Birthday celebration

Sean chooses helpers during his
birthday celebration

Montessorians celebrate birthdays a little differently in the classroom. The birthday child holds a small globe and walks around a candle symbolizing the sun. They walk around it once for each year they have been alive. Parents share a little bit about their child's life and what they were fond of or major events that occurred each year of their lives.

We were getting ready for our trip to Tennessee, but I wanted to be sure that Sean had a great birthday experience this year. His birthday occurs just before school starts, and things are so hectic with the start of school that we rarely have been able to celebrate. A lot of kids have September birthdays in his class this year, and October was busy, too. His teacher said there were no November birthdays, so we were shooting for that, but then Thanksgiving came, and there were teacher conferences as well.

Though his birthday is in August we celebrated in December with his class.
He was really excited about it, and I tried to make sure that I did it well and with thought and intention.
The form had a space to fill in the birth date, weight and length. It also had a space to write something for each year.
"When my child was one year old he/she liked to_________"

He walked around the candle and then I told the story of his life. To personalize it a little more I explained that his name means something and that was how we chose his name. Sean means God is gracious, and I talked about his middle name as well.

Instead of launching into his 1 year info I improvised a little and told about his baptism when he was 8 months old, and then started to talk about each year. I brought pictures of him in his baptismal gown, and from each year of his life and showed them while I talked.

I included that when he was 5 he had some sad times because that was the year we had to say goodbye to Nanna. All of the kids reacted with a sigh. One of them came up to me afterwards and asked why we had to say goodbye to her. I explained that she died that year.

When we finished with his life story he chose some helpers and served cupcakes to his classmates.

Sean gets some help from his friends with his
birthday cupcakes.

We packed a lot into that day because Meag had asked me to come talk to the class about how writing is used in the real world with newspapers.

I brought examples of our proofs with the marks all over them and explained how each story is read many times and then the proof pages are also read many times by different people. I showed them some stuff on the computer, like the Word track changes feature and how we use that. I explained how the stories get corrected and changed, so that what was originally written is revised, sometimes several times. I brought copies of our newspaper and answered a LOT of really smart questions they had for me.  A lot of them were about what I do as an editor, and I told them all of the various things that are my responsibility as an Executive Editor. They were all so attentive and interested. It was hard to believe I was talking to a bunch of first, second and third grade children.

One asked how much I get paid. I softened it a little and just said I work for a non-profit newspaper, so the goal is not to make a lot of money, but instead to provide a service for our community. I didn't want to spoil the mood and tell them to forget journalism if they want to make a living wage.