By Maren Schmidt, Author of Understanding Montessori

Most ten-year-olds can tell you the stages of development for a butterfly or a frog. A butterfly begins as an egg, becoming a larva, a caterpillar, then a chrysalis emerging into a butterfly. A frog starts as an egg, hatching into a tadpole, turning into a polliwog, at last transforming into an adult frog. At each stage of change the frog and butterfly have differing needs for nourishment and environment.

By Maren Schmidt, Author of Understanding Montessori

Dear Father, hear and bless thy beasts and singing birds; And guard with tenderness small things that have no words.

Perhaps you remember this childhood prayer. For me it is a call to duty.