There are these two girls in our class who look similar to each other.. pretty uncanny resemblance considering the fact that they are not even remotely related 'n maybe saw each other for the first time here at Cmtc.. does this ring a bell or remind you of all those old Hindi masala lost 'n found movies.. mere paas machis hai aur tumhare paas machis ka dabha.. bhaiya.. bhai.. aur mere paas cigarette hai.. pitaaji....jokes apart.. I always used to get confused with the two 'n used to wonder at bhagwan ki leela... I thought I was the only one who was confused when a few weeks back ma'm also said the same thing and added that maybe we will have to do a name lessons class with the two girls so as to clear the confusion.. it made me think about how the presentation would look like Montessori ishtyle..

Invitation:

Smitha, today am going to give you name lessons on Sridevi 'n Deepa..

Preparation:

Take the child to where Sri 'n Deepa are sitting.. Introduce the child to both of them.. now ask the child to take both of them to the place of presentation.. 2 work mats should be made ready at the place of presentation..

Presentation: (Individual activity by individual presentation)

Tell the child the names again..

Ask the child to touch Sri.. now ask the child to hide Deepa .. tell the child to ask Sri to sit at the corner of the mat.. ask the child to tell Deepa to sit on my lap..

Now ask the child 'Where is Sri'..

the child is expected to say, ' in the corner'..

the activity goes on as long as the child is interested.. and you are satisfied that the doubt has been cleared..

How to sneeze (Montessori ishtyle but Smitha's version)

Materials required: Snuff box, even a feather might do.. Something that might tickle ur nose so as to make you to sneeze.. also a kerchief to cover ur mouth but if it's not available you can always use Sunita's dupatta which you might always find lying somewhere on the floor..

Invitation: "Come child, let's sneeze our way to glory"

Presentation:

Take the feather gently without analysis of movements using your left hand.. now take it near to the nostrils 'n hold it there for a split second before puttin it in with one intentional movement.. twirl it 'n keep doing it till u feel the sneeze coming.. now immediately take it out 'n take Sunita's dupatta and cover ur mouaaaAAAAAACHoooo.. sniff sniff..th... sorry, couldnt control myself.. Dont forget to say 'May God bless you'...

PS: The guys who havent done the Montessori course wont get the head or tail of what have written above.. Basically we are supposed to give presentations to children on just about everything from carrying a glass to how to roll chappatis to how to roll a mat to how to talk etc.. 'n we are supposed to write down each and every teeny weeny details of the movements involved in the presentation.. But what I have written above is not a proper Montessori presentation it's just Smitha's contribution to the Montessori way.. Maybe sometime in the future I might come up with a Smitha-ssori Philosophy.. Hope my philosophy is good enough so as not to make people want to make Smitha sorry for her philosophy..

Man, I have got to give this presentation or rather talk for a mere 10 minutes which seems like an eternity for someone like me who chickens out at the idea of talking in front of people.. I feel hot 'n cold at the same time.. sweat 'n shiver like there's no tomorrow.. heart goes boom boom and the song 'dil dhak dhak karne laga.. mera jiyara darne laga' seems to be penned keeping me in mind except it's not because of any saiyan holding my baiyan.. it's more coz of all those eyes lookin at me intently waitin for me to say something and hanging onto every word I manage to utter without a stutter.. Man.. have no clue what to talk about ..

Basically, am supposed to talk about what I feel about the MOntessori Philosophy .. how it dramatically changed my life and stuff like that.. though I feel strongly about Montessori but dont know how to present it.. Maybe I will give it a try here on my blog.. it's just a backup that if I goof up during the talk I can ask them to read my blog to know how I really feel..

I believe I have been a Montessorian right from my school days.. I never used to believe in homeworks.. that's the reason why I used to avoid homeworks like plague.. but my teachers thought otherwise .. what to do they were not Montessorians like me.. they were not even teachers in my opinion they were more like dictators who would make us sit behind desks and forced us to learn something that they thought was good for us.. the only difference between us and the prisoners were that they were chained but we were not ..

'n like a true Montessorian, I too didnt believe in punishments or rewards.. mmmm... rewards in the form of dresses, chocolates , toys, books... hmmm.. worth relaxing my stance on rewards.. but my teachers believed in rewarding punishments.. so most of the time I could be found sittin outside admiring the beautiful, expansive school ground of ours. I had company though.. boys mostly, who also believed in the No Homework policy.. Initially I used to cry bucketsful but, later on I started enjoyin my days out or time out or break as I would rather call them.. It was my Physics class where I had most of my time outs.. actually it was much better than sittin inside and listenin to a teacher who used to make the earth QUACK rather than QUAKE.. I used to wonder, if the earth went quack so what did the ducks do.. they went quake quake or wot..

Dr. Montessori also believed that the winning or getting it right is not what matters, it's the effort or rather the participation that matters.. Someone rightly said it's the journey that matters more than reaching the destination.. again I feel like humming a song.. hum jo chalne lage ..chalne lage hain yeh rasthe.. manzil se behthar lagne lage hain yeh rasthe... that's what I believe in too especially in my Math paper I used to put in my best efforts to do a problem but the results were not always right.. but my teacher never used to look at my efforts she would just look at my answers.. if only she was a MOntessorian I would have got some numbers to give company to the zeroes...

I think I better stop here coz am kinda going off track.. am digressing from the topic at hand.. On a serious note, dont form any kinda ideas on the basis of what I wrote up there.. To be very frank I do feel strongly and have kind of turned into a true advocate of the Montessori philosophy.. I wont say this course has changed me completely but yeah it was kinda a renaissance for me as far as reviving some of my latent creative instincts are concerned.. I have always loved being with children but gotta admit the love-o-meter does take a dip during those stinking diaper changing moments... yeow.. Jokes apart, this course has surely changed my thinking as far as the child is concerned. Even before joining the course I used to marvel at the way the child learns and goes about his work.. Even though I believed in giving freedom to the child to do his thing but I used to be a bit wary when it came to him handling glass items or knives or scissors 'n stuff that might be a bit dangerous for the child. I used to think of children as being naughty and clumsy with concentration, at the most, fitful. But the course, the materials and the observations we have had has completely changed my outlook towards children.. I bow my head in reverence to the lady who brought about such a revolutionary change in the way we perceive children.. she gave us a peek or rather glimpse into the true nature of the child and made us realise that it is not we who mould the child but he who creates himself. At this point I would like to take a break.. Maybe I would continue later, some other day .. some other time..