The Kavanaugh Report

I'm so excited to finally introduce this project to the world - say hello to Joyful Seasons: Montessori Parenting, Everyday Inspiration, and Thoughtful Ideas to Nurture Every Season !  For years, I have wanted to create a publication that felt more inline with my everyday parenting experience. I wanted glimpses into what other Montessori parents were doing, lessons on what they have learned, and inspiration from their homes.  PURCHASE YOUR COPY HERE Blogs are wonderful, but they are scattered in a million different places. Pinterest is overwhelming, and other social media is too surface level. Nothing quite fit what I was looking for. I longed for the days of sitting on the couch browsing a magazine - something beautiful and quick, but also informative and impactful.  Dreaming up a Montessori Parenting Magazine While this has been a dream in my head for awhile, I finally made it a reality over the last couple of months. I reached out to some of my favorite Montessori content creato

Children are so fascinating for a lot of reasons! But one of the things that I find particularly fascinating about young children is all the different ways that they interact with the world. Play is an important part in how all children learn, explore, and master their environment. Maria Montessori was clear that a child's work is their play, and their play is their work. As Montessori parents we need to value how our children play and work to understand their play.  For me, an important part of understanding my children's play has come from learning more about play schema. Schema are a patterns of play that children use in order to understand the world around them. In very basic terms, play schema are "the how." How are children choosing to use materials? How are children processing their sensorial input? How are children exploring the materials in the environment? How are the children moving in the environment? Often play schema provide the answers to these question

Time is a tricky concept for young children. This is especially for those in the first plane of development, that is under age 6. Often, time is just too abstract. Their days are numbered by the sun, by their routine, or by a familiar rhythm. They don't have a whole lot of time or attention for numbers on a calendar or clock. While this changes slowly as children get closer to the second plane of development and their powers for abstract thinking increase.  But, even understanding all of that, the world runs on clocks, calendars and schedules. And, as a Montessori family, I want to help orient my first plane children to our family's schedule. The reality is there are certain days of the month or week that are special. And, celebrating and honoring those days is for everyone!  How We Use Calendars with Our Young Montessori Children First, we want to make our discussions of time as concrete as possible for our young children. I don't just want to talk about numbers on a page,