From Independence to Interdependence

In Montessori, we talk a lot about independence. However, one of the lesser known or understood aspects of Montessori is that independence isn’t the end goal.

As humans, we are each wonderful, unique individuals. But we don’t exist in isolation. We live amongst other wonderful, unique individuals! In order to effectively live in community with other people, though, we need to be able to function independently. Said another way, before we can offer help to others or make ourselves useful, we need to be able to meet our own needs.

How can we be independent and interdependent at the same time?

We all want to make choices for ourselves, exercise our liberty, and be responsible for our own lives. At the same time, we also want to be part of something. We are designed to be both independent and be in community. These two needs are not mutually exclusive, but in fact, operate in relationship to each other. We have an innate desire to be autonomous and to belong.

When we develop the ability to act for ourselves, make choices, control ourselves, and accept responsibility, we are able to be functioning, contributing members of society. We can see what needs doing and do it because we have the skills to do so. We can work with others to create solutions or produce goods and services. We can be part of a community by acting and taking responsibility for our actions, each able to contribute because we all have the skills to do so.

What does this have to do with children and Montessori education?

From a very young age, children are trying to exert control over their lives. Children are trying to gain functional independence from birth to about age three. In Montessori classrooms, we offer all sorts of opportunities for young children to develop skills that help them take care of their basic needs. But we don’t stop there! We also provide so many ways children can care for others and for their surroundings.

Once children have mastered pouring from one pitcher to another, they are able to pour water into a vase and arrange flowers to beautify the classroom. After they learn how to sweep, they are quick to notice a spill and rush to get the dustpan and dust brush so they can help. When someone is struggling to zip their jacket, they take pride in sharing their newfound skill in service to someone else’s need.

As children move into the elementary years, this service to others often takes on a slightly different form, in part because elementary-age children are developing their intellectual independence. Thus, their contribution often involves applying these newfound intellectual skills. They might notice a classmate struggling to figure out the steps in a math problem and offer support. Or when friends are in conflict, they might provide some mediation to help each party listen to the others’ perspective.

In adolescence, young adults are ready to work toward being socially and economically independent. They want to figure out their place in society, grapple with real problems, and contribute in a useful way. Thus, Montessori adolescent programs offer teens the chance to develop and feel secure in their own abilities while also collaborating in real and meaningful social endeavors. In the process of running a small business, for example, adolescents are applying their intellectual skills from marketing to mathematics, while also navigating how to communicate with customers and collaborate with classmates.

Why is this important?

As humans, we want to achieve independence and belonging. Being independent is about learning the skills to be able to contribute in a meaningful way. All the little conquests of independence–throughout each age and stage of development–matter! When our infant reaches to grasp an object, our two-year-old demands to put their shirt on themselves, our eight-year-old argues about just and fair rules of a game, or our adolescent insists they can solve a problem with their peers, we can remember that these acts of independence are laying a foundation for our children to become part of an interdependent, harmonious society.

Independence is just a step. Interdependence is the ultimate goal.

The Legacy of Dr. Maria Montessori

To honor Dr. Maria Montessori’s birthday on August 31, we want to reflect back on her life and her profound influence on how we see and honor children’s potential. 

Many educational systems start with adults having an idea of what is best for children. The Montessori approach, however, began with Dr. Montessori being intensely curious and observing children’s growth and development. 

It’s worth remembering that Dr. Montessori was first and foremost a scientist. In fact, Dr. Montessori was one of the first female physicians in Italy in the late 19th century. Specializing in pediatrics and psychiatry, she had regular contact with working-class and poor children through free clinics at the University of Rome’s medical school. Through these initial experiences, Dr. Montessori theorized that children are born with incredible learning potential and an intrinsic desire to explore, discover, and learn about their world.  

In 1900, she was appointed director of a University of Rome program for developmentally delayed children considered uneducable. After observing the drab conditions of the institution and the children’s attempts to find anything of sensory interest, Dr. Montessori began studying the importance of sensory experiences in cognitive development.

