. Our intention is to inspire educators towards using and providing tools and wisdom from both, Montessori and Waldorf.

Educators and Parents, you can help bring your school to the next level, too! Invite New Learning Culture Consulting to your school, for support, consulting and workshops.

Home-schooling parents benefit from all tools available! We love to support parental groups! Get in touch!

Our workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area.

With joy,
Carmen Gamper & Team

You can read the article online or print it out:
“The Yin and Yang of Montessori and Waldorf in Early Childhood Education”

ONLINE:
“Common Ground Magazine”

PRINT VERSION:
PDF DOWNLOAD (1.6mb)
Page 1 CommonGround / New Learning Culture page 1
Page 2 CommonGround New Learning Culture page 2

3) THE RIGHT TO FRAGRANCES. Experiencing the enjoyment of scents and the odors of nature.
“Mmmh! Wet earth, dry leaves, flowers, cinnamon, vanilla, chocolate, oranges….

A tasting game is part of Maria Montessori sensory materials: Children learn the basic distinction between sweet, salty, sour and bitter as part of the curriculum. Follow this link for a great introduction.

Play a game: Blindfold each others eyes and rely on your nose to find out where the scent comes from!

With joy,
Carmen Gamper
www.newlearningculture.com

“I Love You So…” by Marianne Richmond
“Can You Growl Like a Bear?” by John Butler
“The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein
“Love You Forever” by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Sheila McGraw
“The Last Wild Witch” by Starhawk, illustrated by Lindy Kehoe
“The Snowman” by Raymond Briggs – made into a 20min film which you can watch on youtube:
Here is the most beautiful scene: