Montessori schools or Montessori learning at home.

I only know the basics about the foundation of montessori learning and I think this is the route I'd like to go with DS. I love the focus on physical learning rather than instruction.

What differences do you see between montessori and schools that don't utilize montessori methods ?

what schools in south nassau implement montessori methods?

does anyone home school following montessori methods / activites? how is that going for you? how do you go about getting your curriculum?

Re: Montessori schools or Montessori learning at home.

There are catalogs you can buy Montessori materials from- but there are also many things you can make at home!

When I worked in a Montessori school (I worked with ages 18months-3 years) some of the activities we had were:

-Flower Arranging- set out a small watering can, a small bunch of flowers on stems and some mini vases. Child must bring put on an apron, bring watering can to the sink with 2 hands, put it down, turn on water, fill watering can, turn off water, bring back to station. Put small amount of water in vase, add flowers. Use a rag to clean up any spills and be sure to put everything away as they found it.

-Matching games- Take pictures of common items in different categories (animals, foods, vehicles, etc.) and laminate them onto cardstock. Find small figures that represent the pictures and have child match)

-Fine motor skills- Use a cheese shaker (like they have at the pizza parlor) and some wooden skewers with sharp tips cut off. Have child put skewers into holes or working with clay (not play-doh- actual modeling clay- it is more difficult to manipulate), puzzles, manipulatives (little pouches and containers to open and close, a board with screws and a screwdriver)

-music and movement- we used any child friendly music that didn't involve characters (no elmo, disney, etc.), felt board activities, hand plays, puppets

-Sensory activities- smelling bottles (use spice shakers filled with different herbs, spices, extracts), texture bags, color mixing

-We also had child size sets for sweeping, mopping, dishwashing, hand washing, polishing, cleaning plants, etc.

At that age- it was all about independence, life skills and creativity. To a lesser extent we also focused on math concepts (geometry, numbers and counting), language skills, geography, etc.

See this Catalog for some examples. You can make many of these things at home!

Also, if you haven't read Maria Montessori's book- it's a good place to start!

HTH!

ETA: The BIGGEST difference between a traditional classroom and a Montessori classroom is that in a Montessori classroom- the students RARELY if ever being lectured to. They work in smaller groups with or without a teacher.

The teacher will demonstrate an activity to a single child or very small group of children and then supervise the first few times the child attempts it on his/her own making gentle corrections. Once the child has mastered the task, he/she is allowed to "choose" that activity whenever he/she wants- which is another HUGE difference- Montessori education advocated letting the children choose how/what they want to learn on any given day (of course, no child would ever be permitted to repeat the same activity all day, every day. In that case, the teacher would present a smaller subset of choices to help the child expand their horizons)

Maria Montessori books on Amazon

Message edited 5/28/2013 2:41:38 PM.

Re: Montessori schools or Montessori learning at home.

Thank you so much for taking the time out to write that up. It definitely sounds like the route i'd like to go with my son. He seems to really be a "DOer" as far as learning is concerned. If I were to decide not to enroll him in pre-school this is the home curriculum I would lean towards. He already has his own cleaning set and loves it. I can certainly utilize it more in an educational way like having him sweep into a taped off square. He loves to wash his hands and he is very independent. I'm looking to make him a learning tower soon so I can have him help me with dishes or do things on the counter. He's always looking to see what I'm doing when I do dishes. I LOVE the flower arranging activity! great idea! I'm definitely going to look into those books! thanks!

Re: Montessori schools or Montessori learning at home.

No problem!

If I was a SAHM I would DEFINITELY be following Montessori protocol.

Good luck!

Re: Montessori schools or Montessori learning at home.

I only wish I had known more about it sooner so i could have focused more on it at an earlier age...but I guess what I've done so far has worked fine bc he is very independent.

Re: Montessori schools or Montessori learning at home.

I go to this website for ideas: LivingMontessoriNow.com
and I follow the author of this blog on Pinterest. She has thousands of home ideas on her boards.

Montessori schools or Montessori learning at home.

I agree with the poster above about things you can do at home..

The main reason I put AJ into a Montessori school was that I noticed at young age, she preferred to do her own thing. Not a bad thing or wild thing just a thing. She concentrated on a project until its completion while the other 12m-18m were constantly moving from one thing to the next. She found no interest in the bubbles they’d blow unless she was ‘in between’ project. She’d look up but didn’t engage. But she was very good with the kids, but wanted to share and mentor or be mentored which didn’t happen much in a normal generic daycare.

We do a lot of things at home without workbooks you can buy. Most are Montessori inspired. I keep up with her teacher and find what she likes and avoid them, find out what she avoids and push those! LOL

I prefer the school environment because of its social skills. Work (which is the projects) is something she does. Her friends have feelings too. She cleans, prepares her own meals, sits by herself or with friends to eat snack. She has been doing circle time since 2yrs old and the ‘way’ they teach fine and gross motor skills ‘works’ for her.

I agree there’s very little to no prepared teacher/student class type thing. The only time they work on things together is show and tell (letter / sound recognition) and circle time. The rest is mostly independent work. I do not contain the ability to truly leave her be to work, nor is she fully capable of not trying to drag me into her work. So school taught and fostered her self-exploration and discovery without mama or teacher on top of her. School gives her the pride of job completion as well as many curious opportunities to learn more.

The ‘teacher’ is more or less along for the ride and gives individual direction of new projects (work) but they are on their own for a lot of the work and for me that teaches self-discipline and work ethic.

I couldn’t manage all that they do (by not doing for her) at school if I were to try to do the same at home. I can supplement it though and I do try. But class definitely outweighed home greatly.