Today’s episode is a positive and heartwarming conversation with Andy Lulka, a Montessori teacher, parent and child. As someone who has spent their whole life around Montessori, you’ll hear about:
- growing up in a Montessori school
- what a middle school Montessori program looks like
- how Judaism is brought into the Jewish Day School program
- how we can do better with anti-bias education touching on equity, diversity, inclusion and intersectionality (and where Simone puts up her hand to say, “I’m losing you” and asks for more explanation, learning right alongside you)
- the four planes of development including the Montessori elementary child and teenagers
- Andy’s wonderful phrase “convince me” instead of closing a dialogue with her son
- single parenting and ideas for creating a village
- Montessori observation and self-observation
- what is dialoguing
“Who we are as human beings – how we show up in the world – is what will make the biggest impact on our children’s lives” – Andy Lulka
“Montessori is a way to make the world a better place” – Andy Lulka
“People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don’t know is what what they do does.”― Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
Simone introduces the episode questioning whether it is our role to always make our child happy. And answers a listener question.
This week’s listener question
This week’s listener question is from Kriti and she asks:
I am a working mother of 14 month old twin girls. I have started following Montessori principles recently. It is extremely hard for either of the babies to focus on their own activities without getting distracted by the other. It is challenging for me to engage both the girls in the same activity without them fighting over the toy or anything else. I try to explain them to wait for their turn but I guess they do not understand that yet and cannot wait for anything. Any suggestions on how to implement Montessori at home with twins?
Links
- My blog post about avoiding saying no
- Andy’s contribution to the Montessori advent calendar
- Andy’s website
- Integrating Montessori
- Montessori Teachers Facebook group
- Preparation of the Spirit course
- TIES
- Upcoming conferences where Andy will be presenting: http://childrenchangetheworld.com/ and https://cincinnatimontessorisociety.org/annual-cms-conference/