She then spent two years teaching the children and directing the work of teachers in the institute. Eventually, Dr. Montessori’s developmentally delayed students were able to pass the standard tests of Italian schools. Her response? She stated that if children with developmental challenges could pass the tests, the traditional schools of the time should be able to get dramatically better results with typically developing children!

This experience caused Dr. Montessori to want to examine how education could support, rather than stifle or repress, children’s development.

In 1907, Dr. Montessori had her opportunity. She was invited to coordinate daycare in the slums of San Lorenzo for working-class children too young for public school. Dr. Montessori began by teaching the older children how to help with everyday tasks. She also introduced practical skills of everyday living, including hygiene and self-care. Gradually, Dr. Montessori incorporated manipulative puzzles and activities to assist children with learning different skills and concepts. The children were drawn to the materials and reveled in the process of beautifying themselves and their surroundings. Each day the children’s behavior improved, and they eventually begged her to show them more, including how to read and write.

As she prepared the space and the adults supporting these previously unkempt, unruly, and uneducated children, Dr. Montessori saw an incredible and seemingly spontaneous kind of learning and work happen. The children became calm and peaceful. They took care of themselves and their surroundings. And they developed concentration and a love of learning.

Dr. Montessori was fascinated. Building upon her previous work, she continued to experiment and design unique learning materials that nurtured children’s natural desire to learn. News of this success in San Lorenzo soon spread through Italy and eventually dignitaries from other countries began visiting to see this miracle firsthand. 

Around age 40, Dr. Montessori left a doctor’s career and a professorship at the University of Rome to continue her work for children. Throughout the rest of her life, she offered courses and lectures, wrote books, and trained educators, all the while insisting that the focus be on children, rather than on her. 

Through scientific investigation, the study of available research, trial and error, and observation, Dr. Montessori saw that children across cultures and countries flourish in a setting that provides just the right support at critical times of development. 

Because Montessori education is focused on the science of human development, the approach has withstood the test of time and culture. Today the Montessori approach has been implemented in approximately 20,000 Montessori schools around the world, with more than 3,000 in the U.S. alone. With over 100 years of practice, Montessori has worldwide recognition as an educational approach that helps children achieve their fullest potential.

We invite you to come to see this legacy in action!

What is Practical Life?

When you visit a Montessori school, you’ll likely hear the phrase “practical life.” We thought it might be helpful to provide a little more context so we can share why practical life is so important to what we do.

First, let’s break apart the phrase. “Practical” can mean the actual doing or use of something. The term “life" can be described as living things and their activity. So, when we combine the two terms, we can think of “practical life” as activity that is focused on doing something useful. 

In Montessori, we offer young children useful activities that serve a real purpose. Children have beautiful child-sized materials that allow them to wash tables, dust shelves, polish silver, prepare food, and so much more. Although most traditional early childhood programs have a play area that includes cleaning items or kitchen toys, these items are for pretend, imitation, and play rather than for actually cleaning or cooking.

But why does a toddler need to polish their shoes or do laundry with a scrub board? Are the tasks drudgery? Isn’t childhood an age for play? To answer these questions, we need to look at what is happening during childhood, which is what Dr. Maria Montessori did over 100 years ago. 

Origins of Practical Life Exercises

The exercises of practical life began in order to serve a very practical need. Dr. Montessori had responsibility for children who were being destructive in a building in the slums of Rome. The proprietors needed to take care of the building, yet the children were rather wild and unkempt. As a physician, Dr. Montessori knew the importance of hygiene in preventing illness. Thus, one of the first things she did was to offer basins of water and cakes of soap. Then Dr. Montessori showed the children how to wash their hands and faces.

