We’ve started our new school year celebrating Dani’s birthday Montessori style. The Montessori Birthday Celebration is a ritual where the child, holding a globe representing the earth, walks around the sun (a candle symbolizing the sun is placed in the center of the classroom). As the earth revolves around the sun and the child gets older, the parent shows the classmates pictures of her during each age period. The parent also talks about interesting facts or memories of the child. It goes like that until the rotations are complete and the child is in the present age. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any good pictures of our Montessori birthday celebration, but I want to publish some pictures of Dani’s timeline.
The timeline starts with Dani still in mommy’s tummy.
Here is Dani, the day she was born, still at the hospital…
… At about 1 year old.
… At age 2…
Just before turning 3 …
… and today, at age 4.
As an extension for this activity, I intend to sit down with her and help her design the timeline herself in a long sheet of paper. This will help her with sequencing events and with the understanding of passage of time.