Leadership Parenting Series #3 Reset your Role By Michele and Jim Aspinall  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOpuD-m_y-o Fewer toys will encourage your children to play in diverse ways, become resourceful, and learn to persevere! Thanks, Michele and Jim, for helping us save some money while benefitting our children in the long term! Look for more takeaways in the weeks to come! ... READ MORE

Leadership Parenting Series #2 Reset your Role By Michele and Jim Aspinall    Reset Your Role with Michele and Jim's parenting takeaways. This week..." asking" your child to do something vs. "telling." Look for more takeaways in the weeks to come! https://youtu.be/1AdF4M2HqfU       ... READ MORE

Leadership Parenting Series #1 Reset your Role By Michele and Jim Aspinall    Reset Your Role with Michele and Jim’s parenting takeaways. Begin to establish reasonable yet challenging expectations, set and enforce limits, and model socially appropriate behavior. Look for more takeaways in the weeks to come! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LyjVN_-cwg     ... READ MORE

Embracing Social Connections By Michele Aspinall I think we can all agree that in an age of social distancing, children are missing out on opportunities to develop critical interpersonal skills. The good, the bad, and the ugly. The sudden decline in socialization when the pandemic first hit meant that they were getting less practice with problem-solving, communication, and other social-emotional learning. One of the many advantages of Montessori that sets us apart from... READ MORE

Due to popular demand, Michele and Jim Aspinall are bringing back the Leadership Parenting class! The Aspinalls will provide invaluable guidance to reinforce what essentially has always been the parenting philosophy of the Countryside community–the importance of parents re-claiming a leadership role in the raising of their children. “It’s become counter-cultural,” said the Aspinalls, “to expect a child to defer to the parent’s leadership. Rather, we’ve become accustomed to the parent deferring to... READ MORE

Enabling Creativity Through Art by Michele Aspinall "If we try to think back to the dim and distant past...what is it that helps us reconstruct those times, and to picture the lives of those who lived in them? It is their art... It is thanks to the hand, the companion of the mind, that civilization has arisen." Maria Montessori.   Art is a universal language. Artwork has the potential to stimulate and evoke a response... READ MORE

Less Stuff, More Adventure by Michele Aspinall "Let the children be free; encourage them; let them run outside when it is raining; let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water; and, when the grass of the meadows is damp with dew, let them run on it and trample it with their bare feet; let them rest peacefully when a tree invites them to sleep beneath its shade; let them shout... READ MORE

 "As soon as children find something that interests them, they lose their instability and learn to concentrate." Maria Montessori.   Children can independently work and play when provided with the right tools within an environment that suits their developmental needs as young as infancy. This is precisely why Montessori stressed the importance of a prepared environment. While you don't have to recreate your child's classroom in your own home, there are, as with discipline, many... READ MORE

Montessori articulates in The Montessori Method, "...man still belongs to nature, and especially when he is a child, he...draws from it the forces necessary to the development of the body and the spirit. We have intimate communications with nature which have an influence, even a material influence, on the growth of the body...".  A window box, a barrel, or a small, raised garden will do just fine. You also need not have a green thumb yourself... READ MORE

“The children of three years of age in the ‘Children’s Houses’ learn and carry out such work as sweeping, dusting, making things tidy, setting the table for meals, waiting at table, washing the dishes, etc., and at the same time, they learn to attend to their own personal needs, to wash themselves, to take showers, to comb their hair, to take a bath, to dress and undress themselves, to hang up their clothes in the... READ MORE