The Importance of Movement with Alex
Meet Alex, a Montessori mom of two living in Texas. She’s an alumna of Homeschool: Primary and a member of Constellation.
Would you introduce yourself, your family, and your lifestyle?
I’m a stay at home mom of a toddler and preschooler. I live Texas in the USA. My background is psychology, so I love digging into all the research on brain function and development. I really nerd out watching as my kids grow and learn.
My husband is a former college football coach who works at a professional organization for coaching education so he values learning as well, and our Fridays and Saturdays in fall are always busy with games and tailgating.
At other times we are traveling or spending time in nature whether in our backyard, local zoo, arboretum, parks or walking paths around town.
What is a typical day for you with your children?
The kids share a floor bed, but I often fall asleep with them. If not, they'll come into my bed. We love early morning snuggles. We get up, and the oldest is always first to choose an outfit and get dressed (usually a frilly dress or t-shirt and tutu.) Her sister is not far behind her, and the adults fall in line.
If we're up early enough I'll go for a walk or jog, and they'll ride in the stroller or run alongside me. Or we might go to the gym where they play in the child care room. We do our morning self care routines and make breakfast together, eat, and see daddy off to work. Most days we have an activity, like gymnastics, swim, or dance. When we're home, they have free play and tend to gravitate toward pretend play with the doll house or animal figures if not building with Legos or Magna-Tiles or similar
I try to do a lesson a day at this time in the homeschool room, read aloud and a sort of “circle time” where we discuss the days of the week and calendar. The kitchen and school room are adjacent with the back door in between, so we flow freely back and forth in and out of those spaces and the yard. We make lunch together or they play while I cook and after lunch we have quiet/nap time. We wake up and play more. We might meet friends for a play date or visit the zoo.
When daddy comes home the real fun begins with more outside play, rough housing, climbing, or we may take a family walk. Dad makes dinner, which usually involves a learning tower dance party. If he has some after work personal training to do, he leaves again and we sometimes get another cycle of work now that they've gotten out all the energy and have sustained focus.
After dinner we relax for a bit before baths and bedtime stories read or told by Dad and off to dreamland.
Tell us what experiences YOU love to share with your children.
I really enjoy when I learn right along with them. My oldest has learned a lot about animal life and sign language. She loves to share and ask questions which leads us to looking things up we didn't know. The toddler is in a language explosion and it's incredible to watch. I am a lifelong learner and hope to model this for my kids, but I really do genuinely love it.
What do your children like to do?
The toddler is all about music she has been able to "sing" by copying the notes of songs before she could say the words. She loves to dance as well and has always been physical. Any way she can move her body: jumping, climbing, running, etc is her jam. She also would be perfectly happy to live in a library and "book" was one of her first words. She enjoys turning pages and being read to.
The four year old is EXPLODING in her learning and just has so much going on in her brain! It is amazing; I can barely keep up. She loves animals, dolls, fashion, sensory play (play doh kinetic sand etc), Montessori math bead materials, anatomy, running and competing to be fast and first, languages, gardening, cleaning, and just generally learning new things.
Tell us something your child / one of your children did recently that you're proud of.
I really love how caring they both are towards each other. I think there is plenty of time to learn academic content, but social emotional learning is critical in the early years so I'm really proud that they are developing that and getting along as siblings (for the most part).
What challenges are you currently facing with your children at home?
Right now it's the ongoing battle of having a toddler in the space and dealing with sibling issues. The mess and my constant being torn between doing housework “efficiently” or being present with them. The developmental phases always bring new challenges. At the moment it's trying to figure out how to “teach” the 4 yo when she resists formal instruction yet wants to learn for example to read and write and tells me she wants a “real teacher.” It's the age where her peers are getting ready for kindergarten so those expectations are starting to affect her.
What is your favorite Montessori material or activity?
I adore the cultural emphasis along with the map puzzles. Global citizenship is something that I feel was largely missing from my own education.
I'm really interested in the math materials since that's an area where I'm weak so I'm re-learning alongside them.
Finally, having worked as a literacy interventionist, the language materials are so great and are supported by current neuroscience in how children learn to read. It's really astounding how ahead of her time Dr Montessori was.
Why Montessori?
I was drawn to the method because of the basis in science and the fact that this old method is now supported by the most recent neuroscience. As I became a parent, many things came naturally, like involving them in practical life and respecting their needs and their time. I started practicing it in earnest after digging deeper when my oldest was around 2, and it absolutely changed our lives! I felt (and still do feel) so much peace even with welcoming a newborn sibling, moving twice with small kids, the pandemic, and all the other things life has thrown our way.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
I would say to connect with Dr. Montessori's own words and method. Start with observation and truly understand the WHY not just the what of materials and lessons, but dig into the philosophy and let that guide you
What do you tell yourself when you feel like you're failing?
Failure is learning.
