Kathryn Koehler, Author for Moms Who Think

Hi! I'm Kat, a former language arts teacher. I have an M.Ed. with an emphasis in Teaching Arts. I enjoy learning new things, especially words! In my spare time, I putter around in my garden, bake delectable desserts, and sew. I live with two humans and two pups.

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Full frame of a Montessori classroom toward the front of the frame is a round wooden table at which three young children are seated. A young brown-skinned girl with black curly hair wearing a shirt-sleeved pink t-shirt toward the left part of the frame seated at the table which is child-sized, playing with a wooden block with graduated holes the smallest being toward the front of the frame getting increasingly larger as you go towards centerpoint. A light-skinned male child With light brown hair wearing a seafoam green short-sleeved T-shirt is facing the camera and playing with three pink blocks that he has stacked. Frame right is the back of a light-skinned boy whose left arm is extended across the table reaching for a pink block he is wearing a shirt-sleeved salmon colored T-shirt. In the back of the frame arethree children and an adult man seated at a rectangular child sized table. The adult male is hunched down leaning against the table using his elbows for support, next to him is a light skin boy with longish blonde hair wearing a button front shirt that is plaid mostly red white and blue. He is looking down at some thing the teacher is doing but is obscured by the head of the child wearing the green shirt. Across the table from the teacher and the blonde haired boy are two little girls whose backs are facing the camera the girl on the left is wearing a sundress that is primarily magenta with orange accents the girl on the right is wearing a navy and white striped dress. The background consists Of an L-shaped sofa with blue and pink pillows, Upper right frame and then the upper left frame an adult size desk with a Charles Eames chair. The chair is white.

What is a Montessori Education?

Updated: by Kathryn Koehler | Leave a Comment

Montessori education is a child-centered method of education. This education model was developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, an Italian physician, […]

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Full frame of a Montessori classroom toward the front of the frame is a round wooden table at which three young children are seated. A young brown-skinned girl with black curly hair wearing a shirt-sleeved pink t-shirt toward the left part of the frame seated at the table which is child-sized, playing with a wooden block with graduated holes the smallest being toward the front of the frame getting increasingly larger as you go towards centerpoint. A light-skinned male child With light brown hair wearing a seafoam green short-sleeved T-shirt is facing the camera and playing with three pink blocks that he has stacked. Frame right is the back of a light-skinned boy whose left arm is extended across the table reaching for a pink block he is wearing a shirt-sleeved salmon colored T-shirt. In the back of the frame arethree children and an adult man seated at a rectangular child sized table. The adult male is hunched down leaning against the table using his elbows for support, next to him is a light skin boy with longish blonde hair wearing a button front shirt that is plaid mostly red white and blue. He is looking down at some thing the teacher is doing but is obscured by the head of the child wearing the green shirt. Across the table from the teacher and the blonde haired boy are two little girls whose backs are facing the camera the girl on the left is wearing a sundress that is primarily magenta with orange accents the girl on the right is wearing a navy and white striped dress. The background consists Of an L-shaped sofa with blue and pink pillows, Upper right frame and then the upper left frame an adult size desk with a Charles Eames chair. The chair is white.

What is The Opposite of Montessori?

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What is the opposite of Montessori? The opposite of Montessori education is a more traditional, teacher-centered approach to learning. The […]

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A photograph of a Montessori classroom. From the back left frame to the front there are two natural wood bookcases visible there is also a light blue metal rolling cart with three shelves visible in the back left frame. markers on the top shelf and then wooden trays on the second in lower shelf in front of the rolling cart is a plant in a wicker basket which is situated next to shelving that is at more of a vertical angle in the photograph. In the front right part of the frame there is a wooden table with red and blue feet and wooden stools. In the back of the frame there are four windows with dark frames visible. The windows each consist of nine separate panes of glass. The walls and the ceiling of the classroom are white. The floor is light natural wood. It is a very bright classroom

What is A Montessori Bookshelf, and How Are They Different?

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What is a Montessori bookshelf and how are they different? Montessori bookshelves are designed for use in Montessori classrooms and […]

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What Does it Take to Get Montessori Certified?

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What does it take to get Montessori certified? Becoming a Montessori teacher requires specialized training and certification. The […]

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Photograph of a child knitting. All that is visible of the child in the photograph is from the neck to the waist. Child is wearing a long sleeve blue and white striped T-shirt. The child has very long honey blonde hair that falls below their waist. The child is light skinned. The child is knitting with very thin knitting needles using lavender yarn. They have knitted about a 2 inch square which is visible in the Center of the frame between her hands.

