The Case for Cursive
This blog was originally posted in 2013 on our old website! We think the content is still very relevant for us today at Mountain Sun and so wanted to re-publish it. Long live cursive!
Nurturing the Spirit of Our Children
Montessori education is often characterized by what is readily visible to us. This may be happy children using beautiful didactic materials such as the pink tower of cubes or the golden beads used in math curriculum. Or perhaps it’s the aesthetically pleasing child-sized classrooms housing mixed age groups working busily…
2019 Faces of Freedom
The Faces of Freedom Art show is currently on display at the Transylvania Community Arts Council. This is the fifth year of the Art show and it is Mountain Sun Community School’s 5th year participating. The Faces of Freedom Art show was created by former MSCS parent Nicola Karesh…
The Process of Creating
Sitting on the shelf behind my desk in the art room is a box of crayons. This is not just any box of crayons. It is a very, very old box of 64 Crayola crayons with the sharpener built in the back. I keep this box of crayons out where I can see it every day as a reminder of my childhood, where my love of art began…
Storytelling
When I think back to my childhood and some of the stories I heard from my parents, I smile at the images that come to my mind. My favorite was one that my father told often about cooties and the spoon that found them. It was magical, and I always wondered how he knew to use such an amazing tool to identify the infected…
Cider and Conversation
I just love homemade apple cider. I mean, what’s not to love? It’s warm and sweet, it has all the spices that make you think of the holidays, and if you make it in a crockpot, the entire house smells like one enormous pie…
Fostering Creativity
Children are all born with an innate need to create: to build, to make, to tinker. Our job as teachers is to foster that creativity and keep that fire burning so that need to create does not get extinguished. Creativity is something we all have within, but it just tends to get used less and less as we grow older…
Parental Personal Time
This morning, we were discussing our health and how we can care for our bodies to promote our wellness. The children all had wonderful suggestions and comments. I shared with them the basic expectations of hand washing (running water as well as creating friction with the hands), drinking plenty of water (we noticed that if running water could help "wash" the germs off the outside, that maybe drinking plenty of water could help the germs move through the inside), eating fruits and veggies (protein and carbs too), and sleep…