Mordern Progressive Parents- Zebra Crossing Academy

Modern progressive parents pay a lot of attention to the development of their children literally from birth. And Montessori’s technique remains one of my favorite approaches, father and teacher.

The main principle of the Montessori technique:

  • In general, this technique is designed for children aged 2-3 years, but some learning elements can be introduced in the game with a one-year-old baby and toddlers;
  • Children must learn independently. He himself chose what, how, with whom, and for how long playing – adults should not impose the rules and conditions of the game;
  • Also, adults should not solve problems for babies, it is better to give them the opportunity to solve the problem themselves.
  • If some children play at once, they have to follow the rules: Don’t make a sound and don’t disturb other people, don’t take toys anyone playing it first.
  • After playing, the child must carefully put the toy back to his place.

What is the Montessori technique intended?

She perfectly developed motor skills, speech, mathematical representation, taught children to understand the relationship of causal, teaching everyday skills. The only drawback of the Maria Montessori program is a lack of outdoor games and creative tasks that are very loved by children, so you have to think about the section of this developmental activity separately.

Montessori home-environment

The main condition for the harmonious development of a child according to the Montessori method is a properly organized play environment. No creative mess, Lego details on the carpet and plasticine under the pillow (we also think it’s boring, but alas). The nursery needs to be tidy, so you definitely need a smart storage system where the child can store toys and materials on his own. The ideal option is a low rack with containers.

What toy do you have to choose to fit the concept?

Give preferences on durable toys made from natural ingredients. They shouldn’t be the simplest so that babies have something to think about. Many different details, toy flexibility, non-trivial games and tasks are welcome. At Online Store Ivan Da Marya There are many choices of only environmentally friendly toys and games that are perfect and smart for educational activities using the Montessori method.

The next stage is zoning. The room or playroom must be divided into several thematic zones: According to the idea of ​​Montessori, it will be easier for children to navigate and choose what they really want to do.

Practical areas will help children learn everyday skills: sweep the floor with spoons and brushes, buttons and buttons, zippers, tie shoelaces, and so on.

For this zone, all kinds of laws, busyboards, drama sets of plates and suitable household items.

Busy board
Busy board

 

 

 

Buy balls from different materials, various sizes and colors, cubes, pyramids, balance weight, sorters. It also helps to make sensory boxes by filling them with grains, beads, seeds and cones, buttons, sand, pebbles, and other sensory materials.

And in any case, no matter what methodology for the development of the baby you choose, don’t forget that playing is a leading activity for preschoolers. This means that it is a game and toys that will allow children to develop harmoniously, to learn about the world and, which is very important, to spend time with close adults. Psychologists say that there are no developmental activities at clubs and kindergartens can replace games with parents.

Various types of augmented reality games for your children

Reality beyond reality is a new trend. When the latest technology shakes hands with the world of traditional toys, augmented reality games and toys are born. Just as the word suggested, this is a toy or game that lives when we play it. AR Games gives children the magical nuances of an environment where they can be interactive and explore unlimited possibilities to improve their analytical skills.

Below are some of the latest and best-augmented reality games for our children.

People Festive AR

AR festival people help children to be creative in decorating space for various occasions. The default screen, the sensor is positioned, and the camera helps feature AR to create a 3D home environment or your space. Children can use their imagination and place decorative objects anywhere in a room, on the ground, hanging from the ceiling, or sticking to the wall.

Not only that, objects can be made to interact with each other. Fireworks and snow can also be arranged. What’s more, you can take fun photos and short videos with your children from this decoration and share them with the world!

 

Narrator AR

Narator AR is one of the best augmented reality applications for education. This helps increase pre-school writing. There are two beautiful characters of Bimbi (Unicorn) and Klugger (rocket). Children need to write letters and make words in the application.

This game helps in improving the coordination of your child’s hands.

After they finished writing, help them take a mold word along with this QR code and scan to activate the AR feature. Now comes miracles! Bimbi and Klugger will make the word scanned into reality using extraordinary graphics and sounds. You are sure to see your child jumping from their feet with excitement and joy!

AR Soccer

AR Soccer is a cellular game where your child can play juggling virtual soccer balls only with your iPhone camera. They must kick, juggle, and make the maximum goals they can. All your children do is direct the device camera towards their legs and kicks.

This game can help you train your children to balance the ball even in limited space. They can play in arcade mode and beat their high score or play in free play mode to defend it!

Pokemon Go

Pokemon Go is one of the most downloaded and best AR applications for children so far. This sets a completely new style in the game world. Not only children, but adults also cannot refuse pleasure in this game. Children must detect Pokemon hidden in the real world using any digital devices.

Identification and collect as many Pokemon as possible and start walking as one. There are league and meetings to collect more Pokemon. This game helps by being around him instead of destroying you!

Skipy is one of the best augmented reality games for children. It comes with innovative and intelligent toy packages for your child who help them explore their imagination and creativity. This mixture-reality toys contains a box full of stories, games, greetings and fun facts that encourage your child to draw and learn interesting facts about their creations.