What happened was unexpected. Once the children washed their hands and faces, they didn’t stop. They kept washing. They did it again and again. Dr. Montessori said the children repeated the activity as if driven by some kind of imperceptible force. Instead of stopping them, like adults are apt to do, Dr. Montessori watched. She wanted to see what would happen. With curiosity, patience, and powers of scientific observation, she observed a need that went way beyond washing hands. From these practical beginnings, came a very significant discovery for Dr. Montessori. 

Montessori’s Discovery about Children and Work

Dr. Montessori discovered the fundamental difference between work as adults experience it and work as children experience it. Often, as adults, we think of work as bringing on fatigue. However, Dr. Montessori observed how work for children is energizing.

Young children have an intense urge to do things! Think about the crawling infant who is completely compelled to try to get up the stairs, so matter how many times we bring them back down or try to block the steps. 

Typically we, as adults, stop children from doing certain activities because we think the action is too tiring, too difficult, too dangerous, too messy, or because it will be more efficient and faster for us to do it ourselves.

Yet young children have a compulsion to engage in activities with a huge amount of effort. In fact, young children will become quite distressed when their activity is interrupted.

Understanding Children’s Motivation 

Young children’s goals for doing activities are not practical ones. They aren’t motivated by having clean hands or a polished candlestick. Dr. Montessori discovered that young children’s motivation to work and gain independence is part of their process of constructing themselves. They are motivated to interact with their surroundings in order to create who they are as humans. Children are working to coordinate and refine movements, gain independence, master sequences of activity, and essentially create their future personalities. It’s easy to tell when children are in this stage because they will do an activity repeatedly, even in one day or in one sitting. This is what Dr. Montessori observed when she offered basins of water and cakes of soap to the children in San Lorenzo.

Gradually, around the ages of four and five, children become fueled by a love and appreciation of their surroundings and their community. They want to put their skills to use! While the youngest children will wash a clean table ten times, slightly older children will wash a table once because it is dirty. Often older children will notice a something that needs attending to, like a lot of dirty cloths in the laundry basket and want to wash the items to make sure everything is clean for the next day. 

Making Activities Accessible

In Montessori settings, we make sure that the processes of everyday living are accessible to children. Items are sized for the children because it’s hard to sweep when the broom is larger than one’s body! Children also get to see and participate in steps that are often not visible to them, like what happens in the dishwasher. Thus, when we offer children the steps of washing dishes, we are gifting them with the awareness of each step involved: how we go from dirty dishes to clean dishes includes wetting the dishes, scrubbing them with soap, rinsing the dishes, and finally drying them. 

We also slow down the movements involved so that children can see, absorb, and practice each necessary skill. When children can practice each step slowly and intentionally, they learn how to do things like unbuttoning or buttoning their sweater or tying their shoes. Having time and space to practice the activities allows children to be active participants in taking care of themselves and their community.

Some Outcomes of Practical Life Activities

How can getting oneself dressed or scrubbing a table help with children’s development? Practical life activities help children develop critical skills like intelligence and memory, concentration and focus, awareness and self-confidence, self-control and self-discipline, and the ability to problem-solve and think rationally.

When even the youngest children are following a complex series of steps in order to accomplish something like washing a cloth, they are developing their memory and intelligence. They see how to set up the basins of water, wet the cloth, get the soap, scrub, rinse, hang the cloth the dry, repeat, and then clean everything up when finished. Then they hold that sequence in their minds in order to do the activity themselves. In the process, they are also developing their capacity for logical ordered thinking. 

In addition, when working on practical life activities, children strengthen their ability to reason. They have to consider things like whether they need to apply more polish or if the table is completely dry. As such, children begin to develop an awareness of their impact which also creates self-confidence. When they see that the table is dirty after pitting cherries and get the table scrubbing activity out, they have taken a step along the path of becoming logical problem-solvers. 

Through the exercises of practical life, children also increase their self-control and self-discipline. Some of this self-control comes from the ability to put the needs of the community ahead of their own needs. A toddler who scoops avocado to make guacamole to share at snack may want to eat the avocado right away. However, they delay gratification in order to serve friends during snack time. Children also learn to put things away when they are finished using them, which helps establish a life-long habit of self-discipline.

