“Children have an anxious concern for living beings, and the satisfaction of this instinct fills them with delight. It is therefore easy to interest them in taking care of plants and especially of animals.”
Carmel Montessori Academy is located on a beautiful, 2-acre farm campus. Our ever changing collection of livestock includes a horse, donkey, goats, rabbits, plenty of chickens and two beehives. Children of all ages assist in age appropriate tasks in the care of the animals, as well as gardening and maintenance of our grounds and buildings. The vegetables from our garden and eggs from our chickens make their way into the community meals, prepared together each day as part of the Home Economics program.
Meals are served family style; early-arriving Elementary and Erdkinder (High School) children frequently participate in preparing soup stock, cutting vegetables and fruits, preparing sauces before formal classes begin. Primary and Elementary children may plan menus around the historical or cultural area of classroom studies and take turns cooking in the kitchen with the facilitation of the Home Economics Facilitator, Mrs. Adrienne. Preprimary children wash fruit for dessert and the fruit baskets and arrange serving plates in the Practical Life area of their classroom. Shortly before Community Line each day, Erdkinder students set up tables in the classrooms; Elementary students prepare dishwashing stands; Preprimary, Primary, and Elementary students put linen table cloths and napkins on the tables, set them with plates, glassware and utensils. When students are dismissed from Community Line, they go to their regular seating at tables, mentors sitting with their young charges.