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Global Speak

Kiddie Toes Montessori School (KTMS) holds true to its promise of providing its learners an avenue to grow -- not only locally, but globally. With today's fast-paced and ever changing way of life because of globalization, we all need to keep up.

The child today is the child of a global village. In a world where children are dressed in clothes made in China, bathed in soap made in Germany, fed with chocolates made in Switzerland, are made to watch tv shows produced in the US, and talk to a relative at the other side of the world through the internet... it is definitely undeniable how globalization has changed the way we live.

Although we at KTMS still believe that the best products (may it be food, entertainment, clothing or educational materials) are still from the local sources, we have to teach our learners how to cope in this ever changing, highly technical world.

We have started and included in our school curriculum a program called "Global Speak". In this program, the learners are taught not only phrases and words in different languages (English, Mandarin, French, Spanish, Thai, Japanese, Italian, Bahasa, etc), but they are also taught about each county's culture and tradition.

More importantly, they are taught about the current events and recent developments about each country -- from the typhoons in Asia, to the drought in Africa... from the elections in Burma, to the King's health situation in Thailand.

KTMS belives that at the core of holistic and global education, the learners have to be aware about what is happening around them, and made to participate in shaping a better common future for the world. We teach them how the human society is interdependent, and must therefore be united. We will teach them about peace and how to make their future sustainable and liveable. Lastly, we believe that this program will inculcate positive values and will enable the learners to thoughtfully evaluate their actions as global citizens.

For more inquiries about the program, and the KTMS holistic education, please email us at kiddie_toes@yahoo.com.

A Promise

A Promise
Opening Remarks
5th Moving Up Day
Kiddie Toes Montessori School
23 March, 2012

By:
Divine May Flor Mercado- David
School Directress


“I am a promise… “

This year’s Moving Up song starts with this line. And this completely encapsulates what Kiddie Toes Montessori School thinks of its learners. Each and every child of KTMS is a promise… a promise waiting to unfold. That is why we continuously strive to provide elevated and holistic learning to each child, such that every little promise can become a reality.

“I am a possibility…”

From our inception, we have always believed that children have choices. Their lives make up of numerous and endless possibilities waiting to be explored. And we have strongly believed that these possibilities can be tapped when children are given the independence to make choices, to commit mistakes, to grow.

“I’m a great big bundle of potentiality…”

We at KTMS treat each child as a package and bundle of potentials waiting to come out. That is why we provide each and every learner with opportunities for elevated education and holistic learning. We have organized and integrated a lot of new and innovative activities to our curriculum to ensure that their potentials will be realized.

And so we are here again at this time of the year. A time when we celebrate the full year of exciting, dynamic and truly great experience of learning. Welcome to our 5th moving up day.

We would also like to take this opportunity to welcome you to our new home… our new campus. Our new home is a realization of a promise we made to you, dear learners, parents, guardians and friends, that we will only give our learners the best. But like all other homes, ours won’t feel like a true home if it is empty. We hope that you will share our home with us.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for being with us, and keeping together amidst challenges. We are truly grateful. Salamat ng marami!

Lastly dear parents and guardians, let me just reiterate… this is our promise to you… we will ensure that each song we sing, each book we read, each plant we take care of, each step we take… will be for these children, for our learners, for these promises.

And for you dear learners… I hope you always keep in mind and at heart, all the things that we have taught you. And just to remind you, I am summarizing all these wonderful things we have taught you in five years… into 5 simple lessons:

Lesson 1: Use soft voices.
As long as you use soft voices and maintain respect for one another, the world will be a better and a more peaceful place to live in.

Lesson 2: Say thank you, please, and I’m sorry… and mean it.
Don’t forget these magic words. And when you say it, make sure that you say it with all your heart.

Lesson 3: Try again, but wait for your turn.
You may not succeed the first time. But you should try and try again. But always remember to patiently wait for your turn. And let others have their time and shine, too.

Lesson 4: Do your best, but have fun.
We want you to excel and to shine and to be the best of everything. But don’t forget that life is supposed to be fun! Smile and enjoy all the things that you do.

Lesson 5: Love your family, the community and the environment.
Learners, always remember that being successful, and being rich, and being popular and beautiful are useless without your family and your friends. Always remember to love not only your friends and family, but also the country and our environment.

So learners, parents, guardians and friends… our KTMS family… this is our promise to you… as long as you remember and keep to heart the things that you have learned from KTMS, all your dreams and aspirations will become realities.