We also offer challenges that help children develop skills that will lead to more concentration and focus. We might pose these suggestions as questions: Do you think you could wash this table without spilling a drop of water anywhere? How many times can you spoon the beans back and forth without spilling any? Offering these little points of consciousness provides children with a challenge that helps them strengthen their ability to concentrate and persevere, while also helping them refine their fine and gross motor skills.

From their very humble beginnings, the exercises of practical life provide children with so many benefits! In addition to developing the foundation for executive functioning skills (like task initiation, self-control, organization, planning and prioritizing, and holding information in working memory) practical life activities help children develop a deep love and appreciation for their surroundings and for those who live in their community.

Practical life activities are the cornerstone of Montessori classrooms. We invite you to come to see this remarkable work in action! 

Movement Matters!

In Montessori, we honor children’s movement, even from birth! One reason why we focus so much on movement for young children is that healthy movement development in the first two years of life can provide our children with considerable benefits in the years to come. 

So, let’s take a quick look at the science to better understand how to support our infants and toddlers during this critical time. 

Movement & Myelination

At birth, movements are spontaneous and reflexive, like sucking and swallowing which are essential for survival. These early reflexive movements originate from the spinal cord and brain stem, but soon movement matures from the head down. 

Our brains depend upon our sensory nervous system to share information about the surrounding world. This information actually shapes our brains’ connections and neural pathways.

For infants, these neural connections are just forming. As electrical signals move from one area of the brain to another, as well as down through the spinal cord to the rest of the body, they need smooth passage along what are called axons. Axons basically act like electrical wires conducting electrical signals. 

Those signals need to be transmitted quickly and efficiently. Just like electrical wires need insulation so the electricity isn’t dissipated, axons need insulation, too! For more rapid passage of these electrical messages, axons become insulated by a layer of lipids and proteins, a process called myelination.

Babies are born without much myelin, which explains why their reaction times are so slow and movements so effortful. But with each experience and repetition, the myelin sheaths around axons get thicker. Myelin essentially greases the wires and allows signals to travel along the axons faster and more effectively.

More myelination in infants’ motor systems allows them to lift their heads, reach out, roll over, crawl, and eventually walk and run.

Mobiles for Movement

Within the first weeks of life after birth, babies begin to learn to control their eyes which means some of the first myelination happens with infants’ eye muscles. 

To support this development, we provide carefully designed and placed mobiles, which help babies develop their visual capacities for focus and tracking. Changed as developmentally appropriate, mobiles offer newborns the opportunity to focus on an object, track it, perceive sensory details, and eventually attempt to reach for it.  

When infants begin to reach for the mobile, we begin to offer something slightly different, like a bell hanging from a ribbon. Babies will try and try again, with great concentration and focus, to move their arms so as to make contact with the object and cause it to move or make a sound. They thus discover the relationship between sight and touch. 

At first, physical contact with a hanging bell or ball may appear haphazard. Yet infants are seeing the item and making a muscular effort to connect with what they see. With repeated practice, infants are actually developing the myelin coating that will make their future efforts to reach and eventually grasp more efficient and successful.

Safe Space for Movement

For similar reasons, infants need space for movement. Often, we’re more apt to hold our infants or keep them in carriers. However, babies benefit from having space to move, and almost slither, their bodies on the floor. When you create the time and space for these slow whole-body movements, you’ll see that infants will often slither their bodies around in a clockwise direction!

When infants attempt to slither and move, they are very focused. This concentration allows them to start connecting how the mind and body work together. In Your Child’s Growing Mind: Brain Development and Learning from Birth to Adolescence, Dr. Jane Healy offers an important reminder: “After birth, physical activities are one of the child’s main means of advancing physical, intellectual, and emotional growth, so you should encourage many forms of body movement.”

