10 – What is Montessori and how do we start?

Welcome to Trusting Children Podcast episode 10! This is so exciting, the 10th episode of the show! Thank you SO much everyone for listening and supporting me with this project. Last week the podcast got to over 1000 downloads! I can’t even begin to express how grateful I am for every single person who takes the time to listen. Thank you for being here.

I’m Aisha, your host, I’m a parent just like everyone else trying to do my best.

Early Childhood development has always been something I’ve felt passionate about. I created this show to share what I have learned with parents all over the world. To support and guide parents bringing up their young children, so that together we can raise a better generation for a better future. Thank you for sharing your time with me today.

Montessori has become very popular amongst parents in the last few years. But what is it that has attracted so many of us to this philosophy? What are some of the most important, fundamental principles of this approach and how can they relate to parenting? What are some of the most common misunderstandings and myths about the method? What can we as parents do to implement some aspects of this philosophy into our homes? In today’s episode I am speaking to Carine Robin, who is going to answer these questions for us, and more.

Carine Robin is a psychologist and a Montessori teacher. After working several years in her home country as a psychologist, she moved to Ireland with her husband.

It was there that she started working in a nursery and discovered Montessori education. After having her first child, her passion for the philosophy grew and she qualified as a Montessori teacher and managed a preschool.

Carine has been running a Montessori based parents and toddler group and coaching families for 9 years. She also runs an online group for over 18 000 parents, sharing her knowledge and passion with people from around the world.

In 2018, Carine realised that families needed more support and launched her popular online parenting courses and monthly subscription boxes, full of personally designed Montessori materials.

Welcome Carine, thank you so much for joining us today. 

Carine: Thank you for having me. I am very happy to be here and I am ready to chat about Montessori.

Aisha: Yes, Montessori is becoming quite a popular trend. I don’t really like that word but let’s say trend amongst parents. What I would like to chat with you about today is to find out what exactly is Montessori and why is it becoming so popular? Why are so many people talking about it and getting excited about it. Also, how is it relevant to parents? I think most people might know Montessori from an educational point of view with Montessori schools. So why is it so big in parenting? 

Carine: Montessori’s first method of education was for school. It was started by Maria Montessori more than 100 years ago by observing children as a doctor. She was working with disabled children. Now, saying disabled children at the time was much broader than nowadays. So she was in charge of a group of children who were considered not being able to be educated. She managed to educate them quite well and she was impressed by what she was able to do. Then she decided to go into public schools and reform the whole public system in Italy.  We are talking about the beginning of the 20th century and obviously schools nowadays have changed so much and they are not like they were 100 years ago. She was not given this opportunity but instead a private company asked her to take care of children under the age of 6. At the time, school was not mandatory for children under the age of 6. So children were either at home with their nanny or left at home by themselves. So the story goes that this private company was building houses and flats in the slums of Rome. They built these beautiful homes and children were destroying them because they were left unattended by the families that were living there. So they asked Maria Montessori to take care of these children and gave her free reigns to do whatever she wanted to do with them. So it was an opportunity for her to observe children- neurotypical children. That is how she developed the Montessori method. 

At first Montessori was really only in schools but with the rise of social media and blogs it changed. Also, more and more Montessori teachers started showing what they were doing in the classroom on blogs. When I started to discover Montessori and became a teacher, I remember my training telling us to check blogs to get lots of ideas. I started blogging about 12 years ago for other teachers but not for parents. But obviously some of us were having children so we were doing stuff at home too. I think it started as blogs for Montessori teachers and then with Facebook, etc. it became more and more visual so it became a trend in parenting. More and more teachers were sharing to take the principles of the Montessori education and adapt them for a school environment probably more for home schooling world first. I saw many teachers explain that the principles of the education and what Maria Montessori has observed about children can be used by anyone. It is not just about mathematics and teaching children to read, write and count. It is much more about the way we see our children and to observe children to make sure we meet their needs.

Aisha: What would you say some of the most core principles and aspects of this Montessori philosophy would be helpful and useful to parents? What can we transfer into parenthood?

Carine: I work mostly with parents with children under the age of 6. So Maria Montessori has observed that children develop in the same way. All children under the age of 6 are learning through hands on activities in a very concrete way. They need to experience the world around them. It would be best for parents to let their children experience the world around them. Allow them to touch, explore and use their 5 senses. Another thing she observed was children are very much attracted to the real world. This is interesting because as parents generally when we have children…

Aisha: We want to keep them away?

Carine: Yes, well. It is also we see all those toys that are pretty much ?? based like cartoons. This idea of childhood like Disney and so on. Obviously at the time of Maria Montessori, we didn’t have that much ?? Nowadays it is very much prevalent. It is ??? 

I like that Maria Montessori brings us into the real world. When you observe properly a really young toddler they are amazed when they see a ladybird in the garden. They manipulate everyday objects and they are amazed by that and they discover the world. Us grownups, obviously, we get used to the world so we need a bit more xxx. Very young children don’t need it and I think it is nice to respect that in children and to give them more of what is real. Hold on to ??? based and let them discover that by themselves. One of the things I like to say is “keep it real.” 

She said at the time and I think it is still true for most parents, we tend to protect our children from what is difficult in life and keep them in a playful childhood. Modern parents, maybe not our own parents, tend to keep children away from chores. When you observe very young children, they do love to help us. It isn’t always helpful but they do love to help us. They learn that way. The ultimate goal is to be a grownup at some point and be a full fledged citizen in society and to participate. They need to learn to become independent. It isn’t about forcing them but making space for them in our daily activities. Generally, very young children love to help, they love to learn how things work. To use the washing machine, the laundry, cooking and baking they all love that.

Aisha: Being involved in the household.

Carine: Yes, that is it. We see parents giving them a play kitchen instead of letting them help. This is because we don’t see them as capable or as able. Montessori teaches us that our children are very able and gives us permission to let them help and do stuff with us. 

Aisha: That is so true. All of my children, depending on age, they help in different ways. When the twins were coming up to 1 they would stand at the dishwasher and take out a fork or a spoon and pass it to me.  Now they can take things out by themselves and sometimes even put them in their cupboard. Same with the washing machine, the twins help put the laundry inside the washing machine. My 4 year old wants to pour the detergent, press the buttons, and set everything up. They really enjoy when we involve them and they really want to be a part of it. 

I have another question for you..There is a lot information out there. Like you said social media has exploded over the last few years and there are a tons of resources- blogs, articles, instragram accounts, and Facebook accounts. But if there was a parent who was new to Montessori and wanted to start implementing the philosophy into their family. What would you advice parents like that to focus on first? If they are new to Montessori where should they start?

Carine: Well I would start with developing independence. Making sure you focus on all the skills a child needs to become independent. Dressing up, preparing a snack, pouring their own drink, and all of that. Basic skills that sometimes as parents we do for our children. As parents our role is to take care but it is nice to teach those skills instead of just taking care of our children. So focusing on independence is definitely the first thing before starting to think “ok I need to buy that Montessori toy, bed or furniture, shelf or tray. Focus on what you can do to make your child more independent today. Each time you see yourself doing something for your child, you can try to take note and think “what could I do to help my child do that by themselves next time?” Little things that you are going to change in your house. Maybe a stool in the cloak room for your child to sit on to put on their shoes. Maybe a rack to put their coat on or a smaller cup for your child to drink from. All these little things that you can do generally even without spending money. Just use what you have in your house or buy a common hook to hang on the wall. It can be done very easily. You don’t have to do 2 years of training to do that. You can just do it today. That would be my main thing to focus on independent first.

Aisha: Thank you for those tips. I really love how you said our roles as parents are to take care of our children but also to teach them new skills. We teach them life skills like get dressed, put on shoes, and prepare food. It is all so valuable. Montessori teaches us the value of allowing children do these things for themselves or learning how to do these things for themselves.

So if parents have started implementing a few things, they have started giving their child independence and bringing Montessori into their home. How can they grow as a Montessori parent? What are some next steps or things that parents can aim for or work towards?

Carine: Another big principle in Montessori is freedom within limits. You might have heard a lot of Montessori letting the children being free- free to explore, free to make mistakes, free to work as long as they want with the material. What happens quite often is parents let their kids be free to do whatever they want or they struggle with that concept. We say freedom within limits and it is a basic part of the Montessori discipline-it is freedom WITHIN limits. So we can explore that a bit more in depth. The limits are basic limits in life like limits for your own safety, safety of others, and safety of material things so you don’t destroy things. If you focus your house rules or parenting rules around those 3 safeties then you will be pretty much sorted. So see how much freedom you can give to your child according to their age and how much control you can give them about their life. Montessori is all about respect and treating our children like human beings. Not being those overpowering parents that have all the power because they are the parents. 

