If your child is not yet a part of the Montessori School education system, then you need start practicing “The Montessori Principles” for a better tomorrow at home – whether or not you own traditional Montessori materials.
Milton Montessori School system practices the natural learning methods for a child to learn. These principles mentioned below are a great way for your preschooler to learn through the natural needs without specific materials and environment:
- Observe and Follow Your Child’s Interest
The most important principle in Montessori is to observe a child’s need and interest – while honoring and respecting the needs and interest at the same time. In order to develop your preschoolers starting skills in the best way possible, start with giving room to his interests.
- Encourage Your Child’s Sensitive Periods
Allow your child to freely absorb what he can in his own time. There’s room for slow understanding of things, but this is absolutely normal and is the basics of a Montessori system – individualized learning.
- Respect and Understand Your Child’s Freedom
Montessori education majorly focuses on the independence and self-directed learning of a child. Allow your child to freely explore indoors and outdoors, as long as that freedom is within safe proximities and positive.
- Provide More Hands-On Opportunities
Your child needs concrete hands-on experiences understanding abstract concepts. According to Montessori system it is the hands of a child that need to feel things and move things for a better learning.
- Practical Life Activities and Sensorial Activities
Show a great importance to the practical life activities of your child. This may include simple care of self, control of movement, care of the environment, and grace and courtesy. These practical activities develop your child’s concentration, order, coordination, and independence. Any practice that refines the senses is a great step for preparing your child for future academic learning processes.
- Provide Child Size Tools
Add child size materials and tools on places where possible. Add trays to low shelves, allowing your child to reach out to them easily and choose the material according to his or her work requirement and interest – as often as needed.
- Don’t Interrupt the Work Cycle of Your Child
Your child needs his entire time to concentrate on his piece of work, where reward and punishment will not work. By letting your child concentrate on his work without interrupting, he will have time to develop interest and complete the work according to his satisfaction.
- Help Make The Environment of Home Attractive
Set your home environment in an orderly manner, this in return assists your child in developing mental order and intelligence.
- Show Practical Examples
Show your child how to practically do something and not expect him or her to automatically how to do something or to know how to show an appropriate behavior, without the demonstration.
- Keep One Quality Isolated
When you offer your child with an activity, he or she might respond better to a color than a shape; this helps you to isolate the activity in accordance to that specific factor. Next time when you offer your child with a choice, you will know that his response to an activity with colors will be stronger than to shapes.
Following Montessori principles will help your child develop positive traits and skills naturally which will provide a stronger base. These principles embed skills of independence, self-discipline, and love of learning in your child.
To further help you, following points will enable you as a parent to incorporate Montessori philosophy in your homes and become a Montessori parent:
- Observe your child – regularly
- Observe the Montessori classroom so you understand what really happens inside
- Let your child be a part of your everyday life
- Slow down for your child to develop his skills
- Foster independence at home, as it is made available in Montessori school
- Count to ten before you impose your will on your child
- Don’t slap, threaten, or shout out your child. If possible refrain from these acts as much as possible
- Montessori is not for good grades, rather it’s about the child and his real skills
- Montessori is about the most critical years of a child’s life
- Do not practice Montessori principles and stop in between to start the regular school ways
- Try understanding the Montessori philosophy
- Understand the long term goals for your child and start improvising them
- Focus on your everyday practices and analyze if these are helping your child grow and develop into the way you want him or her to be?