Your child can choose from a variety of stories, characters, and games to sketch. The Skipy application will guide your child to draw objects or characters with step by step instructions that are very easy to follow. Furthermore, the device will scan their creations and use the mixed-reality technology, it will bring their artistic creations to live in the form of stories, facts or games.

Toys and games mixed with augmented reality have been proven to educate our children in the most enjoyable way. This technology has increased the scope of generic playtime into 3-dimensional learning high-tech and interactive experience for our children.

AR_game
AR_game

 

How to Select a Montessori School for Your Child!

Are All Montessori Schools the Same???

One unfortunate aspect of Montessori School is that because no one “owns” the term or title, anyone may create a pre- school, place a Cinderella tower in the corner and call themselves “ Montessori” There are a plethora of fantastic and amazing Montessori schools to choose from… There are also a few of less than-excellent schools, which, sadly, contribute to the spread of misunderstanding and disinformation about what Montessori is and how it operates.

People frequently tell me that they dislike the Montessori Method because of a horrible experience they, or their sister, or their best friend’s bother’s buddy had with a specific school. One popular misconception about Montessori is that it is all about letting kids be wild and do whatever they want, whenever they want. One person informed me that her sister had pulled her children out of a Montessori school because she felt it was too rigorous and didn’t allow for creative expression. Anyone familiar with Maria Montessori’s philosophy realizes that these are not examples of “Montessori” that have been executed.

The Truth is that a Montessori education , when done correctly, results in children learning inner discipline as a result of their complete independence inside a well designed and managed environment. Rather than being afraid of their teachers, these youngsters learn to respect them because they feel understood and cared for. And Montessori is one of the best forms of education I’m aware of for nurturing and expressing creativity, because the child is in charge of his or her own comic books in his Montessori. I asked a kid about project that helped him practise his creativity, story-telling, handwriting and other skills. He told me many thing but one stuck out. Which I will tell you later in this article.

So, How can a parent tell which school are “good” and which aren’t? It’s difficult, especially if you’re fresh to the Montessori method. While looking for the proper preschool for my own toddler, I recently went through the process of visiting and studying many schools in the neighbourhood. As I compared schools, some of which were wonderful and others which were disappointing, the following sprang to mind as “markers” to look for:-

Classroom “ Schedule” One of the first question I like to ask is bout the children’s daily “ Schedule” at School. Maria Montessori was emphatic on the importance of giving the children a full three hours of uninterrupted, unplanned work time. This is three hours of uninterrupted work time or a lecture from the teacher or guide, with no outside interruptions (such as forced circle time in which all children must participate, or any other planned activity decided upon by adult). Some schools only allow for a single hour of free work time, snack, circle time and other scheduled activities to fill the rest of the morning. The problem with a short free work hour is that the kids never get a chance to truly focus on their task. I use to work at a school where the students were only given one hour to complete their assignments and the kids took out nervous energy by hopping from one brief activity to the next, and the hour was a steady buzz of activity. It was to see someone completely unfocused let alone anyone who wanted to participate in a more complicated activity because they didn’t think they have the time to accomplish it.

I’ve seen a few schools that give kids 2 or 2.5 hours of free work time, which is a step forward. But then I went to a school that adhered to the full 3- hours work period. I entered a primary classroom. Yes 5-year-old can count to 100 and some even to a thousand. As they were taught to add a word in front to the word that flowed from one to one hundred. I saw kids working together on a building project, their imagination of how spaghetti when grouped together will prevent the bridge from falling it will even prevent the walls from breaking when later they paint it. To them it was not the weight put on the bridge that broke the bridge but the pressure from the pain brush. Later on this concept was corrected by an older child explaining to the younger one that any kind of pressure be it a brush or weight can break a single strand of spaghetti. The serenity and concentration were incredible.

It can be difficult to locate a preschool that dedicates a full 3 hours of free work time, but I strongly advise you to look for one.

Coming soon

Mixed age groups

Homework and Motivation

Observe the classroom

How does the classroom make you feel.

Why is Child-to-Teacher Ratio so Important

Is child-to-teacher Ratio a key to early education root’s?

One of the most important features of a high-quality early childhood program is the teacher-to-child ratio. Studies show that lower class sizes and smaller teacher-child ratios may improve child outcomes, help reduce behavior problems, lower rates of special education placements, reduce teacher stress, and improve the teacher’s experience. According to recent data, children of colour are more likely than White children to be taught in preschools with excessive teacher-to-child ratios. This degrades the program’s quality as well as the teacher’s interaction with his or her students. Expulsions and suspensions in the public school settings are more prevalent in classrooms with higher teacher-to-child ratios. According to the National Prekindergarten Study, 12.7 percent of instructors with a 12:1 or greater classroom ratio reported one of their students being expelled, compared to 7.7 percent of teachers with an 8:1 classroom ratio. Appropriate teacher-child ratios can strengthen teacher-child interactions, increase child outcomes, and improve both the instructor and the student’s entire experience.

