Welcome to the last episode of Season 2. And it’s a good one. Today I get to chat to Montessori educator and a nationally recognised anti-bias educator in the US, Britt Hawthorne. She’s all about creating inclusive and equitable environments for all learners and understandably her work has been recognized by none other than PBS, Drew Barrymore, Google Edu, Association Montessori Internationale, and more.
I have learned so much from Britt over the last year and a half, yes, about being an anti-racist parent and educator but also just how you can raise critically thinking children, children who can advocate for themselves, recognise injustice, call it out and do something about it. We all need people like this that raise their children in a way that shows us what is possible.
Links from the show
Listener question
Maeg asks
“I’m really having a hard time preparing work cycles for two daughters with totally #1 different interests. They are 3 & 1. Also my 3 year old is so focused and loves doing things all by herself (even when she was just a baby) however the 1 year old loves to join her older sister. Another factor is a very small apartment. We only have one low shelf that could fit the room so most of the time for the 1 year old were prepared in the shelf. What should I do. We’ll live in this apartment for the next five years before having our third baby."
Welcome to the last episode of Season 2. And it’s a good one. Today I get to chat to Montessori educator and a nationally recognised anti-bias educator in the US, Britt Hawthorne. She’s all about creating inclusive and equitable environments for all learners and understandably her work has been recognized by none other than PBS, Drew Barrymore, Google Edu, Association Montessori Internationale, and more.
I have learned so much from Britt over the last year and a half, yes, about being an anti-racist parent and educator but also just how you can raise critically thinking children, children who can advocate for themselves, recognise injustice, call it out and do something about it. We all need people like this that raise their children in a way that shows us what is possible.
Links from the show
Listener question
Maeg asks
“I’m really having a hard time preparing work cycles for two daughters with totally #1 different interests. They are 3 & 1. Also my 3 year old is so focused and loves doing things all by herself (even when she was just a baby) however the 1 year old loves to join her older sister. Another factor is a very small apartment. We only have one low shelf that could fit the room so most of the time for the 1 year old were prepared in the shelf. What should I do. We’ll live in this apartment for the next five years before having our third baby."
Hi everyone, Simone Davies here and welcome to the last episode of season two. Today I get to chat to one of the people who I have learned so much from in the last year, year and a half, Britt Hawthorne. She is a Montessori educator and a nationally recognized anti bias educator in the US. And she's all about creating inclusive and equitable environments for all learners. And understandably, Her work has been recognized by none other than PBS, Drew Barrymore. Google Edu, Association Montessori Internationale, and a whole lot more. So, yes, I've learned about being an anti racist parents and educator from her. But not only that, but how you can raise critically thinking children, children can who can advocate for themselves. Children who recognize injustice, call it out and do something about it. So we all need people like this that parent in a way that shows us what is possible. But before we get to my conversation with Britt, today, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about how we allow the expression of our child's intrinsic motivation in Montessori. So when we talk about intrinsic motivation, we're talking about doing something because it's personally satisfying to us, as opposed to being motivated extrinsically. So we've talked before about like, avoiding using praise, like good job all the time, or external rewards like stickers or bigger presents and those kinds of things, or maybe even to avoid something negative from happening, like being punished. So, in Montessori, one of our goals is to support children to feel capable, like help me to do it myself. So not only will they learn the practical skill, they're also learning to make discoveries for themselves and feel like oh, I can do things I can work this out. And what happens when we feel like we can do things, we don't need extrinsic motivation, it's enough to have it done because it was personally satisfying. So I actually came up with 42 ways that we allow children's intrinsic motivation to express itself in Montessori. And I'll link to that blog post. But for today, I just wanted to focus on a few of them. So one way we can help intrinsic motivation to express itself is to scaffold skills. So when I say scaffold, the term scaffolding is mostly known in building you know, it's that frame, you might build up around the outside of a building, so you can work on it. And when you finish, do you take the scaffolding down? So in Montessori, the scaffolding is our help. At first, we help more. And then we take it down slowly, as the child takes over more and more steps, become more more capable, and building it up for them to have success at what they're trying whatever level they're at. So for example, if I'm talking about an 18 month old, who's learning to put their own shoes on, how much help do I need to give them So first, I observe to see how far they can get on their own. If they need some help, maybe for me to open the shoe, and then they push their own foot in, or I might see if they need me to model pushing the Velcro down. And then I give them an opportunity to have a turn themselves and take the time to practice that bit. Then as their skills develop, I'll need to do less than less. And they'll take over more of the steps themselves. And then they'll eventually graduate from Velcro trainers, maybe to doing up their own laces as we scaffold the skills. And then as they're scaffolding the skills, we're not expecting them, all of a sudden, we have to put their shoes on when they might give up entirely. Instead, we build it up slowly, and then take the scaffold away. For an older child, it might be scaffolding skills to cook dinner for the family. So I remember at around 10 years old, Oliver wanted to cook dinner for the family on Sunday evenings. So he choose a recipe from a cookbook and write me a shopping list. And I'd usually be the one to buy the ingredients. And then I'd read through the recipe with him and be his sous chef and see what he might need help with. And then gradually over time, I needed to give less and less help. And so I'm not saying you know, you go cook dinner he wanted to cook and then we set it up so he could have that success building his own intrinsic motivation. Another way we see this intrinsic motivation at work is through the control of error in many Montessori activities. So we've mentioned control of error before in the podcast, but to remind listeners who aren't familiar with it, it's how many of the Montessori materials are designed so that the child works things out for themselves if there's an error, and they can try it again. So imagine even a simple nine piece puzzle with shapes and then maybe the child has a pentagon in their hand. And it actually fits in where the circles meant to go. And then the child gets the circle but it won't fit in because the it doesn't fit into the Pentagon. So so the child works out. Okay, something can't be right here. Let me see where else that might fit. And we have other control of error works like back in the episode with Cara, they had a poetry puzzle, where she looked at the whole poem to see if she had it in the correct order. So again, the whole poem is the control of error and they can work it out for themselves. We talked about this cylinder blocks to where the cylinders will only fit in one space. And if you have one that doesn't fit, there must be an error that we have to work out and to uncover. Similarly, with something called the spindle box, you can always Google that if you're not sure what it looks like. And if you place one spindle in the box with number one and two spindles in the box with number two, then you should have no spindles leftover at the end. But if you get to box number nine, and you've got too many or too few, then you know, you have to go back and see where you've made the mistake. So this is very different to a teacher or a parent telling us that we got it wrong, we're definitely much more closed. If we're told, you know, that's not correct. And we're much more open if we discovered ourselves to want to correct it. And it's very satisfying when you work out where you got it wrong as well. In a similar way, to allow a child to work out what feels good, they also need to know how to solve problems and to make it up to someone when they get something wrong, because we are going to get things wrong. And so I call this learning to make amends. So it's not necessarily forcing a child to say sorry, but then to work