Montessori Method and Philosophy (more…)

Practical life means basic every day life, all the things we need to do for daily living. Dr. Maria Montessori felt that children need to be shown and given opportunities so that they learn how to do every day living activities in a purposeful way.

“The child can only develop by means of experience in his environment. We call such experience work.” - Maria Montessori.

In a Montessori class room you may find an area where on a low shelf there are activities that involve pouring, spooning, sorting, stringing etc. There might be child size brooms, tiny jugs to pour liquid, and frames that invite the child to button, zip or do lacing activities.

You may find a circle taped on the floor where a child is walking with heel-toe motion, balancing her arms stretched out, carefully keeping her feet on the line. Or, there may be times when a group of children are practicing to be silent and be aware of the softest sound in their environment.

According to Dr. Montessori, during the sensitive period between births to 6 years of age, the child is constructing his inner self. He is preparing himself for the big world, using his motor skills and problem solving abilities.

Montessori saw the child’s need for order and repetition of the same activity to refine certain skills. The child needs to move to gain balance, grace and confidence. He also needs to develop the power to be silent.

We, adults need to show that to the child –

“If talking don’t move, if moving don’t talk” suggests Montessori to the teacher.

Montessori sensorial materials are materials used in the Montessori classroom to help a child develop and refine his or her five senses. Use of these materials constitutes the next level of difficulty after those of practical life.

Montessori sensorial materials have Control of  Error (more…)

Montessori  lessons are based on Activity

A child does not engage in an activity until the teacher or another student has directly demonstrated its proper use, and then the child may use it as desired (limited only by individual imagination or the material’s potentially dangerous qualities).

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Montessori’s materials for the Sensorial work came from her own observations and from ideas and materials from the French doctors Itard and Seguin. Unlike the material used for Practical Life, this sensorial material has either never been seen or never been used by the child in his everyday life. With this said however, the child will receive no new experiences through the use of the material. This was purposefully thought through in order to give the child what he knows, but might not yet realize, and to then refine his knowledge. In order to do this, the material is presented in a specific way or in a specific pattern: the child learns to match the similar things, then he is shown how to grade thaterial based on its quality, and then he receives the language related to his work.  In presenting the material to the child in this way allows him to fully understand the concept of his work.

All of the Sensorial materials were designed keeping the same ideas in mind.

1. All of the material isolates the one quality that is to be worked with by the child. This allows the child to focus on that one quality.
2. All of the materials have, what is called, a control of error. This calls to the child to make the corrections himself.
3. All of the material is esthetically pleasing. Such as with the Practical Life materials, this attracts the child’s attention to the objects and allows the child to manipulate the materials with ease.
4. All of the material must be complete. This allows the child who is working with the material to finish through the entire piece of work without having to stop and find a missing piece.
5. All of the material is limited. The first use of the term limited refers to the fact that there is only one of each material in the environment. This calls for other students to build on their patience. The second use of the word limited is in reference to the idea that not all of one quality or piece of information is given to the child. This child is not given every color in the world, but only a select few. This gives the child the keys to the information so it peaks his curiosity and leads him to learn more out of his own interest.
6. Most importantly, all of the material could be called “materialized abstractions”. This means that though Montessori’s Sensorial materials, abstract concepts are made into concrete materials.

Montessori saw the importance of the manipulation of objects to aid the child in better understanding his environment. Through the child’s work with Sensorial material, the child is helped to make abstractions, he is helped in making distinctions in his environment, and the child is given the knowledge not through word of mouth, but through his own experiences.,

Sensorial exercises were designed by Montessori to cover every quality that can be perceived by the senses such as size, shape, composition, texture, loudness or softness, matching, weight, temperature, etc. Because the exercises cover such a wide range of senses, Montessori categorized the exercises into eight different groups: Visual, Tactile, Baric, Thermic, Auditory, Olfactory, Gustatory, and Stereognostic.

In the Visual Sense exercises, the child learns how to visually discriminate differences between similar objects and differing objects.

In the Tactile Sense exercises, the child learns through his sense of touch. “Although the sense of touch is spread throughout the surface of the body, the exercises given to the children are limited to the tips of the fingers, and particularly, to those of the right hand.” (Montessori, Maria (1997) The Discovery of the Child, Oxford, England: Clio Press) This allows the child to really focus on what he is feeling, through a concentration of a small part of his body.

In the Baric sense exercises, the child learns to feel the difference of pressure or weight of different objects. This sense is heightened through the use of a blindfold or of closing your eyes.

In the Thermic Sense exercises, the child works to refine his sense of temperature.

In the Auditory Sense Exercises, the child discriminates between different sounds. In doing these different exercises, the child will refine and make him more sensitive to the sounds in his environment.
In the Olfactory and Gustatory Sense exercises, the child is given a key to his smelling and tasting sense. Although not all smells or tastes are given to the child in these exercises, the child does work to distinguish one smell from another or one taste from another. He can then take these senses, and apply them to other smells or tastes in his environment.

In the Stereognostic Sense exercises, the child learns to feel objects and make recognitions based on what he feels. “When the hand and arm are moved about an object, an impression of movement is added to that touch. Such an impression is attributed to a special, sixth sense, which is called a muscular sense, and which permits many impressions to be stored in a “muscular memory”, which recalls movements that have been made.”((Montessori, Maria (1997) The Discovery of the Child, Oxford, England: Clio Press

What is Sensorial Work ?

