Everything you need to know about The Montessori Method

Everything you need to know about The Montessori Method

I get it. You’re busy, and you just want to get back to work. You’re trying to figure out how to teach your child, but someone has not only told you that there’s a better way, but that it will also make your life easier. You’re thinking about buying or preparing Montesssori materials and activities for your home, but how will you learn the Montessori Method?

The Montessori Method refers to the philosophy, approach, systems, practices and thought processes that inform the decision-making of the adult. It emphasizes independence, self-discipline, scientific observation and freedoms within limits that result in a meticulously prepared environment where the child demonstrates their capability to educate themselves.

It’s easy to get caught up in the “what” of Montessori. After all, it’s fun to buy new toys and learn new activities! But if your focus is on what the adult is teaching rather than how the child is learning, you’re missing out on a lot of important information. In fact, most of a Montessori teacher’s time is spent on thinking about how to prepare and arrange an environment where children can make choices and show their independence – not on what lessons they need to teach.

Is most of your time spent wondering what materials and activities to buy or what lessons to teach? If so- it’s time for a change!

Learning the Montessori Method provides you with a framework for thinking about and facilitating your child’s education. It helps you understand how to prepare your environment with motives to spark the child’s interest, so that your child can learn on their own and at their own pace. It also helps you organize learning experiences for your child based on what they’re learning rather than on what you’re teaching.

Materials and activities are tools to help us facilitate the child’s learning, engage them in their work and ignite their imagination, but they should not be the center of planning or the driving force that informs how we prepare our environment.

The Montessori Method is, well, methodical. It is a way of teaching. Teaching in a radically different way than most of us -who were raised with adult-directed, compliance-driven, performance-based methodologies – are used to. Many of us don’t often recognize that HOW we are taught is much more important than WHAT we are taught. We think of it as one in the same.

The Montessori Method takes into account the human desire to learn, to explore and learn more about our world. It is based on human development – not performance standards driven by political interests. It considers what would motivate the child intrinsically to learn – not what will keep him busy or entertained enough to perform. It teaches isolated skills – not overarching objectives. It uses didactic materials – not manipulatives. It is collaborative – not hierarchical. 

The Montessori Method is a long-term, character-building solution, not a compliance one, that differentiates between individuality & individualism and guides the child along their unique path to fulfill their cosmic task (that which anything in the universe does to contribute to the greater good).