Remember that we are all promises. Let us strive to be the best promise we can give to our family, to our society and to the world.

Again, welcome to this celebration. Let’s all have fun!

KTMS Summer Programme

Edible Garden

Kiddie Toes Montessori School (KTMS) envisions to provide its learners a natural playground that would them about the connections between food, health and the environment. Aside from our efforts in making the school “green” and environment-friendly, we also hope that children will learn about healthful and natural food, and how important it is for the body. Thus, we have developed and incorporated the “Edible Garden” into the project approach of our Lower Elementary curriculum.

With the Edible Garden project, the learners were involved in the daily process of soil enrichment, growing and harvesting herbs and vegetables, as well as taking care of the plants. In these photos, the Fourth Grade Learners took charge of planting Pechay (Bok Choy). They were deeply involved in watering their crops and taking care of the same. They were also made to experience harvesting their plants.

After harvesting, the Pechay were cooked and sauteed (Ginisang Pechay or Sauteed Bok Choy). The learners were then made to taste and sample their produce.

This activity does not only promote love for vegetable, and taking care of one’s health. It also promotes responsibility and accountability in terms of taking care and maintaining plants and crops.

There will be more exciting and innovative activities related to the Edible Garden in the future.

For more photos, please check the KTMS Facebook Account.

25 Ways to Just Be with your children

It’s not easy being a parent. No matter if you work outside the home, inside the home. No matter if you have one, two, three or fifteen children. No matter if you have a small house in a big city or a big house in a small city. No matter if you have money or very little money.

Raising children is hard work — at least it is if you are doing it right.

It’s really no wonder parents are spending more time than ever checking in on Facebook, smart phones, or doing project after project after project. It helps to have something to do rather than sit around and dwell on all the stuff we want to be able to do or used to be able to do but no longer can. This self-medicating with social media is harmful — as Rachel at Hands Free Mama has said so eloquently this week on her blog.

And yet our children don’t care how fancy we are as parents, or how many messages we get in an hour about our blog. The smaller they are the more they need us. The bigger they are, the more they need us. Sometimes, the more they need us, the more we want to slink away and find some blanket to crawl under. But it doesn’t have to feel that way.

Breaks for parents are absolutely essential. Absolutely.

There is a time and place for media and screens and technology. And there is a time and place for NO media and NO screens. It’s about being conscious, as a parent and a human being, about when and how we are turning to the computer or TV for simply boredom or laziness or seriously trying to avoid our lives.

To truly be awake to this life — these fleeting 18 years — we have but one choice to make each day: embrace our blessings and honor those around us. Practicing mindful choices each day is something that we have to model for our children or else they, too, will end up staring at screens all too much in their own life (like that picture above!).

There are many ways that you can just be with your children that are not hard work, that are not challenging or tiresome. By just being there, you may discover that your child will reach out to you simply because you are suddenly available. The magic in this list is that it’s just simply being together for a solid half hour or so but it offers up the most beneficial memories we can offer to children.

Here are some of our family’s favorites:

- Turn off the TV/computer/phones for one hour. (In our house, we limit daily screen time to a total of one hour except on movie nights).

- Have a work hour — they do homework and you work on a hobby like art or reading while sitting at the same table.

- Just listen to music. At our house, we call this a dance party.

- Light a candle for your children — one each.

- Surprise them with a celebration for trying hard on a test or homework and eat store bought cookies and milk.

- Sit on the couch while they play and read magazines. They will sit next to you eventually and ask, ”Whatcha reading?”

- Grab two balls and challenge everyone to find something fun to do with them outside.

- Snuggle under a blanket or put a puzzle together.

- Whip up a nice bowl of ice cream and laugh while you eat it.

- Watch TV with them if they insist on watching.

- Ask them open-ended questions about their day.

- Tell them something surprising about your day.

- Draw together, taking turns adding new lines on the same paper.

- Take a drive, taking turns picking the direction and sitting in silence as the unfamiliar landscape passes you by.

- Look at their baby photos.

- Tell them a funny story from their younger days.

- Tell them a funny story from your own childhood.

- In fact, tell them any story you can think of telling.

- Ask them to teach you how to do something. This is big. Very big.

- Ask them questions about their favorite things.

- Help them clean their room or the basement or the garage. Whatever. Lend a hand.

- Ask them for help with a problem.

