The One Less Travelled By

Robert Frost's poem, The Road Not Taken, has always been a favourite of mine. Looking at the primary years, the road less travelled may be just what this generation needs.

Watching our primary curriculum unfold has been fascinating. Lisa has really done her homework in this area, and we’ve asked ourselves a lot of questions, mapped out the days to allot all the relevant components and left margins - spaces for fun, creativity, exploration and breathing room. Space for being a child.

While cultivating a rich curriculum is easy* , finding the right people, time slots and balancing all the other elements can be tricky, and sometimes you end up with a stellar offering but miss the heart and soul behind it all.

[*I use “easy” here loosely, it still requires much effort]

Our curriculum mind map began with the essentials. Mathematics, Language Arts, Physical Education, Religious Education, Spanish, Social & Cultural studies, Art, Music, and Science. Then we started to dig deeper. The children of tomorrow need entrepreneurial skills and financial literacy, among subjects like cooking, gardening, woodworking, digital media and technology. How do we do it all?

The reality is that life today is far different than it was 50 years ago. Our children need as much time concentrated on learning life essentials (think financial literacy, cooking, physical education, language arts etc.), as they do to grasp all the technological components of our ever evolving world. While our Montessori classroom environments are low tech, we recognize that they are growing up in an age of high tech use. We, therefore, need to ready them for this, and what life will look like beyond our school gates, yet help them cultivate hobbies and skills that go past their screens too. It’s a dance, and one I think we all see, or are beginning to see, the value of learning the steps to.

Our carefully thought out day, has been structured and re-structured for us to find just the right flow. The start of the day is important. This is one of the times we want to play music for our children that will set the tone for the day. Following this will be their uninterrupted work period. During this time they can prepare snack, and also receive small group presentations on various topics. Lunch and outdoor play will cover the middle of our day, and the afternoons will lend way to exploring other areas or continuing work from the morning period. To wrap our our days we will close with a large group time where we endeavour to hold deeper discussions, foster debate skills, continue with peace education talks and share what has been learned that day.

I hope this gives a little peek into what September holds for our Primary 1 students. We have so much lined up in our academic offering, as well as those wonderful extras that truly add to making school a special place for our students to be. Caring for their little hearts is just as important to us as educating their minds, a huge thank you to our families who entrust their children’s learning to us. We don’t take this role lightly, especially as we take this less travelled road.

Until your next scroll,

Alyssa