out a way to show the other person they know they did something wrong, they're not going to do it again. And they'd like to make it right. So I often give the example of my son who'd done a prank on his sister and her friend who were having a sleep over. And he set their alarm to go off at four o'clock in the morning. And so in the morning, they were really upset. And he knew he done the wrong thing. And so they worked out that he would cook breakfast for them. And he made them french toast, and he was super pleased with himself. They accepted his apology, and he didn't ever do that prank again. So he's learning internally that didn't feel good. How can I make it right? And we don't need extrinsic motivation, like punishing him, or on the other hand, like letting him get away with it either. And then the last one I wanted to talk about today is modeling intrinsic motivation by the adults around them. So we have to look at ourselves, do we have a friendly relationship with error? How do we model getting things wrong and finding solutions? Do we model doing something because it feels nice to help someone? Or do we also need big presents and rewards for doing things? Or maybe we beat ourselves up when we get things wrong? So our children are always looking to us. And we can be modeling intrinsic motivation, as well. So I love that idea of intrinsic motivation, because it's so different to the way that I was educated, which was to get good marks get recognized or to avoid punishments. And we are wanting to build children who wants to do things because it feels good to learn because they're curious and to help others and the community and the earth because they want to not because someone's making them. And my hope is really that all children get the opportunity to learn in this way. Our children come out into the world with their eyes wide open, seeing things and hearing things for the first time, curious to discover everything around them. And how can we as parents and caregivers and educators, keep them open to the world curious to learn to wonder and to imagine possibilities. So this is a great place to get into my conversation with Britt who will also talk a little about wandering and so much more. So enjoy the conversation. Hello, everyone. And welcome back to the Montessori notebook podcast. Today I am so excited to introduce our guest, Britt Hawthorne. I have learned so much from Britt over the last year or two I'm not sure what. But she is someone who I totally admire not only for all the work that she does about anti bias, about anti racism, but just how she raises her children and is in the world. So Britt, thank you so much for being here today. Oh, thank you. I'm so delighted. And that feeling is definitely mutual. I mean, following your work. I still remember the first time I met you at AMS. And I just remember just doing this like really subtle wave and just being Hi. So I feel the exact same way. I appreciate the way that you make thinking about working with toddlers having toddlers such a joy and reminding us of that joy. So I'm so delighted to be here. And that's actually something that I appreciate about your work as well is that you do difficult work. You know, anti racism work is confronting. It is challenging to us. And yet you always put on some joy. And I just wanted to start the conversation with asking you on your website it says if you meet me, asked me about my two children, my love of coffee and my houseplants so let's start there. Oh, I love it. And no one ever asks that I'm like, always before I do a presentation or workshop, I'm like, okay, someone's going to ask and no one does. But yes, I am. First and foremost coffee. I love coffee. It was funny. I just right before we pressed record, I went I said oh, let me go grab a cup of coffee and I came back with two cups. So I love coffee. I had no idea. It's one of those small gifts I think the teaching world gives us is that you go into the work room, you go into teacher's lounge and you just smell that aroma of coffee and I still remember First starting off drinking coffee and being like, Oh, this just isn't it. And slowly but surely I think it's the same thing with anti racism. You kind of like started off like, I don't think this is it and slowly but surely you kind of create that community. And it becomes such a social thing. I live here and Houston, Texas in the United States. And coffee is definitely a thing. So I love to try new coffee shops, I love to take my children to coffee shops with me. So that definitely brings me a lot of joy. At home, I'll transition to house plants. I am a house mom of about, gosh, I can't I don't even know how many house plants at this point I have, which I love. I started collecting house plans. As I started my Montessori journey. Actually, my husband bought me a plant. For my very first classroom, I remember learning and they said, in your Montessori classroom, you must have plants you must have living things. Our classrooms are living, breathing expressions are ecosystems. And I went back, I don't know anything about a plant I grew up. And we had, you can't do air quotes. We had plants and our home, but they were all fake. And I remember once a season, my mom would take the plants and we would take them outside and dust them. But that was my context for plants. And so he went to the grocery store, and he bought me a plant. And I still have it to this day. And I slowly have collected plants over the years, I've always invited my learners to gift plants to the classroom, and we named them after them. So they can stay a part of the classroom. And then now in our home, we have plants that are named after folks who have been murdered or killed. Who Breonna Taylor, for instance, Philando Castile, so we also have plants to remember them, to honor them to bring them into our home, and to re always recenter what we do and why we do it. And to remember, like, there's something beautiful about plants that they offer us oxygen, right. And when we do anti racist work, I always tell my children, we still have breath in our lungs. And we can still speak, we can still talk, we can use our voice, we can we have so many actions that we can still do. And it's such a blessing to do that. And so thinking about plants in that way. And then kind of in saying I have these two children, I have these two children. Yes, my two beautiful children. We have Carter, who's 14 now. And we have Cobe who is eight years old. And I really started my anti racist journey along with my Montessori journey both through them. So I didn't grow up really knowing what Montessori was at all. And I didn't grow up knowing what anti racism was at all. I grew up just with this idea of diversity, knowing that it was important knowing that we I had this ideal of unity, and ideal of peace, but not really actually knowing like how do we get there? What are the actions or the verbs that we have to take. And I think it was the same thing as like, being a mom. Like there's this ideal that like I always knew I wanted to be a mom, but I didn't actually know what it was going to take. Right and and part of motherhood for me is a lot of joy. Same thing with my Montessori practice. And same thing with my anti racist practices. Like all of these are practices, they're not destinations, they're things that we're just we're trying and we're doing so. Yeah, that's probably a little bit about me. Oh, I love that introduction, because it covers so many parts and how consciously you also raise your children, you know, to name your houseplants about, you know, around your work and around the things that are important to you and to raise critical thinking children. And that's what I really appreciated from all the workshops I followed, and I'm part of your Collective Liberation community where you're always getting amazing guests to come and talk to us. And I'm always appreciating the little stories you tell about your family, because I always think they're critical thinkers. And I think maybe that might have started when you were an elementary teacher in a Montessori classroom, you know, getting children to, yeah, not always putting words into their mouth or assuming it but actually responding with curiosity and those kind of things. And I would love you to talk to that. Because I think it's really hard as parents like we just are so top down in our teaching, but I think elementary teachers really ask such interesting questions that open up conversations, and this can be a beautiful way to raise critical thinkers. I agree. 