- Hold a family meeting to just catch up.

- Announce that there will be no cleaning for just one day.

- Give them a coupon for a hug to use anytime they need it.


What kinds of things do you like to do with our family to just relax and be together with little expectations?


Source:
http://awesomelyawake.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/25-ways-to-just-be-with-your-children/

New Scientific Study Supports the Montessori Method

Thursday, 05 October 2006 09:27
Written by Administrator
Family Center



"new study in science magazine shows that montessori education leads to better outcomes than traditional methods"

Dr. Angeline Stoll Lillard has clearly summarized the research that explains why, after 100 years, the Montessori approach to education continues to be a phenomenal worldwide success.

Tim Seldin
President, The Montessori Foundation
Chair, The International Montessori Council



A study comparing outcomes of children at a public inner-city Montessori school with children who attended traditional schools indicates that Montessori education leads to children with better social and academic skills.

The study appears in the Sept. 29, 2006 issue of the journal Science. You can read more in a specical article and interview with Dr. Lillard that was published in the Fall 2006 issue of Tomorrow's Child magazine. Click here to download the PDF of tat article.

Montessori education is characterized by multi-age classrooms, a special set of educational materials, student-chosen work in long time blocks, a collaborative environment with student mentors, absence of grades and tests, and individual and small group instruction in academic and social skills. More than 5,000 schools in the United States, including 300 public schools, use the Montessori method.

The Montessori school studied is located in Milwaukee and serves urban minority children. Students at the school were selected for enrollment through a random lottery process. Those students who "won" the lottery and enrolled at the Montessori school made up the study group. A control group was made up of children who had "lost" the lottery and were therefore enrolled in other schools using traditional methods. In both cases the parents had entered their children in the school lottery with the hope of gaining enrollment in the Montessori school.

"This strategy addressed the concern that parents who seek to enroll their children in a Montessori school are different from parents who do not," wrote study authors Angeline Lillard, a University of Virginia professor of psychology, and Nicole Else-Quest, a former graduate student in psychology at the University of Wisconsin. This was an important factor because parents generally are the dominant influence on child outcomes.

Children were evaluated at the end of the two most widely implemented levels of Montessori education: primary (3- to 6-year-olds) and elementary (6- to 12-year-olds). They came from families of very similar income levels (averaging from $20,000 to $50,000 per year for both groups).

The children who attended the Montessori school, and the children who did not, were tested for their cognitive and academic skills, and for their social and behavioral skills.

"We found significant advantages for the Montessori students in these tests for both age groups," Lillard said. "Particularly remarkable are the positive social effects of Montessori education. Typically the home environment overwhelms all other influences in that area."

Among the 5-year-olds, Montessori students proved to be significantly better prepared for elementary school in reading and math skills than the non-Montessori children. They also tested better on "executive function," the ability to adapt to changing and more complex problems, an indicator of future school and life success.

Montessori children also displayed better abilities on the social and behavioral tests, demonstrating a greater sense of justice and fairness. And on the playground they were much more likely to engage in emotionally positive play with peers, and less likely to engage in rough play.

Among the 12-year-olds from both groups, the Montessori children, in cognitive and academic measures, produced essays that were rated as "significantly more creative and as using significantly more sophisticated sentence structures." The Montessori and non-Montessori students scored similarly on spelling, punctuation and grammar, and there was not much difference in academic skills related to reading and math. This parity occurred despite the Montessori children not being regularly tested and graded.

In social and behavioral measures, 12-year-old Montessori students were more likely to choose "positive assertive responses" for dealing with unpleasant social situations, such as having someone cut into a line. They also indicated a "greater sense of community" at their school and felt that students there respected, helped and cared about each other.

The authors concluded that, "when strictly implemented, Montessori education fosters social and academic skills that are equal or superior to those fostered by a pool of other types of schools."

Lillard plans to continue the research by tracking the students from both groups over a longer period of time to determine long-term effects of Montessori versus traditional education. She also would like to replicate the study at other Montessori and traditional schools using a prospective design, and to examine whether specific Montessori practices are linked to specific outcomes.

Lillard is the author of "Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius." More information is available at: http://www.montessori-science.org/. For a copy of the study in the journal Science, call 1-202-326-6440, or email: scipak@aaas.org .

Source:
http://www.montessori.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=286:new-scientific-study-supports-the-montessori-method&catid=73:research-supporting-the-montessori-approach&Itemid=38