The Hilton Head Nannies Approach

Our approach is multi-faceted, and Dr. Maria Montessori's Litany says it best!

1. To respect children and in return be worthy of their respect.

2. To praise much and censure little. to emphasize their successes and minimize their failures. May love and understanding teach me.

3. To make no promises to children that I cannot keep.

4. To have unbounded faith in children.

5. To know that each child has a great potential and to have the patience and wisdom to bring it forth. May love and understanding lead me.

6. To allow children the dignity of their own personality and individuality. To refrain from making them over to my own desire.

7. To be cheerful, ready to smile, and often to laugh because children love and thrive on these things, just as they love and thrive on sunshine.

8. To have infinite patience with children. To make many allowances for them, knowing there is so much for them to learn and knowing, too, that I myself am not so very wise. May love and understanding guide me.

9. To protect children always from my own nerves, from irritability, prejudice, pessimism or fear, showing and practicing in their presence only the opposites. May love and understanding aid me.

10. To help children choose the life work they are best fitted for. To stir up the gift that is in them. To discover the talent or talents that they truly have: the inner person they came with. May real understanding lead me.

11. To bring fresh energy into my job each day, contain my charges with keen alertness and interest and enthusiasm so I shall help children to meet life and people bravely, honestly, independently, and confidently. May love and understanding show me.

12. To give children the freedom and to never confuse liberty with license, as these two words are not synonymous, ever. To show my friendly interest in each child. To conscientiously care about their progress, but to attain this by warmth and love rather then by rigid, cold discipline.

13. To manage children by the pleasantest of methods with intelligence plus affection, and not by condemnation, criticism, and fear. May love and understanding teach me.

14. To educate truly, by drawing out rather than spoon feeding. (Educate means to elicit or draw out.) To guide them rather than drive them. To direct their energy rather than depress it.

15. To try to understand children rather than judging them through all misdemeanors both trivial and serious to let them know this: it is the wrong action we deplore, not the child. Oh, lead me, teach me, guide me!