Grandma's Farm

As part of language development and appreciation, books, and stories introduced in the environment of a child can encourage children to develop a love for language and reading. This idea was a learned concept via the training received to be a certified lead guide. Our trainers encouraged us to have books of different cultures and genres, which we can alternate for children to use as needed. However, there were limited, culturally specific texts within the environment served by the author. Hence the idea of creating a series of writing from childhood experiences from my country of birth prompted a vision. The book is primarily a stepping stone to raise funds to push the idea of bringing Montessori Education to Liberia, West Africa. Funds generated will also go towards creating access to scholarship opportunities for other women from Liberia to come and receive training. The funds will also support outreach programs through the Montessori Center of Minnesota in their support to serving all communities and cultures through a collaboration to bring genuine and authentic education to the communities helped. Lastly, the funds will create scholarship opportunities for children here in the USA and Africa. The content of the book describes the child Cathy who lives with her grandmother and follows her to get to the cassava farm to dig cassava. It gives snippets of another continent's signature food, a dialect spoken there, and animals from that area.

Catherine B. Kennedy is a Liberian born who is a current resident of Minnesota. She moved to the USA in 2002 to reunite with her family post the war in Liberia, West Africa. In 2016 she was a recipient of the Women United Scholarship through the Montessori Training Center of Minnesota, which was a goal to get women of color integrated into the Montessori Educational systems in Minnesota. Through this transformational opportunity, she was able to reawaken to her creative energies and find a renewed purpose for existing in life. She uses her creativity to support the environment she serves.

In her current role as an assistant guide working with children ages 3-6, she has identified a need to have more culturally specific books that reflect stories about other cultures and the children represented in various Minnesota Montessori organizations. Starting this initiative, she is beginning a series of storybooks from childhood experiences living with her grandmother and other family members in Liberia, West Africa. Stories that share about the foods, animals, and more as a goal to create more diversity and inclusion in the books and stories shared in the classroom. Besides, as part of the training learned, children in their language development and acquisition period from 0-6 need to be exposed to a variety of stories through conversations, storytelling, books, poems, and more to support their development for the love of language and discoveries of their world.

Funds generated from this book will go to creating educational opportunities for underserved populations regardless of ethnicity. All children, given the right foundation and equal opportunity, have the potential to create the best versions of themselves in the lens of the Montessori educational perspective. Every human being deserves opportunities that propel them to be a better version of themselves, starting with each child.

Montessori Education needs to expand to all parts of the world because it is a vital hands-on approach to learning that supports both the intellectual and functional capacities of a child in their developmental stages. It is a method that supports children's individual choices in learning as they discover impressions of the world by exploring the materials beautifully designed and prepared for them.

In due season, she hopes that this educational system will expand to Liberia, West Africa, as part of this initiative. While several countries are making strides to embrace this method of education, most notably at a primary level, Liberia West Africa has yet to embrace it.