A kind, gentle North Austin community school
“The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six.” –Maria Montessori As we head into the heat of another Austin summer, the children are cheerfully milling about the classroom this week. We can’t help but notice how much the […]
Academics at all levels have researched how we learn. There are myriad pedagogies that we won’t get into here. (It probably goes without saying but we like Montessori best!) One aspect within the question of how we learn is “What happens when mistakes are made?” Carol Dweck made famous the phrase “growth mindset” in her […]
If you’ve ever seen a two-year-old work her way around a room and pick up nearly every item within reach, then you know the appeal that simple objects have to a young child. Everyday items can be so attractive for the child to look at, to pick up and carry around. Over a century ago, […]
The sun may be scorching outside, and we wish we could spend more time on our playground, but it is SO nice to be back! The classroom is again buzzing with activity. Summertime can be a chaotic. We travel, go to various summer camps, grandparents visit. It’s hot outside, so we go to movies, stay […]
We’ve seen it again and again–the young child of just 1 or 2 years old who really, REALLY wants to read. They eagerly watch the older children in our classroom. They look at picture books and say they they are reading. All of our little students are so eager to read books, but it takes […]
Recently two of our older students, a 5- and a 5 1/2-year-old, have been enjoying working on embroidery together. And by recently, we mean, the past 6 or 8 weeks. They have done a few other Montessori works here and there, but sewing has been their main focus. It’s been long enough that we teachers […]
This weekend our Fall Camping trip was another lovely time enjoying the natural surroundings of the Texas countryside. Nature always gives us twists. This year, the river was too low for swimming, but we found that instead we could just walk right across to the far bank. Instead of thousands of tiny green worms like […]
In early August HMS teachers returned, with our annual ritual of preparing the classroom for a new school year. With this unending heatwave we have also re-organized our normal daily schedule to accommodate the blistering afternoons. We’re used to spending the end of our school-day on our lovely playground, but this month we’re enjoying the […]
This spring when we began studying desserts a conversation was started among kids and adults. What we thought might be a few weeks’ study of food and nutrition was lengthened by the children’s enthusiasm and curiosity about cuisines and cooking and the stories that accompany our food choices. At first, we brought in pies and […]
Kids are inherently curious about everything around them. This winter at HMS has been no exception.
This year, we had a special lesson on the sense of smell. In particular, gingerbread cookies.
One sunny afternoon last winter, our playground saw a group of children spontaneously gather each other for a game. Not just a simple imagination-type-game, but this group of children between the ages of 2 and 5 decided to play a game of charades. The rules of the game were that one child would get up […]