Suspensions and Expulsions

Suspensions and expulsions of children under the age of eight are not developmental practices. Suspension and expulsion are, however, common in early childhood settings, according to recent statistics. These discriminatory behaviors, which disproportionately affect children of race, deprive children of crucial learning opportunities and have a negative impact on their development that persists beyond elementary school. It is critical to eliminate all forms of exclusion in order to prepare all children for success.

Here are Zebra crossing Academy we keep out student to teacher Ratio very low and encourage kids to interact with our teachers even outside the education subjects. We not only groom your kids in Math English, Social studies, but we teach them core skills that are not taught in public schools, problem-solving skills, information harvesting skills.

The days of learning from a teacher standing in front of a classroom are long gone, so are the days of visiting a public library twice a week and checking out books.

From Day one we have set up our classrooms in an open concept, kids and teachers can move around in a classroom with no obstacles.

Mahogany Zebra Crossing Academy
Mahogany Zebra Crossing Academy
Child-to-Teacher-Ratio
Child-to-Teacher-Ratio

 

What are the differences Between a Montessori and a Traditional Public School?

One of the most crucial decisions you’ll ever make as a parent is where to send your child to school. It’s especially important to think about school possibilities while your child is young because that’s when it’s easier to introduce them to a positive, supportive atmosphere and get them started on the right track with their studies. Many parents may prefer a typical public school, yet a Montessori school offers many benefits that public schools do not. Before deciding where to send your child, consider the following frequent contrasts between a Montessori School and Typical public Schools.

The child-to-teacher ratio is low.

In a standard public school, each class normally has at least 25 to 30 students, and occasionally even more. In most situations, public schools have one teacher per classroom, with the occasional addition of an assistant or student teacher. A Montessori school, on the other hand, has significantly smaller child-to-teacher ratio, and older children are usually there to assist younger ones. More peer-learning and Coaching possibilities are encouraged as a result of this.

Zebra Crossing Academy Class room
Zebra Crossing Academy Classroom.

Children set their own pace

Lesson plans are the driving force of a typical school classroom. The entire class is required to follow the teacher’s instructions. This can be difficult for youngsters who learn at a different rate than the majority of their classmates. It could also suggest that youngsters who learn better through non-traditional methods do not have enough time to study. Teachers in Montessori classes spend less time lecturing the entire class. Instead, they deliver brief lessons to small groups at a time, allowing each child to develop his or her own learning, style, and pace.

The importance of a range of learning modalities is emphasized.

From group activities in class to team sports and school rallies, traditional public schools devote a significant amount of time to a child’s social development. While this is a benefit for many youngsters, it can also be a disadvantage. Student’s may become more concerned with Socializing than with learning. Montessori schools provide children with a wide range of multi-sensory materials to work with and children have more freedom to move around the classroom in order to explore, which promotes cognitive development.

Emphasis on Self-discipline and intrinsic rewards.

Unlike traditional classrooms, where the teacher must act as an outside enforcer of discipline, Montessori students are encouraged to develop and demonstrate self-discipline. As they learn how to approach their studies, the youngest students are given clear ground rules and limited external structure. By the age of five or six, children are following individualized study plans that they can follow in any order they want through the week. They can decide how much time each project requires as well as enjoy time to pursue topics that pique their interest. As a result, they learn to recognize their own mistakes and successes rather than having errors pointed out to them by the teacher, as is common in public school classrooms.

The teacher acts as a guide.

The classroom is an arena for a public school teacher and the teacher sits in the center of it because of the nature of how public schools are structured, the majority of the action revolves around the teacher’s timetable and agenda. That structure is different in a Montessori School and it allows the teacher to be less of a ringmaster and more of a guide and support as the children explore what they are currently studying for themselves.

The student determines how much time is spent.

Another aspect of public school structure is the requirement to follow a strict time schedule. Students must attend science class at a specific time, art class at a specific time, and so on. Furthermore, each Subject is assigned a specific time frame with which learning must take place. Montessori schools take a different approach, allowing students to choose what they work on, when they want to work on it and how long they want to work on it. This allows the child to begin working on a project when he or she is ready and learning is not disrupted by a forced change to a different class topic.

Making the best decision for your child.

Touring the options you are considering is one way to gather more information in order to select the best school for your child. Zebra Crossing Academy has two locations to assist you in discovering all that we have to offer your child. Please call our office at 403-457-0707 or use our website to book a Tour.

Gates of Panorama Hills

#640, 1110 Panatella Blvd, NW Calgary, Alberta T3K 0S6

West Village

Zebra Crossing Academy
Zebra Crossing Academy

 

 

180 Mahogany Gardens, Calgary, Alberta T3M 2V6

Email: info@zebracrossingacademy.com

 

 

 

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