Blog
Going Out - Stalking and Tracking
Posted by Greg MacDonald on
There are skills associated with safely exploring nature, and elementary children find learning these skills to be irresistible. Even if their access to wild areas is limited or non-existent, they can apply the same skills to experiences in parklands, in gardens, and even in vacant lots. What follows are some notes on skills that can be introduced to elementary children ...
Correcting the Children's Work
Posted by Greg MacDonald on
When “correcting” becomes “error analysis”, it becomes a tool for us, it enhances our work with the children, and we are using this old idea of “correction” in a way that supports each child’s self construction ...
Montessori and the Words of Nym
Posted by Greg MacDonald on
Here's a new nym group, and two other word groups that elementary children will LOVE to explore!
The Symbol for Pi Isn’t Pi! (Or is it?)
Posted by Greg MacDonald on
One of the charts used as we tell The Story of Our Numerals depicts Ancient Greek Numerals. Upon inspection (and comparison with the text of the story), it seems that although the story states that the symbol used by the Ancient Greeks to represent the numeral “5” was pi (the first letter of the Ancient Greek word for five, pente), the chart, appears to depict the Greek letter gamma for the numeral 5! So what’s going on? The Ancient Greeks had 2 different numerals systems, one of which succeeded the other. First came the Acrophonic system (also called Attic or Herodian), then later,...
Montessori Does It Backwards!
Posted by Greg MacDonald on
Here are some examples of these astonishing “backwards” principles that can be observed in the Montessori approach. They are as remarkable today as they were when Montessori first discovered them