Open House - Thursday October 1st

Please join us for an informal open house. Come see the school and learn more about Countryside Montessori.

Open House
Thursday, October 1 at 6pm

Call Karen to RSVP: (847)498-1105

Goal Setting

There’s an old joke about a newly married couple thinking of the life they will have together. They foresee having children, the children growing up, going away to school, getting married, leaving them alone. Before they know it they’re crying and missing these children they don’t even have yet. Silly, but perhaps there’s something to be learned here. Parents need to think about what they really want for their children. Of course, we all want health, happiness, education and a satisfying adult life for our children. But, we all know adults whose parents wanted these things for their children, but who somehow got to be adults who are not very happy with their jobs, their marriages, even their children. Is there something we can do to make it more likely for these goals to be met? Should the goals be more specific? What might such a list of goals look like? Here are some...

• Children who are peaceful, fun-loving, compassionate, generous, helpful, interested, trustworthy, and fit;
• children who love learning;
• children who take positions of leadership early on;
• children who remember their school experiences fondly;
• children who love their country;
• children who love to sing;
• children who have the opportunity to experience nature in all its wonder;
• children who respect their teachers and their parents because it is deserved, not because they fear them;
• children who take responsibility not only for themselves, but see their part in school, community, civic, and social situations as well;
• children who find ways to be useful and serve their family, school and community;
• children who accept a challenge;
• children who are active rather than passive;
• children who are curious;
• children who persevere when things don't go well;
• children who ask for help when it's needed, and decline it when it is not;
• children who are independent and can think for themselves now, even when they are two or three years old, and not have to wait 'till "they're bigger";
• children who will work for peace wherever it is absent.

Ah, you say. Easy to make such a list. But how does one go about helping their children accomplish these goals? Certainly, one must look for every opportunity and offer encouragement. But, perhaps the most effective way is through our own example as
parents. We must:

• model appropriate behavior;
• practice what we preach;
• volunteer at school, at church, in our community;
• speak positively of school and society;
• vote in every election;
• sing and listen to music;
• know the names of local birds, flowers and trees, and spend at least one night each year out in a tent;
• speak well of each other;
• understand that respect must be earned and is not a right that comes with our position;
• stop when we see someone who needs help, donate to charities regularly, and be good neighbors;
• do rather than talk ;
• ask questions and seek answers;
• not give up;
• admit mistakes;
• trust our children and believe they learn by doing, not by hearing;
• be able to stand back and let our children make small mistakes;
  
• and consciously endeavor to be peacemakers.

Can we make guarantees? No. But what powerful tools we give our children through the example of such a lifestyle.

Sanity in the Morning

In the October issue of Real Simple, there is an article on how to get through the morning with your children. It features a series of vignettes from different families with different challenges. It asks the reader to imagine her morning hours: calm, peaceful and productive. And, they claim, it’s no pipe dream. One Mom’s motto is making the morning fun. After years of pleading with her children to get up and get ready, she settled on something that works. She bought two giant wheels of carnival tickets and made up the rules of the game. The first boy up, dressed and with teeth brushed, got a “premiun” ticket. The first to report to the kitchen gets a ticket. Then, on Sunday, they get to trade tickets for small prizes she has purchased. If there is extra time, they sit on the front porch together. There’s a photo of the boys on skate boards, mom and dad on the stoop, and the girl, drinking a glass of milk.

In another vignette, a mom spent years struggling with two boys who wanted different things for breakfast, or having to urge them to set something substantial. Eventually together with her boys, they created a list of daily specials (waffles, eggs, miso soup, etc.) and posted it on the kitchen wall. The kitchen is open from 6:15 to 6:45 each weekday morning. Like in any restaurant, the boys must follow house rules to get service. No pajamas, and a good attitude. Once breakfast is finished, the boys bus the table, pour leftover water into the houseplants, and scatter crusts for the quail in the yard. Then they gather their books and are off to school.

Another mom likens her morning to a “well-organized three ring circus. Everyone has a job to do and a role to play. At night, the children lay out their school clothes for the next day, including hair ties, and pack their school bags with books, homework, signed permission sheets, etc. Then they line them up, unzipped by the door so that lunches can be added. If lunch is forgotten, the consequence is cafeteria food which they all dislike. Before bedtime, one of the children sets the table for breakfast and puts a vitamin at each place. In the morning, after waking to their own alarm clocks, the children have 15 minutes to wash up, dress and make their beds. If they are not down promptly, they get a protein bar or a banana. That only happened once. After
breakfast, two of the girls empty the dishwasher and clear the table.