100%. You know, thankfully, I have this Montessori background that really teaches us advise us to always respond with curiosity when our children are asking questions, and then also to offering them these like really curious questions. to like, I remember having a trainer being like, have you ever thought, how do plants eat? I don't think adult. And I was so taken by that question like, how do plants eat? And there's this like, simplistic framing of the question, where, you know, if you encounter that in a biology textbook, or in a science class, if they just don't pose it that way. So even like work with my children, like, have you ever thought, why you have darker skin? And you know, for them to say, I do have darker skin? And then to follow up and say, Have you ever thought my I have lighter skin? To make sure that we're also talking about like, there's no like neutral, or normal, quote, unquote, normal skin tone? We have? There's a variety of shades in the world. And we were thought about, how did we get our skin tone, and then we can just start to wonder and ponder. And if you've worked with really, really young ones, three to six year old, they come up with such to them really logical conclusions, right? Maybe it's something they had to eat? Or maybe it's because like chocolate milk is their favorite, right? They have like all of these different ways to explain it, you know, and then to say, Well, actually, you get your skin tone and mixture from your parents. And it's all about our ancestors, our great, great, great, great, great grandparents. And when they come into elementary school, we're able to talk about migration, we can pull up those migration maps. So I do try whenever my children ask questions, to respond to curiosity, and to know that their questions are always coming from a good place. They are curious beings, they're curious creatures, to always lean into that curiosity. And always, hmm, that question really stumped me, I'm going have to research but I'm going come back to it. So the same way that I would respond to a student is the same way respond to my own children. And sometimes I'm also honest with them to say, gosh, that what you just said, made me feel really uncomfortable. I don't know why. Right. And then to even model that to model like, sometimes the conversations make us, like, have butterflies in our stomach, or might make our chest tight. And someday, I have to take a deep breath. And our young ones, usually if we have a more of a touchy feely physical home, you know, they might come and give us a hug. And they might rub our back and say, Oh, I don't know why you're feeling I said, I don't know, either. I'm going have to think about how I grew up. Right? So we can model all of those. But yes, I just, you know, three, four or five years old. Think about when Cobe was that age and questions he used to ask me like, what is that man speaking? Is it Spanish? You know? And sometimes I could say, yes, it is Spanish, like you identified it correctly. And sometimes like, I don't, I don't know that language, and then respond with a question. How do you think you learned his language? Right? And so it's like, now we're having a conversation about language is learned. And it's shared and it's passed. And language is a gift, right? Like, who gave him that gift of language? Who gave you your gift of language? Sometimes I asked questions that are close what I call closed statements. And so that's like a pre prejudice. I think of pre prejudice, kind of like pre diabetic. It's a misconception or it's a myth that they picked up somewhere. And just like, if you're pre diabetic, we catch it early enough, then you can just put it back down. Right? Like we can reject it and say, oh, we're not going to we're not going to keep it. I really also like to use that language. I learned that from Dr. Kira Banks, that picking up and putting back down is great language to use with our children. Instead of oftentimes, adults will say like, we've internalized something, right, because it could be internalized it so much deeper, but it feels like a lot more to unpack, and heal from versus like, Oh, I picked it up, you can just put it back down. So sometimes their statements are or their actions. I remember one time, we were at my mother in law's house, and the neighbor girl came over, and Cobe thought was trying to connect with the neighbor girl and said, Look, I can look my eyes like yours. And he took his fingers and he attempted to slant his eyes. And I just remember feeling in the moment, mortified. I'm looking at the mom like this is how we're meeting. Oh, my goodness. And also, you know, wanting to really center myself by being like, Oh, I don't know where he got that from. I can't believe he did that really, like center myself in my feelings instead of just looking at Cobe, Cobe. I don't think that that's okay. And this is why and then also checking on the other child and being like, how did that make you feel? Right like centering her As the person who was really kind of objectified in that moment. And then after that happens and talking with the mom and being like, you know what, he has picked that up. And I'm sure he has picked that up through children's books who over emphasize this slanted, I have this trope for Asian people for Asian characters in children's movies, and I am so sorry, your child had to experience that. And we'll make sure we unpack that at home, too. But like, you know, whenever I feel those feelings of like, I cannot believe my child just said that I can't wait my child just did that is always centering the person who was harmed. But I also want Cobe, I don't want him to have feelings of guilt and shame, right? I think he was maybe three or four years old when he did that. And that wasn't his fault. Right? That's something going on in our society. And he picked it up. And I don't want him to have to turn analyze that shame. And that's an example like how you put it back down because not ignoring it. Because if you ignore it, then they might assume that this is something that we don't talk about, or you know, or it's not actually addressed. And they continue to do it. So I love that you were just very Matter of fact, and that's not okay. And you gave him very specific things about centering her and modeling. That she's okay. Yes, I Yes. You know, it's so interesting. When I first started in the classroom, when you hear these conversations students are having, you hear the things that they say you hear the misconceptions. And I remember myself being the teacher that was like, Oh, we don't say that we're all friends here are like quickly trying to do a transition, like, Hey, who wants to go read a book now? Right, but like, what you're saying is that when we ignore it, we're allowing that space where we're allowing the space for that misconception to grow, for it to fester for to pass on to other children. And really, we're not addressing it because I have big feelings of discomfort. And I'm not addressing it because I don't actually know how to address it. And so instead of like I always think about, and now we have a teenager, and I feel like every day there's something to address and unpack with a teenager. And so sometimes I will even tell him, I say, you know, it's like, I know that two plus two is not five. But I might not be able to tell you why it's not five just yet. So I'm like, hang on, let me figure it out. And so even just saying that to my teenager, like, I know what you just said isn't right. But I'm going I'm going figure it out. And then I'm going to get back to you. I'll figure out a way I'll teach myself and then I'll teach you. But it's just making it learning as a journey. Yeah. And I think I remember a really sweet story that you shared on Instagram. And Cobe, you know, heard you saying something about a piano recital, and he liked doing it. You saying, Oh, you know, you'll be fine, or that kind of thing. You responded with curiosity. And you'd like.. I wrote down you said, "ask me three questions before making a decision." And his response was, I didn't even know what a piano recital is. And so I said, perfect. It's like, Oh, that's brilliant, right? Because I can actually address that concern. Exactly, exactly. It's actually called an ostrich bias. And we all have this ostrich bias. And it's, even though it's fictitious, it's not ostriches don't actually stick their hand their head in the sand. It's like this really great analogy that whenever something feels like it's too much or too overwhelming, right, we've put our head in the sand. So it might be a bill that we have to pay, it might be a dentist appointment we need to make, that might be a courageous or critical conversation we have to have. And then instead of doing it, we stick our head in the sand and we avoid it, we push it away. And so like that's what Cobe was doing in that moment. I was talking to my partner like, Oh, I'm so excited about the piano recital. We're going go get him this cute little turtleneck. It's going be lovely. And yeah, upstairs. He's like, I'm doing that. And I was like, oh, okay, so I could identify. He's trying to avoid something and why. And I was like, Cobe, why don't you come here? asked me three questions about it. And then we can make a decision. He's like, I don't even know what it is. And I'm like, okay, and we can pull up on YouTube examples of piano recitals. And then he was so excited by the end of it, you know, he's like, I can't wait to invite my family and my friends, how many people can come? So being able to just to know when someone's trying to shut something down? Even a conversation about racism? I'm going try to shut it down. We can say like, oh, you're Why are you trying to avoid it? Like what's really going on here. I also really appreciate the you often give