3-6 Refresher Course

2025–2026 Topic: Practical Life
Online • September 10, 2025 – April 8, 2026
Monthly • 6:00–8:00 pm CT

Rediscover how Practical Life shapes the whole child—and the whole community.

Registration Closed: This course is currently in session!

Welcome to Refresh with MINT

Refresh with MINT offers an open, reflective space for Primary guides to revisit the heartbeat of the Montessori 3–6 environment. Across the course of the year, we will slow down together, reconnect with the deep intentions of Practical Life, and rediscover the quiet power of these activities in shaping the child’s will, independence, and joyful engagement.

With monthly online sessions and thoughtful time between gatherings for observation, reflection, and integration, this refresher honors the lived rhythm of school life. It is designed for guides who long to deepen their practice, refine their environments, and return to the roots of Montessori work with renewed clarity.

Whether you are in your first years or your twentieth, this is a space to cultivate presence, purpose, and peace in your work with the child.

Meet the Trainer

BethAnn Slater, M.Ed.

BethAnn Slater has been the Head of School and the 3 to 6 Directress at Middleburg Montessori in Virginia, USA since 2003. BethAnn earned her AMI International diploma at the 3 to 6 level at OMTI in Cleveland, OH, a B.S. in Family and Child Development from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and a M.Ed. in Montessori Education from Loyola University, Maryland. BethAnn has taught in both the Montessori Primary classroom as well as in the public sector. She is an AMI 3 to 6 Trainer. She currently is working on AMI 3 to 6 diploma courses in South Africa and Dallas, TX, and has conducted numerous Montessori workshops

  • Over seven live sessions, you will:

    • Revisit the developmental purposes of Practical Life

    • Strengthen your understanding of movement, coordination, and purposeful activity

    • Reflect on independence: what supports it, what constrains it, and how to nurture it

    • Explore Practical Life from a whole-community perspective

    • Consider the adult’s preparation, responsibilities, and role in supporting freedom

    • Refresh your repertoire of Practical Life presentations and environmental offerings

    • Connect with fellow practitioners who share similar questions, hopes, and daily realities

    Between sessions, you will have access to an asynchronous prepared environment with opportunities for further study, practice, and reflection.

  • This refresher is offered through a series of seven live sessions, each 120 minutes, held once a month on Zoom.

    The pace is gentle and spacious, allowing you to bring your insights back to the children, observe the impact, and return to the group ready to reflect.

    Attendance is warmly encouraged. Recordings will be available when life requires flexibility.

    No special software is needed beyond Zoom.

  • Monthly • 6:00–8:00 pm Central Time
    Online via Zoom

    • September 10, 2025 — Optimize Your Living
      Looking at the big picture: Exercises of Practical Life and their developmental purposes.

    • October 8, 2025 — Moving in Life
      Elementary movements and activities across the three-year cycle.

    • November 12, 2025 — Caring for Ourselves
      Independence: from whom? from what? and why?

    • December 10, 2025 — Ready, Set, Go
      The adult’s preparation, responsibilities, and the art of living in community.

    • February 11, 2026 — Caring for Our Environments
      Small acts with enormous impact.

    • March 11, 2026 — Moving with Purpose
      Control and coordination of movement — Montessori sports and purposeful activity.

    • April 8, 2026 — Celebrate with Us
      How to guide children in planning, organizing, and carrying out celebrations of all kinds.

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