My Christian Montessori Story

Hello! My name is Wendy. I love Christ. I am a wife and mommy to my Bubs (3 years) and my Mags (17 months). I am in love with Montessori too. This is my Christian Montessori Story.

My “Coming to Christ” Story

This is a Christian based blog so I will tell you my coming to Christ story. Can I get real though? I always thought to myself, “What if I had to share my coming to Christ story?” It isn’t that impressive, I thought. Sometimes I used to wish I grew up being a perfect church going Christian and made all the right decisions or I didn’t know anything about God and then had this amazing life changing experience. Neither of those are the case. By true definition… I was a hypocrite. I grew up in a Christian home in churches of different denominations. Most of my teenage and early adult years I was going through the motions and ended up wanting nothing to do with church or God at one point. However, because of His unfailing love and grace He drew me near to Him again. Now I’m in love with my Savior who took me from the miry clay and set my feet upon the rock. The One who redeemed me. Now, I’m able to share with you this journey He has me on. I have a passion for our next generations to have an authentic relationship with Christ. That they know their identity in Him and find their God-given purpose.

Meeting my Husband

My husband and I met while I was a live-in nanny. My boss was moving and my Hubby worked for the moving company. He gave his number to my co-worker and insisted I call him. She convinced me to call. I did. The rest is history. Two kids later we are still in love and growing together.

Train Up Children in the Way of the Lord

When we had our first child, we knew we wanted to “train him up in the way of the Lord.” Guiding our children in Christian values was and is our utmost priority. It’s leading them by example, reading and storing God’s word in their hearts. Also, it’s having daily prayer and devotional time together as a family. We are cautious about what our children are exposed to in this world, where it seems children can lose their innocence so quickly. We want to guard their hearts as long as we can. We want to guide them to have their own relationship with God and be secure in their salvation.

Christian Montessori Co-Op

Fast forward eight months later. After having our son I was searching for a like-minded Christian play group and found one that was a Christian Montessori co-op. I had never heard of Montessori before then. I loved the set-up and my curiosity led me to ask more questions. Then I read Dr. Montessori’s Handbook. I fell in love!

The co-op was set-up neatly with the toys in each tray, which intrigued me. There were sensory bins to tell the story. For Easter there was a garden tomb sensory bin. There were children from 8 months to one and a half years old. I loved the concentration the little ones had, at this young age, when they were engaged in an activity or when they took an item off the shelves themselves. My son had an independent personality so he took right to it. After a few of those meetings we rearranged his room and set up some work shelves.

What the Montessori Method Means to Me?

When deciding to do the Montessori method with my son. I appreciated how Dr. Montessori expressed the importance of all the aspects of a child. How important it is to nurture and guide them physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

“As the child’s body must draw nourishment and oxygen from its external environment, in order to accomplish a great physiological work, the work of growth, so also the spirit must take from its environment the nourishment which it needs to develop according to its own “laws of growth.”

Excerpt From: Montessori, Maria. “Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook.”

I love the thoughtfulness of preparing the environment for the child to enable them to explore and foster the independence they look to achieve. My definition of a spiritual prepared environment is when you have a devotional time, prepared materials and the Bible to support the truth being presented.

I also love the emphasis on child-led learning. I am a firm believer that every child learns differently. Not every child has the same interests, gifts or talents. I appreciate that academic expectations aren’t pressed upon them, they learn at their own pace and learn what they want to learn. The way the child learns in a prepared environment is so organic to me. It seems natural that the child can learn at their own pace and with freedom of movement.

My Definition of Christian Montessori

Montessori means: enable, guide and nurture. Then the child can explore, navigate and discover.

Christian Montessori is all the above combined with the knowledge that…

“The earth and everything in it,

the world and its inhabitants,

belong to the Lord.”

 ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭24:1‬ ‭(HCSB)‬‬

I am a mommy inspired to do Montessori the Christian way. I’m hoping to gain more knowledge and inspiration from others as well as being inspiring. Thank you for joining me on this journey!

God Bless.