MVP Offering? [Short-term]

[nelsonic]

As we have previously discussed, the "MVP" of setting up a Montessori House is an informal Playgroup.

Highlights

• €20 for 09:00 - 12:00 (3 hours) = €6.67/hour
• Healthy vegan snacks included/provided including those baked/made by the children [under adult supervision].
• Initially we will open our doors for 2 days per week Mondays and Fridays. (because these appear to be the days where there aren't any other playgroups in our area.
• Parents will be expected to stay in the space with their child but do not have to directly supervise their child as there will be a Montessori-trained Assistant to help children perform activities.
• All parents have to complete an induction [TBD] and sign-off on the rules prior to their child attending.
• Indoor planned activities will be listed on our website; e.g. Arts and Crafts, Music, Dance, Story Time, etc.
• Outdoor excursions e.g. Park visits, Library, Museum etc. will be on the public calendar.
• In the future, parents could leave their child with us and go do errands/work [but not immediately as we need licenses/paperwork for this type of operation]

Requirements

• Tidy the entrance of @home and child-proof anything that our risk assessment [EPIC] Chore: @home Physical Risk Assessment #8 concludes could be hazardous.
• Downstairs diaper changing station.
• Make our offering public on the website.

[Stephanymtr]

Hi Nelson, I have a couple of follow-up questions:

Highlights

• €20 for 09:00 - 12:00 (3 hours) = €6.67/hour
• Healthy vegan snacks included/provided including those baked/made by the children [under adult supervision].

How many children are we going to be welcoming for this initial trial ? Considering we will offer snacks, we should have some sort of seating area for all the little ones to sit down to eat together. We have talked about turning the dining room into some sort of Montessori Family-Style Dining space ( and Practical life activities too). Should we create a layout for that room as well?

• Initially we will open our doors for 2 days per week Mondays and Fridays. (because these appear to be the days where there aren't any other playgroups in our area.

Can/Should we have a training practice morning to simulate welcoming parents into the space in order to prepare all guides/employees for the real thing ?

• Parents will be expected to stay in the space with their child but do not have to directly supervise their child as there will be a Montessori-trained Assistant to help children perform activities.

Where will the parents stay? We might need seating area in the library or under the stairs... ?

• All parents have to complete an induction [TBD] and sign-off on the rules prior to their child attending.

I'd suggest creating something similar for all employees as well.

• Indoor planned activities will be listed on our website; e.g. Arts and Crafts, Music, Dance, Story Time, etc.
• Outdoor excursions e.g. Park visits, Library, Museum etc. will be on the public calendar.

Will parents be expected to tag along in these excursions ?

• In the future, parents could leave their child with us and go do errands/work [but not immediately as we need licenses/paperwork for this type of operation]

Requirements

• Tidy the entrance of @home and child-proof anything that our risk assessment concludes could be hazardous.

How would you like to child-proof the main floor ? Do a walk though the main floor? Take photos of the areas?

• Downstairs diaper changing station.

I believe the bathroom from the main floor would be the best area for this. Did you already have any ideas or should we create a layout as well? I'm thinking we might need some sort of toilet seat with a step stool ladder for the kiddos who are (being) potty trained.

• Make our offering public on the website.

Yay! Should I create a new tab on the website for this ? I'm about to do some editing on the website and look for themes to elevate the website appearance. Once that's done, I'm happy to create a tab for this if you agree.

[nelsonic]

Thanks for the follow-up questions @Stephanymtr 🎉
I will attempt to answer them in order. 💬

How Many Children?

One at a time. So for the purposes of this discussion; 1.
But if there is demand for more children from parents who want to be here in-person (during the drial),
then we can accommodate up to 10 (easily), provided the downstairs changing area is created.

We don't want people wondering upstairs (at least not until we have our e-Locks on the bedroom doors.
I'd say top 2 floors should be off-limits for the time-being.
Which works well for keeping the 1^st Floor Tidy (clutter-free) and spotlessly clean.

The number of children very much depends on:

1. Their level of independence of the child(ren) - if children don't need constant attention/supervision when performing a non-dangerous independent task like counting, puzzles, reading, etc. it's easier.

   Note: independence also includes toilet independence 🚽
   So we need to capture that in our "register interest form": Feat: Register Your Interest Form #9

2. How many adults are in attendance - if parents are here, and we have well-defined activities it's much easier.
3. Availability of additional guides/assistants - we should have a minimum of 2 adults at all times [other than bathroom breaks] in the work/play room. If we can recruit more guides and determine that there's "enough space" we could accommodate more children.

Snacks ?

We will bulk-buy our long-shelf-life ingredients (baking flour, oats, etc.)
and have supplies on-hand so we can make snacks for many children at a moments' notice.
It will be good to include the children in the process the way we already do with our own.
That way they participate in making their own food/snacks.

Note: we need study the kitchen carefully in our risk assessment. #8
It's already, relatively safe ... but we need a written system for handling sharp, breakable & hot objects.

Water and Snacks (e.g: fruit and sugar-free vegan baked items)
will be available at all times at children's level
so they don't have to ask when they are hungry. #independence
We just need a decent absorbent rug in front of the child-friendly water station. 💭

Family Dining Space

I am particularly keen on this one because it helps us create community not a "transactional" operation.
Please see: #11

Opening Times: 2 Days Per Week

The 2-days per week opening is arbitrary but we think it’s a good starting point.
If it goes well we can expand.

Internal Training

Yes, absolutely, we need to be 100% clear on our protocols/processes for welcoming other children + parents into our home. We need to set a “start date” so that we have a “deadline” we can work back from: #13

The handbook will contain sections for the staff but it’s also relevant to parents to be aware of so I think we could safely include everything in the same handbook. All-ears if anyone thinks otherwise.

