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Outdoor Activities

Summer Fun in Your Backyard

For young children, every bush is a forest, every rivulet a waterway, and every unfamiliar adult environment a trip to the moon! This year, consider skipping the exotic locale and long travel time. Your family can find plenty of summer fun right in the neighborhood. Even the most mundane locations …

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Create a Travel Kit with Montessori in Mind

In 1914 Maria Montessori wrote a succinct guide to her discoveries, Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook. According to Nancy Rambusch’s introduction, Montessori aimed to deliver “a practical message of Montessori to the American home,” offering parents the means for understanding and applying basic Montessori themes in the home. Of course, Montessori could …

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Daddy, What Does a Forest Look Like?

Maria Montessori? Not this time. This insight into the young child’s relationship with the everyday world comes to us from Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder(published in 2005). Many Montessorians heard Louv speak at the NAMTA conference in Atlanta (January, 2006). What …

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Stargazing with Children

Maria Montessori urged us to “give the child a vision of the whole universe…” so that children might better understand Earth’s place in the cosmos. Books, card materials, and star charts take children only so far – no photograph can replace the awe-inspiring vision of millions of diamond-bright stars twinkling …

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Puddle-Stomping: Not Just for Summer Any More

From A. A. Milne’s immortalization of “Poohsticks” to the popularity of today’s urban water slides, water play remains a fascinating and nearly universal childhood pastime. You may think of puddle-stomping as strictly a summer sport, but water in all its forms offers opportunities for play all year. But It’s Wet …

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Grow a Tree Now to Plant Next Year

Children can plant a seed now and nurture the seedling for next year. Planting an Arbor Day tree they’ve grown from a seed can be even more rewarding for children than planting a store-bought sapling. As with most gardening activities, planting and watering a tree seedling is purposeful work that …

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Backyard Camping, Montessori Style

Ah, summer… When magic words like “sleep-over” and “camping trip” nudge the older child’s inclination to stretch beyond their immediate circles… When younger children clamor to explore their immediate outdoors… When parents juggle schedules to make outdoor experiences available to all their children… immediately! Explore top resources for family backyard …

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Hiking with Children

A nature hike is nothing like a field trip! The child-driven nature hike is not just slower, it gives children the opportunity to “dig deep.” A field trip approach to nature merely skims the surface, providing many random facts for assimilation. Children scurry from attraction to attraction, without much context …

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An Old-Fashioned Summer

I have many fond memories of the hot, lazy days of summer. When air conditioning was rarely in every room, we would go to the “air-cooled” movie theatre for relief from the heat. I recall a fan blowing air over a block of ice at my grandmother’s. She would take …

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Family Vacationing Made Easier

Parents often have mixed feelings with the approach of vacation time. It’s nice to have a more relaxed routine and a change from the work/school schedule, but it’s not always easy to keep children content when traveling. Whether taking day trips or longer excursions to distant locations, planning ahead with …

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