NURSERY EDUCATION 1

I need to look at the dates on which I photographed these items, seeing that these images were made some weeks ago and are being entered out of sequence.
Days have passed since I put up the images, and didn't add the notes. But I will come back to it - sorry if this hopping from one sort of images to the other is confusing - I think it reflects a confused kind of mind. :-S
This item, the contents of a promotional package for Lenten charity, typifies some of the illogicality of my 'collecting'. When I look at this, it doesn't have any personal connection for me. So why can't I just dump it? Well, the internal conversation is around the 'value' of this material - not just the educational value in terms of sharing this information with people who never heard of this part of Africa before, but also the production value of it - what a shame to throw out, unusef, hig quality images, on good quality paper, that must have cost someone a fortune to produce. It just seems such a shame to throw them away, unappreciated, after all the effort that went into making them. Part of me feels that if I throw them out, I become a participant in the 'throw-away society' which is the last thing I want to do.

It really is interesting writing the notes about the images up to four months after I took the photo. Some images I can remember vividly, but others like this one, I can hardly remember at all.

I think what is happening here is that the blue bags in the background are already packed with true ephemera that came into our house as 'junk mail'. If that is the case, they have already been taken there, and will be preserved for history.

The small dolls were donated to the nursery school, even before Montessori days (I got my diploma in Early Childhood Education in 1974).

The items in the image on the right show som items from Montessori days, and a jig-saw map from much later. I actually bought this online, thinking that I might discipline myself to learn the counties of Britain. However, when it arrived, I found that the counties were not separate, so not a very good design. The pegs were for counting, and other items are now in the collection of handmade educational materials which I hope to create a performance around in the coming months.

Maps and other materials, what might be called 'Montesorian', rather than Montessori - that is I used Montesorian ideas to teach when I used these un-official materials.