MONTESSORI AT HOME
Beyond the classroom
When first embarking on their Montessori journey, families often want to incorporate Montessori methods and activities into their home environment but don’t know where to start. From the setup of the classroom to the manipulatives students use in their work, it can be overwhelming. We have a blueprint of how Montessori might appear in your home environment that supports the learning they’re accomplishing in their classrooms!
To assist a child, we must provide [them] with an environment which will enable [them] to develop freely.
Dr. Maria Montessori
Montessori is a mindset
Once you’ve entered a Montessori school, you’ve become part of a deeply intertwined triad of student-teacher-parent, and, for this relationship to work smoothly, families must understand that children are capable of more than one can realize. Your child, no matter their plane of development, is an autonomous being in their classroom who cares for the environment, is responsible for their work and for supporting the learning environment of others, and is provided with enough independence from adults to work toward the valorization of their personality.
The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences.
Dr. Maria Montessori
Montessori environment at home
Practicing Montessori at home is not about bringing your child's classroom into your home space– it’s about providing them with opportunities that expand on what they experience with their trained guide in the prepared environment. In Montessori philosophy and pedagogy, the prepared environment is one that facilitates freedom, beauty, structure and order, nature and reality, and social and intellectual environments. Through the prepared environment, a student can fully develop. In what ways can you engender a similar prepared environment for your child at home?
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Furniture and tools that are child-sized
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Utensils, snacks, and water that are on low shelves or are easily accessible for a child to self-serve
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Step stools or learning towers to enable your child to wash their hands and participate in kitchen tasks such as cleaning up, cooking, and baking
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Clothing and shoes stored in an easily child-accessible place
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A floor bed for infants and toddlers
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Toys that are separated into their own unique baskets or bins so there’s no need to excavate items from a catch-all bin.
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Involve your child in their room decor to ensure it matches their interests, but keep it minimal and simple to ensure your child doesn’t experience visual overwhelm and can rest when nap or bedtime rolls around.
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Rotating toys and books as a teacher would in the classroom
It is interesting to notice that where life is simple and natural and where the children participate in the adult’s life, they are calm and happy.
Dr. Maria Montessori
Beyond the environment
Beyond the environment, there are Montessori mindset practices you could employ while at home.
Model and invite your child to practice life skills such as tidying the house, folding clothes, emptying the dishwasher. Learning how to take care of their environment grows self-confidence and a culture of collaborative care of the community. Here’s Simone Davies’ list of age-appropriate chores.
These handouts from the American Montessori Society will give you a general idea of the characteristics of children at different ages, along with thoughts about what you, as a parent, can do to support them at home.
Nurture internal motivation. Praise is given sparingly in a Montessori environment as the philosophy shirks extrinsic motivators in favor of a child’s intrinsic desires for exploring and learning the world around them. Take to acknowledging the actions your child has taken or the choices your child has made instead of linking praise to a character trait of theirs or to your own feelings of pride. In a Montessori environment, you’ll observe guides speaking of a student’s work in phrases like, “Look at the combination of colors you used!” or “The flow of your words in this sentence makes me feel the emotion of your character,” instead of the empty praise of “Good job!” (what makes it a good job?) or “I love that drawing you did!” (what do you love about it?). It can be difficult to train yourself out of this habit – after all, we likely heard it quite often in our own childhoods, but it will make a world of difference in your child’s confidence in their abilities and self-concept.
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For more in-depth reading on positive discipline and intrinsic motivation, check out these resources:
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Some Montessori at Home Advocates that would be helpful to follow:
No one who has ever done anything really great or successful has ever done it simply because [they were] attracted by what we call a “reward” or by fear of what we call a “punishment”... Every victory and every advance in human progress comes from an inner compulsion.
Dr. Maria Montessori