This evening I attended a parent's Montessori education evening where the teachers defined their classroom methods and demonstrated some of the works that the children are currently being exposed to.

The event turned out to be very informative and this was not because I learnt anything new about the Montessori method as such, but because I learnt some very interesting things about our son's classroom behaviour.

The teacher was explaining to us how some of the activities are done and her one example was pouring water from a pitcher into a cup and then back again. Now most of the Montessori activities are done on trays for the obvious reason that when the water, beads or rice is spilled it won't go everywhere. She explained how when the children make a mess, they have to clean it up. She then added how SOME kids really enjoy the cleaning up part of this activity and that THIS kid actually immediately and deliberately pours his water from the pitcher directly into the tray just so that he can run back and forth with a sponge in order to clean up the mess. One of the other mothers hesitated and then said that she thinks it must be her son, but I knew that this kid was in fact our kid. So I bravely owned up to being the Mom of the kid that takes the shortcuts because I actually witnessed him doing the exact same thing two days ago at home. The teachers just kind of smiled and raised their eyebrows indicating that this was in fact the case. They also added that it was okay and that they let him do it because it is obviously something that he is interested in. So I felt okay too.

But then they told the story of how they now only have two globes instead of three and when they mentioned the fact that one of the globes had been dropped by a certain someone, one of the teachers flashed a look at me that made me want to disappear on the spot. I mean I know what Rowan does when he thinks something is a ball. He throws it! Tomatoes and apples have been tossed around the kitchen so why not a big round shiny representation of our lovely mother earth.

So by now I have been convinced that Rowan keeps his teachers on their toes and really didn't expect there to be another issue, but I was wrong. In a Montessori classroom they try to encourage the exploration of all the senses. All except for sound they said because sometimes it gets a little too loud when other children need to be concentrating on their own work. So sound and music work is restricted to certain times. But there is one little boy that can turn just about any object into a drum. When I saw those two teachers look at each other with a camaraderie that can only come from facing challenging situations together, I just new it was our little guy that they were referring to again. Sigh! He does love his drumming though. He even says "drumming" a few times a day and makes us follow him around the house, each banging our own drums. He must wonder why all the kids in the class don't get up and follow him around too.

All in all it was a good evening and I have confidence that he will continue challenging the way things are "supposed" to be done and you know what? I am actually fine with that. Creativity is very useful in life. Way to go Rowan!

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