Beautiful Moment!

Our combined age group this year (something that the Montessori approach highly encourages) is unfolding in a beautiful way.

I regularly see how the "older" kids step in and help out the "younger" ones, but what happened in the yard this week truly made me see how beneficial it can be for our children.

BL came over to me during outside time and said, "Do you want to see something amazing?"

I stopped what I was doing to see what was so fascinating to her. 

She pointed to the plants we had planted a few weeks ago and said "see those blooms? It happened!"

She then went on to show me the trees right outside our school that had beautiful white blossoms ALL OVER them.

 I was so excited to see her take the knowledge she had mastered from Tu b'shvat and apply it to what she was seeing weeks later!

These trees were BARE BRANCHES just a week ago!

 

 To be honest I probably wouldn't have noticed... But I was so thankful that she pointed it out and joined in her excitement for Hashem's wonderful world of growth..

BL wanted to take it to the next level! She asked for crayons "not just regular crayons but the Pastel ones so u can really see the colors! "

 
I quickly brought out the paper and crayons and she drew every 

detail of that beautiful tree! 

The Branch that was sticking out, the green around the white flowers' etc..... It was truly a master piece !

 

Note the fine details of EACH bud/flower on each branch.

 

Here's where I see the value of our mixed age 

group...

All her friends (2's 3's & 4 year old's) started to gather around, to watch what she was doing. At this point I stepped aside to watch and observe what would take place.

One by  one, the other children came over to see what she was doing.

Here we have a whole group of them wanting to do the same thing!

BL was teaching the younger ones how to draw/copy and look at what was around them and put it on paper. Some of the 2 and 3 year old's were trying to figure it out and with BL's guidance they each took a paper and started coloring.

This is was an eye opener for me and I realize how beautiful and lucky we are to have such a mix of ages and developmental levels in one class!