Montessori Beirut

We are looking to hire a full-time Casa guide for the scholastic year 2021/2022. Interested candidates, kindly send us an email to [email protected]

Montessori Beirut is looking for AMI certified 3-6 guides who are native English speakers for the scholastic year 2021/2022, if interested kindly send us your CV.

Thank you for all your wonderful messages and comments! The love we received from our beautiful community is humbling.

Works have restarted. We will fix it. It will be more beautiful than ever and we will rise again.

We just wish we didn’t have to keep proving our perseverance and resilience in this country.

Hold your loved ones a little closer today, having them with you is a blessing today and every day.

On Wednesday the 20th of May, 2020 at 4:00 pm will be hosting another women support session. This time the theme is listening to our hearts to tune in with whatever is happening inside us, and tap into what we are feeling during these times.

Please DM us or send us an email to [email protected] if you are interested to join.

Kindly note that places are limited.

We are currently living a life we have not prepared for. All the family is staying home, parents are working from home or for the less fortunate of us have lost their jobs, parents are also being forced to home school their children, COVID-19 has left people physically and mentally exhausted, and let’s not forget the financial crisis this country has been going through!

We see you mamas, this is not an easy time for anyone.

This is why we have created two support groups, one in Arabic with Ms. Nada Kastoun () it will be happening this Saturday April 11th at 10:00 am.

The other session will be in English with Ms. Nathaly Gattas () on Thursday April 16th at 4:00 pm.

Places are limited. These sessions are free of charge. Kindly email us on [email protected] if you are interested in attending and specify which session you’d like to attend.

This time is for you mamas, for you to be heard, to let it out and to be supported. Let’s take care of ourselves in order to be able to better take care of our families.

This week we are back again with our Peaceful Parenting sessions on Thursday the 12th of March, 2020 at 4 pm. The emails have been sent.

If you are interested in attending and have not received an email, please send us your email address so that we send you all the information.

If you do plan to attend kindly RSVP as soon as possible because places are limited and the workshop fills up quickly.

Nature.

We are lucky to be located only 10 minutes away from one of the greenest areas in the city. Horch Beirut. Last week we got to have our first of many nature days.

Not only did the children learn so much about signs of the beginning of spring, they got to spot different types of birds, flowers and trees. They also got to climb trees!!!

Being in nature is a lesson by itself. This will definitely be one of our many visits to this beautiful place so we can watch spring evolve.

Language.

The beauty of having a mixed aged classroom is that we have some children who don’t read, some who are at the beginning of their reading journey and some experts.

This creates a none competitive atmosphere in the classroom and more of a collaborative dynamic.

The readers can help the beginners (and children learn better from each other than they do from adults!) and they can read to the younger children.

The younger children have this vision into what they will be able to do in the future and they get curious about what they need to learn to get there.

Every child knows they are on a journey for knowledge. If they don’t know something they are simply not there YET.

The little compliments the readers get from the rest also boosts their confidence and makes them more excited to read.

Everyone wins in a mixed age classroom!

Culture.

Part of the Montessori culture work is geography. These map puzzles are used purely as puzzles at the beginning.

Once the puzzle becomes easy to build, it means they have a deep understanding of where the countries are located and how they look like.

We later move on to naming the countries, identifying their flags, naming the capitals, discovering the oceans and seas in/around every continent, learning about different cultures in that continent, the type of animals found there, the musical instruments that originated from that content/country, the type of food they eat, the type of biomes found, the famous land marks.... the list is really endless and is fueled by the child’s curiosity and thirst for knowledge.

It’s beautiful to watch a child’s horizons broadened and discovering that there are plenty of people in this world that look, act, think, eat, live and talk in ways so different than them and are yet connected to them in so many ways.

Sensorial.

This is the trinomial cube, the physical representation of the algebraic equation (a+b+c)^3.

However, this material is not used to each Math at this stage it is used to challenge the child to find patterns and spatial relationships. It is best to think of these as three-dimensional puzzles.

This later develops further in Elementary and is used to learn Maths and algebra.

But for now, for this stage it is a challenging puzzle that they love to deconstruct and reconstruct until it has been absorbed completely.

Math.

Let’s get back to Math some of the most impressive Montessori material.

This child is doing addition with what we call the ‘stamp game’. She had decided to pick very large numbers 6666+9999 and when she got to the sum (16,665) she had discovered that there is a number even bigger than a thousand: TEN THOUSAND!!!

She then started asking what’s bigger than 10,000? A hundred thousand! And what’s bigger than that? ONE MILLION!

She made small stamps for all these numbers because what if she wants to do addition with even bigger numbers?

And that, that is the beauty of Montessori’s approach to education!

Sewing.

Sewing is another practical life activity that the kids love.

This activity teaches eye hand coordination, concentration and patience. Not to mention the life skill of sewing itself.

The pouch took several days to complete, but the end result made the child so proud!

She made a pouch for her toys and was very excited to take it home and use it. This is the type of attitude we want to foster in our children. They are capable of doing anything, they don’t have to be consumers all the time!

Our new mother support group is happening on Saturdays!

Whether you have been a mother for a day or a million days, we all know how hard it could be to find a community that listens, understands and supports you.

If you feel like you could use any form of support, join us this Saturday.

This event will take place one Saturday every month, it’s free of charge but will require a commitment of attendance.

The discussions will be held in Arabic for this support group.

For more information please send us you email.

See you all beautiful mamas this Saturday!

Happening this Thursday! Emails have been sent! If you are interested and haven’t received the email, kindly send us your email. See you all on Thursday @ 4pm!

Music.

Music in a Montessori classroom can be expressed in many ways, from songs to rhythms to making beats with our bodies... yet the most interesting and beautiful musical material in the classroom are the bells.

