Why Casa dei Bambini?

Today's standard of good motherhood is: the mom with the highest-achieving child is the best mom. 

Most moms think that having the first reader on the block is the way to pull ahead of the pack.  Wrong!

Research finds that the earlier children are taught to read, the more likely it is they will develop a learning disability (probably due,  in some measure, to not having been taught properly).  So don't waste precious time teaching your child to read but do spend your energy on teaching him or her good manners, respect for authority and other practical life skills.  Knowing right from left and right from wrong matters.  How to pay attention to an adult leads to basic manners.  Entering a room quietly, knowing how to tie shoes, listening to an adult read a story and patiently wait their turn opens the door to learning.

Helping children develop concentration and task commitment along with a love for work is a cornerstone of the Montessori approach.  Montessori fosters creativity, self-confidence and an entrepreneurial spirit according to its graduates.  Here is what a few successful grads have to say:

When Barbara Walters interviewed Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the co-founders of Google, they didn't attribute their remarkable success to universities, like Sanford or
Michigan, but give credit to their Montessori schools.  According to Brin, the Montessori approach instilled in them self-direction and self-motivation, an inclination to challenge the status quo and to do things differently.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, was recently mentioned in Business Week magazine: "As a preschooler, Jeffrey P. Bezos displayed an unmatched single-mindedness.  By his mother's account, the young Bezos got so engrossed in the details of activities at his Montessori school that teachers had to pick him up in his chair to move him to new tasks.  It's a trait that goes a long way toward explaining why the company he founded, Amazon.com Inc, has survived to become the most dominant retailer on the Internet."

Julia Child, the author and cook, said, "Influenced, perhaps, by my early experience at a Montessori school...I am all for encouraging children to work with their hands."

To choose their own tasks and, with guidance, to shape their own learning builds character and their mental models of the world breeds future success.   So, mothers, learn to recite this little ditty:

Let children be carefree when they are small. Teach character, not characters, and help their manners grow tall.  Read to them a lot and discipline them well, and they will do their best when rings the school bell.

Sources: Tomorrow's Child Magazine, Spring 2005 and The Reno Gazette, March 6, 2005