I received an email from a reader asking for what to look for when evaluating Montessori schools for her son. I tried to answer in a way that helps any reader looking for a Montessori school for their child. There Read more…
“The tiny child’s absorbent mind finds all its nutriment in its surrounding. Here it has to locate itself and build itself from what it takes in. Especially at the beginning of life must we therefore make the environment as interesting and attractive as we can. “ – Maria Montessori (The Absorbent Mind)
We set up Montessori spaces for our son from birth. He has also been given a lot of freedom of movement from birth and the result has been very good gross motor skills, body awareness, confidence and independence. He is very aware of his capabilities and doesn’t take uncalculated risks. I really believe these have been largely due to the environment. I have shown his spaces during the symbiotic period. Those spaces were temporary. Because we were not in our home for the first 7 weeks of his life, we created small but temporary spaces to meet his needs. Once home, he spent most of his time in his room, and because it was prepared for him, he had freedom to move. I just observed and made simple modifications to the room when needed but never really got in his way or tried to help him and he figured it out. So let me show you his room!
Welcome to our Montessori Infant room. I wanted to put a book shelf in the room but didnt want to take up space so I used this wall space behind the door. He is now able to reach the lowest shelf at 10 months.
” All he wants is to walk. And because his legs are shorter than ours, we must not try to make him keep up with us. It is we who must go at his pace… The child has his own Read more…
“The child who concentrates is immensely happy” The following are ten things you can do to make your child immensely happy!
I recently had a conversation with a friend about the importance of concentration. While I know so well the importance, I struggled with verbalizing it in a way that satisfied me so I decided to refresh my memory by writing Read more…
A few days ago, my husband and I were talking about how raising a child the Montessori way is definitely not the easy way to take in the beginning. I tried to explain how the first 2 years are definitely Read more…
If you got the timeline from the last post then you know that around 12 to 18 months, your child is developing the following gross and fine motor skills amongst others Gross: Freely walking and getting better Hopping Climbing Fine: Intentional release Read more…
Materials at about 4 months
“Children are the constructors of men whom they build, taking from the environment language, religions, customs, and the peculiarities not only of race, not only of nation, but even of a special district in which they develop.”
How do you decide on what toys/materials and activities to set up or make available to your child? Do you have a method? Here’s how I decide.
I consider three major things
“We must help the child to act for himself, will for himself, think to himself…” – Maria Montessori What better way to help the child think, will and act for himself than by offering choices? I offer a choice of Read more…