A friend here in Astana has created a web site for the Zhuldyz Centre (a centre for child development, based on the Montessori method). Currently, none of the major search engines have indexed the site, despite there being no apparent major issues preventing them from doing so. Knowing very little about the methods involved with this style of education/development, I took a while to read some of the pages, and also checked out Wiki’s entry on the Montessori method.
I would be interested to find out how progressive the methods used at the Zhuldyz centre are, as in whether they adhere to strictly earlier ‘pure’ Montessori, or whether they have followed other practitioners and modified the theories and approaches to take into account reviews and criticism. I could be wrong, but I think the last time I came across this method of teaching was a Newsround report, a good 20-odd years ago. (Newsround is (was?) a children’s news programme on BBC1, in case American readers have no idea what I’m on about.)
Jun 03 2009
June 3rd, 2009 10:26 pm
Hi love
I know quite a bit about Montessori in general. Got to go and inspect your decorating now but we’ll chat next time I speak. Could well be what you’d like
June 3rd, 2009 11:52 pm
Hi Chris, thanks for mentioning the site of Zhuldyz, the twins have been going to the centre for a year and a half now and we feel they’ve really benefited a lot. We can recommend it to the ex-pat community or parents of local pre-schoolders (they have an English teacher) as a pre Kindergarten option (note that the sessions are generally 3 times a week in mornings, before parents start thinking that it takes the little ones off their hands 5 days a week all day !) .One of the key theories of the method is that the teachers are really there to observe and facilitate the learning as the kids are encouraged to learn themselves. That’s putting it simply !!(I’m no expert on the Montessori method) but the staff are great with the kids and seem to know what they are doing. I believe the centre will also soon start a full time Kindergarten, details of which will probably appear on the centre’s web site some time soon. (I’ve put the link again at the end of this comment.)
re: “whether they adhere to strictly earlier ‘pure’ Montessori….” it seems that naturally over time most schools have developed their own version. Tim Seldin, President of the Montessori Foundation states that “Although most schools try to remain faithful to their understanding of Dr. Montessori’s insights and research, they have all too some degree been influenced by the evolution of our culture and technology.”.
Couple of useful links –
Montessori foundation website link:
http://www.montessori.org/story.php?id=265
Zhuldyz Montessori centre – Astana, Kazakhstan
http://www.montessori-astana.kz/
June 4th, 2009 3:15 am
Hmm, interesting. I will have to look into this some more. I have been wondering what Mat & I will do with regards to schooling when we have children. I’m not keen on the mainstream schools and was thinking along the lines of Steiner perhaps, not that I have researched it yet. Some friends here are into attachment parenting in a big way and home school their children but I think that’s taking it bit too far, for me anyway. Sam is the one that makes the Earthslings, one of which you now have. And while we’re on that subject I take it you haven’t got to grips with the full benefits of it yet. It would certainly cut out the problems of difficult pram/buggy manoeuvres over crazy Kazakh kerbs 🙂
June 4th, 2009 3:43 pm
Chris, I believe there may be a centre of this ilk outside Cardiff, in Penarth I think.
June 8th, 2009 5:34 pm
Hi Chris, we’ve been indexed (at last) and probably your link that did the trick, cheers.
June 12th, 2009 5:27 am
@Mum – thanks, we’ll talk about it properly soon, hopefully.
@Dan D x 2 – thanks for the extra information. Glad the site is (finally) being indexed – it was just the one page when you left a comment, now up to 8 pages 🙂 Do look into changing the config so each page has its title, rather than just the site’s name, as it helps people who find you via search engines (look at http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awww.montessori-astana.kz&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t for an example)
@AlexC – Glad you found it interesting
@John – cool, will have to check out the location in terms of feasibility of driving there daily.
@Everyone – sorry it has taken a while to respond to your comments, been quite busy over here. It is now 5.30am, so I’m heading to bed.
June 12th, 2009 5:38 am
@DanD – Hmm, also noticed that the excerpt for every page currently indexed is identical, not just the page title.