Latest / Let Them Fly - Heather Harries Ed Hub / All about Montessori with Siog Moore.

Transcript

All about Montessori with Siog Moore. · Let Them Fly - Heather Harries Ed Hub

0:18
SPEAKER_01: And welcome to Let Them Fly.
0:21
SPEAKER_01: Our podcast is all about supporting mothers and parents in the community within Jobai.
0:27
SPEAKER_01: And today I'm delighted to welcome Shiog and you're an early years educator, and in particular, you're into Montessori.
0:35
SPEAKER_01: And Montessori is one of those words that keeps popping up.
0:38
SPEAKER_01: And I think parents keep thinking that they they should know something about it, and perhaps they don't.
0:43
SPEAKER_01: I know that you've been three decades, dare I mention, working in nursery three.
0:47
SPEAKER_01: That's really scary when you say those kind of numbers for the same age as me in that case.
0:51
SPEAKER_01: And I think what we really want to do today is we just want to explore Montessori, Montessori style nursery training, and why it's so great for children.
1:01
SPEAKER_01: Now I know you've opened Little Anne nursery and you described it as the place where you'd like your children to go.
1:08
SPEAKER_01: Tell me a little bit more about what shaped that for you.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: When my first two children were just three, maybe two and one, I was told I needed to find a nursery for them because I really thought I could keep them at home forever and ever and ever.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: And I looked around and I really didn't have confidence in what I saw.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: There was a lot of control, there was a lot of bossiness, there was a lot of judgment.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't know half of what I know now, but I knew I didn't want my children being policed at such a young age.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: I wanted them to be able to explore happily and make mistakes happily.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: Like not that they're mistakes, but just be discoverers.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: So I did work in a place for a while and I found that through working there, I found what I really wanted.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: And what I really wanted was that teachers would be stably in one classroom, that they would work consistently with the same assistants, but that the sis assistants should be educated.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: So important.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: Teacher has so much admin to do.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: If her assistant isn't educated, then she's just babysitting.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: So that was really important for me.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: So qualified teachers, educated assistants.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: School trips were out for me.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't see the benefit in Dubai because Dubai is such a great place to travel around for families, everywhere.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can get anywhere interesting within 30 minutes.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: I used to say 20.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, nowadays, yeah.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: So you can get anywhere pretty easily.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: So we didn't need to do school trips.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: What would the children remember?
2:47
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's my raison d'etre.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: What do the children remember?
2:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and do you know everything you've described is what you would think is a basic, that's like the most basic offering that you would expect for your children.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: And clearly that wasn't what you could find within Jabai.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: No, are probably in many places, like where you have, you know, I'll say to parents, we'll stand in a class for 15 minutes, and I'll talk about Montessori and about ourselves.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: But I'll say to them, feel what's happening in the class, watch how the children change activities.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's clapping their hands, pointing, saying, let's all get together now, let's all line up, let's all sit down, let's all stand up, let's do maths.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: It's none of that.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: It's just allowing it to happen, but in a safe, structured environment.
3:39
SPEAKER_01: And where did you learn about Montessori?
3:41
SPEAKER_01: When did when did Montessori?
3:43
SPEAKER_01: Because that's very much what you described, is very essential to Montessori.
3:46
SPEAKER_01: But where did you discover Montessori?
3:48
SPEAKER_00: My very first teacher was a Montessori teacher.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: I was so lucky.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: You know, things happen to you in life, and this person came into my life 34 years ago.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: 33 years ago, and she's still my close friend, and she was a tremendous mentor to me.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: She lives in Canada now, and she was a Montessorian.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: She also had four children.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: She was a scientist before becoming a Montessorian, and she was so logical, and she gave me confidence.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: I didn't have confidence as a young mom.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know what I needed to know.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: And she showed me, look, when this is happening, what are the children learning?
4:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: And she says, you can't judge a piece of equipment, you can't judge a place, but you have to see how are the people with the children.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love I love that.
4:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:41
SPEAKER_01: And so you set up Little Land nursery.
4:44
SPEAKER_01: How long was Little Land?