your children an understanding of the system. So like, if there's I remember you giving an example of the homeless people and say, You know why they are living under the bridge, and you show them that you blame the system as such. And I think that's so powerful because people can take racism very personally or different kinds of things very personally. And actually, it's mostly systemic. Absolutely. So yeah, when we first moved to Houston, Carter was about nine years old, and just driving along, and he's in the backseat and out of nowhere, like, Why do so many people live underneath the bridges? Like, why don't they have houses. And as an adult, I'm like, oh, my goodness, people study this. Like, they mean, there's, we make the problem so big, right, versus trying to make the solution so big, which is a whole other thing. And I grew up definitely blaming individuals, like, oh, that person needed to try harder, do better, or we find pity on people, individual people, and we kind of make up these small stories of well, maybe, so on, instead of just blaming the system instead of individuals and say, You know what, here in Houston, it's a fact of life, we don't have enough affordable housing, the city does not invest in affordable housing. And so people have to make tough choices when house when housing prices are so high, they're not affordable. When we blame the system, then we also then can say, what can we do about that then? And then together, we're driving down the street, and now we're brainstorming, you know, who can we call? Could we write letters, can we show up to City Hall, the next time that it's on the ballot to vote for affordable housing, I'm going to vote yes, for affordable housing, you know, so then that way, we actually can then kind of complicate the solution, then we can say, well, there's five different solutions now that are actions that we could take to help versus trying to make the problem of helplessness so large, then now we have these feelings of being overwhelmed with my nine year old. And that's something that we have at our house, we have a station in our house that has stamps that has envelopes. And it also has everyone's all of our legislators information written down. And so Cobe will randomly come over to me and he'll say, here's a letter I wrote for the president, or here's a ladder for the mayor. And the same thing, when I hear my teenager complaining, I said, Oh, do you know who needs to receive a letter? Do you know who needs to receive a call or a piece of teenagers a tweet on social media? And he'll say, Yes, okay, I will do it. But it's making sure you know, we're blaming a system, but then holding that system accountable to because we're raising a generation of citizens, not just individual human beings out here, like living on their own lily pads, not just consumers, right? Like we're thinking about, I want my children to be engaged citizens. So what is that going to take? Yeah, and I mean, you're also modeling the whole time about how you show up in the world. And I remember an example you were talking about, you're at the local library, and there was some teenagers working in the children's section. And the librarian had come across and said, I'm sorry, you can't work here. Because this is the children's section, and you then modeled, you stood up, you're like, I don't feel comfortable with this, I'm going say something because, you know, they also don't need to be in the adult section where they may feel uncomfortable, and like showing up, like, and showing that action, like, I feel uncomfortable, and I'm going to do something about it. Not sure. I think you're being a community, and you're looking out for people who they can't maybe advocate for themselves these skills. Absolutely. And it was that that story was so inspiring for myself, like I think about that story all of the time. And I have to say, it is so important to have a community to have a community of folks. And in that moment, my community, I'll be really honest, was Instagram. I remember processing in real time in my Instagram stories and thinking to myself, I will just go back and delete all of this in an hour. But I needed even if it's like it's like a talk session, right? Like I'm even though I'm just kind of talking into the wind. And I'm telling myself, like, come on, right? You do this for a living? And I'm asking myself, am I actually in harm's way? Is there any danger? Like what is the risk here? And it's like, there's none. There is no risk at all except big feelings, to advocate for these two teenagers who were being asked to leave the safety of the children's area. And then after all of that was said and done and you know, I chatted with the librarian, and she really pushed back she stood firm and her well, this is the rules the way that it is. And then I pushed back and said, Well, can I see the written rule? And then we can go from there. And me just saying, Okay, I'm going to stay engaged because I am committed to the outcome of this situation. Luckily, the supervisor came out and she's like, you're absolutely right. They are minors, they have every right to be in the children's area. And it was so funny that supervisor, I don't know if you know, this is the safest place for them. I was like, that's what I was thinking. This is a major, where we live in a major Metro city is a public library, which has so many beautiful things, why we choose to invest in our public library and support our public library. And there's realities of being at a public library. And then we're in the car, we're headed to go pick up my oldest from school, and then Cobe's like, Mom, you did good work. There's like, What are you talking about? He was like you did good work. You showed up for those girls. And I was like, oh, my goodness, you were watching. I was so stuck in my own feelings of like, what if I say the wrong thing? What if the two girls feel like I'm overstepping my boundary? You know, what if I make the situation worse, I was so stuck in me that I didn't realize you know what Cobe and the other children were watching what was being modeled for them. And they were being and they were watching. You know, who's going to say something? And it's, and it's really interesting, because young children are so on point when it comes to identifying and fairness. Right? Like they they can immediately call out, like, Carter, like, Why are these people living underneath the bridge? or Why do people have to ask for money on the corner? Or why do we need food banks? Like, they're like, wait a minute, this just doesn't seem right to me. And as an adult, I've spent so many years trying to make something that's not right right. And I've like rationalized it so many different ways that when a young child asks you so simplistically, why you really like, you know what, it's, it's honestly, it's not right? These are, and you we lean a lot on the fundamental needs in Montessori, too. And that's like a great way that we judge is something a right? Or is something a privilege? And so, you know, we think about those fundamental needs is food a right? Is housing a righ?. And then it's like, it's a yes or no, if it's a yes, it's a right, then what are we going to do to advocate for that? And if it's a privilege, it's like, oh, well, I mean, everyone might not get to live in a five bedroom house. That's a privilege. But everyone does deserve shelter. And then we go back to the fundamental needs, why does everyone deserve shelter? And it's right there? No, we talk about because it keeps us safe from the weather from, it keeps us safe from our keeps our belongings safe, our possessions safe, it allows us keeps our mental and emotional stability safe when we can close our eyes safely at night so that we can sleep. And then we can we can kind of unpack that and help them to have that language of why is this right? And then what are we going to do to work towards that? Yeah. And I think that like, some folks might say, Oh, well, I live in a predominantly white area, I'm not being exposed to these kind of situations. But there's so much opportunity to pick up and point out the injustice, you know, you use in your trainings, often the example of like a crack in the pavement, and who would actually be, you know, disservice by having a crack in the pavement, and you can have this conversation. And again, then once you've identified the injustice, what you're going to do about it, and even going a little bit out of your way maybe to go to a different grocery store than you're used to, and looking at the tile and the lighting and like, why do you think that that might be different to the one where we regularly shop? And actually, you can seek these opportunities out? Yes, yeah. There's like, there's kind of two different when when folks come to me with that question, there's two different things I think about I do in my own home with my own children. There's one of like, how are we going to intentionally create diversity, or create representation, so my children feel comfortable and competent around human diversity? So there's that one, and for us what seemed like a radical choice, then, but maybe not so much. Now. We