The Montessori prepared environment honors and respects the child. The beauty of the Montessori environment is that children spontaneously love learning here. How can we bring Montessori At Home? What is Montessori method? How can we create Montessori At Home? I have heard this question a lot. As a Montessori directress, I met so many parents who wanted to apply the Montessori method at home. Let’s see how can we do that.
Montessori At Home
What do we want to call our home, when we bring Montessori here? A Montessori home? We have been saying Montessori School before so we can say Montessori Home now. Right?
A Montessori home is where we follow all the rules and apply all the methods according to the Montessori Method. There is a need to turn our home into a Montessori Home if we want to achieve objectives of the Montessori method.
Montessori Home School
In order to transform our home in to a Montessori Home School we need to apply the Montessori method and prepare at least one complete Montessori Environment at home. Home is the environment for our children where they touch and explore common objects in daily life. We adult need to step back and look at the home through the eyes of a child. Maria Montessori’s famous quote is, “Teach me to do it myself”. Children are willing to fulfill their inner desire desperately to know and be the part of their environment.
There can not be a better place for a child to grow and learn than home. Before we turn a room into a Montessori Classroom it’s better to transform the whole environment into a child friendly and supportive environment. How can we do that?
- Using child-sized furniture or making adjustments
- Keeping an orderly environment
- Providing reachable and simple procedures
- Developing good habits for example, cleaning and organizing with the children
- Involving children in regular home activities
Montessori Home School Curriculum
- Order,
- Independence,
- Self-discipline,
- And self- motivation are the fundamental keys of the Montessori method. Children learn them by the environment. That’s why we call it the Prepared Environment. According to, Dr. Maria Montessori, we must provide him with an environment which enables him to develop freely. That’s why the Montessori teacher is called a guide. Her role is not like a traditional teacher. She uses the environment and the activities to guide children.
Learning areas:
- Exercises of practical life
- Sensorial exercises
- Language
- Math
- Cultural Subjects (Art, Geography, Science, Zoology, Botany, Religion, Music)
It is also very important to simplify the environment. For example, their must be limited choices for the children. Encourage them to return materials/items. Keep extra activities in a storage. Bring new activities from the store to the shelves when children seem to grow tired or bored with the old activities on the shelves. Keeping the environment tidy, clean, orderly, and highly valued, develops sense of responsibility, motivation, and self-discipline in the children.
Modeling to successfully manage different tasks and providing guided practice from the young age results in smart, intelligent, self-organized, and independent individuals.
Careful observation of the children while they are working helps to select and organize the environment to make it interesting for the children.
Montessori children learn to take care of themselves and their environment. Children at young age are most willing to help and stay engaged in activities when they feel there is intrinsic value to their tasks. They don’t want any material gifts, rewards, stars, or praise. The Montessori method teaches to value the process instead of product.
Montessori Material
Montessori material can be made and bought. It is very easy to buy the material from Alison and Nienhuis. It can also be bought from Amazon.
Montessori Activities at Home
The prepared environment/Montessori environment is composed of different activities. For example, a primary class/ Casa dei Bambini ( 3 – 6 yrs), has pouring, washing, cleaning, dusting, cutting, polishing, flower arrangement, and folding exercises, in the Practical Life area. All these activities/exercises can be prepared easily.
The Sensorial and Math exercises are easily available at the authentic websites like Nienhuis, Montessori Services, and Alison. Language exercises can be prepared or bought. There are Printable Montessori Material websites. We can buy or print material for free their. All the cultural subjects ( Art, Science, Geography) can be bought or prepared.
Besides all these specific Montessori activities we can create our own activities at home. We can easily include what ever we do at home. For example, juicing, sweeping, cooking, table setting, and bed making.
Conclusion
At the end of this conversation I would like to appreciate your interest and passion for the Montessori Method. If you want to know more about Montessori, you can read my blog, Montessori the Science of Wellness.
It’s a smart decision at this time to start a small Montessori at home. It can be just you or you and your close friends to make a great team. Keeping the number of children low in the environment is required, so 3 to 5 number is good in a normal sized room.
I will be back with more suggestions. Keep looking for my new blogs. Please comment and ask questions if you have any. I would also love to know your suggestions.
Thank you.