Maria started over 100 years ago and children didn’t have a place in society. They weren’t considered until they were 7 years old and then they were pretty much controlled in the schools and by their parents. Until you were an adult, you didn’t have a lot of choices in your life. Still even nowadays, children can’t choose that much. If we have the idea that we respect our children because we love them and want to respect them and if we see them as human beings then we should start to give them a bit of control over their life. We all want to have control over our lives.

Aisha: It can be little things. Obviously you don’t have to give them control over everything from day one. What sort of things could you start with?

Carine: For example, you give them two choices for clothes. They can choose between a blue and a yellow cardigan. You only put clothes in the wardrobe that are appropriate to the weather. If in the middle of winter, you leave a pretty summer dress in the wardrobe and you let your child choose then it is possible your child will choose that.

Make your life easier and preselect the choices. Let’s say you give healthy food to your child, if that is your rule as a parent, so your child can choose between a banana or an apple. Maybe you can say “do you want to brush your teeth first or take your bath first?” Or “let’s choose 2 books for bedtime” so they will choose 2 books and they can choose which stories they want. 

Children are children…they are young and unexperienced in life and they need us as a model. They want to connect with us and want to cooperate with us. We are the ones helping and teaching them so they are not purposely trying to oppose us all the time. When we give them those little choices, that is enough for them. Giving them a little control in their life is what they need. To feel valued, that their voice matters, and that their choice matters.  As they grow you give them more and more choices. When they are 8 years old, they choose what after school clubs they want to do. If they say they really don’t like piano and they have been doing piano for over a year but you keep consisting because you think music is a good skill then it is not very respectful of your child. You need to take into account some of xxxx  You can not offer everything to your children but you give them more and more decisions as they grow up. For example, my daughter she is 13 and she chose XXX. We didn’t impose anything. We explored each option with her but in the end she chose. Yes, as a mom I was a bit disappointed that she didn’t chose music but it is her choice and her life. One day she will not be with us anymore and she will have to make choices. Ultimately, we can only guide them.

Aisha: If you don’t mind, I would like to do a little bit of myth busting. I feel there is the positive side of there being so much information available but on the flip side of that there is also quite a lot of misinformation or misunderstanding about the Montessori approach. What would you say or have you heard as some of the most common misconceptions or misrepresentations that you would advise parents to watch out for or be mindful of?

Carine: One of the myths that most parents in my group are talking about is the fact that Montessori was against fantasy such as fairy tales. Even myself as a young Montessori teacher, I was pretty strict about that. But what she has observed, as I said earlier, is that children are happy with the real world. They like to explore the world as it is directly around them because they need hands on concrete experiences. They can only explore what they can see, touch or smell so they explore the real things around them. It doesn’t mean that they will never want to explore fantasy. Not introducing fantasy and fairy tales too early definitely doesn’t mean that children won’t develop an imagination. Imagination is very different. Imagination is the ability to imagine something that is not there or make believe. For example, using a banana as a phone. What Montessori observed is that children use imagination based on reality. They will pretend the banana is a phone and they won’t pretend a banana is a fairy. They will use what they know and will start to imagine. 

Montessori is not opposed to pretend play or imagination. She just wanted parents to not use fantasy as a tool to control children. This is something that is encouraged around us. For example, many parents use Santa Clause as a tool to control their children. Telling children “if you are not nice then you might not have gifts from Santa Claus.” Teachers in school do this as well and I was raised with these things too. She really wanted us to not use fantasy because children are very XXX and they are meant to believe us. If they don’t believe us then they are in trouble because they really need to listen to us for their own survival. They need to trust us and to believe us. It is very easy to get them to believe anything when they are very young. She wanted us not to abuse that power that we have.  But she was reading fairy tales to her grandchildren but they were older.  We need to be careful and wait until children can understand the difference between reality and fiction before we introduce fairytales. I think many parents are a bit upset when they hear this concept and dismiss the word of Montessori because they really want to introduce Disney movies and such. When you know exactly what is going on with your children, then you can definitely introduce this but just don’t forget the real world as well. 

Aisha: That is it. I think it is about being aware of it and making sure your children have plenty of experiences in the real world. That they are grounded in the real world before understanding things that aren’t necessarily real. So my daughter is 4 and she likes unicorn and she talks about them a lot. Every so often she will ask me “are they real?” and I have told her that they aren’t real and they only exist in stories or books or films. Every couple of days she goes back to it just to check- “are unicorns real?” And we have the conversation again. She is almost checking and grounding herself in what is real and what is not real.

Carine: Fantasy helps children understand that there are things that are not real and there are things that are real. We just need to be careful that when it is inappropriate to introduce that.  Maria Montessori was saying not under the age of 6 but studies show that most children understand the difference between fantasy and reality earlier than that but you have to observe your own child. My daughter was super sensitive to this so we kind of delayed it when we realized that she was afraid. She was properly afraid of some aspects of fantasy so we started to move away from that because she was terrified. It isn’t because you introduce it later or you don’t encourage it that much during the early years that your child is going to miss out. My daughter became fascinated by Harry Potter and started reading it at 9 years old. She was playing in her head that she would receive the letter like Harry Potter. She was older and knew it wasn’t real but she basically wanted to believe and it was fun for her to believe. As adults, it is fun to watch fantasy and for 2 hours we like to believe it is real. It is an escape.

Aisha: There is time for it. They have their whole life for it.

Carine: Yes. That is one of the biggest myths I think. Some of the myths about children being free to do whatever they want is not true. There are limits. Regarding Montessori schools, there were myths that it is all about work and it is not fun. Children are controlled and can only do this or that. But when you observe a Montessori school that does it properly with all the materials, the children are happy. Yes, they don’t have toys or dress up for pretend play but they are happy to do what they do. We have to remember that a Montessori school is just 3-6 hours during the day so if you chose this type of school ?? they are going.  They also have their whole life with you as parents so they are going to play, go to the park, and go to see friends. They interact a lot in the classroom with their friends so they do not need to have toys and other types of activities during those 6 hours. They are too busy doing what they do and learning the way they learn. It is different. It is always surprising for parents to see their children focus so much or being calm and not shouting or running around the way they would in a regular nursery. I think the best thing is to observe and to feel how the children are feeling.

I don’t know if you know of any other myths that I can explore. Maybe you have some myths as well.

Aisha: If you could briefly talk about resources because I think that is also quite common. People get confused about resources that might be Montessori and resources that are advertised as Montessori to get parents to buy them.

Carine: There is a myth with social media. We see a lot of toys that are labeled Montessori and it is like any wooden toy can put the name Montessori next to the toy to say it is a Montessori toy. Parents need to be very careful with that. Explore the company and see who decided it was a Montessori toy. Not all wooden toys are Montessori. We need to see if the toy teaches one skill at a time. It shouldn’t be overwhelming to explore. Many toys labeled as Montessori toys are not Montessori. I have seen some toys with cartoonish figures or toys that do 5-6 skills at a time. For example, it teaches colors, shapes, numbers and letters all at the same time. They call this a Montessori toy because it sells. It is a bit bizarre for me to talk about because I have my own products but I think we have to be careful when we see any type of object being sold as Montessori. For example, the Montessori floor bed. This type of XX shaped floor bed and it is beautiful. If you have the XXX and you like to have a house with nice furniture then go for it because it is nice. But for me, a floor bed is just a mattress on the floor and it is enough and you do not need them. 

Aisha: It is the concept that matters rather than the product itself. 

Carine: Yes, there are a ton of stuff like that. So do a bit of research and really think carefully if you  really need it. Do I need to spend my money on that? Does my child need that? Just make sure that just because it is on Instagram that it isn’t Montessori. 

Aisha: Another one that just came to mind are the toys on the shelves. A lot of parents come across that. It is probably the first time they come across the concept of Montessori and they see the beautiful shelves with toys on them but then possibly don’t always look into it further. So to express that it isn’t just about the toys and the shelves.

Carine: Yes. I did a blog post on Instagram and I said “no” to the Montessori “shelfie.” There is a lot of pressure to show what we call a “shelfie” every week. Saying that you rotated the Montessori toys and this is what you have this week. The concept of rotating toys is interesting. We don’t do that in the classroom. We have shelves for each area and because we have 20-25 children, all the activities are always in use by some children. We don’t have to rotate. Maybe we rotate some topics or books but the bulk of materials are always the same. At home it is a bit different because we are lacking space or children go through stages where they are not interested anymore. So you can rotate because of that. The shelf is just because we need to show to the children what they have. If all the toys are in the toy box well then they won’t be interested. But, there is all this pressure to have this perfect shelf and it is not just a shelf. They say it is a specific brand or a specific kind of shelf. It can actually be anything. I used my coffee table for some time. We were renting houses and were moving a lot from one country to another so I was using what I had. Sometimes I help families and what we use are little table mats that we put on the floor because that is all the space we have. As long as your child can see what he has then you don’t have to have a shelf. Also, you don’t have to rotate for the sake of rotating toys. It is always based on observation. It would be nice if we could remove the pressure of the “Montessori shelfie.”

Aisha: Focus on other aspects of the philosophy first like independence instead of the “shelfie.”

Now I would like to ask you what are the most challenging parts of being a Montessori parent? How would you advise parents to cope with challenges they might come across?

Carine: Well, as parents we always have expectations of how our children are developing and growing and how they are supposed to act. That is the same when we discover Montessori, we have expectations that because we do Montessori and have Montessori materials and activities, our children will focus on those activities. That is a bit challenging when we have this idea. I had this idea when I started Montessori with my own child. She would focus on those little activities on the trays and I would have 5 minutes to drink my tea. That was my first expectation and it didn’t work that way. She always wanted me to be sitting next to her and doing it with her. I was thinking I just wanted 5 minutes by myself! I thought I would be able to cook or whatever. Obviously it is a lot of XXX what does she need exactly? You need to observe. I think there is that aspect-you need to be constantly observing your child. Having knowledge of what your child needs during sensitive periods. You need to have that knowledge otherwise taking nice toys and putting them on a tray is not going to help your child if it isn’t what they need. Observation is a skill to develop because that will help. That is something you need to work on as a parent.

Aisha: I did an episode on observation. It was the first episode. I will link that in the show notes if anyone is interested in listening and learning more about that too.

Carine: Also, we say in Montessori that there is the proper environment. There is your house with objects and toys. There is your child and there is you. As parents, you are the one preparing the environment. So it is up to you and it is evolving. It is never finished. Your role as a parent is to constantly prepare the environment. It is hard because it is constant. Your child changes during the early years so you might think it is done because it is on the shelf. But you still need to do something. You still need to ??? You still need to teach skills. You are constantly the bridge between your child and the learning. It is our role as parents. Also, when we don’t feel good or we feel depleted then our chid is going to feel it and it is going to influence how they behave. So as new parents of young children, we do need to work on ourselves to accept our children as they are and accept that they might not be exactly how we want them to be or maybe they don’t use the little activities we made for them in the way we wanted. It is very hard for us to love our children unconditionally and to just accept them as they are. Maybe you had this idea when you discovered Montessori that your child is going to be happy to do a puzzle or pour between 2 jugs. But all they want to do is climb and you have a very active child who doesn’t care about anything on the tray. If you start to learn more about Montessori, you might realize that they are in a gross motor skills period and are in the sensitive period for movement. If they need to move then you need to give them more of that. But it is harder to have a child like that if you are not an outdoorsy person or an active person and all you were dreaming about were fine motor skills activities.

Aisha: Yes, adjusting our expectations.

Carine: Most of parenting is linked to that-adjusting our expectations about what the early years would be. I know I was dreaming of styling my daughter because she was a little girl. When she started to have long hair I remember trying to do a ponytail and she just cried and cried as if I was being violent towards her. I decided not to do it anymore. She never liked me doing anything in her hair so she had a bob for a long time. Now she is totally into her hair but as a young mom I couldn’t do it and it was my dream! You need to readjust constantly and just accept your children as they are.

Aisha: My daughter is the same. I always remember meeting other friends who had girls around her age and they always had perfectly plaits and other hair styles. My daughter’s hair was always crazy and unbrushed. Very similar!

Now, let’s look at the other side. What would you say is the most amazing thing about introducing Montessori into parenthood? Why should parents go for it? Why would you encourage parents to go for it?

Carine: The main thing for me in Montessori is that we respect children. We help them to develop as individuals. We help them to fulfill their own potential. That really resonated with me when I discovered Montessori because from my personal experience with my own childhood and my parents. My parents had big expectations for me and my brother because they didn’t go to school for very long. They were factory workers so they really wanted us to succeed. They pushed us a lot in school. I remember having dreams when I was a teenager and that was not supported by my parents because they had dream that we had to stay in school. Growing up as a young adult I was feeling the pressure from my parents and society of what was expected of me. When I had my children, I did??? I grew up a little bit and did a bit of work on myself and was aware of that. I became more aware of that as my first daughter was growing up. I was feeling that I could be one of those parents with big expectations and I didn’t want that. When I was reading Montessori, I saw that it was about the child’s potential. So what is her potential? She has to discover it. I just have to guide her. This has been super important for me and my husband. My husband is all about freedom-freedom to view? and freedom of speech. So it was very important to me and my husband that our children would be free to choose what they wanted to do with their lives. We would not push them. Well I’m sure we do on an unconscious level but we wanted to give them opportunities and as many opportunities as we can. We wanted to make sure they were able to fill their own potential. We would guide but they were going to show us their skills and interest. We would be there to help them. This is what Montessori teaches us. Each child has potential. We don’t know when they are born who they are going to become. Some of us are more privileged and in the sense that we have the means to help our children. But as parents we have a duty to make sure we don’t prevent our children to become themselves or force them to go one way or another way. This was the main thing that underpinned my Montessori parenting. Giving opportunity to my children but really following what they want to do in life and not preventing them or being a hindrance to their development.

Aisha: That is beautiful. Thank you so much. So you touched on this a little bit but if you could reiterate what you recommend to a parent that is going into Montessori. What is the easiest first step that you would recommend parents take to begin introducing some aspects of Montessori in their lives? What is the one thing that a parent could do today or tomorrow?

Carine: I would say that most parents buy a lot of toys. When they discover Montessori they are attracted by the toys. So first declutter the toys they have because we generally have too many toys. Don’t even think about what toys are or aren’t Montessori that you have already. Just display less toys in the playroom. Put most toys away and just keep the few favorite ones or the few you think are Montessori and observe. Observe if your child has enough or if your child seems to work or play with something that is not even a toy. Are they more attracted to something else? You take away most of the stuff first and then you add on and sort. Sorting the toys is one of the first things you can do. Sorting and decluttering the toys.

The other thing I have talked about is focusing on independence. If you have a toddler, one of the first tools you can buy is a crinkle cutter that are safe for children. It is a nice tool to have to allow your child to cut a banana or cucumber. It is one of the first tools I gave to my children when they were very little. 

Those are the two main things you can do. 

Aisha: Thank you. What would be something that they shouldn’t worry or stress themselves about if they are starting? What should they not worry about for now?

Carine: Definitely don’t worry about the “shelfie!” Do not worry about big items that look like the must have for Montessori. You can definitely do Montessori without anything. There is a saying that a Montessori trainer told me “you could have all the Montessori materials like in a classroom and not raise your children in any Montessori way. Or you could have nothing, no specific toys or materials, and be very Montessori in principles.” So don’t worry about the materials or worry that you don’t have the budget for the materials. You can really do it without it or at least the Montessori lifestyle. 

Aisha: Thank you so much for that! I feel it is really important for parents to know that is not about the materials. The philosophy goes so much further beyond that and you can do it without any of the material. You can still be a Montessori parent or family even if you don’t have a single Montessori material in your home.  Is there anything else you would like to say to parents who might be starting their journey in Montessori parenting? Any final advice?

Carine: I would say to not hesitate to read a book by Maria Montessori. There are lots on social media and blogs and so on but it is always good to go to the source. The books by Maria Montessori that I recommend, is the newest published one, is Montessori Speaks to Parents. It is for parents and she used to give lectures to parents. Every time she did trainings for teachers she was also having lectures for parents. There is a myth that Maria Montessori was not about parenting but she started to talk to parents early on. She always knew that the principles could be used at home too. Another great book is Tim Seldin’s book How to Raise an Amazing Child. It is a very good book to start with to have another view of Montessori in an easy way. There is another book from him coming out very soon.  I like those two books. There are many more from Maria Montessori but start with this one. This would be a good way to start.

Aisha: I will put a link in the notes to the episode so if anyone is listening they can find it. 

Thank you so much Carine! This has been really informative and amazing to hear. Do you want to tell our audience where they can find you? You are on Instagram and have a Facebook group that is very active.

Carine: Absolutely! So I have a website which is called TheMontessoriFamily.com

You can read about the blog and our subscription boxes. We deliver in the UK and in Europe. You can read about the course. On Instagram it is called @MontessoriFamilyUK and the Facebook group is called Montessori For Families UK. Obviously it is not just for the UK but it is what was available on Facebook and Instagram. You can find information on Montessori for families. It is really important that my name on social media was for families because I have always felt that Montessori was a great way to raise children and it was for every family. 

Aisha: Thank you so much Carine. It was a real pleasure speaking with you!

That’s the end of our episode. Thank you so much to everyone who is listening for sharing your time with us and thank you to Carine again for joining us and teaching us so much about Montessori. As always I will be holding a LIVE Q&A on my instagram page, you can contact me with ant questions @trusting children or send me an email aisha@tc

I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed speaking to Carine.

Thanks for tuning in and see you next week. We’re all in this together and we have got this!