Happy winter break! I know everyone in Cocoplum deserves a cookie and some rest. As you know, in Montessori, we don’t assign specific homework. The hopes are that your child comes home and enjoys the evening with family activities. While you are on winter break, try filling your family time with practical life skills that will help your child become an independent adult and lead a happy and fulfilled life.
Here are a list of ideas of practical life skills to accomplish over the winter break:
• Using a sewing machine
• Quilting (quilts may be donated to charities such as community shelters or Habitat for Humanity)
• Knitting (hospitals are always looking for small blankets and hats for premature infants)
• Assembling furniture
• Woodworking
• Latch hooking
• Fixing leaky faucets
• Doing laundry
• Changing furnace filters
• Newborn and toddler care (babysitting in the near future!)
• Needlework (this also works great at helping students having difficulty with handwriting develop those fine muscle skills)
• Creating a website
• Transferring photos to digital images
• Visiting a shut-in
• Reading with younger children
We have enjoyed our December and I hope you enjoy the photos below. The Timeline of Life is up and ready for viewing! What a huge project the Cocoplum class planned and created. Walk along the fence on United Street to feel time passing. One centimeter equals one million years.
Thank you all for joining us at our Cocoplum celebration. It was wonderful to get together as a class and share with you our love for Montessori learning. It also was bittersweet for me to have to say, “see you later.“ I look forward to returning in April. I say with a lump in my throat how great it has been to bond with you and your child. Can you believe it has only been five months? You all feel like family. Thank you for welcoming me to Key West with hugs and warm smiles.

Until then, your child will be in loving arms with Ms. Jennifer. She is an enthusiast of science and nature, so I know she will fit in fantastically. She will get a school email address and share that with you soon. Please feel free to contact her with any thoughts or concerns. And, please don’t be a stranger! I will just be resting on the couch at my parent’s house until we deliver the babies. Then we might be more busy. Please reach out as I will be thinking about your child and I’m holding them in my heart.
Sincerely,
Ms. Ashleigh