4:45
SPEAKER_01: Tell me a little bit about Little Land nursery.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: So we set up back in 1994.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: And we set up as an EYFS, well, it wasn't EYFS, it was natural national curriculum, then a British nursery basically.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: And then we became Montessori.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: I had a partner at the time, she was a teacher.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: I was a neonatal nurse, and between and we had four children between us.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: We asked a few friends if they'd put their children in.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: But within within four months, I think we had 80 children.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: Oh because we always had that idea of qualified early years teachers with educated assistance.
5:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: And that's the magic.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: No screens.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: We've never had screens.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: No Wi-Fi.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: There was no Wi-Fi then anyway.
5:29
SPEAKER_00: But now it's no screens, no Wi-Fi.
5:32
SPEAKER_01: So tell me what would for a little a little person, if a mum drops their little person into school into your nursery, what would be a traditional, typical day for them there?
5:43
SPEAKER_00: So they come in.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can see on our Instagram, they come in and they highlight their name on a little uh name board that we have.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: And very often they run to this board that we have that's the UAE flag with all their family pictures, and they'll run to this board and they'll show their parents, that's me, that's me.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: And they do it again and again.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: It's so lovely.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: They have ownership.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: This is my nursery, and then they'll take their parents to their class, obviously, once they've settled, but they'll take their parents to their class and they'll show them where they're dropping their bag, they take off their shoes, they go into class and they wave by and they close the door and the bye.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: It's so nice.
6:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: And then for the first two hours, they can do anything they want to do in the classroom.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: So that is whether it's sensorial, practical life, language, mathematics, creative, creative, arts and crafts, they can go to anything because it's all at their level.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: So they can choose.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: They don't have to remember anything, they can just go and choose.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: They don't have to interrupt a teacher or another person to say, Can I have that?
6:48
SPEAKER_00: Or what was it I did yesterday?
6:50
SPEAKER_00: They can see it on the shelf.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: So they can go for two hours and choose what they want to do.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: This is what we call the work cycle.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: It's a big work cycle.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: It can be two and a half, three hours.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: Three hours now in the third term.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: And we love the children to kind of go through everything and say, Oh, I've done it.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: What'll I do now?
7:10
SPEAKER_00: So at this point, probably a mom will say, What can I do for my child?
7:14
SPEAKER_00: What do I need to get them to entertain them?
7:17
SPEAKER_00: This is the point where we step back.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: We step back and we watch them.
7:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: And you can see their little minds are turning.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: What'll I do next?
7:26
SPEAKER_00: This is when they get creative.
7:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: It's magic.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: It's honestly if you come down in term three, you just see all the work of term one and term two coming to fruition and the children own the class.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: And so often you'll just see the teachers standing around the sides of the classroom just looking.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: They're not just looking, they're observing, they're fanning, they're saying, okay, these two are getting on.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: They didn't actually engage so much together before.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: What are they working with?
7:51
SPEAKER_00: I'll add a little bit more of that tomorrow.
7:54
SPEAKER_01: That's so, so lovely.
7:56
SPEAKER_01: And you said one of the things you said that I think really resonates with so many parents is they go in, they wave goodbye, they shut the door and they wave goodbye.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: And I think so many parents, the one thing, particularly when you've got very little ones, it's separation anxiety, which runs on both sides.
8:11
SPEAKER_01: It's as much a mum's anxiety as it is a child.
8:13
SPEAKER_01: What would you say to a parent going through ship separation anxiety or their child either way at the moment?
8:18
SPEAKER_01: What would you say to them at the moment?
8:20
SPEAKER_01: What advice would you give them?
8:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad you said it runs both ways because the confidence comes from the parents.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: So I'll often invite parents down for play dates.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: Just come and familiarize yourself.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: Play in the garden, play with your child, they'll say, Can I stay in the classroom?
8:35
SPEAKER_00: Not really.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: Your child needs to learn that you'll come back.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: How will they learn it if you don't go away?
8:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, if they come for play dates, they get to know who we are.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: How do we respond to their child?
8:49
SPEAKER_00: How do we respect their feelings?
8:51
SPEAKER_00: Good, you know, challenging feelings, tears, laughter, exuberance, you know, getting overexcited.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: How do we meet that with respect?