Clothing also matters. In order to safely move their bodies, babies need clothing that doesn’t restrict their movements. Comfortable fabrics with forgiving elastics are best. Light clothing around the arms and legs offers more opportunities for movement and exploration. It’s also best to allow babies to have bare feet so they can have more sensory input and more traction as they begin to move.

Hands Send Information to the Brain

In addition to gross motor development, which will eventually progress from slithering to crawling to walking, infants are taking in information about the world through their hands. 

In this process, babies develop an awareness of the connection between what they observe and what they touch. Sensory experiences begin to be linked to their mental development. Although little mitts are adorable and seem useful to keep infants from scratching themselves, it’s much more beneficial for babies’ development to have their hands uncovered. 

Eventually, children begin to use their hands to not only take in information about the world but also to begin manipulating things in their surroundings. To help this development of hand movements, our little ones need purposeful activities that allow for exploration and the development of different types of hand grasps.

Children’s development of their hands is directly connected to the development of their brains. The brain sends a signal to the hand, and the hand moves and sends a sensory message back to the brain. With this new information, the brain can guide the hand in new ways, thus allowing the hand to discover more information by performing the new direction. And the feedback loop continues!

Gross Motor Skills Start with Tummy Time

While infants are developing these fine motor skills through coordination of their hands, they are also developing gross motor abilities. Early on babies need sufficient opportunities to develop large muscles, in particular their truck and neck. Thus, time lying on their belly is important, as this provides the opportunity for infants to push up with their arms and develop a stronger torso and neck. 

Tummy time “push-ups” with the arms while in the stomach position are key in forming needed coordination and strength for all of their subsequent large-muscle development. Then, as infants develop enough torso and neck control to push themselves into a seated position, they free their hands for further exploration and development.  

A similar process occurs when toddlers are able to move from cruising while holding on to objects for support, to walking without assistance. Suddenly they are able to move through their environment and use their hands for purposeful endeavors. 

From “tummy-time” to rolling, to sitting up, to scooting, to crawling, and eventually, to cruising and walking, our young children are beginning to explore their world and develop their sense of self. 

Developing Purposeful Movements

Dr. Maria Montessori explains that, as children gain strength through these activities, they begin to look toward those around them to imitate our actions and learn how to be a member of society. Children are interested in what we do and how we do it. They want to use their bodies in new and purposeful ways. 

From the first days after birth, when a newborn can only control their eyes to see a mobile to when they move their hand and make contact with a bell hanging on a ribbon, these experiences help children recognize that they can control their movements. The sensory feedback helps strengthen an impulse within children to look or to try to move. Every experience involves movement. The more infants move, the more myelin they form, and the stronger their ability to act according to their own volition.

Movement Matters!

Sensorial experiences are vital for the development of movement and children use their movements to extend their understanding of the world. They see, hear, touch, and taste. The more they use parts of their body to explore their world, the more their movements become refined and the more they are able to make sense of their surroundings.  

Children need the opportunity to explore, practice, and repeat movements through simulating and purposeful activity in a safe and supportive setting. Through these repeated experiences, our infants and toddlers develop their muscles, perfect their movements, and ultimately perfect themselves.

Although every child follows a typical timetable in terms of developing motor skills, their surroundings can either hinder or promote the acquisition and mastery of these abilities. Providing appropriate opportunities offers our children the chance for repeated practice and thus speeds the myelination process. Ultimately, as children develop their motor abilities, they come to recognize themselves as competent, capable, and unique individuals.

Want to see some competent, capable, and unique children moving through well-designed learning environments? Contact us today to schedule a visit! 

Why Do Families Make the Switch?

There are many different reasons why families choose Montessori for their child. Some enroll when their child is young and stay the course. Others discover it a bit later on. Others, still, leave their Montessori school and end up returning a year or two later.

Why do parents gravitate toward this unique method of education? Here are a few of the main reasons we have seen frequently in recent years.

They’re Wary of High-Stakes Testing

Many educators like to think of the field as a pendulum that swings back and forth over the decades. Sometimes regulations and trends tend toward restrictive measures, while other times everything is more flexible.