These iconic material are part of the introduction of children to music, they are used as a sensorial lesson at first, training the child’s ear to hear the distinct difference between every note. Later they are used to play songs and introduce the notes names, in Elementary they even start composing their own music!

This Thursday we will be repeating last week’s talk about peaceful parenting ‘how to talk so kids will listen’. Kindly RSVP for the talk by email or PM.

Looking forward to meeting everyone!

This Friday the 14th of February, 2020 from 10 am till noon we will be hosting our first open house! Join us for a morning full of Montessori goodness :) You can take a tour of the classroom, we can answer all your questions, and most importantly we can meet you over a cup of coffee or tea!

For anyone planning to attend please RSVP here, through email or by calling 70-841274. Places are limited!

Sewing.

Sewing is part of our practical life curriculum. It also falls under independence and self care.

What’s more is that sewing develops eye hand coordination which is very important in writing and coloring and many other ‘adult’ work they’ll have to do later in life.

Another skill is sewing! Children learn to fix broken buttons, make things and embroider and that boosts their confidence and gives them a life long gift that people have lost throughout the years.

Creativity! It opens a new window to unleash the child’s creative potential in a beautiful way.

Now what I’d like to know is how old were you when you first learnt to sew?

We are so sorry! But the spots ran out pretty quickly! We hear you and we know you’d like to attend, but to keep things short and intimate we have to limit attendees.

Looking forward to meeting everyone who registered and hopefully we can meet you all soon!

It’s time for our 3rd workshop! The emails have been sent, please let us know if you haven’t received your copy or if you’d like to receive a copy of the details.

Looking forward to seeing you this Thursday!

Art.

Art in Montessori comes from the child, it is initiated by the child and the child is left to express whatever it is they want to express through it.

There are certain ‘techniques’ we ‘teach’ or we have for inspiration. And if the children want to use them them they can, otherwise there are millions of tools to express what you want to do.

Since children are the ones creating you will never find two pieces of work that look similar or identical, just like our children.

At this age group art is a still solo work therefore no one is looking at the other’s work for inspiration and no one is comparing their work with any other child in the classroom.

The time spent on a project however long or short is their own time and the results are absolutely mesmerizing.

‘Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.’ - Pablo Picasso.

Self care.

Buttoning activity. Children learn to button with both big and small buttons in order to assist them to dress themselves.

This activity although pretty simple for adults is actually quite complicated for young children. It requires a lot of focus and control.

Most of the activities that are presented to children have a lot of direct (buttoning their own shirt) and indirect (concentrated and eye hand coordination) lessons.

This three year old went from finding this task difficult to perfecting the task in a week. She kept doing it over and over until she mastered it. Now she does it just to practice!

Language.

When it comes to reading children are interested in it at different times. However when you notice a child interested in reading, you pick up on the signs at the right time and you give them the right tools... *BAM* this child is reading long and hard words in a few weeks!

This 5 year old went from not being able to read before the holidays to reading little books in 3 weeks!

Not only that she moved from not being interested in writing to writing sentences confidently! (Mind you there are lots of spelling mistakes but who cares this comes with time!)

The change was incredible, the speed of the progress was quite humbling to watch.

Children go in and out of sensitive periods of learning. But when you catch the sensitive period and give them what they need it’s magical.

Dirt.

Children need to play with mud and get dirty and experience nature in all it’s forms and beauty.

Depriving children from becoming dirty is depriving them from nature and there is nothing crueler than that!

What is a little dirt in the hands in comparison to the grand meal that they made ‘mama suta and baba suta’ (don’t ask me what that is) and some sort of grassy soup and a few chocolate dim sums. For dessertthey prepared chocolate and coffee ice cream but they mixed up ingredients and put sugar instead of salt! They had a long discussion on who was responsible to put the sugar in the recipe! 🤷🏻‍♀️

Dirty hands will get cleaned but a chance to learn, play and be creative that will never be scrubbed off!

The email has been sent, if you are interested in attending and have not received an email, please send us an email to [email protected]

Looking forward to meeting everyone!

Practical life.

Practical life in Montessori teaches children life skills: how to iron, fold clothes, wash dirty clothes, hang wet clothes, dust, sew, wash dishes, sweep, prepare meals... the list is endless really.

So why are we teaching children to iron? First and foremost for the obvious reason that this is a life skill that needs to be taught sooner or later and that the earlier they learn it the better they are at it.

Second of all because it involves risk. Children are taught how to safely use an iron and we talk about how dangerous it could be before they start using it. This gives the child a lot of responsibility, and with responsibility comes great pride and happiness. The adult trusted this child with an iron and this boost his confidence.

Third of all like many of the activities it teaches sequencing. There are steps you need to take to insure that the clothes are ironed properly. This sequence will teach logic in thinking.

This is a travel iron (perfect for tiny hands) put on medium heat (low heat did not iron the wrinkles. The child stayed engaged for more than 15 minutes! On top of all that there were no injuries involved.

Life lesson of the day!

Refining senses.

These are the baric tablets. They differ ever so slightly in weight.

Students wear a blind fold to tune in to their sense of touch/feel. They feel the difference between the light tablets, the ones a little heavier and the heaviest ones.

This exercise could be a bit challenging for adults. But with children and with the right focus and concentration they tend to love working with them.

Did you know that in Montessori they have activities to train all your senses? We will be sharing many of them here.

Geography.

Understanding ourselves requires understanding the world around us as well.

Children learn about continents, the animals that live in them, the food they are famous for, instruments of that continent, flags of countries there, landmarks found there and particular cultural activities held in every continent.

Understanding the world, knowing that there are a lot of things outside our direct circle broadens our horizons, humbles us and makes us aware of the different ways people live all over the world.

We are not the children of one country and one continent we are the children of the world.