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What is Montessori education?
It is designed to use both the left and right brain to form a balanced education. Quality, beautifully made equipment and materials to attract the child and instill the love of learning, created by a person who had a great understanding of how a child should learn. A happy, safe environment which nurtures self-confidence and independence.
This is the essence of Montessori – a 100-year-old education model that is both progressive and time-tested. Children emerge from Montessori schools with a love for learning, inspired, curious about the world, and capable of meeting challenges that come their way. When a child leaves a Montessori school he/she enjoys acquiring new knowledge, is inspired by the world around him/her and they can face as well as conquer challenges.
Children in a Montessori classroom are engrossed in a meticulously prepared environment with activities designed to inspire their curiosity. The teacher’s role is to direct them on their pursuit to fulfill their growing inquisitiveness.
Because children work independently or in small groups observed by the teacher, a Montessori education is custom-made to the child. Children develop at their own pace, follow their own interest and learn an assortment of subjects concurrently.
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Who was the founder of Montessori?
Maria Montessori was a leading thinker in education whose ideas were, in many ways, ahead of her time. She was born in Chiaravalle, Italy in 1870 and became one of that country’s first female physicians in 1886. In clinical observation through her medical practice, she studied how children learn, and she concluded that they teach themselves based on what they find in their environment. To further understand this phenomena, she returned to university and studied psychology and philosophy.
Shortly afterward, she gave up her medical practice and university professorship to found the first Casa dei Bambini, or Children’s House, in the San Lorenzo neighborhood of Rome. In teaching those sixty children, she developed the philosophy, methods, and materials that would eventually become known as the Montessori approach.
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How is Montessori different to traditional education?
To compare a Montessori classroom with a traditional classroom there are distinct differences:
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Montessori is based on helping the natural development of the human being instead of just the transfer of a curriculum.
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Children learn at their own pace and follow their own individual interests instead of learning from a static curriculum and according to a time frame that is the same for everyone.
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Children guide themselves in conjunction with the teacher using materials specially prepared for the purpose instead of being taught solely by the teacher.
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Understanding comes through the child’s own experiences via the materials and the promotion of children’s ability to find things out for themselves instead of learning being based on subjects that are limited to what is given.
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Learning is based on the fact that physical exploration and cognition are linked instead of children sitting at desks and learning from a whiteboard and worksheets.
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The teacher works in collaboration with the children instead of the class being teacher led.
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The child’s individual development brings its own reward and therefore motivation instead of motivation being achieved by a system of reward and punishment.
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Uninterrupted work cycles and Multi-age classrooms compared to Single-graded classrooms.
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Working and learning is matched to the social development of the child instead of learning without social growth.
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What is a prepared environment?
Contemporary pediatric brain study has communicated that brain development is centered on tactile activity. The more the child perfects working with the materials tactically the more information he/she will retain. The Montessori classroom is called a “prepared environment” because it is packed with tasks that children manipulate using their hands and intellect.
The prepared environment is not shelves of toys laid out for children to play with briefly and toss aside. These materials are arranged in a beautiful environment that children learn to respect and care for. The activities are all age appropriate and designed to be challenging.
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Why mixed age groups?
Developmental investigation indicates that people strengthen their understanding when they convey knowledge to others. We all know that if we teach someone a concept the knowledge we are imparting will strengthen our understanding indirectly. So younger children learning from older children is an integral part of the Montessori Method.
Having children in classrooms grouped together in ages three to six or six to 12 means that older children are often helping younger children with their work while solidifying their own knowledge.
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Why should my child stay in the 3rd year of the Pre and Reception class?
The Pre and Reception program is founded on Maria Montessori’s philosophies of psychological growth, which came to the conclusion that children desired to be grouped according to their three-year development stages. Investigation shows that the child’s full understanding is completed in the third year. Montessori materials start out to be tangible and slowly move to the intangible. By the third year, facts are assimilated.
By going through a three-year cycle, a child develops a high degree of self-confidence, independence, and enthusiasm for the learning process and can adapt to all sorts of new situations.
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If the children are left to choose their own activities, won’t they just do the same thing every day or end up doing nothing?
No. The teachers are well trained in observation. When a child has grasped a skill, the teacher will give the child another age-appropriate activity that will challenge and intrigue him/her. There is a wide variety of activities for the child to engage in on a daily basis.
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How do teachers keep track of the children’s progress?
The teachers observe the children and record information on a daily basis regarding all aspects such as physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional development.
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How can our classrooms be both active and orderly?
The order in the classroom is the result of the Montessori emphasis on both freedom and respect for fellow classmates. Children help create rules and ensure they are abode by, for example they are allowed to talk to each other but with respect for others who are engrossed in their work, therefore self-discipline is achieved. They learn to handle equipment with respect, return the equipment to its original place, and they learn to assist others if they need help creating a sense of community. In this environment, children learn order and self-control.
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How big are the classes?