Finishing well

It does not seem possible that tomorrow we will begin the last full week of this school year; wasn't it just yesterday that we were incorporating and designing a logo?  The time really has flown by quickly and although a part of me is ready to have a break where I can sleep until 8:00 am, another part of me is sad to think that I will not see these children and our terrific staff each day!

Last week I spent some time writing a year in review newsletter for our Board and I was a little overwhelmed with all we have done!  I know that some prospective parents who like what they see when they visit our school are still hesitant because they feel we are too small to meet all of their child's needs.  While I certainly respect the opinion of parents, I don't think I agree with that sentiment--our students lacked for little this year!  In addition to providing an incredibly rich learning environment, we had a couple of field trips, a visit from the Mobile Science Lab and a couple of guest speakers, had school pictures, a Thanksgiving Feast, a couple of class parties, did two charitable events, entered a float in the Cumming Christmas parade, and re-enacted a Passover Seder, to name a few things!!

Our goals for the year were simple--we wanted the children to feel good about their ability to learn and to like coming to school.  By the grace of God we reached those goals and surpassed them!  The children did learn and for the most part they improved their attitudes and their self esteem.  Some of them greatly surpassed the expected academic goals for their age.  We want to finish well and look to the future to see what God has planned for us next year.

Our fence is finally up and the in-house cameras are functioning well. We are interviewing for our additional teacher and have enrolled two new students for next year, with several other appointments this week.  We are still awaiting our 501 c 3 status and will need to change our accreditation agency, so there is work to be done, but as always we trust that God will lead and will provide.  We appreciate your continued prayers and will try to get to the blog more often.

"I Love This"

We want school to be fun for children, but the truth is, there are certain academic disciplines that are not necessarily fun.  Some of our older students are behind academically and as we have worked with them it has become obvious that there are "holes" in what they do know.  Often it is in the form of processing skills, or lack there of.  Even if they can successfully complete a task they often do not understand it. In an attempt to help these students "catch up" we introduce them to the Montessori materials which can give concrete understanding.  We also have them produce work on paper to help 'cement' concepts and knowledge.

We use the Spelling Connections curriculum for spelling as it is very thorough and phonetically based, but we find it is challenging for them.  It requires thought and and writing---both of which are somewhat difficult for several of our students.

Today, as I was working in the classroom, I overhead a student say, "I love this"!  I could not see what he was working on, but presumed it to be some hands on lesson.  When I looked over to see what it was, I was thrilled to see it was one of our students, who is usually resistant to spelling work and he was commenting on his assigned spelling pages--that was a win!  As I smiled to myself I could not help but think, "I love THIS"!

There is work, and there is work

I love seeing children really connect with specific materials in the classroom and engage in real learning.  Sometimes it is an 8 year old delighting in locating the major rivers and  lakes in Asia, sometimes it is a 10 year old successfully labeling all of the parts of speech in a particular literary passage; this week it was a 6 year old learning to read a "whole" book and choosing to copy said book on paper!  When children are truly captivated they work for long periods of time, and when they complete their task they have a peaceful, satisfied demeanor that is difficult to describe.  We  Montessori teachers have great faith in the "inner teacher" of each child; we simply must observe carefully and introduce lessons to let "the match" happen.

There is a feeling of tiredness one feels after a day of cleaning house or doing yard work--it is usually just fatigue. There is a completely different feeling of tiredness after a great work out or a serious run; it is more of exhilaration.  It is the second type of fatigue that we observe when children engage in activities that are purposeful and fulfilling.  They will repeat an activity over and over until they are satisfied.  With very young children it may be pouring rice or building the pink tower.  With older children it is often more academic, such as spontaneously recording all the combinations of numbers to equal 20.  It is so different when children choose to challenge themselves instead struggling to complete the typical paperwork often assigned to children in traditional educational settings.

In the next few weeks we will begin to enroll children for our second year of school at the Montessori Children's House of North Forsyth; what an incredible testimony to God's faithfulness!  This first year has been nothing short of miraculous in many ways, and we look forward to next year when we believe He will send us a total of 15 students.  I am beginning to interview for an additional teacher and are trusting God to send us the perfect one!  Daily, I thank God for the way He is blessing our school and appreciate the prayers and support of so many!  Often I go home tire at the end of the day, but I am so thankful that it is the exhilarating tired having completed work that is so satisfying!  It is a joy to get to do what you love!

Valentine's for Kids

Valentine's Day is basically celebrated by two groups of people:  those who are in love and children who have visions of eating conversation hearts and chocolate candy.  Since we do not encourage either of those things with the children at school, what would be the best way to celebrate Valentine's Day with children?  We decided to focus on love--God's love for us, our love for Him, and brotherly love between each other.

Paul taught that as the Spirit of God is alive in our lives we will display His fruit.  Much like we can look at an apple tree, or a peach tree, an orange tree, a banana tree, or any other fruit bearing plant and identify the type of tree it is, so people should be able to observe us and by the fruit we bear, know that we have His Spirit in us.  Our Bible discussions this week focused on those fruits--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  We discussed what each of those things mean and what it looks like in our behavior to exhibit those qualities.

We made a form, bordered in hearts, for each child to give to every other child.  This special Valentine includes a space for the giver to list at least three positive qualities they appreciate in that person.  It could be one of the fruits of the Spirit or any other encouraging trait.  It was interesting to see how the children thoughtfully considered each of their friends and the uniqueness of that person.

Yes, we will have a little party with red fruit, heart shaped cheese, valentine cookies, and juice.  We decorated paper bags and will let the children exchange any Valentines they bring from home, but our emphasis will be on how much God loves us and how we can express His love to those around us.

