by Claud Agnello

Peer into any Montessori classroom and one sees children working on a variety of activities.  Observe more closely, and what becomes apparent is that the children are of different ages.  This is one of the basic tenets of Montessori education:  the multi-age level classroom.

The age levels are not randomly chosen.  Instead, children are grouped within a three year psychological time frame Maria Montessori called the planes of development.

There are many benefits to having multi-age groupings.  One is the sense of community this engenders in the classroom.  Children learn and grow when they have consistency in their lives and this is provided by the stability of three years in the same environment with familiar friends and staff.  The spirit of community helps children feel secure and empowers them to take the necessary risks in furthering their academic, social, and emotional potential.  Every year that child gets stronger and more confident, building upon the learning from the year before.  The third year in the child’s environment is one of consolidation, helping prepare him/her for the next social/academic level.

Having a multi-age classroom helps foster an environment of mentoring and compassion.  The youngest members are enthusiastically observing and learning from the older generation.  The lesson they are learning is that older ones have wisdom.  In turn, the older classmates grow emotionally as they help and nurture their younger friends.  This is an important step they are taking towards becoming responsible, caring members of society.

Yet another benefit of the three year cycle is how well the teacher gets to know the child and that child’s family.  This enables the teacher, through careful observation and assessment, to help that child achieve his or her highest potential.

The three year cycle is one of the reasons a Montessori education is such a powerful experience in a child’s life.  In order for the child to benefit and the community to prosper, it is of paramount importance that the parents commit to keep their child in for those three years.  Only then can all the benefits be seen.

by Patty Blackburn

    A sensitive period may be defined as “A vital force in every human being which leads to the development of one’s potential.”  A sensitive period is acquired in the infantile state and is transient in nature.  The child, between the ages of zero to six years, experiences sensitive periods for language, order, and movement.  Knowledge of sensitive periods in early childhood has led to an understanding of the child’s mental growth.  During this time, learning is a natural experience,.  It is effortless.  It is a time when a child is most ready to learn a skill.  The Montessori prepared environment (classroom) is equipped with materials which call to the child.  These materials provide rich, hands on sensorial experiences, enabling the child to maximize the benefit of effortless learning.

A child’s sensitive period for language is between zero and five years old, but the peak is between four months to three years of age.  One of the most evident observations of this sensitivity to language is the child’s effortless acquisition of his mother tongue.  The child hears all the sounds in his environment, but is directed toward language.  He is aware of language sounds, begins imitating, is encouraged and reinforced for his efforts, and effortlessly acquires the language of the culture.  By the age of three, the child has a two hundred to three hundred word vocabulary. 

At three years old, the child widens his vocabulary and perfects his sentence structure so it is imperative that the adults provide rich experiences with applicable vocabulary to feed the child’s sensitivity for language.  In the Montessori classroom, we have many materials, objects, and lessons which provide endless opportunities for experiences.  We help to extend the child’s vocabulary by including language.  We provide names for materials and concepts.  We help the child to develop his oral expression by talking with him in a natural flow of conversation; thus the child becomes articulate and comfortable in his native language.

During the Montessori day, as the child is occupied with the work from the shelves, he is also talking to friends.  The work provides him with natural experiences which stimulate conversation.  The director needs to respond to the sensitive period for language, while maintaining the sensitive period for order and the child’s need to repeat and concentrate.  We help the child without force or artificial situations to develop language naturally and spontaneously. As the child enriches his experiences, he has much to discuss.

The teacher is truly a facilitator for language.  The goal is to make the child feel comfortable enough to share experiences through language.  One can extend vocabulary and model language while conversing, but always with great care.  In reference to physical ability, we speak clearly and slowly in whole words and complete sentences.  We understand that language will help the child intellectually to learn, recognize, and name concepts.  We strengthen language in a natural community setting.  We never put the child on the spot or mark him out in a stressful situation.  We teach by modeling rather than correcting.

Storytelling, reading stories, singing songs, reciting nursery rhymes, finger plays, and poems are other ways in which we extend and enrich the language experience in the classroom.  All of these are excellent sources for exposing the child to rich language while feeding the imagination and providing opportunities for language comprehension. 

In building up a child’s verbal ability, we seek to make language a joyful, happy discovery.  We develop skill, but we aren’t setting out to develop skills.  We observe the child’s sensitive period and follow that natural direction.

by Mindy Banks

Parents often ask “what is the difference between a Montessori classroom and a traditional classroom?”  The answer is choice.  In a Montessori environment, children are free to choose what they work on, where they work, who they work with, and the duration of their work.

