Care of the Environment – the RIE way

Recently my husband and I hosted an 8 year old birthday party at our house for our middle son, Valin.  Keeping with tradition, every other year he is invited to include as many friends as he would like- surprisingly many considering his tender age.  Reaching back, Valin drew up a list of names bringing together children and families from his Sunday school, current public elementary class, past Montessori preschool friends,  even children from his RIE Parent Infant group.  As the group of more than twenty+ kiddos converged, we stood prepared.

Midway through the festivities, my husband organized the games while I took a moment to tidy up by gathering forgotten half- eaten lunch plates, wayward cups, or bits of trash which missed reaching garbage containers.  My travels brought me to the bubble blowing contest and as I bent down to begin picking up the wrappers that had been tossed aside in the eagerness, I remarked out loud, “If anyone has any trash, I can take that for you.”

A section of the bubble blowing group separated and formed around me.  Gum wrappers appeared from closed hands or withdrawn from pockets causing me to stop.  As I looked up, I was taken aback by the faces which met me- they were all Montessori kids.

As a Montessori parent and educator, I often take for granted the “care of the environment” part of our curriculum, it’s long term effects however, now stood before me a testament to the foundation laid early on. Wrappers properly disposed of, the children turned back to the task at hand while I set off chasing a few remaining ones caught by the wind.

Of course I had to share the story with our Head of School, Megan Nordoff, sparking our contemplation: when do children absorb and demonstrate the desire and ability to Care for the Environment and why?  Is this strictly a Montessori thing?

 We find ourselves reaching beyond our observations of the primary environment discovering at Little Learners Lodge INFANTS seemingly driven to and spontaneously taking on this care of the environment as the child develops a sense of self and desire to become a contributing member to her community- think Maslov and Sense of Belonging.

All along the RIE Baby is respected and valued as a member of the family community.  When following Magda Gerber’s RIE Approach, Parents and Educarer collaborate in providing for the child and in doing so, develop an enduring relationship.  Dr. Emmi Pikler, Gerber’s pediatrician, recognized infants absorb the care they receive and assimilate that care as part of her individual psyche remaining throughout her life.

A child who is respected gives it back.

We see it first with CARE OF THE ENVIRONMENT.

When CARE OF THE ENVIRONMENT is modeled in an infant’s daily life, we have observed at Little Learners Lodge that somewhere around 13 to 18 months a  RIE baby will initiate becoming a member of our community by participating in CARE OF THE ENVIRONMENT.  With Sensitive Guidance,  a RIE baby will build upon his self esteem via the contributions he feels he makes to the group.

It All Starts Here.

Playing Favorites in the Montessori Environment

We might not admit it, but it’s true- we teachers have our favorites- be it a child or something in the environment that speaks to us directly.

Yes, a child often touches our soul in a special way over the years and long after she may have graduated from our school.  And yes- I have a favorite Montessori material that I can’t help getting my own hands on.  One  I wish I had access to during my early childhood experiences.

One of my teacher trainers, Pat Pope, recognized the special bond Montessori Guides may form with a child or work in her environment.  While these feelings may exist, while in the classroom Pat advised “checking it” at the door and focus on the unique gifts and beauty of each child and material comprising the environment.  How would you know if you were getting it right?  I remember Pat saying, “The child should feel safe emotionally and respected by the guide at all times.  You should remember something special that he did during the week and share it with the parent.  When getting together one mom might say to another, ‘You know Sue is Ms. Nicole’s favorite.’ while the other will remark, ‘That can’t be for it’s certainly Mark.’  With the materials, Guides should visit each throughout the week working with the material yourself, deepening your own understanding and appreciation for the genius of Dr. Montessori’s understanding of connecting the environment with the child’s sensitive periods of learning.”

I often share Pat Pope’s words with our faculty members and issue a challenge of sorts.  While not allowing them to advise me of their favorite child or material, I’ll make a guess.  While they have yet to inform me of their favorites- I’ll tell you one of mine.

The Montessori chains.

I stand at wonder that Dr. Maria Montessori conceived that such a material is of importance to the Primary Aged child of 2.5 – 6 yours.  Really?  The square and cube of each number one through ten-  color coded and often memorized at completion of the Kindergarten year- a material that can be adapted to meet the needs of a child who has yet to recognize the symbolic representation for the numeral 5, while at the same time be absorbed seemingly without effort by some at the completion of the Kindergarten year.

