Liebster Award

I want to extend a special thank you to I Believe in Montessori for nominating Montessori Rocks! for the Liebster award. We are very grateful to have been nominated and graciously accept!

While perusing all of the details of accepting this award, I learned that it is a great way to increase awareness of your blog and help support other blogs that you are passionate about as well. Here are the simplistic rules for how it works:

I Believe in Montessori asked these 11 questions…

How is your blogging routine organized? Do you have a plan or something?
Since we have a group of bloggers for our site, I keep a blogging calendar and I also track the analytics from our site as well as our Facebook page. Right now, I post once a week on Thursdays. (There was not rhymer or reason for choosing this day.) I also find out what our followers enjoy and try to build future blog posts off of what interests them.

Do you want to open your own Montessori school?
Possibly, one day. If it is meant to be, it will be.

What is your opinion on vegetarians?
I respect them but probably could never become one.

What is the last movie you watched?
American Sniper, intense.

What was your 2015 New Year resolution?
I wish I could say that I made one but I didn’t. I feel that word resolution is just asking to be forgotten. I try to be my best person each day, call it a daily resolution if you will.

What is your favorite Montessori material and why?
The grammar symbols. Before becoming a Montessori teacher, parts of speech were not my favorite. After training and teaching for the past six years, I can now read sentences as parts of speech. For example most people would read this as “The dog ran around the tree.” My mind now reads it as “article, noun, verb, preposition, article, noun.” I never would have been able to do that without learning the grammar symbols along with my students.

If you had a million dollars, how would you spend it?
Hmmm. I would really have to put some thought into this one. More than likely it would be upgrading homes for both my parents and I. Maybe even buying a second home on Lake Michigan.

Name the country you would like to travel to. I would love to go someplace in the Caribbean like St. Lucia. You know, where the water is crystal clear and the sun is always shining. (That’s what it looks like in pictures anyways.) Take me there!

Name 3 of your friends in blogging.
As I am new to the blogging world, this was probably the most challenging question on this list. Tonya Holcomb blogs for Like-Minded Mamas and is a personal friend of mine. Two other blogs that I enjoy reading are Carrots are Orange and Living Montessori Now. Both Marnie and Deb provide great Montessori resources for at home and in the classroom.

What was your dream profession in the childhood?
Ha, this is a good one as my dream was to be a “grocery check-out girl.” That’s right, I wanted to scan groceries for a living. When I was a child my favorite toy was my Fisher Price cash register. I loved to scan things and call for a “clean up on aisle 3.” I guess some could call it practical life but the reality is, it never became real life.

Show a couple of you favorite DIY Montessori materials.
Here are pictures of two of my favorite elementary Montessori materials that I created, “Pinning Constellations” and “The Story of Language.”

Here are 11 Facts about Amanda, a Montessori Rocks Blogger:

I grew up in the Motor City, Detroit, Michigan. Yes, like really in Detroit not the outskirts.
I am an only child and despise it.
I once was in David Copperfield’s magic show and he made me disappear and reappear. Don’t ask me how he did it, my lips are sealed!
I became a Montessori teacher by chance. I saw a job posting, read about the philosophy, and walked into a school the next day. Little did I know it would be the start of my teaching career. I loved everything about the method and never looked back.
I won the all school spelling bee in 5^th grade and was super excited that I beat all of the 8^th graders!
Growing up my father owned a pizzeria and I would make the dough and sauce with him in the mornings. I still really liked cashing people out too. Something about cash registers!
I met my fiancé while swimming in Lake Michigan. Yes, in the lake!
I am extremely creative, call it my niche if you will.
I hate doing the dishes and scrubbing the bathtub. I’ll clean toilets, do the laundry, shovel snow, you name it but dishes and bathtubs aren’t my thing.
Gift giving is my forte. Everything gift that I give has thought behind it.
I have a hard time saying “No.” I want to do everything and help everyone and sometimes it is just not realistic.

Now it’s your turn!

Montessori Rocks! nominates:

Grace and Green Pastures

Get ready! Here are your 11 questions:

What made you decide to start your blog and how did you determine your topic of focus?
What are the strengths of your blog?
How often do you write blogs for your site?
How did you learn about Montessori?
What drew you into Montessori philosophy?
How do you determine authenticity of a Montessori program?
What are your thoughts on multi-age classroom groupings?
What is your take on the Montessori entering the public sector?
What is your long-term goal as it relates to blogging? For information? For fun? For income?
If you were granted a FREE Montessori material today, which would you choose and why?
What other social media sources do you use to market your blog? Facebook? Twitter? Does one work better than others for you?

Thank you again to I Believe in Montessori for the nomination and we look forward to growing our community of parents, teachers and educators that are passionate about Montessori education and helping our fellow Montessori bloggers to do the same!