What does a Montessori Education look like at home?
What is Montessori Education?
What does a Montessori inspired education at home look like? Recently I was lucky enough to sit down with Raluca Damian of @Montessoriindailylife and learn from Her what a Montessori inspired way of life is like for her and her two daughters; Aurora age three and Francesca age four months. Montessori is a name and phrase that get’s thrown around a lot to describe many toys and activities, both accurately and inaccurately, so here will try to clear up some of these misconceptions for you.
Who was Maria Montessori?
Dr. Maria Montessori (1870-1952) was the first woman in Italy to study medicine. While working in a hospital with Children of Determination she realised what children needed most was a lot of love and fun. By carefully studying children she realised they learnt through play and loved it and discovered universal patterns of development which are found in all children regardless of their culture or the era in which they live. Maria went on to open a school called “The Children’s Home” where children listened to stories, played games and were inspired to become their best selves. Maria devoted her life to understanding how children develop socially, intellectually, physically, and spiritually and inspired many teachers who wished to adopt her practices and teach the Montessori way.
So what exactly is a Montessori Education?
The Oxford Dictionary states it as a system of education for young children that seeks to develop natural interests and activities rather than use formal teaching methods.
Montessori is a method of education that is based on self-directed activity, hands-on learning and collaborative play. In Montessori classrooms children make creative choices in their learning, while the classroom and the highly trained teacher offer age-appropriate activities to guide the process.
Raluca explained that implementing the Montessori approach at home is very structured, requires a lot of preparation and is based on five main principles;
- Principle 1: Respect for the Child.
- Principle 2: The Absorbent Mind.
- Principle 3: Sensitive Periods.
- Principle 4: The Prepared Environment.
- Principle 5: Auto education.
Respect for your child and teaching them independence go hand in hand. Raluca explains that your child is given choices and has the opportunities to do things by themselves, because you will have prepared the environment (Principle 4) with the right tools for the job. What does this look like for Aurora at home? It is a step at the front door and a low hook for her to hang her nursery bag and coat. It is the steps in the bathroom to allow her to reach her toothbrush and toothpaste to brush her own teeth and reach the taps to wash her hands and face. She has a learning tower in the kitchen, which allows her to get to adult height at kitchen counters so that she can help prepare food with suitable child sized tools. Aurora was cracking eggs at aged two! When Raluca could not find child sized furniture she would customise pieces to suit her needs, so that Aurora could store her clothes on shelving and rails at her level.
Maria Montessori believed that the period of the Absorbent Mind was from birth to six years old. This is the period when a child’s mind is like a sponge and they have the capacity to learn well. As Raluca explained, “Treat them like they are capable and give them the right tools then they can do anything. Teach them life skills from a young age; sweeping, cooking, cleaning windows and this will lead them to become independent learners and people”.
This leads into Principle 3: Sensitive Periods. These are periods of time when a child's interests are focused on developing a particular skill or knowledge area and occur most often during the first six years of life. You will notice these in your child. For example; they start ordering all of their cars in lines, or all their blocks into rows and they will focus on doing this repeatedly for a time. In these Sensitive Periods you can provide your child with activities to support these new skills.
We have already spoken about the Prepared Environment and how Raluca has created this at home for Aurora’s practical life skills. Raluca went on to describe Aurora’s learning area, which is in their living room. The main piece of furniture being Aurora’s shelf, which is two levels and easy for Aurora to access and see things at her height and is where Raluca will have activities displayed. Aurora’s art work is displayed for her to see, she has an arts and crafts corner, a sensory table (Raluca pointed out sensory play is not “Montessori”, but is fun), music shelf, reading corner with books front facing so that covers can be seen and a functioning kitchen with running water and child sized tools for her to prepare snacks herself.
So how is an activity taught?
- The activity is shown to the child
- The activity is modelled to the child
- The child replicates the activity
When implementing a Montessori approach at home you will need to observe your child a lot, to see how they do things, how they learn, what they find difficult and what they find too easy. If an activity is too difficult or too easy, remove it from the shelf. A difficult task can be put back on the shelf a week or two later once your child has grasped a concept.
Montessori Materials
Montessori materials are hands-on learning tools that are designed to provide children with opportunities to discover key learning outcomes through repetition and practice. Each material teaches one skill at a time and is intentionally designed to support independent learning and problem-solving.
Raluca explains that Maria Montessori did not encourage imaginative play because until six years old a child can not tell the difference between reality and fantasy.
These days many toys are described as Montessori, but those which do help in a Montessori inspired approach will grow with your child and also contain error control, so that when a child is learning independently they can tell by themselves if they have completed the task correctly or not. For example: Our Counting Board has the numbers written and the corresponding number of holes above each number, so the child can only fill the correct number of holes, no more or no less.
This leads into Principle 5: Auto Education is when the child can teach themselves, because they have control of the error by using the right materials for the learning outcome. This is something we hope to achieve at home on our homeschool journey. I hope you have found this blog as interesting as I found chatting with Raluca about her Montessori inspired home.