Yes, I love the Montessori Bead Cabinet the most .  What a gift that some will avoid that tedious memorization at the dinner table of square and cube of 1 – 10.  But shhhh….. don’t tell anyone.

A Second Look at Adult Initiated Tummy Time for Infants

Armed with a Certificate of Completion in RIE I Theory and Observation freshly inked in 1998 by my Instructor Carol Pinto and Director Magda Gerber I set forth to convert parent-by-parent to the RIE (pronounced “wry”) way of respecting an infant’s free movement and placing babies on their backs.

When confronted with recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics or a doctor’s advise for tummy time for exercise, I simply advised parents to trust their child and reiterated the words I recalled Magda saying,  ”The best position for a baby is that which she can get into or out of all by herself.”  For me, a young and enthused caregiver with no children of my own, this was enough.

My resolve hung true those first few months after my son was born.   At first I questioned my pediatrician on the merits of tummy time (mostly endorsed as a means to exercise or strengthen the neck) and was comforted by my observations of my child.  Clearly he was able to move from the supine position almost every inch of his body from the tip of his big toe, to a twist in the torso, a stretch of his arm, grasping, blinking, turning about.. He was a whirl of movement.  To me, it seemed that my doctor’s advise for more exercise by restricting my son in a prone position were unwarranted.  Eventually, I kept my thoughts to myself and vowed never to do Tummy Time.

Since then, I’ve learned that as a parent never to say NEVER.

Pretty soon all of the other little babies in my son’s infant room began to turn over.  ”Infants always do what they can do- and they should not be expected to do what they are not ready for,”  Magda’s advise in her book Dear Parent: Caring for Infants with Respect (p. 53) seemed directed at me- so I waited.  And then the other babies began scooting about, pushing up on the knees and one even sat up on her own.  There laid my son merrily on his back, kicking and grinning away seemingly unmotivated to roll over on his stomach at all.

He was being left behind-  was this because I hadn’t given him TUMMY TIME?!

Eleven years later I can smile at how dramatic having a slow to roll over baby was to me.  But when I reflect on my feelings at the time, I am reminded of thoughts of anxiety, uncertainty, fear and the need for reassurance. Secretly, I longed for an opportunity to try out tummy time for myself- could such a thing so widely advocated be of  permanent consequence?

While I managed to resist the urge myself- the questioned lingered.  It wasn’t until last night via a Resources for Infant Educarers webinar that I gained a much clearer and broader perspective of possible longterm ramifications to an infant’s physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being the use of Tummy Time presents.

Faced with many of the same pressures we are today in regards to tummy time, Dr. Judit Falk, former Director of the Pikler Institute,  set out to determine if adult initiated tummy time for infants was necessary for a baby’s health and well-being.  Her findings as published by the Official Journal of Hungarian Pediatrics Association had- or I should say, has- just been translated in English.  In it Dr. Falk documents her research on the topic of Tummy Time spanning some forty years.  Her conclusion:  ”…newborn babies and young infants SHOULD NOT be laid on their stomach.  Neither for sleeping, nor during the day when awake, because it would deprive them of the important conditions of their psychomotor, mental and emotional development.” (Gyermekgyogyaszat 2011, 62 Supplementum A, p. 12).

For those who have dedicated their life’s work in advocating Magda Gerber’s RIE Approach in the field of early childhood education be it center based care, as parent guides and facilitators, in higher education or towards efforts to effect policy change- this presents further validation to that which we witness with our own eyes in observing the infant at play on his back.

Could pediatricians and the AAP be wrong in their advise for tummy time?  Certainly Dr. Falk’s research deserves consideration to the affirmative and a second look at adult initiated tummy time.

References:

Falk, Judit: Gyermekgyogyaszat Child and Youth Medical Journal, Supplementaum A May 2011

Gerber, Magda: Dear Parent: Caring for Infants with Respect 2002

Gerber, Magda: Your Self-Confident Baby 1998

Hammond, Ruth Anne: Respecting Babies: A New Look at Magda Gerber’s RIE Approach 2009

Kovach, Beverly: Being with Babies: Understanding and Responding to the Infants in Your Care  2008

www.aap.org

www.piklerusa.org

www.rie.org

Can we change the world with our own two hands?