Still another mother got tired of nagging every morning. So she sets timers. She has nine timers set around the house, for the two older boys. Her youngest daughter usually sleeps right through the timers. Now, everybody knows how much time they have. When necessary, she calmly says ‘The timer went off.”

It would be interesting to take a look in a few months to see what’s still working. Which do you think is more effective? Whose children will benefit in the long-run? Which moms are putting out little fires and which moms are preparing their children for the future? Which moms are feeding their children and which moms are teaching their children to fish?

Elementary Overnight

Elementary class (1 - 6 graders) at Countryside Montessori School enjoys their annual school overnight. The overnight starts on Thursday afternoon and continues until Friday afternoon. The kids play together, have pizza, sleep in the gymnasium, and then walk to the Village Green Park. Countryside believes that a school is only as strong as its sense of community. The overnight is offered so that the first grade children joining elementary get to know and be more comfortable with those who have already been in the class. Further fostering a sense of community is the responsibility of the older children. They rode school bicycles to Sunset Foods to buy the fixings for a sack lunch to bring along to the park. They also set up a sandwich making station and supervised the younger children as all 47 of them made a lunch to take on the road.

Posted on TribLocal.com

Driekers Study Group Starting October 13th

Join our free study group on the book "Children: The Challenge" by Dr. Rudolf Dreikur.
Click here to learn more about this program.

Begins October 13th. Everyone welcome - this study group is open to the public.

Call or email the school to reserve a spot or for more information.

info@countrysidemontessori.org
(847)498-1105

View Flyer

Montessori in the Home

Children want to be part of the family.
Come see how easy it is to make it happen.

Join us for a parent education class - Thursday, October 1st, 2009.
Everyone welcome. Call to reserve a space: (847)498-1105

Click here to view flyer.

Stay At School Until 4:30?

“I get to stay at school until 4:30 every day? Awesome,” said a 3rd grade boy on hearing that new this year, Countryside Montessori School is offering a longer day for their Elementary class. The class consists of forty-seven children in 1st through 6th grade. They study together in one large, bright classroom at the school on the corner of Pfingsten and Techny in Northbrook. In the Elementary classroom, children work individually and in small groups in self-directed learning. As in the past, attendance is required from 8:30 AM until 3:30 PM, but children can now arrive as early as 8 AM and leave any time until 4:30 PM.

“The children really love school and there just didn’t seem to be enough time in the day to do all of the things they want to do,” Wendy Calise, Elementary teacher and Educational Director, says. “Adding the hours has made the class feel more like a neighborhood of sorts, instead of a formal class.”
The new extended day is voluntary, and Countryside assures parents that children who don’t stay the extra time will receive, “the same volume of teaching and attention that they have in previous years.” As might be expected, parents are pleased with the program. To their delight, so are their children.
“Come back in 15 minutes,” begged one 3rd grade boy, whose mother arrived at 4:15 on the first Friday of school, a sunny, still-summer day. “Please! Please! Please! I want to go back upstairs.” And back to the classroom he went to his reading interpretation lesson, leaving his mom to shake her head, remembering how she had watched the clock, waiting for her school day to end. When this boy’s older sister, a Countryside graduate now in 8th grade, heard of the extra time in the classroom, she complained, “Why didn’t they do that when I was there?”

Another child, a 3rd grade girl, tested the water on the first day of school by staying until 4 P.M. The minute she greeted her mom that afternoon, she said, “About tomorrow, pick me up at 4:30 please.”

Other families don’t leave the choice up to their children. That includes 1st grade twin boys, who are new to Countryside. Last year they were in public school half-day kindergarten, so the change is dramatic. Still, their mother reports they are loving the long day.

Several children, including a 6th grade girl, report they are enjoying the extra time with friends. So what happens in this extra time? In the morning as the children trickle in, Mrs. Calise says the teachers now have time to chat a little and hear about the things the children do out of school. Then as late afternoon arrives, she says, “children start to be called to go home, as in the morning not all at the same time. Many work up until the very last minute. Some listen to stories read aloud from William Bennett’s, THE BOOK OF VIRTUES, some younger children watch the 6th graders feed the snake, others organize the art cabinets, attend a geometry lesson, or continue with water color illustrations.”

Countryside decided to offer the longer day partly, Mrs. Calise points out, because American children have one of the shortest school years and shortest school days in the industrialized nations. The other inspiration came from Countryside’s All Year Montessori classroom, which is open to its 3 to 6-year-olds from 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM year round. “That classroom has a relaxed feel,” Mrs. Calise says. “There never seems to be a rush for time. We wanted that same feeling in Elementary. And so far,” she adds, “that is exactly what we have gotten.”

Posted on TribLocal