Something Right

May 19, 2020

We all have such beautiful gifts in our children.  Of course, I live with mine so it is easy to share from my experiences.  Everyday is not all peaches and cream, but there are moments in which you know you must have done something right! I credit the following to having found Montessori education and the fact that Jeremiah spent years in such an environment. 

Jeremiah decided to create his own version of an ice cream cake.  He made his ingredients list, went shopping, and spent a good half day creating his masterpiece.

Little did he know that when he started, the spring foam pan would be missing the bottom (a causality of too many cheesecakes).  Yet, that did not stop him...he created a bottom out of cardboard (I did have to help him think through what would happen if he used an exact-o knife on the kitchen table). He then covered it with parchment paper.  He then made a strip of parchment paper to go around the edge so when he removed the spring form side, the ice cream would stay where it was suppose to stay.

This was not an ordinary cake.  He cut up ice cream sandwiches and stacked them around the edges.  He added a layer of Neapolitan ice cream inside of that.  Added another layer of ice cream sandwiches, a layer of chocolate ice cream, a layer of cookies crumbles and then chocolate sauce.

Final layer of ice cream

Adding the cookie crumbles

Last night, after diner, the ice cream cake came out. He was serving his master piece to everyone but did not serve himself.  I asked him if he was going to have some and he replied, "No, it has too much chocolate on it."

While his sisters where completely fine with the ice cream cake being left for them to enjoy (they LOVE chocolate), it made me think about how Montessori education has given Jeremiah a gift.  All the elements of the classroom played out through him (even as a 16 year old):

• Independence
• Self Motivation
• Taking Initiative
• Creativity
• Making a mess and cleaning it up
• Freedom within limits
• Confidence
• Self Discipline
• Organizational Skills
• Concentration
• Communication Skills
• Innovation

“The secret of good teaching is to regard the child’s intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination.  Our aim therefore is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his inmost core.” - Maria Montessori

Thank you to the Montessori Method that has enthused Jeremiah to his inmost core! 

This mother's heart is full! :)

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“Let us treat them [children], therefore, with all the kindness which we would wish to help to develop in them.” (Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook)

A few pictures from our homes: