 Attending preschool has a lot of advantages over other methods of infant care. Children receive care from highly trained professionals that are not only adept in childhood development but equally well-trained in the materials used in authentic Montessori environments. Montessori has been shown to be great for early development, and because of the way it was originally developed, it is also effective for children on the autism spectrum or suffering from ADHD or other learning challenges.
Safe and Comfortable Every aspect of infant care in a Montessori preschool revolves around keeping children comfortable, engaged, and able to take on tasks as an individual. Children enjoy a nurturing environment overseen by student guides-- teachers that are specially trained in childhood development. This is when small kids begin to experience the benefits of Montessori, including things like being permitted to move about the room, examine and interact with a variety of activities, and more. Educational and Engaging Montessori toys are carefully designed and chosen activities that provide educational experiences through play-based work. The prepared environment of a Montessori preschool is created to engage children, make them comfortable in their surroundings, and help them gain new information or experiences by using educational tools that are indistinguishable from exciting toys. Fostering Independence Children learn to become independent members of the classroom. Each child has responsibilities to themselves and others, but is typically given free rein to play with or join into any available activities. And because Montessori activities are self-correcting, kids rarely need to have outside influence in order to get the job done. Three-Year Groupings Montessori children are grouped into classes that span 3 years. This allows older children to interact with younger ones in a natural manner, based on observations that young children will readily learn from older peers. Mixed-age classes are also good for self-esteem, as each child in the room will take a turn as one of the oldest--and therefore more experienced-- members of the room. Montessori scholars advise starting children in the Montessori Method as early as possible in order to give them maximum learning opportunities. Children's brains are rapidly developing between birth and around the age of 3, making this the most sensitive period for learning.
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 You may have heard that daycare is a different sort of educational system, and you are curious whether that is the right type of daycare for your daughter. The important thing is to make sure that the school you choose is an authentic Montessori school, and here are some tell-tale signs that indicate it is.
Authentic Montessori An authentic Montessori daycare is a special sort of environment. The problem is, "Montessori" is not a trademarked educational system and there are a lot of Montessori schools that are using the name but not the Method itself. Authentic Montessori schools will feature a classroom scaled to the perspective of children, authentic Montessori activities, and the school will be certified by the American Montessori Society or similar governing body. Well-Qualified Teachers Montessori instructors receive special training in the Montessori Method, in addition to being qualified for teaching in a traditional environment. Montessori schools typically have a high retention rate, and many Montessori teachers stick with the same school for their entire career. This benefits the children because they are assured of having the same instructors for several years, providing an important and consistent framework for the children to learn in. Mixed-Age Groups Montessori classrooms are known for having mixed aged students. Maria Montessori recognized that children learn better when they have consistency, including staying in the same room with the same peers and teacher, for a 3-year span. This makes it possible for children to learn different skills at different paces without "falling behind" the other students. The Prepared Environment Another hallmark of the Montessori Method is the prepared environment children learn in. Everything is in the same place every day, the room is furnished-- and decorated-- from the child's perspective, and children are allowed to move freely between one activity and another. Together with staying with the same teachers and the 3-year group span, the prepared environment offers a consistent and predictable atmosphere that allows children to focus on their activities instead of constantly readjusting to a new setting. Whole-Child Development Authentic Montessori schools follow a doctrine of whole-child development. What that means is that attention is given to all aspects of early development, including physical activities, social interaction, emotional control, and academic instruction such as early math concepts, language skills, and learning to draw letters and numbers. Montessori schools have proven their worth, providing superior results for children of all walks and backgrounds. Even children with learning challenges such as ADHD or autism have been shown to accept and thrive in a Montessori environment, and children who fall into the gifted spectrum will find the prepared environment an excellent opportunity to hone their skills.  Science is one of the easiest subjects to incorporate into a private kindergarten environment. Potential science experiments are all around us, and everyone makes a good addition to a hands-on learning environment. In the bargain, small children will develop math skills, learn new vocabulary, and discover information that brings their world into a little bit clearer focus.
1. Rain Jars Imitating the fall of rain is a simple and colorful science experiment prefect for a Montessori kindergarten. Fill a clear jar three-quarters full of water. In a small cup mix a couple of tablespoons of water with food coloring. Spray a little foamy shave cream into the top of the clear jar and then use a spoon or eyedropper to transfer some of the colored water onto the upper side of the shaving cream. As the water dissolves through the shaving lather, the colored water will begin to "rain" into the clear water below. 2. Eggshell Germination Using eggshells to germinate seeds will give Montessori children a look at science in action. Simply add a little potting soil to a cracked egg shell, and a little water and place the shell back into the egg carton. Most seeds will germinate in 3 to 10 days, but be sure to check the shells daily and make sure they have enough water. To prevent over watering, use a pin and push a small hole into the bottom of the shell. The beauty of germinating seeds like this is that the whole shell can be planted after the seed germinates because plant roots can penetrate the shell easily. 3. Balloon Races For this activity, you will need some long pieces of string, some strong adhesive tape, straw segments, and balloons. Push the end of the string through a straw segment and then tie it off tightly on both ends. Carefully inflate the balloon, and then release the open end to watch it zip across the line, held in place by the piece of straw. This is a simplified way to demonstrate cause and effect, and makes for an enjoyable activity. Experiment with attaching various objects to the balloon before releasing it to find out what effect additional weight has on the movement of the balloon. Science is perfect for a kindergarten classroom. It teaches us the secrets of the physical world, and helps children build stronger vocabularies and math skills. And b y allowing the children to participate in performing the science experiments, it gives them a sense of accomplishment and success when the experiment works out as expected.  There are a lot of positive things going on in your child's daycare. Because the first 6 years of life are considered a crucial time for childhood development, her teachers will be providing her with activities that involve motor control, interacting with others, discovering the joys of learning, and learning how to communicate effectively.
Whole Child DevelopmentThe Montessori Method was created to help children develop appropriately in every aspect of early development. This is done by engaging Montessori daycare children in a carefully prepared environment that provides a consistent and predictable workspace for small hands and curious minds. 1. Motor Skills Fine motor skills should be well-developed before a child enters kindergarten. In daycare, she will practice using building blocks, crayons, and other small objects. Development happens at different paces for children, with some mastering communication skills earlier than motor skills. Because of that, Montessori is a self-paced form of learning where some children spend more time learning fine and gross motor control than others. Achieving a satisfactorily coordinated 5-year-old is more important than forcing children to master early skills in any particular order. 2. Social Skills Until around the age of 3 children have difficulty understanding the feelings of others and why they feel the way they do. Simply put, a selfish 1-year-old is not unexpected or unusual, and Montessori daycare will help your daughter learn to see things from the other person's point of view. Learning to communicate feelings, share with others, and wait on her turn are all concepts that are appropriate for daycare. 3. Foster a Love of Learning At the heart of the Montessori experience is a desire to show your daughter how exciting the learning process can be. By working with engaging activities, participating in group functions, and being given the freedom to follow her interests at her own pace, your daughter will discover that learning makes her feel good about herself, and that intrinsic motivation is crucial to further development. Children begin life as a blank slate-- an empty sponge, if you will-- eager to learn new things but unsure of where or how to find out the answers she is looking for. From infant care until around 5 years old, she will be developing muscle control and building strong bones, learning to communicate and building a strong vocabulary, and exploring the world she lives in to find out how the world affects her. The idea is for her to enter kindergarten ready to learn the alphabet, discover the joys of math, and explore science concepts that help her make sense of it all.  The Montessori Method arose from observing how children with behavioral issues and learning challenges behaved in a natural setting. By the time Montessori schools became available to all private kindergarten children, Maria Montessori's methods had already become well-established. Over the years, less focus was put on the prepared environment's impact on special children, but the effectiveness of the system has remained.
The Prepared EnvironmentFor most children, including those with mild-to-moderate autism, a Montessori prepared environment is an aid to effective learning. Children look for stability and consistency in their lives, and providing a controlled environment where things are always where they should be is often soothing. This pre-planned workspace facilitates children moving freely between tasks and helps each child focus on the lessons provided by the activity. The Social EnvironmentA Montessori classroom is a social environment. Instead of children remaining at their desks as they would in a traditional school setting, they are allowed to move about freely, interact with fellow students, and work on activities singly, in pairs, or as a group. This encourages shy children or those with limited communication abilities to participate in subtle social skills that will help them learn and grow. Play-Based LearningMontessori activities are designed to be enjoyable. Maria Montessori observed that children at play are also engaged in developing a host of academic, emotional, physical, intellectual, and social skills. For that reason, authentic Montessori activities are always play-based, durable, and self-correcting. Many activities can be used in different types of lessons, such as vocabulary, math, and science. More Personalized instructionSince Montessori activities are self-teaching, the teachers-- commonly referred to as guides-- are able to focus more time on individual teaching. Children who learn at different paces can receive the extra help they need to master troublesome concepts without holding the entire class back until the lesson has been absorbed. This benefits all of the kids because the quick-learning children can immediately move to more challenging subjects, or help the other children catch up. Montessori is more than a good environment for children with learning disabilities. It is an educational system that is based on the natural order of childhood development and was originally created to assist troubled children to attain a better, more successful early education. Montessori is applied to teaching children of all ages and aptitudes today, but its roots are firmly tied to helping children who struggle with learning become everything that they can be.  The materials used in a Montessori private kindergarten are carefully designed to be self-correcting, enjoyable, and to encourage the mastery of multiple early developmental skillsets. This includes things like fine motor skills, academic subjects, and intellectual skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving.
Learning Through Doing What Maria Montessori observed early in the 20th century was that Montessori kindergarten children learn best when they are able to get immersed in their education. Since then, numerous studies have repeated her findings, showing that children perform better and absorb information more readily when they are engaged with it using hands-on learning materials. This does not mean that children are simply playing instead of being taught, it means that children are being taught using materials that are carefully chosen to keep children engaged as they learn. Consistency and Repetition No one becomes an expert the first time they attempt a new task. This is just as true for adults as it is for children. With authentic Montessori materials, children are able to return to the same activity over and over, and the activities are designed to be self-self-correcting so that kids will immediately know whether they have done the job correctly. Natural Learning Strategies Another early observation made by Montessori was that children learn by playing in a natural setting. Authentic Montessori activities are designed to entertain and engage children at that level, and even though they outwardly appear to be playing they are actually fully engaged in absorbing new information. Prepared Environments The Montessori prepared environment is designed to resonate with a child's desire for consistency and order. In a Montessori classroom, children are going about many different activities-- even moving from one to another freely-- yet the area remains free of clutter. This is because the Montessori Method includes teaching children the process of putting things away in their proper place when they are no longer being used. Practical Skills Not all Montessori materials were designed expressly for the classroom. The Montessori Method also dictates that successful childhood development includes learning practical skills such as measuring, pouring, and cutting. These are skills that children will use repeatedly throughout their lives but are sadly omitted from nearly all traditional public school systems. Montessori classrooms are intended to provide a full spectrum of developmental tools for young children. What appears to be a toy is actually a well-crafted and carefully chosen activity that provides one or more important lessons. The benefits of such activities are numerous and the results are time-tested.  Over the years, Montessori private kindergarten has developed a reputation for instilling leadership skills in young students. Maria Montessori observed that children tended to be more accepting of ideas presented by more confident members of the group, and that facilitated early development by encouraging all children to think and act more independently.
Mixed Age ClassesBeginning with the unique 3-year age grouping used by your Montessori preschool, children begin learning that feeling good about others begins with feeling good about themselves. Since children remain in the same group for an extended length of time, each child in the class takes a turn at being among the oldest-- and therefore the most knowledgeable and experienced-- children in the room. This builds self-esteem and fosters social skills that involve sharing and helping others. Promoting Critical ThinkingOnce a child has learned to look at their own behavior and see it mirrored in the world around them, they can apply critical thinking skills to improve performance, gain more acceptance, and solve unpleasant situations peacefully. Critical thinking requires children to have confidence in their ability to make appropriate decisions, magnifying the need for children to learn respect and self-confidence along with other leadership skills. Grace and CourtesyGrace and courtesy are a cornerstone of the Montessori Method. From day one, children learn and are expected to abide by various social rules that create order in social situations. They practice these skills by using them in the normal course of the day, so that respect for themselves, for others, and for the greater world they inhabit becomes a natural and normal way to approach all of life's activities. TeamworkMontessori is an interactive form of education. Children use interactive. self-correcting activities and they work in pairs or groups to accomplish goals. Coupled with respect and courtesy, teamwork helps children further develop critical thinking skills and conveys the importance of achieving some task as part of a greater collective. This builds confidence and gives children real-world perspectives that help them become better leaders and team players. The Montessori approach to education is meant to encourage children to develop the self-esteem necessary to take on life's challenges. As a bonus, children who have respect for themselves and others are already on the path to becoming leaders. It is not that the Montessori Method is focused on building leaders, it is that the Montessori Method instructs children in a manner that leads to better leadership skills.  Montessori preschool is a different sort of educational system designed to assist children in many areas of early development. The underlying preschool philosophy is that children are born without knowledge of the world but hungry to absorb as much information as they can. Enrolling your child as early as daycare or preschool produces the best results, for the following reasons.
The Absorbent Mind Maria Montessori explained that the minds of preschool children can be likened to a sponge. They begin empty of content but will readily soak up knowledge through play-based activities that provide information in a broad spectrum of developmental areas. The Absorbent mind phase begins at birth and continues throughout the first 6 years of life, making those early years the most important period for childhood development. Montessori's Developmental ApproachThe Montessori Method is dedicated to whole-child development, and the process begins as early as possible. During the critical early years, Montessori challenges children physically, mentally, emotionally, and academically. Through hands-on activities, children learn valuable practical skills while improving their fine and gross motor skills, learning to interact with other people-- children and adults alike-- and constructing the foundations of academic learning that include language, math, science, reading, and more. Self-Paced LearningA big difference between Montessori and traditional public education is that Montessori uses self-paced techniques that allow children to advance as they achieve specific goals instead of all children being forced to learn the same subjects as a single group. These techniques have shown excellent results for children with many different abilities, including gifted kids, autistic children, those with learning challenges, and everything in between. Mixed Age GroupingsBecause children learn at different paces, traditional classroom groupings are ineffective. Instead of every child being within a few months of the same age, Montessori classes encompass a 3-year age span. This makes it easier for children to learn faster or slower without being removed from their peers. Furthermore, when every child spends time among the youngest and the oldest in the class, they have the opportunity to fill different social roles as well. This never happens in traditional settings where the same children are either the oldest or youngest throughout their education. Montessori excels at early development, beginning in daycare and progressing through preschool. kindergarten, and beyond. The earlier they get involved in the Montessori Method, the easier it will be to learn and develop everything from motor skills to things like science and writing. The absorbent mind is capable of taking in a lot of information, but the sponge-like years go by quickly.  The prepared environment of an Authentic Montessori preschool stands apart for a variety of reasons. It revolves around the children rather than being built to an adult scale, and visitors are often surprised at the amount of quiet activity and orderly progression in the room. To better illustrate why Montessori stands apart, let's take a look at a few of the key components of a Montessori prepared environment, and how that environment achieves its goals.
The Children's House The original school designed by Maria Montessori was known as the Casa Dei Bambini, which translates into "The Children's House." The classroom was designed around the perspective of the children, with child-sized furniture, decoration placed at a child's eye level, and other facets that reinforced the idea that this was placed expressly for children. Freedom of Movement In the prepared environment, children have the freedom to move about, choose which workstation to use, and spend as much or as little time working with workstations as they choose. No other form of early education puts as much emphasis on a child's freedom of movement, but that shouldn't be surprising since no other options are as child-centered as the Montessori Method. A Place For Everything Montessori preschool is a surprisingly ordered environment. Everything has a specific location, and children are taught to put things back where they came from when they are no longer in use. Workstations are always located in the same place in the room so that children can go straight to a project without having to locate it in a different place each time. Social Interaction Social etiquette and interaction are major facets of the Montessori Method. Children learn the concepts of grace and courtesy early and are encouraged to use them regularly throughout the day. Because Montessori is a whole-child developmental program, social graces take an equal role in physical and academic projects. Even more to the point, social skills are included as part of the daily curricula without ever being singled out for themselves. Academic Pursuits Schools are for learning, and authentic Montessori preschools encourage learning a wide variety of subject matter during the course of carefully selected play-based activities. Math, language, reading, and writing are often combined into a single workstation so that instead of children moving from one subject to another they are able to absorb information about various subjects without leaving the room or even using different workstations. Montessori preschool is a completely different environment from traditional public schools. There are no textbooks, the teachers do not spend their days giving class lectures, and children go about individualized work plans seemingly without intervention from adults. The idea is that children are simply little people, and deserve the same freedoms and respect as anyone else.  Learning to be thankful helps daycare children develop critical thinking skills, and shows them how thankfulness and gratitude make everyone feel a little better about themselves and others. Learning about gratitude is an everyday trait of Montessori schools, but it is also important that parents help children practice gratitude at home so that they understand it is not reserved for the classroom but is instead a fact of everyday life.
Keep a journal or wall collage where your daycare children can create mementos of things they are grateful for. Every day has something that fits the bill, even if it is something as simple as a sunny day or having a favorite food for dinner. As the list of things they sincerely appreciate begins to grow, children will become more involved in tallying the high points of each day and showing their gratefulness in new and beneficial ways. 2. What We Have Vs What We Want It is important for children to learn that they can't always get things exactly the way they want them to be, and every instance is an opportunity to focus on what they have instead of pining for what they want. Stuck inside on a rainy day? At least there are some great activities to get involved with. The outdoor party got rained out? At least there was ice cream and cake when everyone scrambled inside. There is an upside to every event and children should learn to see those good things more often than to focus on the bad. 3. Role Modeling Grateful Behaviors Parents are the best role models their children will have, without comparison. When children see their role models exhibiting grateful behavior they learn that gratefulness is an important way to show appreciation. Keep in mind that your behavior should be consistent, because children may be learning, but they are always watching, and if they see your gratefulness as a pretentious act they will begin to doubt its usefulness. 4. Appreciation and Self-Esteem When we learn to value what we have, it makes us feel better about ourselves. As simple as it is to say "thank you," doing so conveys goodwill to both parties, and encourages young children to use gratitude appropriately in their interactions with others. Talk to the teachers at your child's daycare. Ask them how they teach gratitude and then mimic those ideas at home. Montessori education, especially modeling important social skills, does not end with the school day. Parents are strongly encouraged to practice the Montessori Method at home as well, including core concepts like grace and courtesy. |