10 Different DIY Montessori Toys You Can Make At Home

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Did you know that you can make perfectly serviceable Montessori toys at home? It’s true! Many Montessori toys can be […]

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A natural wooden box center frame top 2/3rd of frame. Twenty-one rectangular partitioned spaces are fully visible, while 7 more are partially visible at the very top of the frame. Each rectangular space holds a letter that is either red or blue. in the lower 1/3 of the frame the word Montessori is visible. The vowels are blue while the consonants are red. All of the letters are lowercase. The layout of the letters is not precise.

What is the American Montessori Society and What Do They Do?

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The American Montessori Society is a non-profit organization. The Society, founded in 1960, promotes Montessori education in the United States. […]

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Full frame photograph of a child’s bedroom. Everything in the bedroom has very muted tones from the light gray floor to the white walls. In the left frame is a wicker basket with additions that make it appear to be a bear. There is a wheat colored blanket there’s a bowl at the top. Behind the wicker basket is a child size table with a stool the table and stool our light would the back left to center of the frame is taken up by a very large window over which is a sheer white curtain. In front of the window is a stuffed rabbit perched on a wicker basket next to the rabbit in the very center of the frame is a small doll house with some indiscernible items in it. Next to the dollhouse is a stuffed giraffe that appears to be about 3 feet tall. The right half of the frame is taken up by a bed on the floor that has a light beige canopy over the head of the bed. The bed itself has three taupe pillows And one pillow that is wheat colored with circles of taupe gold and gray. A stuffed brown rabbit with a gold and checkered body leans against the pillow with the circles. There is a neutral colored blanket over the bed. On the far side of the bed is a wicker stand on which a mirror wrist against the wall and possibly some books.

9 Steps To Setting Up a Montessori Bedroom

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Thanks to the stripped-down simplicity of the Montessori method, setting up a Montessori bedroom is fairly straightforward and relatively effortless. […]

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Full frame photo of a child’s open white wood wardrobe. On the left side of the wardrobe is a aqua blue fabric cube in the top shelf below it is a shelf it looks like clothes have just been shoved in it from a laundry basket. Those clothes appear to be mostly shirts. The shirts are blue yellow pink and one that is gray and pink. In the queue below the shirts are three pairs of blue jeans visible that look like they’ve kind of just been haphazardly put away as well there is something below the jeans but it is not visible in the photograph. To the right of those shelves is a large rectangular cube with a rod. There are 13 hangers on the rod. The hangers are blue pink green orange and yellow. The clothes in the left cube look like costumes in this particular Though there may be a kid-sized cocktail dress, but it’s more likely a princess costume. There is a terry cloth robe, too, but that may in fact be a “The Dude” costume. On the shelf beneath the rod is a blue fabric cube with a handle it appears to be empty though there may be things lower down in it behind the fabric cube is a mesh cube with a purple rim that has some thing indiscernible in it In the cube to the right of that cube there are 20 or so hangers upon which regular looking clothing is hanging, primarily shirts and a couple of jackets. The jackets are grayish powder blue. A long sleeve white shirt hangs to the right of the jackets. a short sleeve pink shirt hangs next to the white shirt. There are a indiscernible pieces of clothing between the short sleeve pink shirt and then a short sleeve blue shirt. Directly to the right of the blue shirt is an empty orange hanger. To its right is a short sleeve white blouse and then another short sleeve white blouse and then an empty yellow hanger and then a yellow blouse. On the shelf underneath the clothes are some indiscernible objects- possibly books and maybe a ball. In frame right are three shelves the top shelf has an aqua fabric cube with some things sticking out that are in describable below that is a mesh front cube with a three stenciled onto it. It is green and seems to have toys in it below that are two red mesh cubes that have the number one stenciled on each of them. Not sure what they contain. There is some cloth in front of them on the shelf. In the bottom half of the frame is actually another lower shelf and rods, but it is out of the frame for the most part.

What is a Montessori Wardrobe?

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What is a Montessori wardrobe? For the sake of clarity, this article will not be discussing Montessori school attire. We […]

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Photograph of a family on a hike. The family is facing away from the camera. Only their backs are visible.The family is light to olive skinned. They are walking on a dirt path. The path is surrounded by greenery. From left to right: a man wearing Knee length light blue shorts and a short sleeve white T-shirt has a knapsack on his back. He has short dark hair next but a little behind him is a little boy who is wearing black kneelength shorts and a black white and aqua plaid short sleeve shirt. Next to him is a little girl in short denim shorts and a jade green short sleeve T-shirt. She has long dark hair that is in braids. Next to her is a tall is woman who is wearing short faded blue denim shorts and a red short sleeve T-shirt. She also has a knapsack on her back. And is holding a aluminum walking pole in her right hand.

