Is a 9 year old capable of organising a fundraiser?

To me this is a true example of what a Montessori education can do for a child... she has learned a can do attitude, she has learned to set small achievable goals for herself to ensure success, she has learned to break up large tasks into smaller tasks, she has learned to commit and see something through to the end.  A lot of these I have had to wait 40 years to learn!


About 3 weeks ago, when my nine and a half year old daughter, Amy, asked if she could organise a fundraiser to support CupCake Day for the RSPCA I said "Of course", because I want to support the causes she believes in.  I fully expected to do most of the work, after all she's only 9 years old!


That week Amy registered a fundraising page on the RSPCA's website and downloaded the editable PDF file that the RSPCA distributed and added her info to it and then we discussed how she could distribute it.  We talk about handing out invitations, emailing, posting fliers, doing letter box drops around the neighbourhood and various other options.  She decided she would just ask the principal at her school if she could put up some fliers on the noticeboards around school and then send emails to those we knew personally.  And so she did it.


A few days later I asked if she had done any further planning - she showed me a diagram of how she wanted the house set up, her list of the types of cupcakes she wanted and her decorating ideas, and some suggestions for a playlist of songs she wanted to play in the background on the day (all animal themed songs of course!).  So again, we sat down together and did some planning.  She made a shopping list and a job list and then SHE made a timetable for herself for the 2 weeks leading up to the day, assigning various jobs to each day.  At that point I realised that she should be organising all the parties at our house - I would be so much more relaxed on the day!


From last Thursday she has been totally focused on the event - making the banner, cooking and icing cupcakes, checking off jobs on her list and assigning them to other people where possible.  She wrote her speech and practised it a few times and then summarised it into point form.  She organised a raffle prize and made the necessary plans to ensure it was all right to go.


On Friday night she told me that she was having trouble sleeping because she couldn't stop thinking of all the things she had to do - anyone relate to that?!  We discussed some ideas for coping with stress and she slept well on Friday and Saturday night - thank goodness!


On Friday she and her friend Matthew made the first batch of cupcakes and she started her banner with Dad.  On Saturday at 10am she was still on the computer doing to-do lists and so I gently reminded her that the time for planning was over and it was time for doing now.  Well, that's all the reminding she needed.  She finished the banner, cleaned up her room, went shopping with Dad, and did a million other little jobs that had to be done.


When Breanna came for a sleepover on Saturday night she ensured that Breanna was happy to help and that she had jobs she wanted to do.  She did the same for her 5 year old sister Charlotte, who might have been even more excited than Amy about "Cupcake Day" because she was allowed to feel so much a part of the planning!


I was expecting that on Sunday morning that Amy would just want to sleep in and spend time with Breanna, but she was on the ball again - setting up tables, setting up the tea/coffee station and organising where the different types of cupcakes would go so that they would be in a pattern ;-)  Breanna, Amy and Charlotte had even made signs to identify the different types of cupcakes.  They were all watching the clock on Sunday - it was such a loooong morning!


2pm finally came and people started arriving and she was a very cordial host.  She sold raffle tickets and socialised and from 3:30pm started asking if she should do her speech, but some people hadn't arrived yet.


At 4pm, she decided it was time to make her speech of thanks, and so she did with confidence and grace.  She was ecstatic over how many people turned up to support the RSPCA.  She surpassed her fundraising goal of $50, raising over $230!  And of course then started the "Well, next year I think I should..." ;-)


Naturally, not everything she envisioned in her plan became reality, because as humans I think we tend to lose sight of how much we can fit in a day.  It was a good lesson to learn.  The best result was that at the end of the event on Sunday afternoon she said that it was even better than she imagined.


So over the last few weeks I have been in awe of my very capable 9 year old daughter and so very proud that she not only came up with the idea but showed commitment by seeing it through to the very end.  She even helped clean up - a little ;-)  


She complained of a tummy ache and loss of appetite last night but then started colouring in the doodle book she received as a gift that afternoon and she commented "Wow Mum, it's like all the stress I was feeling has been transferred down through my arm to the paper", and so she even discovered a way to de-stress, all by herself.


I am so very excited that the day was successful and can't wait to see what this amazing girl, who I am blessed to have as my daughter, will teach me next.    Amy, my darling daughter, you are truly awesome (far from perfect!  but totally awesome!)

Day 2 - Montessori

Today I am soooo very grateful for Montessori. 

(Warning – this has turned out to be a very long post – sorry!)

Montessori re-entered my life when Amy was just 18 months old and a Mum from our Mother’s group was talking about it.  I went to a Montessori school myself for my first few years of schooling and talking about it awakened something inside me.

Jeremy and I went to check out the Parent Toddler group and were immediately sold.  To see children as young as 18 months old preparing their own morning tea snack with so much pride – cutting pieces of fruit and apply spread to crackers, to see them eat on china crockery and use glasses instead of plastic cups, it was so refreshing.  The order in the classroom was also very appealing and to be witness to the fact that it was the children who kept the order was quite an eye opener.

We had no intention then to send Amy to a Montessori primary school but when the Open Day arrived we went along to check it out.  Wow!  How amazing was this system of learning.  I did an observation in a Montessori classroom for about an hour (the best way to see what it is really about) and I was blown away.  To see children as young as 3 years of age directing their own learning was awesome - they weren’t being told what to do, they were CHOOSING to learn.  They were engaged and focused and taking so much pride in their work.

