Maria Montessori built her method with kindness, as she respected each child’s individuality and made grace and courtesy a cornerstone to the children’s learning. Grace and courtesy lessons lead children to value themselves and others, as they develop into kind members of their community. This is taught through direct lessons at the earliest ages, and the children are given many opportunities to practice in the most natural setting of their classroom communities. At Woodland, these lessons progress from recognizing your own emotions and those of your classmates, all the way through being a peacemaker and helping others with conflict resolution.
Perhaps, the most important part of helping children develop kindness is being a good role model. Kindness is about action! Bringing kind acts into your routine and family is the ideal way to model kindness. With The Great Kindness Challenge happening across the world the last week of January, take a tip from Maria Montessori and “Let us treat them (children), therefore, with all the kindness which we would wish to help develop in them.” Maria Montessori
Check out the Great Kindness Challenge Website for more ideas!