We believe that all children deserve beautiful things in their surroundings. At our program, we select products that reflect this. Whenever possible we will use natural materials such as wood, glass metal and ceramics. New parents are often surprised and concerned seeing very young children drinking from glass cups and carrying glass and ceramic to the table or sink. What if the dish falls and shatters? Won’t they step on the glass and get hurt? Why would we want to keep buying replacement dishes?…… It all seems too dangerous! There is solid reasoning behind the use of glass over plastic in the Montessori learning environment and at home. It’s called “control of error”. When children use glass dishes, they learn very quickly how to control their movements so as not to break them. Using these controlled movements benefits not only brain development, but also offers lessons in caring for fragile items. If a dish breaks there is a great teaching opportunity to talk about safety around broken glass, how to properly clean and dispose of broken glass and that it’s not a major disaster to break a dish. We clean it up safely and move on with our day. Also important for our very young is the fact that everything ends up in the mouth. Plastic tastes, smells and feels unpleasant in the mouth and sourcing safe plastic can be tricky. Offering natural material is much more stimulating. As always adult supervision is necessary whilst your child is working with any of these activities at home or at our session.
Our opening days are changing for Term 4 at both our Rockingham and Lakelands sites. ROCKINGHAM will run on MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS and THURSDAYS at the usual time 9:15AM – 11:15AM.
LAKELANDS will run on TUESDAYS and FRIDAYS at the usual time 9:30AM-11:30AM.
I will be away on long service leave from Week 3 until early next year and leave you in the capable hands of Claudia who will run both the Rockingham and Lakelands program for the duration of my absence. We wish you all a restful spring break and look forward to seeing you all refreshed and ready for the last term of the year.
Orla and Claudia
