Birthday at R's Montessori

A week before R's birthday, I called up his Montessori and spoke to the principal there to know how many students are there in his class so that we could be well-prepared. In turn the principal told me that I'd receive a formal invite in R's diary about the celebrations and the details would be mentioned therein.

Sure enough I received the note written by R's teacher inviting us parents to the school on the D-day. Equipped with sweets to be distributed, the husband and I arrived at the school at the time mentioned. The welcome notice board at the school carries the names of the children who celebrate their birthdays in the current month and in addition, children who celebrate their birthdays on the particular day also have their recent snap pinned up. This, I had noticed on the earlier visits too. As expected, the board had R's name and snap:





Since there was another child sharing R's birthday that day, the parents of that child were present too. I had not really spoken to any other parent about what kind of celebrations are done at school, so I was quite clueless on what to expect. Even as we sat wondering, two cute (older to R in age) girls from R's environment (the classes in R's school are called environments and they have a mixed-age group in each environment- a Montessori peculiarity) came out to invite each set of parents. How cute!

We were ushered into R's class, where there was a huge cut out of the Sun was kept on a table.



 R was called out and given a globe to hold. He then took the globe and circumambulated the Sun thrice as the rest of the class sang the following song:


Here we go round the sun
Here we go round the sun
Here we go round the sun
until the year is done..

The idea is to go around the sun as many times as the age of the child. Each completed round marks the completion of the year- just as the earth takes a year to complete a revolution- with the globe symbolizing the Earth. What an innovative way to teach the kid about Geography! Of course, R may not understand the logic and analogy yet, but the idea is definitely interesting. After the completion of each year/ round, the child was made to pause while the teacher with the help of the parents recounted the important milestone that the child may have crossed at that age. Then the mandatory birthday song was sung, at the end of which the class clapped for the child- the number of claps corresponded to the age of the child with one additional clap for good luck- again an unusual practice that I came across.

R was given a hand-made birthday card and a collection of photo-memories from his previous birthdays (they had requested for his year-wise photographs well in advance) along with an appropriate one-line caption for each of the photo.

The birthday card

The golden moments card


I was touched by the effort put in by the teachers to make a child's birthday special. There were no balloons or cake but the time spent to render a warm and personal touch by making such wonderful cards and capture the memories in a beautiful manner was far more precious- something that could be cherished by the kids and their parents for years to come.

39 comments:

  1. oh thats the sweetest thing I have ever seen a school has done..how adorable!

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  2. Oh! Wow thats such a great idea.. wonderful effort by the teachers.

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  3. Lovely way to celebrate his day. What school is this? (My son goes to a montessori in bangalore and it's so similar, so I asked)

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    1. Going by all the comments, I guess this is a standard practice will all Montessoris..The name is Sparrows. Where does your son go to?

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  4. Lovely way of celebrating, plan to try it out too. And lot of effort put in by the teachers. Does R love his environment then:) First time I'm hearing of this concept!

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    1. Oh, he loves his environment...at least as of now :-)))

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  5. This is so cool Uma, have not heard of any school putting in so much of an effort from their side!! And the part about the sun especially, what a simple yet brilliant approach!

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    1. Isn't it? I was quite impressed with the simplicity yet thoughtful approach..I was under the impression all Montessories follow a similar pattern.

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  6. That is one birthday to remember

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  7. Soooo nice. Love it when teachers put in such efforts to make a child's special day even more special. Love that going around the sun part and the cards :) :)

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    1. I loved the going around the sun part too!

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  8. gonig round d sun is cool.. which school is this..?

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  9. Awww how cute is that!! Loved the way they did it. I have the same question as a couple of others but it's ok if you don't to make the name of the school public here (personal message me on Fb) The curious me can go to any lengths you see ;)

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    1. hmm..I already gave away the name in the previous comments..
      saved the trouble of PMing so many people on FB ;-)

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  10. That's so sweet of the school to make such an effort. :) Which school are we talking about? , the name? :)

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  11. Great! This is a very typical montessori tradition I think....Ads had more or less exactly the same experience in the US on his 3rd bday. Hope R had a lot of fun. Simple but meaningful isn't it?

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    1. yes, looks like a typical pattern..very meaningful!

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  12. How thoughtful! A beautiful way of celebrating a child's birthday, and everything about it has a personal touch! Am sure kuttan had a super day!

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    1. Exactly! the personal touch made all the difference..kuttan had a fab day..

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  13. That is indeed a good way to celebrate the birthday ...


    Bikram's

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  14. Love love love the globe ritual

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  15. A very thoughtful gesture by the teacher and the school.Each kid would look forward to his/her birthday with eagerness

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    1. Yes, once they understand the meaning it would be more fun for them.

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  16. Uma, I have seen my son's birthday also being celebrated the same way in a Montessori that he used to go. But, I didn't know the logic behind it..my bad. Thank you for explaining.. :)

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  17. There's so much thought gone behind each one of those things they did..your son would've been one happy boy after this. :)

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    1. totally agree...R certainly was a happy boy that day..after all he got to eat the much awaited cake that day ;-)

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  18. Uma this is so so so so so cute.. I wish I had been to a school like this.. I just would not want to come home from there..!

    R is really lucky and blessed - touchwood :)

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    1. I guess, Me, most play schools are quite nice these days..and most kids really enjoy their time there..wish there were playschools during my time..I'd probably not hated big school so much :-)

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