How do you celebrate Valentine's Day with children?

Monday Melodies

Often when I observe children working in a Montessori classroom it reminds me of listening to a lovely symphony; thus was the case this morning.  It began with a time of tuning up.  The children arrived slowly over a period of about 10 minutes.  As they entered the room they started their routine by  washing hands and selecting an activity; that is when the music began.  A couple of children warmed up in the library, glancing through familiar titles.  Three banded together to assemble a floor puzzle of the Presidents, and one soloist carefully arranged silk flowers in 6 different vases and then decorated each of the tables.  It was a lovely harmony of activity and spontaneous socialization.

During our morning meeting, one could almost hear the unison as the children recited pledges, read Bible verses, and shared prayer requests.  Although their ages and grades are varied, their spirit of curiosity, and joy unite them.  It is a lovely sound.  By the end of the day I had observed many choruses produced by this very alive yet soothing group of musicians.  The youngest and newest member enjoyed repeating his part several times--rehearsing it over and over to perfection.  The more seasoned players delighted in tutoring their less skilled colleagues while building their own self confidence.  The melodies were enchanting.

Some days the tempo is more stimulating, and the volume less soothing, but today the orchestration was perfect and the music delightful.

Praying Boldly

Last week our pastor, Andy Stanley, challenged our prayer life a little.  He suggested that often we pray mundanely and do not ask God for Boldness.  While I agree with him, in principal, I believe that throughout the journey of this school I have consistently asked God to bless us in such a way that only He could get the credit.  I also believe I have been faithful to give Him all the credit every step of the way.

I have been asking Him for 2 or 3 more students this semester.  Two would get us to the financial 'break even' point and three would give us a little breathing room.  So after last Sunday's message, I boldly asked Him to please direct 2 or 3 students to us now.  We only want to enroll children that He brings, but surely there were a couple out there who simply had not found us yet.

That being said, it has been a rough week.  My husband was out of town on business all week, I got sick on Tuesday and missed 2 and a half days of work, and our teacher had a medical emergency with her eldest daughter and missed a day and a half--not our best week.  But I had Boldly asked God to send us some students NOW, and with what I can only attribute as some Heavenly humor, He chose to answer my prayer.  Not only did He send us 2 students, but they are siblings whose parents have been looking for a Christian Montessori school for a long time, and they came to visit us while I was sick and Sherry was distracted!!!  "when I am weak, He is strong."  They are great kids, our students fell in love with them and see them as an answer to their prayers (yes the children have also been praying for more students), and I really believe that they will be a great 'fit'.

So we are thanking God for His perfect timing and grateful for the challenge to ask God for big things--things only He can do, and to ask with boldness!

Kids say the cutest things

During the month of December the children attempted to memorize the first 19 verses of the second chapter of Luke, and because of the poetic nature of the language, we opted to have them learn the King James Version.  To help them with understanding, we selected about a dozen of the words we felt they might not know and typed them on small cards with definitions on other cards, thus creating a matching lesson.  To introduce the lesson I reviewed them at group time by asking the children if they knew what the word meant.  The words included "abiding", "with haste", "espoused", etc.  Of course the children did not know any of these words, but then I asked if anyone knew what "abroad" meant, and one of the younger boys excitedly waved his arm, "I know, I know--a girl" he said proudly! :)

(BTW, they all learned the first 15 verses perfectly and most got all the way through verse 19!)

At lunch last Sunday, we were eating with my daughter and her best friend Maureen.  During the mealtime discussion my daughter told a story about her boyfriend who is a deployed marine.  Ryan thought for a moment and said, "Hey mom, Maureen and marine are homonyms, right?"  I think he is getting it!!

We're Back!!

It is impossible to believe that we are 2 weeks into the new year and that we have been in school for four months!!  I know you think I have abandoned the blog; I simply needed a little hiatus, but hopefully I am back and thrilled to report to you on our first semester.


As I have consistently stated, this school is the direct result of God leading us and we pray that everything we do is only because of His blessing.  We had some specific goals and He has exceeded our expectations in so many ways.  First of all--God brought us the perfect teacher to begin our journey.  Miss Sherry is not only an extremely competent reading and math teacher, but she is compassionate, caring, and very dedicated.  She and I work so well together.  She is definitely the lead teacher, but her weaknesses are my strengths and my strengths are where she is weak.  In a small school we both wear several hats, and have many non-conventional duties, but we share them and for the most part our days are filled with joy!


We asked God to send us the children He wanted to be here.  I am disappointed that He brought so few--mostly because it means that Edgar and I must financially support the school for much longer, but am so thankful for the five we have!!  The big WIN is that I can assure you, the changes we have seen in our students over the last few weeks can only be attributed to God!  We knew that many of the students came to us with a low self esteem and/or a dislike of school, so our first goal was to create an environment where children loved to learn and would feel successful. I truly believe we have met that goal!  On the days when I become frustrated with the lack of prospective students, I go into the classroom and look at the incredible children that He has given us!  They are learning, they interact more like siblings than peers, and they are feeling so much better about their own abilities.


Lastly, I have loved seeing the children grow in their understanding of God's Word and their desire to learn about Him. We have seen their prayers mature, their ability to memorize scripture increase, and their ability to apply the truths they are learning expand.  We are on an incredible journey together and we are so grateful for the opportunity.  We still need your prayers, and we long to have more students because we know their are more children who need to be here (and we need the money) but we are more confident today than we were 6 months ago, that this is exactly what we need to be doing!!