Report of the Second Saturday Meetings

Month: September 2008

Venue: Arunodoy Montessori House of Children

Theme: Music in Houses of children

The right place for the topic was Arunodoy Montessori House of Children. The place was well set with musical instruments (which are a part of the environment) and a power point presentation of what is being done in the school. Mrs.Sumitha Mookerjee, herself being a musician talked about the importance of music in the life of human beings and how they can be introduced and related to the 4 areas of work of Exercises of Practical Life, Sensorial Materials, Arithmetic, Geography, History and mainly language. Songs were sung along with right instruments on numbers, seasons, different languages etc. Clips of songs related topics were shown to the participants. The program ended with salutations to the Gurus sung by Mrs.Mookerjee and her team of students

Month: August 2008

Venue: Prayag Montessori House of Children

Theme: Celebration in the Houses of Children

A warm welcome was given by the staff of ‘Prayag’. The whole house of children was decorated & represented the spirit of the ‘topic’. It looked as if a ‘celebration’ was on. The gathering was welcomed by Ananth, secretary of IMC-K. He thanked the host Amita Prashanth the founder of Prayag for creating such an environment.The meeting was well attended by over seventy members & there was a good participation.

‘Celebration’ is a part of every one’s life. The celebration is an expression of inner joy.

participants at the meeting

Ananth addressed the gathering. A discussion was held about ‘what is celebration’. ‘Why at all a man celebrates’. This led the gathering to ponder at some of the basics of celebration.

Later the focus was how we are celebrating in our daily life at present. The occasions are many. They vary right from birthday of individuals to national festivals. Each occasion is celebrated in its own way.

Then the discussion was on how we need to celebrate. Celebrations should be child centric. It is the child who needs to participate & he should be active in order to establish a healthy contact. The adult role should be a passive one by way of supporting & not doing everything by herself. Fortunately in India we have several reasons to celebrate & several aspects of our rich culture can be offered through these.

One can design the activities for such occasions, which takes care of exercises of practical life, sensorial, language, arithmetic, botany, history etc. We can have stories, art work, and exploratory activities on this occasion.

dusserah display

So the celebrations can go on still supporting the developmental needs of the child. Celebrations need not be about creating noises, breaking the social norms etc. They can be done as part of life without disturbing the peaceful working of the child. The order set in a ‘Montessori house’ should not be shaken at any cost.

The meeting had a good interaction with people contributing their thoughts & experiences.

Later Amita Prashant presented a well compiled information through power point, about various celebrations held in ‘Prayag’. Plenty of clippings indicated how well the celebrations were planned, prepared & executed.

Arrangements were made in the environment for members to view how those celebrations were made. The photos of the god & the relevant things for the particular festival were displayed as we would do in households. All the important festivals like Deepavali, Onam, Sankranti, Christmas etc were depicted this way. It was a treat to watch.

The meeting ended with good refreshments & in a traditional way by offering ‘thambula’ to all the participants by the team of ‘Prayag’

Month: July 2008

Venue: Discover Montessori House of Children

Theme: Preparation of the child for English Language activities in Montessori Houses of Children

The topic dealt was preparation of the child for English Language activities. It was the first Second Saturday Meetings held at Discover Montessori House of Children. There was a gathering of more than 80 people representing different schools. The importance of certain preparatory activities prior to the well-known sand paper letters and movable alphabet materials were stressed upon. The discussion also included, the help given to children once the explosion into writing and reading takes place.