Parents Training

We need to create a Parents & Caregivers Handbook: #12
Parents will need to read the handbook - which will be written in EN but translated to PT (by a native PT speaker).

Parents That Stay …

Parents will be encouraged to observe their children through the window/door but avoid interfering/interrupting with the child’s focus/learning time.

Parents can use the facilities e.g. kitchen to make themselves a cup of tea or coffee and are welcome to sit on the L-shaped sofa (under the stairs), library (if it’s not in-use by children/staff) and dining room (also when not in-use).

Excusions

We won’t expect parents to go on excursions, but it really depends on where we’re going. e.g. imagine that we take a walk down to the basketball courts, the parents might want to join so they can play with their child. But if they aren unavailable, provided we have the appropriate ratios we can still go. But yes, full-time parents [though vanishingly few in PT] are welcome to join provided they have read the handbook and understand their role is “support” not “authority”.

Child-proofing …

All the furniture that we have built so far is with children [safety] in mind.
Anything that we deem to be unsafe will be removed as part of the risk assessment #8

Toilet Seat for Potty Training / Toilet Independence

1000% see: dwyl/workshop#81
This is high on my list of next projects to complete in the workshop.

Public

Making our Playgroup Proposal public requires the form: #9 this to avoid chaos.

[nelsonic]

This afternoon @iteles' aunt who is a kindergarten teacher visited @home for tea. She remarked that the work/play room is smaller than her classroom which has 25 children. She teaches at a public sector primary school and has mixed ages in her class including children who are still in diapers and cannot feed themselves. 🚼

100% not sayin' we will have that many children here, just a reference point. 💭

Montessori work rooms tend to be larger and sparsely populated mostly because they are private (paid) so can afford more space. 💰

[iteles]

@nelsonic Sorry, I didn't hear the comment but from the remainder of your comment it made it sound like she said her classroom was smaller and not the other way around?

A couple of photos of her classroom could be useful!

Also, traditional classrooms have very few bateristas actually ser out for kids constantly.

I definitely need to add to the list above of things we need and nice to haves before we can open 👌🏻

[Stephanymtr]

Thank you for answering all my questions! I have a better understanding of where we stand with all the ideas. I will comment/update on the new issues you have created for each subject. We should definitely have a list of things we need before we open, so that we don't get distracted with all the other awesome ideas we can implement in the future.

[nelsonic]

Yeah, we definitely need to focus. 🎯
Look forward to reading your feedback + follow-up questions. 👌

[nelsonic]

a month later ... ⏳
@iteles could you please review the 3 top comments in this issue
(not just what your Aunt said about the room ...)
and let us know your thoughts. 🙏
Thanks.

[Stephanymtr]

@iteles It'd be awesome if we could get your input here and then follow up with me on this issue afterwards. It'd help understand what information we can share with the public as of now.

[iteles]

@nelsonic @iteles Of course. This has not been my focus due to family matters and urgent accounting admin these past 2 months but absolutely is my priority for March. I'm on it!

[iteles]

@nelsonic @Stephanymtr Re-focussing.

What age group are we thinking of for this? 6 months + makes perfect sense because we have a 👶 in this age group of course.

For 👦 , the vast majority of the 3-6 age group is in preschool/nursery in Portugal, so if we want some older kids to come along too (so everyone is not just younger than A), would it make sense to also do some afternoon playgroup time once traditional preschool/nap time is finished (15h30 in most cases)?

[nelsonic]

I'd say 18 months - 6 years (long-term). 👶 👧
But for now Max Age should be 4 years old as a 5-6 year-old with our two would be unwieldy. 💭
I don't think we would have any shortage of candidate children for the 2 - 4 age group.
There is such a shortage of good quality pre-school as you know.
The best way to research this is to ask people to fill-in a small survey. #9
We could put something together in less than an hour. ⏳
We just need to agree what data we want to collect (keeping it to minimum) and then put up the form.
e.g:

HTML:

<fieldset class="ml-4 mt-4">
  <legend class="sr-only">Plan</legend>
  <div class="space-y-5">
    <div class="relative flex items-start">
      <div class="flex h-6 items-center">
        <input id="small" aria-describedby="small-description" name="plan" type="radio" checked class="h-4 w-4 border-gray-300 text-green-600 focus:ring-green-600">
      </div>
      <div class="ml-3 text-sm leading-6">
        <label for="small" class="font-medium text-gray-900">09:00 - 12:00 Manhã | Mornings</label>
        <p id="small-description" class="text-gray-500">Inclui lanche saudável | Includes healthy snacks</p>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="relative flex items-start">
      <div class="flex h-6 items-center">
        <input id="medium" aria-describedby="medium-description" name="plan" type="radio" class="h-4 w-4 border-gray-300 text-green-600 focus:ring-green-600">
      </div>
      <div class="ml-3 text-sm leading-6">
        <label for="medium" class="font-medium text-gray-900">13:00 - 16:00 Tarde | Afternoon</label>
        <p id="medium-description" class="text-gray-500">Inclui lanche saudável | Includes healthy snacks</p>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="relative flex items-start">
      <div class="flex h-6 items-center">
        <input id="large" aria-describedby="large-description" name="plan" type="radio" class="h-4 w-4 border-gray-300 text-green-600 focus:ring-green-600">
      </div>
      <div class="ml-3 text-sm leading-6">
        <label for="large" class="font-medium text-gray-900">09:00 - 16:00 Dia Completo | Full Day</label>
        <p id="large-description" class="text-gray-500">Inclui almoço e lanche saudável | Includes lunch and healthy snacks</p>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</fieldset>

Seriously we could put together the registration form very fast. (wish I'd just done it in February... ⏳ 🙃)