Now, I’m no Montessori expert and definitely not a perfect parent but this is my experience of Montessori…

The classroom is almost always immaculate with trays of activities set out in different areas – practical life, literacy, numeracy, botany, geography, etc.  Each and every activity set out on the trays has a defined purpose – whether it is to develop fine motor skills or just to develop concentration or balance or control or a new skill, whatever it is – it is defined.  The classroom director takes time to show each child how to complete the activity successfully the first time and then they are left to choose it at will and perfect it.  The children aren’t just put in the room and left to their own devices to find imaginative ways to use all the materials.  When they start in the classroom, at just 3 years of age, it’s all about practical life work – pouring, spooning, polishing, cleaning and so much more… because this is what they are capable of, successful at and take pride in. 

As their skills develop they are drawn to the other areas of the classroom – the numeracy or literacy or geography or botany, and the amazing thing is that they are drawn there because their brain is ready to learn about that area and so they absorb the information easily and readily.  Some children are drawn to the maps before they are drawn to writing, some are drawn to botany first, they are all individual and I would be very surprised if anyone two children followed exactly the same path.

The classroom director and assistant are amazing.  They have the ability to just stand back and observe and gently guide each child to their next job – something just challenging enough to engage them but easy enough for them to complete it successfully.  This is one area in life where I fail dismally as a mother – I am still developing the ability to stand back and watch and allow my child to struggle a bit until they finally achieve that sense of success “all by themselves”.  I keep intervening, to do it for them, to make life easier for them – but… I am aware and I am learning.

I believe that it is this continual sense of success in the classroom that develops the child’s intrinsic love of learning.  There is no-one saying “No, not like that”… the material is designed in such a way that if the activity is not completed in the way that is intended then the material will allow the child to self-correct.

The other big thing I love about Montessori is that because the children are all learning at his own pace there is no concept of one child being smarter than another or not as capable.  With the 3 year age range in each classroom the children are free to do a variety of activities that span that 3 year age range and the director is confident and ensures that by the end of the 3 year cycle each student leaving that classroom will have covered every task required for building the foundation for their next 3 years of learning.

The lessons of grace, courtesy and respect are so evident in a Montessori classroom.  At a birthday celebration we had for Charlotte last week, all the children sat in a circle while they were served their birthday treat (2 cupcakes) and not one of them commenced eating until every single child had been served.  Each lunch time they sit at a table to eat their lunch – they have their own placemat and plate and glass and they set their place, unpack their lunch, eat and then clean up after themselves.

If a child wants the classroom director’s attention they place their hand on her shoulder and she gently touches their hand, whilst completing her conversation, so that they know that she is aware that they are waiting.  The child then lowers her hand and waits patiently by the director’s side until she is ready to speak to them.  There is never any sense of urgency in any of these actions, it is just beautiful.

When the director wants the attention of every child in the classroom, she picks up a tiny bell on her desk and makes the softest sound with it and movement in the classroom stops almost immediately and all eyes are focused on her within a minute.  This has happened many times whilst I have been volunteering in the classroom and I don’t even hear the bell, I just notice the hush.  It is amazing.  The classroom is always so serene.  Now children will be children and there are exceptions to this rule, but they are so rare that when it happens everyone notices and comments ;-)

Another thing that keeps us (Jeremy and I) at Montessori is seeing what comes out at the other end.  The children who graduate from this school are extraordinarily mature, respectful and polite.  I don’t know if it is because of their parents or because of their education – I have a sense that it is both because I believe that parents who choose to send their children to a Montessori must hold the same values that are taught at the school.

I have been accused of molly-coddling my children because I teach them to respect other people and their personal space – apparently I’m not teaching them to cope in the real world, where people push you around, and step on you, if they have to, to get where they are going.  This is yet another reason why we stay at Montessori.  The children are taught to respect each other’s space and work and belongings, they are taught to help each other if they can instead of just leaving the slow ones behind, they are encouraged to be role models and take pride in that job and so much more.  If every child in the world were taught these “age old” values then maybe the world would be a better place for everyone.

There are so many people out there who think that Montessori is just an elitist, private system for parents who have money to throw around, looking for an alternative style of teaching.  Well, we are Montessori parents and we struggle each term to find the money for the school fees (and at our school we are definitely not alone in this struggle), not because we want our children to attend a private school but because we feel that Montessori will give them the best grounding for their future.

Once upon a time it was easy to find the money but in the last few years it has become increasingly more difficult for one reason or another.  As parents we have made a commitment to their Montessori education and if our only option was to sell our home to fund it then that’s what we will do – that is how strongly we believe in Montessori.

We received our children’s portfolios this evening and, as I was reading Amy’s with her, she told me proudly that she could do addition, subtraction and multiplication in her head and that her teacher was going to teach her how to do long division in her head and (in her own words) “I’m soooo excited!” 

My children love to learn and I believe I have Montessori and their classroom directors to thank for that.  Amy, at 9 years of age, will sit at the computer at home and start a research project – just for fun.  Charlotte, at just 5 years of age, will sit and read her reader and practice her new chart of words just because she wants to achieve success.  I never push my children to do “homework”, it has just become part of their lives because they want to learn.  They are both normal children – they are not geniuses or nerds or “brainiacs”.  They are just children that love learning.

If I start going into what Jeremy and I have learned as parents through Montessori you’ll be reading for another 10 pages, so suffice to say we believe Montessori has helped us to be the best parents that we can be.  It has and continues to provide the tools and knowledge that we have required to develop independence, confidence, resilience, caring, compassion and so much more in our children, and we believe that their Montessori education is one of the greatest gifts we can give them in life.

So, today I am ever so grateful to the Montessori system of education… thank you to my Mum and Dad who introduced me to it, to my grand-aunt who lived it, and all the people who continue to teach me each and every day of my life – At Canberra Montessori – Christy, Daja and Christine and at PVMS - Greg, Lynn, Grace, Bri, Annette, Kerryn, Glenn, Roisin, Shelly, Jeanette and soooo many more.