actually chose to move. That's how we ended up in Houston, because we wanted our children just to have that opportunity experience to be around human differences. So for us, we moved from Illinois to Texas. Houston is one of the most racially and ethnically diverse cities in the United States. And so we made that choice. But at the same time, Houston is also really racially segregated. So it's not enough just to move to the city that on the census data says, oh, they're so diverse. When you still have schools that are racially segregated, you have neighborhoods and you have parks. So it's important for us then to go and support public services whenever we can. So we always try to go to the library. I remember early, early in my parenting journey I wanted, I had this dream of having like this beautiful home book, this book collection at home for Carter. And I wanted him to have like all of what I would consider the classics. And I just, I just had this like, beautiful idea of this reading nook. And then going through my journey, I'm like, wait a minute, if I'm privatizing or individualizing books, that means I'm taking Carter out of his community. And I'm also divesting from those public spaces. So for us supporting the Public Library, but that means that we check out different public libraries. And then, and I do that so that Cobe can have, you know, if a authentic relationship happens, because him and another child are both reading the same book, great, maybe I'll connect with the parents and see if we can keep it going, as well. So I'm thinking about where are there other children that are around my children's age, where I can expose them to differences. We also do that with playgrounds here in Houston, we have what's called inclusive or adaptive playgrounds, and the playground is 100% created for children with physical disabilities. And so we go when we find those playgrounds, and we play, and for a long time, we had no idea that they were considered like inclusive or adaptive. I was like, Hey, we're going to different playground today, like we're going on an adventure. And so and Cobe has found and formed friendships and relationships, just from those small moments. Sometimes we leave the playground and he didn't connect with anyone, and that's okay. Sometimes we leave the playground and he's like, can you get their parents phone number? I want us to come back again on Tuesday. And I'm like, I sure can, then there's also that noticing that unfairness, and injustice as well. So as we're going to those different libraries, we're going to the different grocery stores are also wondering, like, what is the same? What is different? Why do they have the same foods? What about that, and there's young ones, like when you start to give them permission just to wonder and ask, and to be curious, they're going to pick out even more than we could right? they're going to notice how many lamp poles like, what's the lighting? they'll notice. Can you see the yellow lines on the parking lot? They're going to notice. Like, where do you put the cart back? like little things that matter to them, they're going notice those things. Of course, they noticed the tile, because they're always looking at the cracks, they're always looking at the pattern on the tile, because maybe they might like jump from square to square, right? Or they're practicing their colors, things that we really take for granted. But as we're noticing the tile, it's like, hmm, is their tile clean? Right? Is the tile safe? Does the tile have cracks? We're also looking at the lighting. And then especially if it's the same brand of grocery store, or the same brand of like your shopping store, and it looks vastly different. Again, we want to make sure we blame that institution and say, You know what, they're not investing. They're not putting money back into this institution. I wonder why and Is that fair for the people? So we definitely we try to go all around town, we try to think about what's in our zip code, what's not in our zip code. We do some of it, because we're looking for those authentic relationships. And we do some of it because we really are looking for identifying, practicing identifying and fairness, practicing our language, and then also practicing our advocacy to Yeah, and to give credit where credit's due. We're definitely talking about the anti bias education framework right now, because we've talked about diversity, we've talked about, you know, recognizing injustice and taking action. And goal one of these anti-bias framework is then affirming the child themselves. And so, you know, you have the child has to see themselves represented in their home and their community and all those kind of things. And you always say, I mean, your workshops, you know, we spend the most time on this goal one, right? Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So the anti bias education framework was developed by Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olson Edwards back in the 80s. So it's been around for some time, and it was developed for early childhood educators. So it's developmentally appropriate. It's researched based, the things I love, love love about the framework, why I used it in my classroom, and I also use it in my home with my children, is it's bringing these larger social justice issues that already exist, it bringing them into our homes, bringing them into our classrooms and giving language in a developmentally appropriate way. It's not trying to come up with or create hypotheticals, right? It's saying that our children are already recognizing the unfairness. So how do we help them to negotiate the unfairness, how do we help them to have the language of it? It is like Montessori where it's a constructivist approach. Again, so I'm not making it up. It's already here. And I'm helping the child to construct it on their own. It's grounded in real experiences, which is really important both in Montessori and in social justice work. It's a lens that I'm looking at myself, I'm looking at my own biases that I have picked up, right, but my own biases that I also not just like, picked up. But this one's also really hard for me to think about the ways that I continue to confirm those biases, right? Like, I have to check myself whenever I see a news article. And I'm like, Oh, that looks like a great article. And then I'll see who the articles by and I'm like, Oh, I'm not going read that. There. It's not going to be right. And I say, Oh, I have to, you know, I have to check. How am I trying to confirm that? It also is a framework that allows mistakes to happen, because we are more concerned about progress than perfection. Butter, our dog said, Yes, I agree. So she might bark here. And the other things I really like about the framework is that it lets you know, right away, you have to embrace conflict, that you have to embrace disagreement. And that's really good, it's healthy. And what I try to remember is that conflict is a part of human nature, right? Like conflict leads, oftentimes to growth. And I think about the relationships that have kind of dissolved over the years, it's not because of a conflict, it's because of the time that tension that I didn't give to a relationship, or because I felt like I couldn't actually give the relationship, the truth that it needed. So I really want to help my children to know that conflict is okay. It's healthy, it's a part of human life. And I want them to be able to stay engaged in the relationships that they want by giving truth in a way that truth is received. But giving truth, offering truth. I'm trying to think anything else I love about it. I just love the framework, I think it's a great framework. It's super practical as well. And like when I'm reading it, I'm working through it with a friend. And we take a chapter and we really digest it really talks about how you internalized racism, your experience with racism, but also, it's got a lot of intersectionality. Like there's a chapter towards the end of the book, on gender, and on all different types of the intersectionality of not just racism, but how antibias can show up in other platforms like disability and those kinds of things as well. And it gives really practical language like you what you can say if the child Yeah, those misconceptions that you were talking about earlier, you can say, how does that Yeah, that makes me feel like this. And it's so powerful. It's such a useful book will definitely put in the shownotes a link to the book. I think you can get a lot out of it. Yes, yes, yes, that it's a wonderful book. And I always recommend, even parents, caregivers can use the book. I know it's created for educators. But there's so much useful activities, even in the back to like looking at our home environments, how we prepared our home environment, you know, what in my environment is offering my child a mirror? Like what is offering them an affirming experience, one that's positive one that's going to reflect their lived experiences. What What am I offering in my home environment, windows, and that's from Rudine Sims Bishop, windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors. What am I allowing them from the