Time for Mama

Funny title, right?  Time for Mama.  What is that?!?!  I'm trying to find out.

This week I had a parent's night at my child's Montessori preschool.  The overall topic was Bridging the Home and School.  We talked how to make life as consistent as possible in both places, while being as realistic as possible about life.  

One topic that came up from the parents was MOM GUILT!  There are only so many hours in a day, and I don't know about you guys, but I certainly feel the pressure to spend all the minutes WITH my kids doing something enriching!  It's EXHAUSTING!  And it's difficult to do with kids of 2 different ages, too!  Imagine if there were MORE of them!!!

I need to find ways to be in the same ROOM with my kids, near my kids, but doing my own thing.  

Our usual nights are something like this:

Scene: End of dinner.  Kitchen is a mess.  I need to clean it up.

Kids: Mama!  Come play!  Mama!  He took my truck!  Mama!  He's chasing me!  Mama!  The dog won't stop licking me!  Mama!  Come!  Mama!  Come!  MAMA!!  

GAH!!!


At the parent night, we talked a lot about how to get kids to be independent - that's what they do in a Montessori school - foster independence.  Why can't I pull this off at home?!?!  They gave us some ideas to try.  They reminded us that the kids want to know that they are noticed, safe, and loved, but don't actually NEED us to do the same thing as them at the same time all the time.  Ok.  I can work with that.

So tonight, I simply said to my kids, "Hey guys.  I need to clean up the kitchen from dinner.  What are you planning to do?"  

They thought about it for a minute, and the older boy said, "I want to do the truck painting again!  I'll sit in the kitchen with you!"

So we pulled out the washable paints, junky old plastic trucks, and poster board.  I set them up at the kitchen table, and I got to work and so did they.  

For 30 minutes (and counting...  they are still going), these boys have painted and painted and painted.  They have discussed mixing colors, shades of colors, and creating a rainbow.  And they actually worked TOGETHER!  I heard so many conversations about sharing!  It was so lovely!  Every once in a while they'd ask me to pour some more paint or ask me to look at their work, but mostly they just liked being in the same room as me, even if I wasn't painting with them.  

I managed to clean the entire kitchen, then had time leftover to pull out my laptop to write about it.  The kids had a blast.  And now we have these beautiful paintings to display.... that will take approximately 1 year to dry.  

Best quote of the experience: Mama!  This paint is spicy! 

WHAT?!?!



One part of Montessori philosophy that resonates with me, and really always has, even before I knew anything about Montessori education, is that kids are going to be more invested in their work if they CHOOSE it themselves!  As an educator, I have seen this many times.  Kids will do the work they are assigned, but there's no joy about it.  Or sometimes they won't do it at all.  But when we'd do a project where they could choose the topic or the presentation method, we would see JOY in their faces.  They worked hard at it, too.

Tonight I told my kids what I would be doing and them asked them to choose what they wanted.  Their need to be with me was met AND they got to do something they wanted at the same time.  Since I was able to get my work done earlier than usual, I am going to have time to catch up on This is Us tonight!!!

Win.  Win.  BIG WIN!

I'd love to hear from you - how have you pulled off getting some things done for yourself - at home or in the classroom - while the kids did their own work?

Until next time!
Pam