Celebrating Halloween the Montessori way.

As you know the basis of our methodology is the Montessori philosophy, and this can be applied to any aspect of our life, also in the organization and preparation of a holiday following the Montessori line.

So, we are going to tell you how we celebrated Halloween and how any holiday is an opportunity to learn. If you want to know more about another way to celebrate Halloween, this is your post.

• During the week we did practical life, sensory, art, and many other activities.
• We went grocery shopping for seasonal foods: oranges, pumpkins, chestnuts, almonds to prepare healthy snack bags and we made a delicious sugar-free cake, using dates to sweeten. 
• We cleaned and decorated a pumpkin and roasted pumpkin seeds. It is now a fabulous working material to make transfers and to use as counters.
• We taught our children that fear can be overcome and that it is an emotion that we all feel and that protects us and keeps us safe on many occasions.
• We danced, sang and laughed at a super fun puppet theatre.
• We did not get “haunted” with evil grinning pumpkins, nor did we tell terrifying stories of witches, monsters, zombies, etc. Since at these ages 0-6 years we consider that they are not necessary, it is difficult for them to differentiate fiction from reality. It is important that they understand that nothing bad is going to happen like in the movies.

We explain the real tradition of Halloween, how certain cultures believe that with this holiday they get closer to their ancestors and deceased loved ones. Maybe it is a good time to talk and learn about your family ancestors. When a holiday approaches we talk about its history, where it was born and in what context and how it has evolved to the present day. We approach this holiday and others, from a less fantastic and more realistic vision, because reality can be magical.