eyes of a creator, to experience another world? And we're always thinking to whether it's a window or a mirror? Is this a positive representation? Is this an affirming representation of both? Or is this a stereotype? Is this something that's distorted? Or am I perpetuating, like a myth or misconception? I think about that. Going back to Cobe, and he slanted his eyes, you know, I immediately was like, oh, gosh, where did he pick that up? Like? Is it a children's book that I have in my home? Is that a cartoon maybe that he was watching on television. And sometimes we don't know where they pick it up. Right? So especially if we don't know where they pick it up. We just know when that happens. Okay, this is where the work is going to be. And I'll make sure that I offer even more books that are representing that have Asian characters in it will have even more conversations. And even I have to think about my own materials that I have for myself, like, what magazines Am I having in my home for me? When I'm scrolling? My I spend way too much time on Instagram, but when I'm scrolling Instagram and Cobe looking over my shoulder, right, I want to make sure that I'm scrolling a feed. That's giving him identity affirmation, but also giving him positive experiences tip for differences too. Yeah, and I think that preparing our environments is such a big part of this anti racism parenting. I remember Following a couple of workshops that you did on our book collections, and I just thought, you know, these anti racist books, but actually you specify, there's a kind of difference between a social justice book collection, and one that is an affirming book collection. And I was like, Ah, that's so interesting. Like, actually, we want examples of black joy, we don't just always want the black character to be the one that's left out, and then they make amends, you know, we just want a black, you know, child to be living their truth and living their best and examples of that. And there's so many beautiful examples that you always share, but and then the social justice book can be like when you're actually available for a conversation. Or in that case, that there isn't an incorrect kind of style book, it doesn't mean you have to throw it away, but you could use it in compensation, not one that you would just leave it out for them to explore for themselves. But why do you think that they did it this way? And is that how it should be presented and portrayed? Yes, I am. So glad you brought that up. Because I do not think it is talked about enough. As like there's a there's a particular way to create or curate a book collection, in the home and in the classroom. But in the home, you know, we're really focused on affirmation. And that means there's going to be a lot of joy, a lot of laughter, there are also going to be a lot of stories that have these like shared themes, like the first day of school kind of scaries, or losing my tooth, right? There's, there's no kind of social injustice with that. But they have these shared things that all children will experience at some point in their life. And so those books, there are books that we can just have in our home, that our children are always invited to go and read and connect with. Those are the books that we could cuddle together and we can read together as well. And then we have books that are social justice books. And those books I always say like, I think about a white glove service, you know, if you've ever had furniture delivered, and they'll say, Do you want white glove service where they bring it all the way into your house? Right? Those are the books that we kind of have this white glove service where we have this intentional time to sit down with our children and say, Hey, I picked up this book, and I would love to read it with you. And that way, again, we're making sure that we are have practicing accurate language. We're also practicing having conversations about social justice, anti bias, anti racism, having conversations about ableism or colorism, sexism, that we're we're talking with them, because so many of us if we sit back and we think about how many conversations did my caregivers do my parents have with me about discrimination? for a lot of us, it's going to be zero to five. It's like they've had we've had five or less than, and it's typically only if we experienced that form of discrimination. Did we have it? So we have to think about our children, we're trying to give them the tools and the skills to have the conversation as they get older. But it also means that we want to make sure our children don't pick up or internalize the way things just are. And when I think about when I first started teaching, and I had this book collection, I had so many books featuring black folks. Because our environments oftentimes reflect our soul. I am black. And so I have all of these books featuring black people, but a lot of them were people who are experiencing oppression. So I have to ask myself, what are my students taking away from that conversation? And in my home, I'm raising two black children. If my black children only see themselves experience oppression, what am I telling them? Right? How am I showing them, like what you can achieve? I want them to know like, if you're into video games, you can play video games. If you're into creating drones or building a drone flying a drone, if you're into robotics, if you're into sewing, I want to make sure that you find books that reflect that. Now, in the book world, we're seeing a lot more representation. But even when Carter was in children's house, it was not the way that it is. So one thing that we did is we created a lot of our own books. So we got just blank books, or we would get white sheets of paper, stapled them together. And I would say, well, you can create your own book, you can be the author of your own story. So I'm like, what, what do you like, and he was really into selling for a few years, we've created all of these different stories about Carter, who loves to sell. And so we just documented his journey. And we would put the books in our book collection, we'd say now you can see yourself. So I also don't want, you know, parents to say, but it hasn't been created. Right? That's that's releasing or giving up a form of power. We can always say, well, we can create it, we can create what we hope to see in our home, we can create what we hope to see in our classroom too. Yeah, and so much of this work. Like I think the last the biggest case is like preparation of ourselves. Because we can raise critical thinkers, we can prepare our environment but we have to be doing the work on ourselves to unpack our biases to be modeling. I also love that you're always conscious to you know, talk about your pronouns and how do you identify? And then you know, you see Cobe later saying, Oh, I wonder how they identify, and it basically mimicking us because of the work we've done in ourselves. Yes. It's interesting. If Cobe came on here right now, I would say Cobe. How do I introduce myself? Because him and Carter think that it's the funniest joke at the time. Oh, would you like to come? Okay. Okay, we'll have a little cameo of Cobe and he's going come because I think it's the biggest stroke. Um, but you're right. It's not only do they find like, they can pick fun at me and laugh. But Carter this summer is in a leaders in training summer camp and there's someone else in the summer camp who is gender, their gender is non binary. And their pronouns are they them, and the person is being is being misgendered quite a few times. And so Carter, the first day came home, and he asked me, he said, I know they're being misgendered Do you think it's okay, if I correct people? And I said, I think they would actually really appreciate you taking the burden off them. And so the next day, he said, you know, you keep misgendering them their pronouns, are they them, and the person ended up writing him a note saying, Thank you so much. Could you keep doing it? And Carter was so happy, so proud of himself, but it's having those conversations. Okay, so Cobe. Let's see if you can, can you come speak right into my mic. When I introduce myself? How do I introduce myself? Hello, my name is Britt Hawthorne and my pronouns are she her, and you just yell it? Okay. My children think I'm pretty loud. You are! I just project my voice. No. But yes, I'm always modeling. And even with my children, I asked them for filling out a form at the dentist office for filling out the form at summer camp. And I will say, what are your What are your pronouns? At first we look, do they have a space for pronouns? And if they don't, I'll say, Oh, well, we can just write it in. And so we write it in both my children identify as cisgender. And so I'll say, Cobe, what are your pronouns? Like, ma'am? You know, my pronouns, I'm like, I have to ask. And so he'll say he/him, and so I'll write it down he/him, when we go to church, and for a while, they didn't have pronouns on the name tags. And so my children would write in the pronouns, they would ask other people, could you put your pronouns and now it's a part of the practice at our church. So it's always Yeah, just