Category: Montessori News

La fête de fin d’année du Collège Maria Montessori des Aiglons a donné lieu pour la 3ème année consécutive à la présentation d’une exposition réalisée par les adolescents. Cette année, le thème était celui de la “nourriture”.

La nourriture à travers les âges et les cultures, les procédés de cuisson et leurs implications physiques (cuisson au jus de citron, cuisson au feu, cuisson par induction, cuisson solaire, etc.)

Il y en avait pour tous les goûts. 

Et bien entendu des exposés sur la crise alimentaire actuelle, la “malbouffe” et ses implications sanitaires.

L’occasion pour tous les parents et plus généralement les familles de découvrir en détail le travail réalisé par leurs enfants ainsi que pour certains leur engagement “politique” pour sauver la planète et lutter contre les abus de toutes sortes.

Après l’exposition, un repas préparé exclusivement par les adolescents, comprenant de nombreuses spécialités culinaires du monde, a permis de profiter de la belle journée estivale sur la terrasse du collège. Puis les élèves des classes de 5ème et de 4ème ont présenté un spectacle de théâtre en plein air.

On Wednesday, June 26, 2019, the graduation ceremony for the 12-15 year olds took place at Maria Montessori College in Les Aiglons. 9 students were given a certificate of completion, which testifies to their time at the school.

A small ceremony was organized by the director Sylvie Coffre, which allowed everyone to remember the progress made in 2 or 3 years, since the arrival in the 5th grade for most of them. Adolescence is really an age where the changes are dramatic in a few years!

While some have simply grown up and are recognizable in the oldest pictures, the majority have moved from being children to being young adults. And as a reflection of this physical transformation, intellectual and emotional evolution is equally marked.

This is the challenge of this Montessori College’s global educational project, which is unique in France thanks to its boarding school from Monday to Friday, which enables teenagers to truly learn to live together and to confront their peers. A good way to prepare for adult life!

The AMS (Association Montessori Suisse – which brings together the actors of the Montessori community for the cantons of French-speaking and Italian-speaking Switzerland) is organising its annual General Assembly on Wednesday 12 June 2019 from 17:00, at the Maison des Associations, 15 rue des Savoises, in Geneva.

This will be an opportunity to take stock of the events of the past year, but also to talk about the many projects. The AMS is in a special situation because in Switzerland, and unlike many countries, the name “Montessori” is protected.

But how can we evaluate that a school respects the criteria corresponding to a “true” Montessori pedagogy?

In addition, the Committee that manages the association on behalf of its members will be largely renewed this year: an opportunity to discover new faces and exchange ideas within the network.

Following the general assembly, a conference will be proposed by Jessica Scrimes, Montessori trainer in training for 0-3 year olds, on the theme of Montessori for the youngest.

A theme particularly requested by the community, for which Jessica will be able to share her experience!

The Maria Montessori des Aiglons College, located in Cruseilles in Haute-Savoie since 2014, is celebrating its 5th anniversary this year!

It has been constituted in 2016 as a cooperative society, of which the employees of the college, but also the parents and several Montessori schools in the region are members, not to mention the supporters of the project, former or more recent.

An original governance that aims to bring together the various stakeholders around the educational project, who together contribute to the educational development of the 35 or so young people who are welcomed each year in boarding schools, from 5th to 3rd grade (12-15 years old).

This General Assembly, the first after the financial difficulties of the previous year, will be an opportunity to discuss with the college’s management team (Sylvie Coffre, Olivia Gollain and Julien Lamorte) the year that is ending and the prospects, particularly with regard to the future of the Les Aiglons site and possibly the opening of a future Montessori school.

Dear friends,

On April 30, 2019, at the age of 92, Jeannette Toulemonde died at home in Hem in the “Nord”, in France. Thanks to her and her husband Jacques, several generations in France have discovered the strength of Maria Montessori’s work for an education for peace and freedom from birth.

Did she not write this: “A small child who is born and has parents of peace will in turn be a parent of peace” (CNMN EV documentary collection 2003)?

We have benefited from her bold initiatives, notably through her creation of the Centre Nascita du Nord, the magazine L’enfant et la vie and her book: Le Quotidien avec mon enfant – Adapting the child’s environment according to Montessori pedagogy (L’instant présent editions).

Jeannette Toulemonde had made this conviction of Maria Montessori her own and implemented it: “The art of education must be at the service of these innate forces present in each child” (in Maria Montessori, L’enfant est l’avenir de l’homme).Find or meet the writings of this personality of the Montessori movement, in a free tone on my blog “Parent-Researcher”, under the heading: Those who have made the history of Montessori education.

Odile Anot, President of the Nord Nascita Montessori Centre

Odile Anot explores in greater depth through this book an axis that has been the common thread of her professional commitment for twenty-five years: Living Montessori outside the classroom walls.

In 230 large format pages, it summarizes its years of experience with parents, children and young people. She crosses this heritage with her many researches, readings and encounters within the Montessori movement.

In the first part, Odile Anot presents the conditions of the child’s development throughout the 24 years dedicated to his formation to become a man; then she makes public the Parent-Researcher® tool in five attitudes illuminated by Maria Montessori’s scientific and visionary contribution to an education for peace and freedom; finally she invites us to a sensitive and documented encounter with Maria Montessori’s life.

The content is illustrated by numerous examples classified under the headings: “Enfant explorateur”, “Parents Chercheurs”, “Au cœur du mouvement Montessori”, as well as quotations from Maria Montessori’s entire work in French.

A few explanatory tables, a colourful notebook, a thousand hand-selected notes and references enrich the reading of this book, which draws the whole family into the meaning of life.

To order anywhere, from your booksellers, the publisher Dunod, or your favorite websites.