The Montessori Mission

shoreenbeckford (42)in #steemit • 7 years ago

We all just want the best for our kids! The sacrifices, the frustrations, the deprivation, working long hours...all so they can be better than we are, have more than we have...achieve their potential. It's not easy for us parents! Do you sacrifice time with your children so you can bring in money to be able to afford to give them more life altering experiences and afford for childcare? Or do you sacrifice one salary for a parent to be at home and be there for the child's needs?? It's the modern family dilemma. In our family, we sacrificed one salary. Mine. It would have cost my total salary at the time to afford childcare anyway! So it was almost a no-brainer...except that living on one salary after recently moving into a new house, with a young family of course means cutbacks. Thank goodness for cryptocurrency!!

So skip forward to today and we are in the throws of trying to decide what nursery to send our little one too. Who can I entrust with my precious heart??? My initial instinct was to homeschool because after 3 years of one-on-one teaching, I can see how much she has learned and I felt like she would get bored and left behind in a class of 20-30 children. Homeschooling full time is a big (expensive) commitment but as my daughter already attends a nursery a few hours a couple of times a week, she loves it...and she still comes home and asks to do numbers or letters...I think whether I home school or not, I just naturally teach and she loves to learn. Her little beaming face when she gets an addition sum right or reads a word correctly using phonics just warms my heart. Anyway, I digress...

Once I had established that I will be blending a school nursery with home school I had to decide on a nursery! As I don't yet drive (speaking of sacrifices!) I was looking at local schools. We have one outstanding school locally with quite an old rating, and the rest are rated GOOD. I like to go by my gut feeling and I just felt like these schools were a compromise...now don't get me wrong, we all have to compromise, we won't always get what we want...but that was before steemit broke all the rules!!!

After speaking to a few members on here regarding homeschooling, the Montessori method came up, so I decided to see if there were any Montessori Schools nearby. It turns out there is one! The Oakfields Montessori School and this it how they describe their Kindergarten:

The formative years of a child’s education are ones of excitement, exploration and discovery, where they will begin to make friends, experience new opportunities and learn about a world beyond the secure confines of their immediate home life.

We know and understand that this is a very important time for both you and your child. Our Kindergarten staff are highly experienced, supportive and caring and are dedicated helping your child grow in confidence and independence. Each child is given one-to-one teaching and our excellent pupil to staff ratios ensure each child will have activities suited to their unique needs.

Our children enjoy a huge range of activities and our spacious, purpose-designed Kindergarten offers plenty of green space and endless opportunities for indoor and outdoor free flow play and learning. As well as a large classroom, enclosed playground and outdoor learning area, the children enjoy access to the beautiful adjoining orchard, the extensive grounds and other areas.

Our children follow a specifically-tailored and richly diverse EYFS curriculum, flavoured with the many positive influences and ideals of Montessori teaching, which allows children to grow naturally, retain their individuality and develop their unique personality. The EYFS is made up of seven areas of learning. The three prime areas are Communication and Language; Personal, Social and Emotional Development; and Physical Development. The four specific areas are Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding The World and Expressive Art and Design. Whilst the curriculum is planned to maximise learning in each of the seven areas, our ethos is very much to promote cross-curricular learning both indoors and outdoors.

Gradually, each child builds up a strong sense of independence coupled with an ability to sustain concentration and develop their own thinking. Confidence grows as their range of skills increases, along with a true passion for learning and discovery.

How AMAZING does this school sound😍😍😍 Seriously!!
I highlighted a few statements in bold that really stood out for me but I could have hightighted everything!! It really sounds like the next best thing to one-on-one teaching from a parent. Once I started looking into this school, I really felt much more at ease in my gut than the knot I had when investigating other schools.

So why am I writing this post? We as the steemit community, can build and rebuild nations, raise money for ill members, change lives...This is not just any social Media Platform! The natural genius of our children can be nurtured and allowed to thrive in the best environment for them with the help of this community. Our children are the future, we need to put everything we have into making them the most capable human beings they can be, so they are fully equipped to take over from us when the time comes. I'm just coming to the end of my studies to qualify as a personal trainer (which is why I haven't been able to post very regularly...that is soon going to change!) so I'm fully intending to provide great value and hopefully some useful insights that will help build this platform, so...this post is not begging for upvotes! I know I don't have to becuase upvotes will come if my posts are helpful and valuable. I KNOW that Steemit is a platform FOR the people BY the people and I am going to prove it because there is no greater statement than "steemit paid for my child's education". I will keep you all updated on her progress, what she's learned and the inner workings of this school, which I hope will help parents make the decision on what educational path to take for their children a bit easier, if not more informed!

I feel that we are at the beginning of a new era that threatens to equalise humanity (BIG statement!)...money is no longer just reserved for the rich, but if you are open and willing, everyone has opportunities to be able to make an income to start to afford the best services and achieve better in life than our parents. It's an amazing thing (understatement!) And I for one am humbled to have been granted the opportunity to join in the ride.