Choice is often misinterpreted as letting the child do whatever s/he likes.  This is not the case.  Freedom to choose comes with definite limits:

–The child must choose only that work which s/he knows.

–The child must use the materials for their intended purpose. 

–The child should choose work that aids in his learning; i.e. it should be

    challenging, but within his means to accomplish it.

–The choice must not infringe on the learning of other children in the classroom.

As we tell our children, to excel at anything, one must practice.  Children must practice making choices.  They need to do this with the guidance of an adult.  The adult can help by limiting the scope of choices at first, i.e. “would you like to wear the red shirt or the blue shirt” rather than “what would you like to wear today”?  The second question can overwhelm a young child.  As children become more skilled at making choices, they will draw on their experiences to weigh outcomes into their decisions.  But they cannot do that if their parent, teacher, child care provider, grandparents, are making choices for them.  As adults, there are many times when it is appropriate to surrender our egos/authority and give the child a voice in his/her daily living.

In The Discovery of the Child, Montessori laments, “A child is never given time nor even the means to test himself, to evaluate his own strength and limitations, since he is always interrupted by, and subjected to, us.” In other words, we adults are subjecting the child to our will; when we choose what clothes they wear, how they wear their hair, what they take in their lunch box, and sometimes even what to do and say.  Often we adults do too much for our children instead of showing them how to do it themselves. 

All choices come with moral, social and personal obligations. Children must be given the freedom to live with the consequences of their decisions.  For example, if a child makes a choice that is disruptive to the class, the consequence may be that the child has to work by him or herself. Choosing to ignore a rule may result in loss of a privilege, etc. While it is painful to watch children suffer negative consequences; it is important to recognize that through these negative encounters children learn to make better choices. Allowing children the freedom to make their own choices gives them the message that you trust that they can be responsible for themselves, whatever the outcome of their decision. 

Children who learn to make choices about their everyday actions grow up to be independent, self-sufficient adults. Yes, it takes great patience and time, but the rewards are well worth it.  For, “the child who has never learned to act alone, to direct his own actions, to govern his own will, grows into an adult who is easily led and must always lean upon others  (Montessori, Education and Peace).

by Pat Taylor

When Maria Montessori started the first Children’s House in 1906, the prevalent societal notion was that parents owned their children.  Their job was to keep them compliant, quiet, and totally in line with their way of thinking.  Montessori was of the belief that each child is his or her own person, creating the self through purposeful action and development of will.  This new paradigm was that the adult’s role is to create an environment conducive to the child’s natural growth.  Then the child, given proper support, becomes independent, spontaneous, concentrated, orderly, joyful, helpful, social, respectful, and loving.  In order for these tendencies to flourish, Montessori was aware that certain conditions must exist.

First and foremost, the adults in the Montessori environment must have unconditional acceptance and cherishment for each child.  They support and nurture at whatever stage the child is right now.  The director and assistants in the classroom must see each child’s potential.  They must look at each day as a new day for every child.  Whatever happened yesterday falls away with each new beginning.  The adults in the environment must be models for all the positive tendencies that they wish to see in the child.

In the Montessori classroom, certain freedoms exist for each child.  These freedoms may be restricted by boundaries which keep the child and environment a safe and supportive place for the children to work.  These freedoms include the following:  The children may choose any activity which has been presented by the director or another child.  They may work alone or together.  Children are free to work on an activity for as long as they wish, since from repetition comes concentration.  They are free to move about the environment in a careful and determined way.  The children are free to speak to each other with the limit that they must be respectful of others by modulating their tone of voice.  Through lessons in “grace and courtesy”, children are taught to respect the environment and each other.

In a Montessori classroom, the prepared environment is a major guide in the child’s development.  The director has the role of observer, watching each child carefully to see where s/he may need help in development in either a social or academic way.  S/he watches the whole class of children, determining if s/he needs to intervene in some way for the best functioning of the group.  This is often a balancing act.  Too little intervention may cause a class to become unfocused and chaotic.  Too much may promote dependence on the adult and stifle the development of the children’s wills.  The environment must also be dynamic and changing.  The room should be orderly and uncluttered, making it safe for children to explore. 

Positive guidance in helping the child to develop his or her spirit is one of the major components in Montessori education.  It is only with the full development of all the tendencies listed earlier that children will develop into thoughtful, mature adults so needed by this complex society we live in today.