Ann Baumgardner My sister and I had a girls’ weekend with Mom over the July 4th weekend. I also made my annual pilgrimage to my hometown later in the summer for a long weekend during our Carnation Festival and met up with high school friends, cousins, and spent time with Mom. My husband Erich and I spent a big part of the summer grandparenting our 4-month old grandson. Our backs, shoulders and wrists are sore from hoisting him to our shoulders, patting his back and swaying on his favorite squeaky floorboard to lull him to sleep. It’s been fun …

Our 4th level students have been reading the novel, My Side of the Mountain, which features a boy and his peregrine falcon hunting together. The (9-12) teachers planned an educational afternoon where handlers of birds of prey shared interesting facts about owls, falcons, buzzards and more while circling among the students, birds – in hand and close up. Students learned that barn owls’ eyes take up 80% of their heads and that owls can’t actually rotate their heads all the way around like the cartoons show–just 270 degrees. Barn owls find their prey mostly with their ears. In fact, they …

The blacktop just off the front porch of the Mansion served as a perfect surface for 1st and 2nd graders to learn their lessons this week as (6-9) teacher Lauren Burke demonstrated a lesson in early geometry in the great outdoors. 1st level students learned about lines (parallel, divergent, convergent and perpendicular), while 2nd level students learned about the different kinds of angles that live within triangles (right, obtuse and acute angles). The entryway to the school is decorated with all manner of lines and angles as each student practiced drawing and labeling their lines and angles with colorful chalk. These …

One of our industrious 3rd grade students decided to apply for a grant from Little Tree Huggers to help fund a landscaping project at The New School Montessori. With the addition of the Kaleidoscope Center being built this summer and the new garden property next to the Ginkgo House, we have new opportunities to beautify our space with interesting and biodiverse plants and trees. When asked why she thought to apply for a grant, she said, “At first I was going to sell lemonade, but it appears you need a permit for that!” Luckily her mom found Little Tree Huggers …

Families from all over the United States (and sometimes the world) travel to Cincinnati to receive life-saving care for their children. While here, they need a place to stay. The Ronald McDonald house in Cincinnati provides that home for these critically ill children and their families and always appreciates when our community extends a welcome by donating items that make their guests’ stay more comfortable. New School Montessori 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders planned amazing Valentine’s Day care packages for families currently living at the Ronald McDonald House. They organized and filled 26 gift baskets with books, games, snacks, crafting …

There is an oft repeated phrase here at The New School Montessori “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” This quote is from author Alfred Wainwright and applies to the way we look at recess and outdoor time. Children bring raincoats, snow pants and extra clothing to school. It doesn’t matter if you’re 3 or 12; it’s good to be prepared for the adventures of the outdoors. In our preprimary woods, we carve out well-placed footholds on honeysuckle bushes to make great natural climbers for the little ones, and we have junior-sized trees for older children to …

Students in (9-12) created works of art in the Japanese Notan tradition, bringing balance between light and dark elements to create harmony and beauty. The word Notan is derived from 2 Japanese words–combining “Nong” which means strong, thick or concentrated with “Dan” which means weak. As you can see from the works the students created, there is a sense of balance in the repeated image being in the opposite color on the opposite background. It brings to mind the Chinese symbol for yin and yang which embodies the philosophical concept describing opposite but interconnected forces.

Hello Friends, We hope everyone had an opportunity to meet teachers over the last couple of days as we work toward “…establishment of harmony, between the work and activities of home life and school tasks, making both work together for the education of the child.” (Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method). As my wife, Raphaela, and I sat in on our 2nd and 4th grade conferences, we were delighted (although not surprised) to hear how well the teachers know our children. We have seen, over our 7 years, how the Montessori philosophy and expertise of the teachers have allowed our children …

TNSM celebrates Halloween in a unique way; we dress up as characters from history or literature and have each other guess who we are as clues are gradually revealed to the classroom audience. We also have the 6th graders perform their D’em Bones song on the Mansion Porch steps, naming everything from mandible through metatarsals. Parents help us celebrate during recess by providing snacks and games before it all begins. We enjoyed seeing the students’ and teachers’ creative costuming and wanted to give you a chance to guess who these characters might be. Can you guess who these folks are? …