Montessori Part 1

So I said that I would talk about the two different types of education that I am using to homeschool my kids with. This is kind of a huge task. Mostly because I've read soooo many books, articles, and blogs dedicated to this very subject and to try and condense it into a blog post seems almost impossible. So I will do my best. But I think I will split it up into a series to give myself some breathing room since there is so much information.

What is Montessori? 

Well Montessori was an actual person. Her name was Maria Montessori. She was born August 31, 1870 and died on May 6, 1952. She was a physician and an educator. She started her work in education with mentally disabled children. In 1906 she opened the Casa die Bambini, or the Children's House. She was asked to oversee low income children that basically had nowhere else to go while their parents worked. She had developed materials working with the disabled children that she also included in the casa. And she added other work including care of self and care of environment. The ages of the children varied from 2-7. Over time she made observations about the age groups. When the children were given free choice of what to do they chose practical activities over toys that were given to them. She eventually replaced all the over-sized furniture with child sized furniture that was light weight so they could independently move them wherever they chose to. And also added low shelves so that the children could easily access the child sized materials. She felt that through the children's independent work they would gain  greater levels of understanding and self motivation. In her book she outlines a typical day 

http://www.lightwayschools.org/3-years---6-years.php

• 9–10. Entrance. Greeting. Inspection as to personal cleanliness. Exercises of practical life; helping one another to take off and put on the aprons. Going over the room to see that everything is dusted and in order. Language: Conversation period: Children give an account of the events of the day before. Religious exercises.
• 10–11. Intellectual exercises. Objective lessons interrupted by short rest periods. Nomenclature, Sense exercises.
• 11–11:30. Simple gymnastics: Ordinary movements done gracefully, normal position of the body, walking, marching in line, salutations, movements for attention, placing of objects gracefully.
• 11:30–12. Luncheon: Short prayer.
• 12–1. Free games.
• 1–2. Directed games, if possible, in the open air. During this period the older children in turn go through with the exercises of practical life, cleaning the room, dusting, putting the material in order. General inspection for cleanliness: Conversation.
• 2–3. Manual work. Clay modelling, design, etc.
• 3–4. Collective gymnastics and songs, if possible in the open air. Exercises to develop forethought: Visiting, and caring for, the plants and animals. 

Montessori also believed in treating children as individuals, which she believed would yield greater learning and achieving higher potential. 

She eventually added more and more to her educational method further enriching the child in all aspects of education. She felt independence was the aim of education and that the teachers role was to be an observer. Through her observations she found innate characteristics which she defined as human tendencies.

• Abstraction
• Activity
• Communication
• Exactness
• Exploration
• Manipulation
• Order
• Orientation
• Repetition
• Self-Perfection
• Work

She describes these tendencies as the driving force behind each stage of development in a child.

So that was a "brief" overview of who she was and how she developed The Montessori Approach. My next post will talk about the prepared environment and the planes of development. And all of this information is really dry and boring and so I apologize. But the results of all this information in a functioning classroom or in a homeschool environment are fascinating and really exciting to see. 

So stay tuned.....

Meg