Montessori Activities

  Freedom and Discipline Discipline does not come from birth, but it is something to be developed. It is an active discipline, being stability in orientation. If the environment is stable, the child feels confident. In environment, presentations are a kind of limitation, rule, how to handle with the instrument. Freedom is not something that letting the child does as he likes. Even cleaning and placing it in the right place after using, is a part of freedom, because he prepares the material for the next child going to use the material. Freedom of Choice: 1- Material: They can choose any material that they want to work with. The limitation here is that they can choose only known, presented before materials. 2- Place: They can choose where to work, either on table, in garden, on the rug, etc. but there are limitations. The material should be suitable with the place. 3- Partner: The child is free choosing his partner, but the person should be also willing to work with him, th...

Observation Techniques “Observation is the key to understand the child.” Observation is important in two aspects: the child and the environment. It makes possible to note down the needs of progress for each child, and gives opportunity for understanding both the nature and the character of the child. More than a technical skill, it is an active process. One should not mix the observation with record keeping. Observation gives us idea what child is interested and what the problem is. Furthermore, it helps us for planning the future and finding a way of supporting the child better. It gives a whole perspective about relations, language, culture, ethics, etc. We can recognize our own strength and weaknesses through observation, also. There are two ways of observation: ·          Take a chair and just record, there is no interaction. ·          While working with a child, keep observing the others. Her...

Classification Cards First, I decided on the topic, and since we have several kinds of nuts nowadays, I decided on that topic. I have chosen ten types of nut, though there are much more than this, I selected only the ones that we already have in our environment. Then, I searched for nut photographs with white background. Besides, elected photos according to their content, i.e. they should contain both with shell and broken view of the nuts. I saved each in the dimension of 10*7, 5 cm, wrote labels of 1*10 cm, and doubled each because I will need them in making both mute cards and control cards. I printed them colorful, and cut them. Then, stick them on a cardboard to make them hard.  All mute cards (with no labels) are piled on the floor and are inverted. The adult takes the card on the top and asks for its name. If the child knows it the adult put it in one side, if she does not know puts it another side. This continues till all the cards are opened. Then, the adult takes almo...

Be precise, clear, slow enough sothe child can listen and understand.  For the correct pronunciation, the child gains the information indirectly, by observing and trying on himself. The vocabulary should be challenging and shouldbe unknown to child. 1st step: Introduction (Naming): Point to the object and give the name.  If you are working with cards , then present the cards one by one, donot lay all down, it wouldbe an obstacle in learning. No discussion, no explanation inthis stage,just give the name. Isolate the difficulty: the new word. In a different time, you can provide information from books, videos, go outside or experience the new word in different aspects. 2nd step: Association/ Recognition: Here, you pronounce, the child recognises.  "Please show me..." " Please give me..." " Please take the..." If the child is so active, then include movement inthis stage. You should not always use the same command.  You should include different activities. ...

  Social development is one of the key stages for a child, and the environment and the adults with whom the child is in contact are of vital importance. An environment should be prepared so elaborately that a child must find anything to construct and empower his social skills. A Montessori class consists of 30 or 40 students and all are from different age groups. This feature provides the children with lots of social opportunities to practice some features needed in real life. "In a class of many children there will only be one copy of each object. If a child wants to use an object which is already being used, he cannot do it and when the children are normalized they will wait till the other has finished using that material. Thus certain social qualities develop which are of great importance, e.g., the child knows that he must respect objects being used by another, not because someone has told him, he simply must, it is a fact he has found ...

  The development and growth of human being proceeds not incidentally but according to certain rules commanded by nature. The child has a great sensibility and since his birth, he starts absorbing his environment through this vehicle. But, this absorbance does not happen as a whole at one time; the information is a confusing mass at first, then it loosens in time and becomes clear in the end. This process arises one by one and in a predetermined schedule. While he focuses on contrasting black-white colored objects in a period of time, he directs his attention to bright colors in another time. This focus of attention always changes both the issue to learn and the time to work. This is called as sensitive period. “Thus what we have called "incarnation"  and the sensitive   periods   might   be  compared   to  a spy-hole opening on the inner processes of mind in the making, that we see, as it were internal organs at work, de...

  Role and Nature of the Prepared Environment Starting from birth, a child develops both psychically and physically. These two proceeds parallel in general, for instance the first physical event in a child’s life, birth, is the first step of becoming independent from his mother. This step is followed by crawling, supplementary food, walking and weaning. These are the natural milestones that an adult has almost no influence on them; they are already programmed in the child’s psyche. The role of parents or adults living with the child starts preparing a child-like environment starting from birth, for helping to handle the birth terror, for the comfort of the child, for the adaptation and for unfolding his character. One should take into account all dimensions of a human being, such as physical, psychological, mental and social, in preparing an environment. So, an environment is not a place in that the child just lives and grows up unintentionally, but it is a total surrounding of o...

  The Absorbent Mind A child’ s development occur in different stages. The first plane is between 0 and 6 years old, and this stage is divided into two sub-phases also: 0 -3 and 3 -6. The memory is observed after three years old. The child is unconscious from the birth to almost three years old, but he can still learn so many things. Now the question is, how a child can still remember if he does not have a memory? The key factor here is, while we learn by our mind, the children just gets in what exists around, i.e. they acquire with their psyche. While the information we learnt remains in somewhere in our memory in separate forms, the child transforms it and makes it a part of himself, and thus, those taken into him becomes incarnate by forming his mind and psychic body. The newborn child is endowed with such a faculty that he can take in the environment and can transform it. It is something different what we know about mind, memory and learning concepts. It is a type of gaini...

  Four Planes of Development According to psychological researches it has been accepted that a man does not possess always the same psyche and the same mind at different periods of his life. There are clear distinctions between these periods; indeed, it was applied in educational system all over the world instinctively.   And these periods are accompanied with some remarkable physical development. Human being development starts from birth and continues in several dimensions and planes. A child develops both physically and cognitively from zero to 24 years old. This development does not always go in the same line but focuses on different dimensions as time passes.   As one psychic characteristic domain at a certain period of growth, the other one starts disappearing, or sometimes they can overlap.   Dr. Maria Montessori defines these features into four developmental stages.   We can say that the first one, which goes from birth to six years old, is the infanc...