The Montessori Way is more than a beautiful coffee table book: it is in-depth, yet easy-to-read, explaining Montessori education in layperson's terms, from the early years through to secondary school. Here is the perfect guide for the Montessori nursery owner thinking about expanding their school to the older years. It also guides parents wanting to find out not only how the Montessori philosophy works with their nursery children, but also with older children. This book offers observations of the child in contemporary US elementary and secondary schools, as well as the more familiar 3- to 6-year-olds in nursery settings. Everything explained is accompanied by numerous illustrations and photographs, including children demonstrating use of the Montessori materials. Curricula topics include Montessori's hands-on approach to science, foreign languages, arts and health, wellness and physical education. The Montessori Way has a chapter full of many practical ideas, including how to organize the bedroom, bathroom kitchen and an arts-and-crafts area. Special Needs are covered in the chapter called Learners with Exceptionalities, which includes 'essential questions' for the Montessori parent and school. The chapter section concludes with in-depth examples of how individual children learn in the Montessori environment. This 272 page guide is 'a must' for everyone interested in Montessori education in the 21st century, especially beyond the nursery 3- to 6-year-level. Anyone who is teaching, running a nursery, or is a parent considering keeping their child with the Montessori system for a few more years beyond six years old should own a copy. If more people discover potential for Montessori in older years, Montessori in UK will grow. This book is the catalyst! -- Montessori International Magazine, August, 2004 The Montessori Foundation is a a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of Montessori education around the world. Its mission is to nurture, inspire, and support the development of strong, successful Montessori schools throughout N.America. The Foundation is committed to promoting Dr. Montessori's dream of a world-wide community of children & adults working together to teach peace and global understanding, cooperation rather than conflict, and the celebration of the universal values of kindness, compassion and nonviolence. In 1907, an Italian physician was invited to open a child-care facility for fifty preschool-aged children in a section of Rome that was avoided and neglected because of its oppressive poverty and crime. The children's parents worked sixteen or more hours a day. In the absence of adult supervision, these children were vandalizing recently renovated housing. Years later, Dr. Maria Montessori recalled her experience of personal transformation in which she discovered something previously unknown about children: "What happened will always remain a mystery to me...There were only rough tables. I brought them some of the materials which had been used for our work in experimental psychology, the items which we use today as sensorial material and materials for the exercises of practical life. I merely wanted to study the children's reactions. I asked the woman in charge not to interfere with them in any way, as otherwise I would not be able to observe them. Someone brought them paper and colored pencils. but, in itself, this was not the explanation of the further events... The children were quiet;...but their environment contrasted vividly from that which they had been used to... They were left alone, and little by little the children began to work with concentration, and the transformation they underwent was noticeable. From timid and wild as they were before, the children became sociable and communicative. They showed a different relationship with each other, of which I have written in my books. Their personalities grew and, strange though it may seem, they showed extraordinary understanding, activity, vivacity and confidence... But the most outstanding thing about these strange children of the St. Lorenz Quarter was their obvious gratitude. I was as much surprised by this as everyone else. When I entered the room, all the children sprang to greet me and cried their welcome. Nobody had taught them the manner of good behaviour. And the strangest thing of all was that although nobody had cared for them physically, they flourshed in health, as if they had been secretly fed on some nourishing food. And so they had, but in their spirit. These children began to notice things in their homes, a spot of dirt on their mother's dress, untidiness in the room. They told their mothers not to hang the wash in the windows but to put flowers there instead. Their influence spread into the homes, so that after a while these also became transformed..." Maria Montessori discovered that when young children concentrate and investigate a set of purposefully designed activities, they tend to develop