9:00
SPEAKER_00: Then they trust us.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: Then they know that when their child goes into the class, they'll be respected.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: And then my teachers will look after the children.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: I will look after the mothers.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: That's the hardest job, I think.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's, you know, it not for me.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I recognize it.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: I had a lot of it myself, and I think that's why I meet a lot of mothers with their separation anxiety and fathers.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm actually pleased to say there are more and more fathers showing up now and showing up with their separation anxiety.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
9:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: Oh gosh, that's amazing.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is amazing.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: And they really find it so hard to let go of their child if their child is crying.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: I just kind of say it's okay.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to let go right now.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: Let's play in the garden for a while, let's go in then.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: Let go.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: I'll send you a picture when they're engaged in something.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: I'll never send you a picture when they're crying.
9:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: I promise you I won't send that picture.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: So if you ask me, I won't, I'll just say come and get them.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, we don't let them cry for too long.
9:56
SPEAKER_01: No.
9:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
9:58
SPEAKER_01: It's very hard.
9:58
SPEAKER_01: It's very, it's a very, very hard balance.
10:01
SPEAKER_01: And um, tell me another question that we get asked all the time by mums: how do I know when my child is ready for nursery?
10:10
SPEAKER_00: What does ready for nursery even mean?
10:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, because some children start nursery like at three months and some at nine months and twelve months.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: In my nursery, we start at 15 months.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: Very often I find they become ready in my mind, my my idea of readiness.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: Between 15 and 21 months, the child who is happy to go away from you for a minute or two and play with something and doesn't need you holding on to them all the time.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: But if they hit two and a half or three and they still need you holding on to them all the time, that's more likely your separation anxiety.
10:44
unknown: Yes.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that they feel your anxiety.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: So it's about come and get to know us.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: The child who can play alone, even for two minutes, that's amazing.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: A child who can put a spoon in their mouth and feed themselves something, or say, I want that carrot, they're ready.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: They have a little bit of independence.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: I when I some children you can see they're ready, ready.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: They're they're just in, they go and they play with everything, and they they go from your chair to that table, to that screen, or well, we don't have screens, but you have one here, um, to to explore it.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: They're ready, you can see it.
11:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
11:20
SPEAKER_01: I and I think, I mean, this is what our podcast is always about is let them fly.
11:24
SPEAKER_01: And there's so many different stages in a child's life where you have to let them fly, you have to let go of those reins.
11:28
SPEAKER_01: Um and I think nurse, but nursery is always all that first or a few years in school and education.
11:34
SPEAKER_01: I think that's the hardest one for parents to navigate because everything in your in your within you is saying, no, no, stay, stay, stay, stay.
11:42
SPEAKER_01: But everything should be saying, you're ready, you need to start flying.
11:45
SPEAKER_01: It's now, this is my job, it's it's time for you to go.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: It's the connection, keeping connection.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: If you keep connected with the nursery, you're not really letting them go-go.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: You're connected, you know what they're doing.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to know from an app.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'd be looking at things like how people ask me about our communication with the parents, and I deliberately don't have an app.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: Because I say, I'll talk to you, I'll meet you face to face, I'll talk to you when you come to pick up, when you come to drop off.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: If you can't come and I see an issue, I'll phone you.
12:20
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: And I'll talk to you.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, so that we stay connected because we're a family, we're a community.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to feel that your child is going off independently, you know, as a pilot flying their airplanes.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, but they have their moment.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: They have their time.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: And children behave differently in the nursery environment than they do with their parents.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: I I can't get him to sit at the dinner table.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: I can't get him to pack his lunchbox.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: I can't get him to sit down and read a book.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: I can see in the pictures that you send me at the end of the week that he's doing all these things.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: Who forced him?
12:56
SPEAKER_00: Nobody forced you.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: This was literally, I've had this conversation a million times, but I had this conversation last week.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: I mean I mean, I think the thing is to view sort of the first school step.
13:07
SPEAKER_01: It's a safe space you're sending them to.
13:09
SPEAKER_01: And it is very interesting that children who are wild things at home, I mean, they're literally wild and the boundaries are somewhat, you know, negotiable, should we say, they suddenly they go into quite a community setting and they start following community guidelines without somebody enforcing it, without somebody giving discipline.
13:26
SPEAKER_01: It's almost, it's almost like that pack mentality.
13:29
SPEAKER_01: Oh, everyone else is sitting down.
13:31
SPEAKER_01: I guess I need to follow.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: Sort of children have, according to Marie Montessori's understanding of childhood development, children have this innate desire for order and routine.
13:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: And by the time they hit two, they really love that order.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: And you'll see them lining up their cars, um, lining up the spoons on the table, sorting out their crockery at at dinner time, or their toys in the cot, you know, they line up their teddy bears beside their bed or whatever it is.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: They have an innate sense of order, so they actually thrive on it, so they seek it.
14:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: And it's not like I'll follow, it's like this is good for me.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: Children, children don't think, they feel.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: I mean, of course they think, but they don't really.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: They feel this is good for me.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: I like this feedback.
14:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: I like when we're all in a group and she's doing something and I'm doing something, and we can then do it together.
14:25
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
14:26
SPEAKER_01: I I mean I love I love what you say about children like order.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure there's an awful lot of parents out there listening that would say my child has no idea of order.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: Might have no idea, but if they try to have a routine around what time they have breakfast, about when they get up in the morning, when they brush their teeth, when they go down to the kitchen, they'll see that the child expects that and feels comfortable and safe with it.
14:48
SPEAKER_01: So I think I think from what you're saying, and I think it's really I think it's a really interesting um concept, and I'd never really thought about it before, but I absolutely those teddy bears lined up in a cot and the line of cars that are then, as children get older, they change into all red and all blue and all yellow and they start pattern developing.
15:04
SPEAKER_01: But I think perhaps that order and perhaps those boundaries are, particularly perhaps in this region, more um fluid than they would be in older days, because I think you know, parents are busier and they're not sat down for breakfast, and the the sort of family order seems to be a bit lost these days.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: It can be, it can be.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: And I always bring so when parents are having a problem maybe with understanding their child or connecting with their child or finding their inner child to play with them, I just say just practice.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, give it 10 minutes a day to start with.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: Being in your inner child, play with your child, don't judge what they do, don't fix what they do, just follow their lead, look to their eyes, see where their eyes are going.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: Like if I look to that cup, I want a drink.
15:55
unknown: Yeah.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: So I'll follow.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: Would you like a drink?
15:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: I'll have a drink with if your child has a little drink, you have a little drink.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: Make sure you don't have your phone with you during these 10 minutes.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: And then I say to the parents, you know, try it yourself.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: And they do it with their husband or their wife.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: And it brings them back together.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: It's extraordinary.
16:14
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
16:14
SPEAKER_01: And we call it special time.
16:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
16:16
SPEAKER_01: I think that's so lovely.
16:17
SPEAKER_01: I think, I mean, children copy, there's no doubt that they copy what they see far more than what they're told, which is is always very interesting.
16:24
SPEAKER_01: Of course.
16:24
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to throw something a little bit combative at you now.
16:27
SPEAKER_01: Your thought about children and little children and iPads.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's not combative at all.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: They don't need them.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: Like, what are they benefiting benefiting from them?
16:40
SPEAKER_00: Um really?
16:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, we know there are very few shows that are designed to actually soothe little brains.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: They're designed to stimulate and overstimulate.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: And I follow a couple of people on Instagram, so I'm in screen myself.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: I'm actually probably a phone addict myself.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: You know, two o'clock in the morning you pick it up and you kind of go, oh, oh, just check.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm there, like doom scrolling.
17:07
SPEAKER_00: Um, it has been shown, research has shown now on functional MRIs, that the cells of the prefrontal cortex are thinner in children who have a lot of screen time.
17:18
SPEAKER_01: Oh, interesting.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: Now I don't know how much screen time that takes, and I'm very careful not to generalize.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: But I say, what is the benefit of the iPad?
17:28
SPEAKER_00: If my child doesn't have an iPad during the year and we're going on a flight, fantastic.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: That's not going to do any harm.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: That's going to keep everybody happy.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: It's going to keep the child engaged.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: Have a few activities, maybe have that iPad.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: That's brilliant.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm not absolute about anything, but habitual iPad is creating an addiction.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: They get a dopamine feed from the iPad, they're stimulated.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: It stops the production of oxytocin and serotonin.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: It stops the creativity of the child.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: If I ask you if you watched a program on TV last night, say a series you watch, name four of the people in that series.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: No chance.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: So what's it giving them?
18:13
SPEAKER_01: And what do you think?
18:14
SPEAKER_01: Because obviously, I think following on about iPads, one of the things that always it really concerns me is that you know, children don't learn letters by finger tracing.
18:22
SPEAKER_01: They learn it by feeling a pencil's drag on the paper.
18:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
18:26
SPEAKER_01: Is that just my opinion or is that actually true?
18:28
SPEAKER_00: No, that that's that's actually true.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: I mean, in Montessori we have our little sandpaper letters and we trace along the sandpaper letters, and I use two fingers because that's the pre-tripod grip.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: So the children will go with their hand, they'll go with one finger, then we use the two fingers and we show them that they do this, they get an eye-hand impression.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: It creates a nerve pathway.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: If I'm doing it on an iPad, I've got I'm on glass.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I might get the squiggly worm, but there might be something in it.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: But and and then when children are typing, like because they've keyboards, when you press a button and you get the letter A, it's not teaching you how to write it.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: No, you're pressing a button, and you can get anything.
19:10
SPEAKER_01: And and I think random pressing as well to some extent, just to get a pretty a pretty picture back.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:16
SPEAKER_01: So, what's the difference between Montessori nursery and other nurseries?
19:23
SPEAKER_01: And I know a lot of people call themselves Montessori style, but they're not generally Montessori.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: So it's like it's like anything.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: There are there's a spectrum of nurseries, and there's a spectrum of quality.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: First of all, I go for the quality because child development is 360.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: Child development hasn't changed in a hundred years.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: I go for the quality of the teacher.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: You know, some people come to the nursery because they like me, and then they stay in the nursery, and I say, Well, I won't employ a teacher who I wouldn't have with my child or an assistant.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: The difference between Montessori and other nurseries, if people are asking in general, you will see our equipment very structured in how we place it around the classroom.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: We've got six areas in every classroom that the children can go to for those first two hours of the morning.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: We've everything goes from simple to complex.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: So if I start with the youngest children and the practical life, we'll have transferring from jug to glass, cup to cup.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: Then we'll have um maybe a ladle and then maybe a dessert spoon, then maybe a teaspoon, maybe a big tongs, a medium-sized tongs, maybe a tweezers.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: All developing concentration, all developing the fine motor control that's required for later writing, the concentration that's required for working on something while having fun.
20:46
unknown: Yeah.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: So that order of simple to complex, that order of the six areas, you won't necessarily find it in a different style of nursery.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: I would say with an excellent teacher who understands child development, I'd never take away from them because they're precious.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: But find your excellent teacher.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: If I am recruiting teachers and they have an online course, so we actually have a Montessori teacher training school, and ours is hybrid, it's face-to-face, it's live lectures every weekend, it's hands-on in the classroom.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: We have everything.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: So if I'm interviewing somebody who's done an online course, I'll I'll break it down and say, How much face-to-face did you have?
21:29
SPEAKER_00: How much instruction did you have with the material?
21:32
SPEAKER_00: What would you do in this scenario?
21:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: It's it's just very detailed and it's very consistent.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: It's consistent around the world.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, if I go into a Montessori class in Dubai, in America, in India, in England, in Scotland, it should be the same.
21:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: Now there's there are two ways of understanding Montessori, and ours is we call it the London Montessori.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's very say this is for a two-year-old and this is for a four-year-old.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: In the other Montessori, they'll say, Oh no, don't don't do the that one yet, you're not ready.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: In ours, we'll say, Oh, you're interested in that.
22:10
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: Do it.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: And when they finished, would you like to try that the Montessori way?
22:16
SPEAKER_00: Would you like me to show you something that'll make that better for you next time?
22:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: And they'll generally say, Yes, it's an invitation.
22:22
SPEAKER_01: So lovely.
22:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's so lovely.
22:24
SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, I think we can explore Montessori nursery in future episodes.
22:28
SPEAKER_01: I think we need this so to dive into.
22:30
SPEAKER_01: But for now, I'm just gonna end.
22:32
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna wrap this up and we're just gonna end with one very last, one last question.
22:37
SPEAKER_01: What advice, looking back at your seven-year-old self, would you give them now?
22:41
SPEAKER_00: My seven-year-old self, I would say you are enough.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: Make your mistakes.
22:48
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you so much, Georg.
22:51
SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
22:52
SPEAKER_01: And Little Ham Nursery, I know it's award winning.
22:55
SPEAKER_01: It's probably one of the best nurseries in Jobai.
22:58
SPEAKER_01: Um, and we're so delighted that you've been able to join us today.
23:02
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, thank you so much.