You might remember that the Garden of Flowers reopened in November 2021, 4 months after the Taliban took over. In those 4 months, the fantastic team of the Garden of Flowers Montessori Preschool cultivated a community of 18 beautiful children from the neighborhood. Starting a class from the beginning is a process that requires patience and understanding, but our team is very experienced at it by now! Soon the community was thriving with confident, independent, and loving children. 
During this time:
-The children grew and developed in beautiful ways through experiencing all the essentials of the Montessori environment: working with beautiful materials, helping each other, doing purposeful work together, having conversations with their teachers and each other, being kind and caring to each other and to the environment.
-Two children spent time in the kitchen every day helping Najeeba prepare the lunch, proud of their responsibility to help the community.
-The children did wonderful arts and crafts, making boxes and flowers and fans and birds and planes and even shoes out of decorated paper.
-The children played in the snow in winter, then helped prepare the outside garden to receive seeds in the spring, happily digging and raking the soil.
-And in the midst of the Taliban, we are proud to say that International Women’s Day was marked by the first parent event ever held in the Garden of Flowers. All the mothers came for a 2 hour meeting to talk about the school and their children, enjoyed tea and cookies and camaraderie, and received a small gift. The mothers all marveled about the wonderful changes they had seen in their children, and expressed their great appreciation for the teachers Razia and Fatima.
Once again, Montessori education seems to be almost magical… 
