Last week we visited the Montessori home school at Crescent Moon Cabins. The little school, situated in one of Dominica?s most beautiful rainforest valleys, is run by Jean, who with her husband Ron, own and operate Crescent Moon Cabins a small scale eco-tourism guest house. Jean also has a master?s degree in Early Childhood/Elementary Education with a focus on Montessori Education and when her daughter Tiana, (who also works there), had children she decided to home-school them. They made the choice to import a full set of Montessori materials and set up a large Montessori style classroom.
Currently the home-school only caters for the two children of the family. Jean has extended an open invitation for free schooling for the local villagers but, none have yet taken her up on the offer. If we lived closer, I would definitely make the most of this fantastic opportunity and enroll my kiddos into the school, at least part time. The school runs from 8am-12pm with time also allocated for practical farm tasks such as collecting eggs from the chickens and taking care of the dairy goats.
The school is so well equipped with exciting educational materials that even for me it was sensory overload when we walked in ? I just wanted to play with EVERYTHING. I think the children were actually calmer than I was and quickly settled into experimenting with various objects one at a time.
Shelves filled with activities - everything looked like fun as well as being 'educational'!
While Amarii explored under the supervision of my good friend Celia, Keeyah settled into completing various tasks one at a time and I got to sit down and talk to Jean. It was great to discuss so many aspects of homeschooling and have some questions answered by a professional in the field and someone who is doing the work daily! Especially useful was the conversation we had on the differences between boys and girls. While Keeyah loves beading, puzzles, pencil work, reading, and other small detailed tasks, Jean cautioned me on expecting Amarii to follow her developmental footsteps, explaining that in general, boys are focused much more on gross motor skills at this stage so it is important to focus on his individual learning style rather than trying to chalk him up to anyone elses standards. She was also very reassuring on the fact that we can make anything into a rich learning experience, often simply through our perception and the language we use and thus I now feel more empowered in my approach.
Jean was an incredible host and I look forward to taking my children there again when school is in session. Keeyah has not stopped talking about the visit all week and keeps asking her Daddy to take a vacation from work so he can go too!
It is so wonderful to have this amazing alternative education resource available in Dominica. Kudos to Jean, Tiana and the whole family for making it happen. I hope many more people will choose to explore this child led form of learning in the near future. In the meantime I am still working on ideas for overcoming the time/distance barrier and getting there at least once every few weeks.
I only have a few photos because my camera batteries ran out fast otherwise I would have taken so many more of all the shelves and beautiful views from the windows.
Entrance table with water and delicious guava cherries
The beautiful Montessori classroom
Shelves of activities - I wanted to play with all of them!
Earth table - globes and maps. Hours of exploration to be had here.
Amarii disects the flower arrangements - well this is a learning experience too!
The bead/math shelves. I have to learn more about these.
Keeyah had so much fun with the Woodkins dolls. You can lift up the frame and insert different pieces of fabric into them as dress up! These are now high priority on my Amazon wish list!
The relaxation area. Both kids kept talking about the hammock for days after.
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Source: http://onelovelivity.com/childofnatureblog/?p=2470
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