The 11 Best Ways To Practice Montessori Parenting

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There are literally 100s of ways to practice Montessori parenting. From furnishing your home with sturdy wooden furniture, scaled to […]

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A light-skinned toddler Is visible in the bottom left frame sitting on a natural wooden stool. The toddler is wearing a red sundress with white polkadots. The toddler is facing away from the cameras looking in a full-length natural wood mirror. The right half of the frame Contains a simple wooden wardrobe that consist of a wooden rod that is about 3 feet long on which several small toddler size clothes are hanging. The clothes are organized in colors from (L-R) white to red to blue to yellow. There is a hamper that is primarily white with a gray chevron pattern on the left side of the wardrobe. Two hats are next to the hamper. The room is completely white including the walls in the floor. Two small green plants in white pots can be seen in the reflection of the mirror.

What is Montessori Furniture, And How Is It Different?

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What is Montessori furniture and how is it different from non-Montessori furniture? Montessori furniture is generally crafted of […]

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A young girl is seated on a rug center frame the rug is striped with one large white stripe followed by an orangey brown stripe that is not as wide, and then a pink stripe followed by another orangey brown stripe. The pink stripe is a little bit wider than the orangey brown stripes but only about half as wide as the white stripe. The orangey brown stripes are about 1/3 the size of the white stripes. The pattern repeats four times on the small rug. The rug is on carpet that is tan and wheat colored. The young girl is looking down her focus is on her hands which are dropping some colorful manipulatives onto the small rug. They are red yellow blue and green. They are about the size of a quarter, but they are not round. The little girl has on a long sleeve gray shirt with white lace running the length of both sleeves. She is wearing indigo denim jeans. The little girl is the focus of the picture although there are other people in the frame they are out of focus. There are also other rugs visible in the frame. One behind the girl is striped with light blue and green with the light blue stripes being larger than the green ones. A woman with long blonde hair is partially visible on the right side of the frame.

How is Montessori Daycare Different Than Other Schools?

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How is Montessori daycare different than other schools? The answer depends on the type of preschool you're referencing. In this […]

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Full frame of a Montessori classroom toward the front of the frame is a round wooden table at which three young children are seated. A young brown-skinned girl with black curly hair wearing a shirt-sleeved pink t-shirt toward the left part of the frame seated at the table which is child-sized, playing with a wooden block with graduated holes the smallest being toward the front of the frame getting increasingly larger as you go towards centerpoint. A light-skinned male child With light brown hair wearing a seafoam green short-sleeved T-shirt is facing the camera and playing with three pink blocks that he has stacked. Frame right is the back of a light-skinned boy whose left arm is extended across the table reaching for a pink block he is wearing a shirt-sleeved salmon colored T-shirt. In the back of the frame arethree children and an adult man seated at a rectangular child sized table. The adult male is hunched down leaning against the table using his elbows for support, next to him is a light skin boy with longish blonde hair wearing a button front shirt that is plaid mostly red white and blue. He is looking down at some thing the teacher is doing but is obscured by the head of the child wearing the green shirt. Across the table from the teacher and the blonde haired boy are two little girls whose backs are facing the camera the girl on the left is wearing a sundress that is primarily magenta with orange accents the girl on the right is wearing a navy and white striped dress. The background consists Of an L-shaped sofa with blue and pink pillows, Upper right frame and then the upper left frame an adult size desk with a Charles Eames chair. The chair is white.

What are Montessori Schools, And What Do They Teach?

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What are Montessori schools and what do they teach? Montessori is one of the fastest-growing methods of education worldwide, and […]

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Montessori vs. Waldorf Schools: How Do They Compare?

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Montessori vs. Waldorf schools: How do they compare? Beyond their reputations for being progressive/alternative schools that were conceived in the […]

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Five children are visible in the frame working at three desks that have been pushed together two of the desks are blonde wood, the one closed to front of frame is light brown. The child in frame lift is light-skinned with dark hair cut above his ear. He is standing up and is wearing a long sleeve white T-shirt over which he is wearing a short sleeve striped T-shirt with very narrow navy stripes. His hands are at the top of the tower that consists of from bottom arete block green black red block to green blocks to Redbox and then his hand is obscuring the rest of tower, though the top of the tower is blue. To his left is a student who is seated at the light brown desk. They are primarily obscured by the boy in frame left so you can see that they to have dark hair. Standing next to the seated child is a light-skinned young girl wearing a long sleeve light pink T-shirt. Her hair is in braids on either side of her face and she has bangs. Her focus is on another set of wooden blocks. Next to her is a taller light brown-skinned Girl who is a few inches taller and his hair is dark and quite curly pulled up in dog-ears on either side of her head she is wearing a short sleeved mustard/gold T-shirt. Her left hand is placing a red block on a stack of blocks that are primarily natural colored wood although there is a yellow block into green blocks in the stack. To her left is a little boy wearing a gray short-sleeved shirt with neon yellow stripes of various widths. He is focused on a tower that consists of from bottom to red blocks a green block three natural wood blocks and a red block on top. In his left hand he is holding a blue block. On the desks around them are blocks of wood in red, green, purple, and blue. A bright window is visible in the background on the right left back ground consists of a green bulletin board on which a white piece of paper With a colorful design is visible.