Right now in the public sector, the focus is on standardization and testing. The results of high-stakes tests given to students can affect school funding, oversight, and the way teachers are made to educate their students. As for the children, they feel the pressure of these tests, and this often gets in the way of joyful learning.

When we hear about teachers feeling forced to “teach to the test”, it’s not a myth. This might not happen everywhere, but it absolutely happens. Many parents, understandably, want a different experience for their children.

They Value Recess and the Outdoors

With the abovementioned emphasis on standards and pressures of state oversight, certain elements of the school day have fallen to the wayside in some places. It is not uncommon in recent years for a school to discontinue programs in the arts, or to drastically reduce the amount of time dedicated to children’s time outdoors. Many kids have a shocking fifteen minutes of recess time each day.

Research has shown that frequent breaks and adequate access to outdoor green spaces dramatically increases children’s ability to concentrate and engage deeply with their work. Private Montessori schools aren’t typically bound to the same pressures as public schools, so we are able to continue offering our students opportunities we know are best for their development.

They’re Looking for a Different Social Environment

“Social Emotional Learning” has - shockingly - become a negative concept in some areas, with districts outright banning even the mention of this type of work.

To us, learning shouldn’t just be about math and reading. Academics are absolutely important, but so is learning how to be a kind and empathetic human being. Montessori schools are able to take time out of the day to teach in the moment when conflict occurs, as well as include regular, planned lessons that teach children how to care for their emotions and interact with their peers in a healthy manner.

A big part of being successful involves how you interact with others. Our children will grow up to work with people at their jobs, in their communities, and even in their personal relationships. It takes a lot of practice to build the skills needed to handle various relationships in a manner that serves everyone involved.

The elementary years, in particular, can be a tumultuous time for some kids; they gravitate toward their peers, but they don’t always know how to manage conflict. That’s where we come in. We read stories, use role-playing strategies, and teach conflict resolution skills so that our students have all the tools they need to use when something comes up on the playground or in the classroom.

They Want Their Child to Love Learning

School shouldn’t be a necessary evil. It shouldn’t be something children have to endure. It should be a place where adults help children cultivate a deep and passionate joy for learning about the world around them. Children should be encouraged, inspired, and celebrated as they learn at their own pace.

Montessori schools aren’t about forcing children to memorize facts. We want them to feel in awe of the world around them and have the skills to search out information they need or want. We teach the basics in fun ways that kids can’t resist, and we give them a wide variety of science, history, and geographical information. Montessori schools honor the fact that as human beings, we have unique talents and interests, and we make time for each of our students to further explore areas they are drawn to.

The Traditional Classroom Structure Isn’t Working for Their Child

Although many schools are beginning to change, there is still a long way to go. Sitting in rows of desks and listening to a teacher lecture the whole group at a single pace isn’t a model that works for most kids.

Kids need to be able to move around. They need to be able to get help when they’re struggling, and zip ahead when they need more challenges. Education should never be a one-size-fits-all approach, because in reality, one-size fits very few.

In Montessori environments, children are free to sit where they like. This may be at a table, on the floor, by themselves, or with a group of others. Their needs may change from one minute to the next, and that’s perfectly okay.

We believe children - even very young children - should have autonomy over their own bodies and basic needs. If they’re hungry, they should have a snack without having to wait another hour for the scheduled lunch time. If they’re thirsty, they should be able to get themselves a cup and some water. If they need to use the toilet, they shouldn’t need the permission of an adult. We believe there are ways to create structures that allow for children to attend to these basic needs independently and safely. We don’t feel the need to exercise control over these types of things.

Are there other reasons families choose Montessori? Absolutely. These are just a handful of what we hear from parents. If you’re considering Montessori for your child, we encourage you to come to our school and take a look. We would be happy to give you a tour or meet to discuss your situation and answer any questions you may have.

