Mother’s Day Celebrations

Kneeling down for mothers

Annually the Mother’s day is celebrated at different calendar dates in every country. In Thailand, Mother’s day is a special day celebrated on the Queen’s birthday, August 12^th.

A hug for mother

Last week we celebrated Mother’s Day at all our Montessori converted classrooms. We explained to the children on the importance of this day and read them stories related to mothers and mother figures. The children learned on many ways to appreciate and pamper their Mothers at home.

Throughout the week this was a wonderful time filled with preparations for this special day. The children were involved in the rehearsing of songs and poems which expressed their love to their mothers and mother figures. Eventually, all the mothers were invited to the schools and classrooms, the children kneelt at their mothers’ feet as they paid respect to their mothers and presented flowers and cards -some had tears flowing freely as a sign of appreciation. Later special food was also served to mark this special day. Happy mother's day!

A flower for mother and a big smile too!

Teacher preparation center (TPC) training in Mae sot

Recently the KLDF Montessori team provided a 3 day in-house Montessori based training to 75 Burmese teachers in Mae sot district. The training focused to provide the teachers with Montessori classroom management skills, understanding the child development periods/stages, creating a beautiful learning environment, being a good role model (teacher) and how to make applicable teaching aids using recycled materials based on the Montessori principles.

A week earlier we collected all the necessary materials like discard card boards, threads, plastic lids/bottles, scrap papers and various natural objects.

Each day we designed some of the Montessori based materials in the math, language and Art. Throughout the training, teachers (participants) portrayed great enthusiasm. Most of them learnt and discovered the importance of using readily available materials found around their surroundings, to make learning aids with less or non-costly materials/object by also implementing the Montessori principles.

The clip below covers the training activities as they took place. Enjoy watching!

Pounding activity



Pounding activity



In Thailand and throughout South-East Asia   – Som tum (green papaya salad) is a classic Thai dish, made from pounding the ingredients using the mortar and pestle. In our Montessori converted classrooms we included this Practical life activity to train the children fine motor skills, concentrate and master the skill of pounding. We began by collecting so many eggshells, rinsed and dried them and brought them to our classrooms.  The children found this activity so exciting, and they all began bringing eggshells from home each day.  

Coordination and concentration

Scooping and transfering the eggshell content

The children enjoy smashing eggshells carefully without dropping any bits! For most of them this is Som tum pounding as they imitated their parents. Later, they use a spoon to transfer the content into a bowl which they extend the activity to a perfect art work by gluing the grounded eggshell dust onto paper.

Likewise, the children sprinkle the egg dust into the flower pots in the classroom environment to enrich the soil.

Most children are familiar with the Practical life activities and are naturally drawn to them through their keen observations. The child watches and copies the parents perform these activities hence grow a desire to experience with them. For children, there is something unique and exciting about the tasks that adults consider ordinary.

These activities also provide the foundation for success in the Montessori classroom, and in addition the child to gain control in the coordination, build independence, self-esteem, increase concentration and adapt to his/her social society. Generally, these activities satisfy the child’s needs for meaningful activity and respond to the child’s special periods for development. (Sensitive periods).