The 12 Best Maria Montessori Quotes

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Maria Montessori (1870-1952) would have undoubtedly been the queen of the sound bite had she been born 100 years later. […]

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A light-skinned child with honey-brown hair, bottom center/right frame, facing away from the camera is visible holding a piece of chalk in their right hand, up tho a chalkboard as if finishing writing the word HOMESCHOOLING. HOMESCHOOLING is written on a blackboard which also serves as the background. The letters in HOMESCHOOLING are written in different colors - H,S, the third O, and I are pink, The first O, C, and L are blue. The E, the second O, and the N are light green/white, and the M,H, G are yellow.

Montessori vs. Homeschooling: How Do They Compare?

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Montessori vs. homeschooling, how do they compare? The answer will vary depending on which model of education you are using […]

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Ten clear glass jars filled with thick pieces of chalk from the top of the frame at 12 o’clock is red or pink and around the circle yellow, purple, orange, blue, light green, and dark green. In the middle of the circle is a red pink color. There are several pieces of chalk in each jar. The jar of light green chalk at 7o’clock has a bright pink ribbon tied around it.

Steiner vs. Montessori: What’s The Difference?

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Curious about the difference between the Steiner and Montessori education methods? Conceived in the early 20th century as a response […]

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A tablet of white paper s visible center to left Fram e, slanted, at a 40-45 degree angle on a wooden table. An ink pen is visible in the lower center frame tilted at an opposite angle from the paper. On the paper is hand written "Business Plan" with a thin black hand drawn rectangle frame, at the top of the page. Below it are six words in two rows of three, similarly outlined. The words are :"objectives," "methods," "Keys to Success," and "Strategy," 'Market Analysis," and "Products and Services." there are arrows between the word frames. A white ceramic handless coffee cup with black coffee is visible to the right of the paper pad.

How Do You Start A Montessori School?

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How do you start a Montessori school? Though the process might seem daunting at first, once you break it down […]

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Traditional classroom setting with teacher at the front of the room, and students seated at desks with their hands raised.All of the children, who look about 8 years old, and the teacher are all light- skinned. Many of the dozen or so children visible in the frame are wearing plaid shirts, though one is wearing stripes. The room is bright with sunlight from the windows, frame left. A white dry erase board and a green chalkboard are visible in the fan of the classroom, upper right to center frame.

Montessori vs. Public Schools: What’s The Difference?

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Montessori vs. public school: Are there differences between these two models of education? Yes. Plenty. Methods of education have been […]

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A brown-skinned smiling female presenting adult with long dark hair, wearing a white scooped-neck t-shirt and a beige sweater is visible crouching at a low round, wooden table with 4 children: a brown-skinned, male-presenting child wearing a coral-colored short-sleeved t-shirt with a white pocket on the left breast. He id =s to the teacher's left, but to her right in the frame. Next to that kid, is an olive-skinned male presenting child wearing an aqua sport sleeved t-shirt. Next to him, front left frame a female =presenting child is visible with her back toward the camera. She is light-skinned, her hair is light-brown and pulled up in an unremarkable elastic. A light=skinned, male presenting child sits next to her, upper left from. He is wearing a navy and white striped shirt. All of the people in the photo are focused on bright colored manipulatives small wood shapes used in math activities.

Montessori vs. Private Schools: How Do They Compare?

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Montessori vs. private schools: How do they compare? Though the majority of Montessori schools in the U.S. are private schools, […]

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A natural wooden box center frame top 2/3rd of frame. Twenty-one rectangular partitioned spaces are fully visible, while 7 more are partially visible at the very top of the frame. Each rectangular space holds a letter that is either red or blue. in the lower 1/3 of the frame the word Montessori is visible. The vowels are blue while the consonants are red. All of the letters are lowercase. The layout of the letters is not precise.

Why Are Montessori Schools Bad? What Are The Criticisms?

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Why are Montessori schools bad? Depending on who you ask you're likely to get a variety of answers. You're sure […]

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An engraving /etcing of Maris Montessori on an Italian bank note. She is etched in deep red and ecru. Yellow, olive and light blue dots and diamonds are visible to her left. The word TALIA is visible in the lower left frame. The I was apparently cropped out of the photo. oops.

Who Was Maria Montessori, The Founder of Montessori Schools?

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Who was Maria Montessori, the founder of Montessori schools? Dr. Maria Montessori wore many different hats during her lifetime. She […]

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