modeling, thinking about what did I not learn what I wish I would have learned, and then knowing I can still learn it. Like, it's never, you know, we say it all the time. It's never too late. It's not, it's never too late to learn. It's never too late to put it in to application to put it into practice, and our children will pick it up. Yeah, and I've also seen you model land acknowledgments in the beginning of your workshops, which then, you know, that's showing people, this is another way to do things. I've seen you model redistribution of wealth, like if you have wealth to redistribute, this is how you do and I redistribute to this cause and this cause, because I know you love the Keres Children's Learning Center. And then people say, Oh, if Britt can do that, I can do that, too. So I think that you model yourself not only for your children, but also for the community. So I really appreciate that. And even another one is like the idea of making space and taking space. So for folks of color, you always say, you know, please, you have permission to you know, take space here, and can you please make space and I think that's so beautiful to be reminded. It's really grace and courtesy that adults? Yes, I love that you said grace and courtesy, because oftentimes we think of grace and courtesy is, you know, how do we say hello? Or how do we blow our nose? Or, you know, there's this grace and courtesy aspect to it, that it's like, how do I take care of myself? Then there's a grace and courtesy of how do I communicate with one another? But then there's also grace and courtesy of like, how am I perpetuating? What is the status quo? How am I perpetuating the way that things are right now? And then what grace and courtesy lessons can we create? So that we can create the world in which we all want to live in? Right? Um, so I love that you said it's like greasing courtesies. I think about that all the time. I'm like this is This, to me is grace and courtesy, it's creating space. It's really anti racism, and anti rights work. But anti racism is all about re centering, like re centering people of the global majority because we know historically, for hundreds of years, they have been decentered they've been erased. They've been silenced. They, there's distorted views, so we have to spend our time re centering, folks. And another thing I think you model beautifully is taking care of yourself. Like you show yourself working out, you show yourself drinking your coffee, all the things that you do like your skin care and you show up sometimes with your bonnet, you know, on Instagram Live. But that's really important for us to say too, because you once posted a quote that said, if you're tired, rest don't quit. And it was by darling and illustrated by @minna_so. But I think sometimes we do want to quit. And it's like rest. Yes, yes. And no one, you know, what I wish I would have known a few years ago is no one can also tell you how long that rest will last. I remember thinking, Oh, I'm just going, I'm just going rest off, you know, and you kind of start with like, I'll take a break today. And then it was like, I'll take a break for a weekend. Sometimes that rest is just taking a break for the day or for the weekend. And sometimes, the rest is a lot longer, right? But it's knowing I'm on a rest. And I need to fill back up, I need to rejuvenate. I need to take care of myself. But then I am going to return back to the work and returned back to the work. Yeah. And we have so much exciting news to share, because Britt just handed in her manuscript for her book, which is of all about anti racist parenting. And I'm sure you know, you appreciate that from so much that we've learned from you today. Britt? And would you like to tell us about how it's have been to write it? And yeah, anything else you want to reveal? Yes, I, oh, my goodness, I had no idea what you know, you hear it all the time, writing as intense. And it's not until you go through that writing process and so on, I use your book, your book is actually my guiding light. I look at your book all the time and say, you know, how does Simone make these really large concepts, big concepts about Montessori or about toddlers, and you're able to write so clearly, and so simply about a topic and then give these practical next steps. So that's kind of like, I hope that in my book, I'll be able to do that. It's all about anti racism. It's all about raising anti racist children. And much like anti bias, what I've learned about anti racism is that the focus is on justice, right? Like, that's what we hope to see. That's what we hope to seek is justice. And we hope at the end, whenever that is, we, none of us will be here for the end. But we're hoping each generation, it gets closer, we're hoping at the end, there'll be equality, right, like, so that's the final destination, we think of like peace education, we think of equality that's at the very end. So it's going to be information where we're talking to everything we've shared today. How In fact, do we help our children have loving relationships with one another, especially cross cultural, cross racial loving relationships? You know, how do we take care of our community? How do we create a thriving strong community that we're all invested in? How do we raise the next generation of citizens? We think about also radical minds? How do we help our children to think about large concepts around racism around discrimination around bias around prejudice? And how do we respond to that? How do we help them also to have the tools and the skills to identify when something is racist? How do we have them kind of like, think of it as an onion and peel back the layers to really get to the root of it, and then start with actions from there. So I'm really excited. I have a co author with a book to Natasha Iglesius. And so she's helping me and it's this really beautiful story. She was my editor. And then she turned co writer, and she helped me so much to find my voice. I didn't, I didn't even know I didn't have a writing voice. And I remember it took me about three months to find my voice. Like, you know, how, how, first, was it first person that I had to figure that out? So I'm going to write the book and first person who then like, how do I want to come across in word form. So now she's my co author, which is amazing. And I would love Love, love to reveal the title I'm I've yet to reveal the title to anyone. This will be a debut. Yay, we love it. I know. Okay, so everyone can expect next summer, a book called "Raising antiracist children - a practical parenting guide." So we're hoping it's something to get folks started on their journey that they can pick it up. And we're also hoping there'll be activities anywhere from birth through 18 years old. There's a lot of my stories as you shared of my own journey of me just figuring it out figuring out how do I raise anti racist children in a racist world? You know, and how do I make sure that they still feel good about themselves that they feel like they have the tools to engage in critical conversations and also to dismantle racism? So yeah, but I'm really excited about it. We're in the editing process now which is a whole other beautiful, I'll say beautiful process. And then hopefully some rest. Goodness, that sounds so good. So we cannot wait like this book will be so helpful for people, this practical guide of how we can get started to raise these critical thinkers and yet move it the steps forward. So Britt, thank you so much. And not just from me, I know that you have helped so many people in our community, and begin our anti racist journey, many of us too late. But we have started. So thank you for all of the work you put in, and also for resting and sharing your beautiful family with us and your journey. Thank you. Thank you for being along on the journey for listening and learning. I love how Tiffany Jewell says Do you know what you started? Right? And so it's like you started, you're here. And that's wonderful. And so thank you. Thank you everyone for listening. And I hope to connect with y'all soon. Sounds great. Thanks. Great. Bye. Right. I love how much I learned from Britt, she has a way to make these topics accessible and practical, and to call us out in a way that doesn't humiliate us but encourages us to do some serious looking at ourselves. So I'm very honored that you could join us to close this season. And I can't wait for their book raising anti racist children a practical parenting guide. Yes, you heard it here first to come out summer of 2022. And Britt also mentioned the fundamental needs chart that they use in Montessori elementary for six to 12 year olds. And for those of you not familiar with this, I'll add a link in the show notes, as well as links to books that Britt recommends. And I'll also add links to some of my favorite Instagram posts from her Instagram, like the accountability pyramid. Also a great post about anti racism goals that we can set, and some other ones as well. I'll also be sure to link to her website, her Instagram and her community called collective liberation, which I highly recommend. And also to a wonderful workshop that she did last year with