This week we saw more snow (without ice!) than we have in years – an entire week and inches of fluffy white snow.
Do you remember, as a child, waking up early, fingers crossed hoping to see your school’s name on the school closure list? There was so much anticipation and then delight when you saw that school was closed. A full day of doing nothing except playing in the snow, drinking hot chocolate, and for me, reading books! This week has not looked much different and it has been glorious!
At The Montessori School, we value the importance of these types of days – unexpected and unusual, especially in Arkansas. Zoom and distance learning has allowed school to continue in some form during this unprecedented pandemic. But, it’s also made it impossible for children and teachers to experience “snow days” even when surrounded by inches and inches of snow just calling their name.
Our Montessori curriculum includes Practical Life – an area of learning that encompasses life skills and practices. At school, practical life can include a wide variety of things – shoe tying, buttoning, zipping, spooning beans, pouring liquids, taking out the trash, etc. At home, cooking, setting the table, playing an instrument, dusting, and so forth are all important skills to learn and practice.
Learning can be found in many places and can happen in many ways. Snow days are absolutely part of practical life. Some of the things that snow days teach children include:
- Shoveling – help mom and dad clear out the car
- Science – think snow volcanoes or freezing bubbles
- Cooking – how many snow recipes can you discover or create?
- Cooking – helping make breakfast, lunch, or dinner
- Meteorology – what conditions are needed for snow to develop?
In addition, children learn important personal and self-care skills such as how to take advantageous of a spontaneous opportunity, especially when they don’t come around very often and that work, oftentimes, can wait. It will still be there later – just like math and english will be waiting when then temperatures rise. But, the snow will not. Let’s all enjoy it while we can!
Be sure to bundle up and dress in layers and don’t eat too much snow ice cream.
To see some of our students enjoying the snow, visit our Facebook page.