2020 Guidepost Montessori Webinar Series

Guidepost Montessori hosts a series of free webinars on Montessori, child development, relevant research, and parenting topics

The Guidepost Team

In 2020, Guidepost Montessori hosted a series of free webinars on Montessori, child development, relevant research, and parenting topics! Whether you're a parent interested in learning more about Montessori education, a prospective or enrolled family looking to connect with our larger community, a Montessori practitioner, or a parent interested in how to incorporate Montessori principles at home, we'd love for you to catch up on some of our most popular webinars below!

Check out more resources in our Family Framework which includes all upcoming webinars, free Montessori activities to do with your child, parenting support, and community events.

Popular Webinars:

Raising Digitally Resilient Children
Raising Digitally Resilient Children

Raising Digitally Resilient Children

School and summertime for children are radically different than ever before. Elementary children have been spending more time on devices for educational purposes and for connection. How can technology be used in limited and developmentally appropriate ways?

Key Takeaways

  • How being home-bound is impacting elementary children and families.
  • The evolving digital landscape and current trends.
  • Social-emotional and psychological responses to technology.
  • Responding to challenging issues: digital perfection, digital distraction, and addiction.
  • Strategies for promoting healthy digital use.
How to Support Reluctant Readers and Writers

How to Support Reluctant Readers and Writers
Catherine Nehring Massie and Barbara Luborsky

Montessori education contains a strong phonics and structured literacy program. Yet some children with learning differences will need more support in learning to read, spell, and/or write. How can we help these children develop their reading and writing skills?

Join us and Montessori Medical Partnership for Inclusion to hear Catherine Massie, Special Educator, Montessorian and Orton-Gillingham specialist, share her insights about children in Montessori programs who are still experiencing writing/spelling and reading difficulties. Barbara Luborsky, pediatric occupational therapist, will share her expertise on remediating handwriting difficulties. After sharing their perspectives, Catherine and Barbara will answer questions from participants.

Getting Their Attention: Ideas for Helping Kids Focus

Getting Their Attention: Ideas for Helping Kids Focus
with Catherine Nehring Massie, Barbara Luborsky, and Michelle Lane-Barmapov

Join Montessori Medical Partnership for Inclusion for an overview of attentional challenges and practical guidance to support your child. Montessori education was specifically designed to develop the child's ability to concentrate deeply. Yet some children will continue to struggle with paying attention to what they are doing, what others are doing, and/or listening to others.

Key Takeaways

  • Why does this happen for some children?
  • Hear three perspectives from practitioners in three different disciplines.
  • Learn ways to support your child's attention and independence.
Building Confidence Through Play

Building Confidence Through Play
with Jennie Monness

Jennie Monness, co-founder of Union Square Play and creator of the Mo' Mommies blog, joins us to share how to build confidence in your child through play. Play is a child's work. It is how they figure out the world and interact with it. We need to respect it, but what does that even mean?

Key Takeaways

  • How we respond to and encourage a child's play from the day they are born relays many messages that we may not be aware of.
  • How can we build confidence through play?
  • How can we accessibly build confidence in a way that becomes reflexive?
Elementary: Learning with Physical Activity at Home is Possible

Elementary: Learning with Physical Activity at Home is Possible
with Nicolas Lepine

Key Takeaways

  • Some children are naturally drawn to physical activity. We can coax students who are not.
  • Some students learn best when they are moving.
  • Children thrive when they learn holistically.
  • Integration has tremendous benefits and is the key to success.
Enchantment and Social-Emotional Learning in Times of Strife

Enchantment and Social-Emotional Learning in Times of Strife
with Chloe Valdary

Join us for a free webinar with Chloe Valdary, developer of The Theory of Enchantment, where we will discuss the Social-Emotional development of children and the role of educators in helping them develop healthy, happy relationships with themselves and others, and reach their maximum potential.

Key Takeaways

  • How the Theory of Enchantment curriculum inspires students to seek out human potential.
  • How the capacity to engage with others starts with self-reflection.
  • Why and how education and social-emotional learning, in particular, is more important during times of social strife.
  • The varieties of ways students grapple with injustice, and how educators can help.
Your Quarantined Kid Is Growing in Amazing Ways (That You May Have to Squint to See)

Your Quarantined Kid Is Growing in Amazing Ways (That You May Have to Squint to See)
with Lenore Skenazy and Tracy Tomasso

Key Takeaways

  • When adults step back, kids step up: The magic of being preoccupied.
  • What kids are enjoying most about this period, and how to make it last.
  • How to stop seeing wasted time as wasted time.
  • Playing doesn’t always look like total fun. That’s okay.
  • Kids are seeds. They need water to grow. Free time is the water.
Cultivating Community at a Distance

Cultivating Community at a Distance
with Britt Zaffir

Kin Families' CEO Britt Zaffir to discuss how families live better when they’re part of a strong community and how to achieve that with today's unique challenges and opportunities.

Elementary: At Home All Summer. Practical Life Tasks to the Rescue!

Elementary: At Home All Summer??? Practical Life Tasks to the Rescue!
with Lisa Kathleen

Key Takeaways

  • How to keep your child busy, active, and having fun at home this summer.
  • How fun and meaningful practical life activities ALSO prepare children for lifelong success.
  • How to preserve summer freedom and get stuff done!
Montessori and the STEM Experience

Montessori and the STEM Experience
with NextWaveSTEM

Key Takeaways

  • How to incorporate STEM activities at home.
  • What can schools and teachers do to encourage their students in developing these important skills?
How to Think About COVID-19 and Children

How to Think About Covid-19 and Children
with Emily Oster

Our knowledge about the novel coronavirus is incomplete and constantly changing. How can we think about this, both as a society and as individuals? Especially when the stakes are so high -- with our loved ones and children -- how can we make good decisions? We'll discuss media coverage, politicians, and other information sources, the evolving state of our knowledge and policy recommendations, and focus especially on implications children, parents, and schools.