Tiffany Joel about anti bias parenting. And so if you've been resting, this might be a good place to pick up again, and keep going. So to find the show notes for any of the episodes, you can go to my website, the Montessori notebook comm and click on the podcast app. And now it's time for a listener question. And today's question is from Maeg and Maeg asks, I'm really having a hard time preparing workcycles for two daughters with totally different interests. They're three and one year old. Also, my three year old is so focused and loves doing things all by herself, even when she was just a baby. However, the one year old loves to join her all the system. Another factor is a very small apartment, we only have one low shelf that could fit the room. So most of the time for the one year old. We've prepared the shelf, what should I do will live in apartment for the next five years before having our third baby. So Mike, thank you for your question. And it's definitely a commonly asked question. And one that is difficult. But I love saying even in small spaces, we can be super creative, and you can come up with some really great ideas. So some people choose to have one area for each child. But as they get older, it can be hard to keep them separated. So I think that if you've got a shelf with a lower shelf and a highest shelf, maybe the lowest shelf that they can both access could be materials that they both use. And the materials on the highest shelf might be things for the older one, you can put activities with smaller parts and containers that only the old one can open, for example, but you will find that the younger children do want to do what the older sibling is doing as well. So I often set up an activity that similar to or away adjusted in a way that they can take part, if possible. But you might also want to think about what is the rule in your house about you know, sharing the activities? Is there opportunity for them to play together? Or do you share by taking turns? And what will that be? I found in my house, mostly we had the rule that they could play with something for as long as they liked, and then it would be the next person's turn. But there were definitely a lot of time when they chose to actually pay for things together as well. There was 16 months between my children. And they Yeah, worked it out. Sometimes there were disputes and conflicts, and that makes us feel uncomfortable. But they're also having the real life experience of solving problems. So as much as possible, I'd let them sort them out themselves. I also think it's really important to have an area that they can each be alone. So you might need to be creative in a small space. But it might be you know, putting a blanket over the back of two chairs or something like that to make a tent. Because even sometimes the younger child can feel like the old ones always interfering and taking over their activity. So you could put up this tent and you could put up a sign that says private and then you know if it's the older one that's going in, you could point to it says oh it says private it looks like they want to be alone now. So let's do something together. I think that maybe using small pieces that they've dining tab e might be able to give the old r one, some privacy, the one ye r old will soon be climbing up o get to that space. But as mu h as possible involving them, th n in the whole experience, Oh, t looks like you'd also like to o this, that's your siblings wor, you can have your space her. And then you could maybe have a placemat or something to ma k each other's space so that th y don't feel like their wor s being interfered with. And f there is no room for a shel, you know, you could displ y activities on a coffee table r in a low drawer. I think t e downside of a low drawer is th t it can be like out of sight o t of mind. Like sometimes when I put everything in a cupboa d thinking, Oh, you know, y children, and our six that t really need me to have all t e activities out on a shelf, I found that they were less like y to actually open the cupboa d and find what they want and a d put something out. So if you o display them in a low cupboa d or drawer and make sure th t everything is still easy to se, I also really love tho e trolleys that you can get wi h three levels that can be mov d around, that could be real y great for a space that is smal. So you could use that for a t materials. And you could put t away when you don't want t available, and then will it o t when you do want it in yo r small space. Also, havi g furniture that could be used f r more than one purpose could e really useful. So for exampl, in our house, rather than havi g a low table for each child, e just had one low table that e could move around. So we used t for snack time. They used t when they were working n activities when they were doi g some drawing and then we'd pi k it up and move it into our ve y small kitchen when we want to o a baking project and the e wasn't enough room for everyo e to be working at the kitch n height. So that's another way r actually even having le s furniture, no table at all, f r example, but using work ma s that would mark their area. o in Montessori classrooms, e often roll out the mat and e even show them we give them a lesson on rolling mats up a d rolling that out so that th y can you know, mark this are, then take advantage of napti e when the one year old might e napping, you can have th m special one on one time with t e older one using smaller par s having more refined activiti s or activities with more step, maybe a baking project or an a t and craft project that you mig t not want the younger one to e involved with right now. T e other thing to keep in mind s yes, there is a Montesso i shelf. But there's al o Montessori in all areas of t e home. So you know by the fro t door, how can we be creative o have a space for their things o be put their little coke can e hung up, I'm using the wall, for example. So if you don t have a space for a basket on t e floor, how could you maybe ha g a basket so that they could p t some gloves or their shoes r something like that along t e wall. I also in small spac s love using clever storage. o for example, I've seen so e shelving that's mounted p nearby the ceiling in the sa e color as the walls painted. A d then you actually hardly see t e storage at all and it kee s things out of the space. And t also is very easy on the eye s well. You also might like to e creative and have a raised be, for example, and have stora e underneath or in the stairca e underneath. And instead of f you don't have space for n easel, for example, you mig t use chalk paint or a cha k sticker on the wall or a doo. There's actually a really love y video of Christina's apartme t here in Amsterdam, and how th y made a small space work. So I' l link to that in the show not s as well. So I hope that s helpful make and to anyone el e who's in a similar situatio. And that's it folks today was s I said the last episode f season two, and I don't know f or when I'll be back for anoth r podcast season. So in t e meantime, be sure to go ba k into the podcast archive. T e episodes are intentionally lo g so that we can go deep and o you will find nuggets in all f them and particularly if you o back and listen again you wi l find a new nuggets for sure. A d you can also join me for one f my online courses by going o the Montessori notebook calm a d is everything there fr m Montessori activities a d observation, two workshops n applying the how to talk so ki s will listen approach, how to s t up your home Montessori style r even how to start a Montesso i playgroup. I'll also be over n Instagram sharing @the ontessorinotebook. And for the p st 12 years I've been sending o t a regular newsletter packed w th Montessori inspiration. So I ll put a link in the show n tes so you can sign up for t at to another huge thank you t all our lovely guests for i spiring us again this season. I hear from so many of you that t ese podcasts have been so h lpful in helping you to bring M ntessori into your homes and y ur classrooms. A big thank you t Luke for editing the podcast t Hiyoko for her beautiful podcast art and a big thank you to all of you listeners for sending in your questions and listening along for sharing with your friends and family and continuing to grow this beautiful Montessori community. In two seasons, I can't believe that we are already at over a quarter of a million downloads. So here's to spreading more Montessori around the world. Until next time, bye. Thanks for joining me At the Montessori notebook podcast. The podcast was edited by Luke Davie from Filmprov Media and odcast art by Hiyoko Imai. To fi d out more about me and my nline courses, visit themonte sorinotebook.com, follow m on Instagram @themontessor notebook, or pick up a copy of my book The Montessori Toddler or its new prequel The M ntessori Baby from your local b okstore, Amazon or where book are sold. They're also availabl as ebooks, audiobooks, and hav been translated into over 2 languages. I'll be back wit more Montessori inspiration. An in the meantime, perhaps you'l join me in spreading some mor peace and positivity around th world