Choosing a path for your child’s education is deeply personal. Know that we are here to support your family.

Montessori vs. Daycare: 5 Key Differences

Many families rely on childcare while their children are still young. Figuring out the best place to drop your little one off every day is a big decision. Parents want to ensure their child spends their days safe, comfortable, and happy, and under the watchful eye of well-trained and competent adults.

Daycare is the obvious choice for many folks…that is, until they become aware of other options.

If you’re reading this article, it’s likely you are one of those parents who is trying to figure out the best possible placement for your child. Allow us to highlight five key differences between a typical daycare center and a Montessori school.

1. An Emphasis on Education

Montessori goes beyond the reaches of a typical daycare facility. While daycares focus on watching and caring for children, Montessori schools do this and more by creating an environment focused on children’s learning.

We believe education starts at birth. Children’s days should be filled with play, as that is how they learn, but we create space for them to play in ways that enrich their development.

We don’t fill our classroom with whatever toys look fun; we carefully prepare an environment with materials that have been developed after careful scientific observation and used for over 100 successful years. These materials are still games and toys from the perspective of the child, but they tend to have much different effects on them from a learning perspective.

2. A Natural Environment

Most daycare environments are filled with bright colors, plastic toys, and maybe even a cartoon character or two.

Montessori environments eschew any type of commercialism or characters. They utilize natural materials like wood, plant fibers, and even glass. Natural tones are favored over bright and loud colors, and soft and natural lighting is evident.

Montessori classrooms intentionally bring the natural world inside, with plants, found objects, and pets. Children are directly involved with the care of living things in the classroom.

Daycares may have bright posters on the wall, whereas Montessori environments favor a minimalist approach and examples of art displayed at the level of the child’s viewpoint.

3. Specially-Trained Guides

The training of a Montessori guide goes far beyond the training of a typical daycare worker. To care for young children, both must meet certain requirements such as first aid training, passing a background check, and some knowledge of working with children.

Montessori guides, however, continue far beyond the basics. Most have college degrees, with many obtaining advanced degrees. They have completed rigorous Montessori credential training, which includes comprehensive instruction on child development, intensive lessons to help them present Montessori materials correctly, work in Montessori philosophy, and so much more.

We encourage you to ask your local daycare facility about their teacher training requirements and compare them to Montessori requirements while you explore your options.

4. The Sense of Community

When your child is enrolled at a Montessori school, it’s so much more than a place to drop them off each morning. The whole family is welcomed as a part of the school community, and special events and traditions work to solidify this sense of community.

Montessori parents are often eager to connect with one another; we all seem to have a sense that a strong community contributes greatly to the wellbeing of our children. It’s helpful to have other parents to ask questions, hear about experiences, and even socialize with.

Montessori schools are also unique in that we welcome parents into the classroom. In fact, we encourage regular observation. The children are used to adults sitting quietly in a corner of the room, so the practice is unobtrusive, and really gives adults a clear picture of the type of work we do. Many parents walk away from observations in awe of the engagement of the children and the depth of the work/play they show.

5. Development of Practical Life Skills

We believe that learning is so much more than academics, which is why Montessori environments intentionally include practical life lessons. Practical life learning is incredibly appealing to young children as well, as they look to adults in their lives and want to emulate the work they see them doing. Some of the types of skills they develop in our environments include:

• Toilet learning (for infants and toddlers)

• Food preparation

• Care of the environment (cleaning skills)

• Plant and pet care

• Fastening various types of clothing

• Tying and lacing

• Care of self (washing, brushing, etc.)

• Grace and courtesy lessons: interacting appropriately and politely with others

We hope this article has been helpful and informative. To learn more, we encourage you to visit various types of settings in person and ask to observe in the different classrooms. Not only will you notice stark differences, we think you’ll find yourself impressed with the scope of skills covered in a Montessori class (as well as the absolute joy of the children who you see there).

Please reach out to us if you have any questions or would like to schedule a visit. We would love to meet you and your child.