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The Art of Observation: Selecting the Perfect Activities for Your Child

Simone Davies

Description

In this enlightening live Q&A session we’ll explore the crucial role of observation in understanding and fostering your child’s development.

Learn how to attentively observe your child’s interests, behaviors, and responses to different stimuli, and use these insights to choose activities that not only engage but also contribute to their growth and learning.

Simone will guide you through practical techniques for observing your child in various settings and demonstrate how these observations can be effectively translated into selecting activities that align with their developmental stage, interests, and needs.

Discover how being a mindful observer can lead to more meaningful, enriching experiences for both you and your child.

In this video

Describing a plant like a scientist, a short observation exercise, opens this session. Simone Davies then talks with parents of young children about what to write down and what makes an activity Montessori. Questions in the Q&A include throwing toys, a child who says “you do it”, rotating toys, and Santa and the tooth fairy.

Chapters

  1. 0:00 Why observing your child is the key to choosing activities
  2. 5:33 Observation exercise: describe a plant like a scientist
  3. 13:02 Why we observe our child and what to write down
  4. 20:14 What makes an activity Montessori, plus ideas by interest
  5. 29:20 Showing slowly, fewer toys, and not interrupting focus
  6. 36:49 Show or let them explore, and a child stuck on one interest
  7. 41:10 Tidying up, hopping between activities, and throwing toys
  8. 46:47 Playing without you, and a child who says you do it
  9. 50:25 Rotating toys, siblings who interrupt, and worksheets
  10. 54:18 Water play at meals and brushing a toddler's teeth
  11. 57:43 What to offer next and how much freedom of choice
  12. 1:02:34 Getting dressed, long-term benefits, and knives and scissors
  13. 1:10:21 Pretend play with materials, and a toddler without words
  14. 1:15:12 Arranging shelves, and Santa and the tooth fairy

See all 5 videos with Simone Davies

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Featuring

simone-davies-43

Simone Davies is the author of “The Montessori Toddler” book and co-writer of “The Montessori Baby” book. She runs a popular blog “The Montessori Notebook”, hosts the “The Montessori Notebook podcast,” and currently runs parent-child Montessori classes in Amsterdam at her school Jacaranda Tree Montessori. She is also mother to two young adults. Finding Montessori helped her so much when raising her own children and it’s now her passion to help other parents introduce these ideas in their homes too.

Lucie-Tamasova-SQ2-461x461

Lucie Brixi Tamášová is first and foremost a mother of three children (and two wonderful bonus children). For more than 17 years, she has been searching for kind, practical, and research-based answers to the everyday challenges of parenting and helping make them accessible to families around the world.

She is the founder of international projects including Childhood Potential Club, Montessori Parenting, and the Childhood Potential Conference, through which she connects parents, educators, and leading child development experts from across the globe. Through her work, she promotes a respectful and conscious approach to children while helping parents navigate everyday life with greater calm, understanding, and confidence.

Alongside her international work, Lucie also leads educational projects in Kenya and Guinea through the NGO Centrum Dialog, helping provide access to quality education for children with limited opportunities. She deeply believes that conscious support of children has the power to positively shape the future of society as a whole.

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