If we are to communicate peace, gratitude, understanding, compassion, LOVE…

what better way than with our own two hands.

Putting out the Elf on the Shelf

It can’t be just me- that Elf on the Shelf is just a bit scary, no?

And what a tattle tale.

There’s  Santa at the North Pole in crunch time.  By now he’s already checked his list twice and he’s moving on to wrapping and loading the sleigh.

But first, he has to deal with  these CONSTANT interruptions by his American elf helpers.

This child didn’t eat all her peas…This little boy didn’t want to share his truck…or maybe they didn’t brush their teeth…. Come on- we already knew that and have reserved the bags of coal accordingly.  “It’s GO! time!” an exasperated Santa must be thinking, “Don’t these elves have something better they can be doing?”

The history of the Mother/Daughter Trio who wrote, self-published and marketed this new family tradition is indeed amazing and inspirational, so before you worry- I’m not about to entirely knock the Elf totally off the Shelf..   I’m all about FAMILY TRADITIONS be it tried and true or new to you- especially during the holidays.  These yearly rituals are a part of our social fabric that marks each family as unique while also celebrating our connectivity.

And while the story of the Elf on the Shelf seems harmless enough- its implementation by some well-intentioned adults as a form of behavior modification does have potential for some long-range ramifications.

Consider what the early childhood developmental theorists observed about motivation and what current brain research now concludes:  extrinsic incentives may work in the short run, but over time, they actually interfere with the very behaviors adults are working to promote.  Not to mention, they can cause a child to disengage from her own method of learning- which, yes, involves testing limits- to hide her authentic self.  The mask gets put on.

And that Elf in particular- hiding, lurking, always watching- reporting back- is that truly the emotional climate we want to train our young children to expect in their own homes?

Things at the school seemed to be status quo without the Elf, so I asked Head of School, Megan Nordoff, how she was faring at home during the holidays with her own young children and what she thought of Elf on the Shelf.

“I sometimes feel that I’ve given birth to a pair of little monsters when I get home,” she said half jokingly.  ”Parents are often surprised to discover that I also face many of the same challenges at home as a Mom with setting limits and following routines while at the same time adjusting for spontaneous moments and holiday activities breaking from the norm.”

Megan concurred that based on the stories shared by the children in her care from two years through Kindergarten, that when used to direct a child’s behavior, the Elf seemed to be more beneficial as a band-aid perhaps quickly stopping a temporary flow of noncompliance and attributed its rise as a new holiday tradition contrived from commercialism and consumerism fueled by an unrelenting advertising and media campaign.  Used as a way to control your child’s behavior, The Elf robs your child the opportunity to “behave” for the common good- to learn to control his own impulses and will in order to collaborate towards to common good of society- a process of learning that takes all of his efforts this first six years of his life.

As things begin to unravel at home as they often do during what can be an over-stimulating holiday season, Megan has invested in some pre-planning to help avoid a stressful meltdown.  They include:

* building in unscheduled time at home at least once a week when nothing is planned

* starting bedtime routines a bit earlier and lengthening them to ensure little ones get to bed on time

* keep diets balanced – limiting holiday sweets to earlier in the day- and drinking lots of water

* make a holiday tradition with project oriented, hands on activities such as cookie making or gingerbread house building rather than screen time

*find something you can all do together to celebrate this time of year and when limits are tested, take them as learning opportunities to instill long-range family values

*care for yourself!  Have you been on a date lately?  Need a little pampering?  During this time of year, adults often forget to take time alone or with their partner to refuel.

These added measures proactively help Megan’s family avoid misbehavior often resulting when physical needs are not met or due to overstimulation.  And, in the event that redirection is in order, Megan feels better prepared herself being refueled to take TIME IN, be fully present, and help guide her children socially and emotionally through a learning opportunity.  For it to be COOPERATION it must be a request- coercion and demands provide little of the required scaffolding necessary for young children to learn pro-social skills often reflected upon as ‘being good.”

Will Ms. Megan be getting an Elf on the Shelf for her family for the holiday season?  ”I’ve learned that as a parent never to say ‘I never…’, but right now there doesn’t seem to be room for it on our mantle.”

“The prize and the punishment are incentives towards unnatural or forced effort, and therefore we cannot speak of the natural development of the child in connection with them.” Dr. Maria Montessori