Montessori Tides School – Jacksonville Beach, FL

A toddler is constantly growing in independence and responsibility, and a Montessori Toddler Directress is striking a balance between offering to help, and holding back when the child can do for himself. An important saying among Montessori communities is, “Every unnecessary help is a hindrance to development.” Montessori Tides prepared Toddler environment provides a child with both proper materials and experiences of discovering independently and thereby becomes confident.

Along with cooler weather comes jackets, so in the video below, our Montessori Tides Toddler Program, shares a child’s effort at the “jacket flip”. This method is used in the classroom because it allows the child to put on their coat almost completely independently. By also using this method at home the child can practice, and master their self-dressing skills.

Along with the video demonstration, I have also stepped out in words how to aid a child in putting on their own coat and

As you may have remembered from our last blog we are focusing on the beginning of a new year on our growth from 2011. Last time we marked the growth in the child at Montessori Tides School. This time we mark the growth in the school itself.

Detailing this growth goes beyond an outward or upward measure. After all, real growth begins inwardly. As I have watched the school progress throughout 2011, I believe there are definite milestones worth admiring. Two of these milestones we have already discussed and celebrated. First, was the joy of having our upper-elementary classroom restored. Second, in 2011 we celebrated our 25th year in Jacksonville Beach.

An old proverb states that “as the twig is bent, so grows the tree.”We know that early childhood training does, indeed, set the direction of

Montessori Tides School continues to stoke the flame. In the video below, Nancy Hatton, Lead Lower-Elementary Directress shares to you a living and breathing story about teaching the child.

If you are unable to view the embedded video, click here.

Brad Hatton shared once, “Montessori teachers don’t find Montessori, Montessori finds them.” I feel this quote speaks volumes to the kind of teachers Tides beholds…those who are filled with a great love.

One day while observing in Ms. Nancy’s classroom a child was visiting from a conventional school with no prior Montessori experience. On that day I had a very special thought explode in my mind about Ms. Nancy. “There is nothing she couldn’t take on and that I am convinced of.” I now understand fully there is not a child Montessori Tides couldn’t teach because they

As 2011 draws to a close, it’s great to look back at a year as beautiful as it was extraordinary, detailing its many marks of growth. When gathering my thoughts to write this blog, I had a snapshot picture come into my mind.  In the snapshot I saw a hand marked measuring line. Similar to the one my grandmother has on the inside of her closet door. Each year she marked the height of her children, so she could see how much they had grown.This visual equivalent of growth began to resonate with me and I accepted to solely adopt this view is only the visible result of the unseen process that growth really is. When I think back to a family growth chart there is always a year or so where the measuring line appears the same, having an

When you use neutral colored shelves, instead of a toy box, they offer the possibility of displaying a toy in such a way that it attracts and lures the child to it. Each toy should be washed periodically and have all its parts. If a toy is difficult to store and keep neatly on the shelf, make an attractive box or use a colorful basket for it. Each toy that has removable parts should have a beautiful small box or basket for the storage of those parts. Using a wood awl and making a small hole in each piece can make marvelous handles, for wooden puzzles that do not have knobs. Put a little glue in the hole and insert a mini eye screw.

Toy rotation is a great system to implement for