Dr. Emily Oster is a Professor of Economics at Brown. Her work has extended her thinking about research methodology in econometrics to issues of parenting and child development. She's the best-selling author of "Expecting Better" and "Cribsheet" and has recently turned her talent for sifting through and thinking through data to the COVID19 pandemic.

Key Takeaways

  • What we know (and what we don't know) about Covid-19 and its affect on children and schools.
  • How do we think about and make predictions based on conflicting, and constantly changing information from different sources?
  • How to evaluate the quality and objectivity of information and detect biases.
  • Will there be a second wave in the fall and if so how should schools respond?
Elementary: Calling a Truce with Tech

Elementary: Calling a Truce with Tech
with Lisa Kathleen

Key Takeaways

  • How to set reasonable guidelines around tech.
  • How to support your child to use tech in a purposeful way.
  • How to avoid meltdowns when it’s time to turn tech off.
  • Troubleshooting: Ask your questions and let’s problem-solve!
Elementary: Is Your Child Not Getting Work Done? Collaboration and Accountability

Elementary: Is Your Child Not Getting Work Done? Collaboration and Accountability
with Lisa Kathleen

Key Takeaways:

  • How to set achievable goals with your child.
  • How to inspire your child's ownership over learning.
  • What to do when your child doesn't follow through.
  • Troubleshooting: Ask your questions and let’s problem-solve!
The Pandemic, Children, and Schools: A Discussion with Dr. Adalja

The Pandemic, Children, and Schools: A Discussion with Dr. Adalja

Key Takeaways

  • The risks of Covid-19 exposure, infection, and transmission among children.
  • What complications, if any, children may experience from contracting Covid-19. What that looks like within a family setting where family members live in close quarters with children.
  • How other countries have handled school closures and the effectiveness of different approaches.
  • Recommendations on opening schools and safety measures that should be put in place. What normal procedures should be adapted in light of Covid19?
Motivation and your Elementary Child


Motivation and your Elementary Child
with Peter Piché

  • How to connect your elementary child to purposeful work that inspires.
  • Tips for delivering lessons that encourage exploration and extensions.
  • How to hone your observation skills to tap into interests.
  • Suggestions for pacing, engagement, and sparking the imagination.
Preparing Your Elementary Child’s Learning Environment: How-To

Preparing Your Elementary Child’s Learning Environment: How-To
with Lisa Kathleen

  • How to organize supplies and materials to facilitate independence.
  • How to manage papers and projects and posters (oh my!)
  • How to streamline your child's virtual environment to minimize distractions.
Learning at Home: How to Find Your Family’s Daily Flow

Learning at Home: How to Find Your Family’s Daily Flow
with Lisa Kathleen

  • How to gain your child's buy-in and avoid a daily battle.
  • How to set a schedule that's not rigid and also not a free-for-all.
  • How to set and maintain a schedule that maximizes learning.
Meltdowns, Tantrums & Whining, Oh My!

Meltdowns, Tantrums & Whining, Oh My!
with Lisa Kathleen

Key Takeaways

  • Understand what causes meltdowns, tantrums, and whining.
  • Help your young child learn to manage big feelings in healthy ways.
  • Learn to set firm and clear limits with kindness.
  • Balance necessary discipline with respect for your child’s experience.
Montessori for Ages 3-6 at Home

Montessori for Ages 3-6 at Home
with Lisa Kathleen

Key Takeaways

  • Learn how to prep your home.
  • Develop a routine that works.
  • Offer your child activities that meet their developmental needs.
Supporting Ourselves & Our Children in Uncertain Times

Supporting Ourselves & Our Children in Uncertain Times
with Margaret Whitley

Key Takeaways

  • Remember the importance of self-care and putting on our own oxygen masks.
  • What are the developmental characteristics from birth to 12 that can help guide your parenting approach?
  • How can you supplement at home and foster independence during this time?
Montessori: A Practical Approach to Toddler Development

Montessori: A Practical Approach to Toddler Development

Key Takeaways

  • Why Montessori is perfect for toddlers and their budding independence.
  • Parts of a Montessori environment.
  • The importance of Practical Life - now and in later academics.
  • How to introduce Practical Life at home.
Freedom of Movement: What is it and why is it so Important?

Freedom of Movement: What is it and why is it so Important?
with Laura Kalama

Key Takeaways

  • What is freedom of movement, and why is it so important?
  • Learn techniques to support emerging gross motor skills in infants.
  • Assist toddlers in their need for physical activity and the desire for independence.
  • How to prepare a home environment that supports this development.
Research and Beyond: The Science of Montessori

Research and Beyond: The Science of Montessori
with Matt Bateman, Ph.D.

Key Takeaways

  • Research that bears on Montessori is quite favorable.
  • Selecting a school is as much a philosophical as it is a research issue.
  • It’s possible to think scientifically about your child without being a researcher.
Montessori Myths Debunked

Montessori Myths Debunked!
with Kelli Harran, M.Ed.

Key Takeaways

  • Who was Maria Montessori anyway?
  • Montessori Overview from Birth to Age 12.
  • Misconceptions: Top 5 Myths Busted.
  • Guidepost Montessori Advantage.
Meet the Author

The Guidepost Team

The Guidepost Team is a group of writers and educators dedicated to helping demystify all things Montessori.

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