Nora’s third birthday came and went and I really didn’t post much about it.

I was going back through some of my photos and wanted to post about Nora’s Montessori birthday celebration. This is Nora’s first full year in her Montessori preschool, so this was her first birthday celebration. She started last year, but it was past her birthday.

I love celebration birthdays “Montessori style”. You can read more details about the Montessori Celebration of Life here. Here is my account of what we did for Nora.

They start out by lighting a candle, which represents the sun, and placing it on the floor with all the months around it. Then they give a globe to the child, which represents the earth. The child takes the earth and walks around in a circle one time for each year of the child’s life. As they walk around the kids sing a little song (to the tune of Farmer in the Dell).

“The earth goes ’round the sun
The earth goes ’round the sun
The earth goes ’round the sun
and now your one”

They also get beads for each year, and with each rotation around the sun they place one in the little cup on their birth month.

We also brought photos for each year of Nora’s life and talked a little bit about what she did at each age. We talked about how as a newborn she mostly just ate and slept. Then at age one she learned how to walk. At age two she was talking and at age three she started school. She loved walking around the circle.

Her teacher told me that she was impressed that she was so willing to participate in the ceremony. I guess some of the younger kids don’t like being the center of attention. That isn’t a problem for Nora I think her favorite part was putting the beads in the cup!

I always really like the birthday celebrations. It is such a fun way to reminisce and think about how much they have grown. I love the way the Montessori method incorporates the celebration of the child’s life while teaching them a lesson at the same time.