Dear Parents,

Wasn't the snow terrific! I hope you all had a chance to build snowmen and slide down hills. It was a beautiful happening and all without missing a day of school.

We are very fortunate at MCS to have families who understand the concepts set forth by Maria Montessori and who choose to live their lives with the attitude of giving  their children the best environments and the best tools for lifelong learning.

Underlying the Montessori method of education is a theory of human life that parents and teachers should regularly reflect upon. Maria Montessori was convinced that the human person is basically good and that the proper environment would invite one's inherent goodness to flourish. Further, the world in which we dwell is orderly and meaningful. If we handle the world with care, we shall experience the freedom that becomes the source of human dignity.

The idea of interpersonal growth is central to the Montessori model. This means that the growth and development of the child is proportionate to and integrally related to the growth and development of the adults in the child's world. If the adults are not growing, it is not realistic to assume that the child will attain his or her true potential.

These few basic insights challenge the adult to reflect seriously on one's own understanding of the human, to become sensitive to the child's rhythm, and to be more attentive to the environment that one is shaping for the child.

Thank you for the support that you give to your child's world. Let's continue with our exploration of the mathematics curriculum.

Mathematics-Golden Bead Material

One of the most appealing materials in the classroom, the golden beads consists of small golden beads that are each a single unit. When ten beads are wired together they become a "ten bar." One hundred beads form a square called a "hundred," while a thousand beads make up a cube also called a thousand. In conjunction with the beads there are also numeral cards.

There are three basic exercises. First the child builds quantities with the materials. In the second exercise, the child finds the cards to represent the numbers the Director asks for orally. Lastly, the child learns to combine the numerals on the card with the corresponding quantitiy of Golden Bead material.

The Golden Bead material is also used to introduce the concept of the four operations. Parallel to learning the concept of mathematical operations, the child uses specialized materials for the memorization of math facts.

These materials are found in both the Children's House and the Elementary Classrooms because mastery is based on each child's developmental readiness.

Peggy Higgins