Sensorial comes from the words sense or senses. As there are no new experiences for the child to take from the Sensorial work, the child is able to concentrate on the refinement of all his senses, from visual to stereognostic.

The Purpose of Sensorial Work

The purpose and aim of Sensorial work is for the child to acquire clear, conscious, information and to be able to then make classifications in his environment. Montessori believed that sensorial experiences began at birth. Through his senses, the child studies his environment. Through this study, the child then begins to understand his environment. The child, to Montessori, is a “sensorial explorer”.

Through work with the sensorial materials, the child is given the keys to classifying the things around him, which leads to the child making his own experiences in his environment. Through the classification, the child is also offered the first steps in organizing his intelligence, which then leads to his adapting to his environment.

1. The “whole child” approach. The primary goal of a Montessori Program is to help each child reach full potential in all areas of life. Activities promote the development of social skills, emotional growth, and physical coordination as well as cognitive preparation. The holistic curriculum allows the child to experience the joy of learning and to develop self esteem and independence.
2. The “Prepared environment”. In order for self-directed learning to take place, the whole learning environment, material and social climate must be supportive of the learner. The teacher provides necessary resources, including opportunities for children to function in a safe and positive climate. The teacher thus gains the children’s trust, which enables them to try new things and build self confidence.
3. The Montessori materials. Dr. Montessori’s observations of the kinds of “toys” which children enjoy and return to play with repeatedly led her to design a number of multi-sensory sequential and self-correcting materials which facilitate the learning of skills and concepts. Our teachers follow the “Montessori principles” as they develop new materials and activities for the classroom.
4. The teacher. Originally called a “Directress,” the Montessori teacher functions as a facilitator of learning. She is a role model, designer of the environment, resource person, demonstrator, record keeper and observer of each child’s growth and development. She encourages, respects, and loves each child as a special, unique individual; she also provides support for parents and joins them in partnership to nurture the development of the whole child.

Dr. Maria Montessori, the creator of The Montessori Method of Education, based this new education on her scientific observations of young children’s behavior. As the first woman physician to graduate from the University of Rome, Dr. Montessori became involved with education as a doctor treating children labeled as retarded. In 1906 she was invited to open a daycare center for the children of desperately poor families in the San Lorenzo slums of Rome. She called it “A Children’s House” and developed an environment geared to the size, pace and interests of boys and girls between the ages of three and six.

Dr. Montessori’s dynamic theories included such revolutionary premises as:

1. Children are to be respected as different from adults and as individuals who are different from one another.
2. Children create themselves through purposeful activity.
3. The most important years for learning are from birth to age six.

The Montessori Method is a way about thinking about who children are. It is a philosophy that respects the unique individuality of each child. Dr. Montessori believed in the worthiness, value and importance of children. Her method does not compare a child  to norms or standards that are measured by traditional educational systems. It is founded on the belief that children should be free to succeed and learn without restriction or criticism.

It is also an approach to education that takes to heart the needs, talents, gifts, and special individuality of each child. It is a process that helps children learn in their own way at their own pace. The main concept of Montessori is to promote the joy of learning. This joy of learning develops a well adjusted person who has a purpose and direction in his or her life. Children, who experience the joy of learning, are happy, confident, fulfilled children. In essence, Montessori helps bring forth the gift of each child.

Another important skill it teaches is self-reliance and independence. It helps a child to become independent by teaching him or her life skills, which is called practical life. Montessori children learn to dress themselves, help cook, put their toys and clothes away and take an active part of their household, neighborhood and school.

Montessori works in a methodical way. Each step in the process leads to the next level of learning. When a child plays, he or she is  learning concepts for abstract learning. Repetition of activities is an integral part of this learning process.

For young children Montessori is a hands on approach to learning. It encourages children to develop their observation skills by doing many types of activities. These activities include use of the five senses, kinetic movement, spatial refinement, small and large motor skill coordination, and concrete knowledge that leads to later abstraction.

For a grade school child, Montessori encourages a child to proceed at his or her own pace onto abstract thinking, writing, reading, science, mathematics and most importantly, to absorb his or her culture and environment. Culture includes interaction with nature, art, music, religion, societal organizations and customs.

A Montessori teacher or instructor observes each child like a scientist,scientist providing every child with an individual program for learning. Phoebe Child (Head of the Montessori trust in London) said “we must be prepared to wait patiently like a servant, to watch carefully like a , and to understand through love and wonder like a saint.”

Most of all, Montessori wanted to help free a child’s mind to be unfettered to learn without any negative input. It is success oriented in that almost everything is self-teaching and self-correcting. The children learn by doing and by experimentation. The environment is specifically prepared for the children to allow them to interact with it freely and unfettered, everything is child sized, and safe for children to touch and use. In fact, Dr. Montessori called her center “The Children’s House”.

The main goal of Montessori is to provide a stimulating, child oriented environment that children can explore, touch, and learn without fear. An understanding parent or teacher is a large part of this child’s world. The end result is to encourage life long learning, the joy of learning, and happiness about one’s path and purpose in life.