Abstract:

Preschool Parent Orientation Part 2: Brain Basics
This is the second 20 minutes of the orientation program we run each August for new preschoolers and their families at Zanetti Public Montessori School in Springfield, MA. We start with introductions and details about arrival/dismissal, breakfast/lunch, rest-time, and school communication procedures.

The second part of this talk (this video) is where I get into key aspects of brain development and how we parents and teachers have an extraordinary potential to influence the physical architecture of the child's brain. 

While I'm talking with parents, the children are meeting one-on-one with their new teacher, getting introduced to their classroom, and learning a few key things (bathrooms, cubbies, and a few things that they can do when they arrive on the first day). 

After the grown-ups meet with me, they head down to their child's class to meet one-on-one with the teacher while the children are invited to take a little walking tour of the building with me (that's hysterical...like herding cats at first but by the end, they're walking in line like a pro).