How is the child's exploration and orientation in his physical environment complimented by the montessori mate

Question

How is the child's exploration and orientation in his physical environment complimented by the montessori mate

Answer 1

I assume that last word is "Materials."

This is almost one of those questions you dred getting when the phone rings.  If the parent is at the school looking around and they ask, I can point things out and describe it well and it becomes really clear.  If they are on the phone, they do not have a concept of what the materials are like.  So, I hope this answer is a good start and I will check  back with this as time goes on to see if you added additional details and try to address those as they come up.

I'll babble for a minute (or more) and I hope this helps answer your question.

The practical life area is something that is distinctly different from a lot of "traditional" schools.  Montessori observed how children work when they are given purposeful work.  To a casual outsider, the practical life seems unimportant overall.  Parents sometimes figure the child will learn how to wash tables or do dishes anyway throughout their life, so they are not worried about it being part of their curriculum.  What they do not see is that is only part of the practical life experience for the child.  We do not teach the child how to clean a table.  I mean...we do.  And anyone who has a table washed by a Montessori child knows how perfect it can end up looking in the end.  But our goal is not to be concerned about whether the table is clean.  It is to make sure the process is set up in place for HOW they do it.  Next time you observe in a Montessori classroom and they have a large activity like table scrubbing, watch exactly how the child scrubs the table.  It will remind you of how a doctor sets everything up for surgery.  This does several things:

--Develops a way for a child to focus on the process of an activity.  Too often in education, the child is focused on whether or not they learn the material.  Montessori materials are set up so that if they do the materials well, they will learn the material.

--Builds up a level of concentration and focus.  I know I'm biased and I don't mean offense to anyone, but I have not found a higher level of focus than what a Montessori child has (assuming the Montessori school is well run).

--Develop a sense of purpose in the room.  Through many of the practical life activities, the child gains a sense that this is their room to take care of.  That often carries over in a large degree to the home.  

When I see a Montessori classroom where children seem unfocused, they are not using the materials in a constructive way, and they just seem "off," the first thing I look to is the practical life area.  If that is not set up and managed well, the rest of the classroom tends to be a mess.

Besides building focus, the materials give the child the ability to problem solve.  Everything from the red rods, which focus on longest/shortest (a concept most of the 3 year olds starting out don't fully grasp even if they seem to) all the way up to the hardest thing a Kindergartener can do, there is some level of what we call "control of error."  If the child makes a mistake, it often becomes obvious to them and they then have the ability to correct it.  Works such as the cylinder blocks are fantastic because you cannot put it away unless it's done correctly.  So the child is then faced with the dilema of how to solve this puzzle.  The teacher does not solve it for him/her.  So the child learns how to solve problems on his/her own.  And, if the practical life area is set up well, they have the concentration to do it.  I remember a specific example where a child was matching up sandpaper numbers with each other.  We had 0-9 set out in order and they would lay another set of sandpaper numbers down to match them up.  His last number was 3 and it was in the box upside down and he did not see where it went.  He spent about 20-25 minutes trying out different things.  

He took the rest of the numbers and put them by 3 to see if they matched and see if he made a mistake there.  That didn't work.  

He put all the numbers back in the box and started over.  That didn't work.  

He actually got up to look at another 0-9 activity to see if the "3" we had was wrong.  That didn't bring any solutions.

Finally he saw that his 3 was upside down.  He fixed it and a sense of satisfaction just came across his face.  

On the surface, it looks like he just learned which way the 3 goes.  What we really see is that he learned a process for how to solve the problem.  That's something I cannot "teach" the child.  But the materials in the Montessori environment are set up so that the child naturally learns these things.

Another aspect of the Montessori materials is that they must be genuine and attractive.  We do not eat off plastic plates.  We eat off plates that if they fall, they break.  With the attractive aspect, the children are really drawn to the bead cabinet.  If they are drawn to it, they are interested in it.  If they're interested in it, they'll learn want to learn about it.  And I take it a little farther than some Montessori teachers, where I take the time to explain what the square root and the cube roots are.  I figure if a child spent the time to learn to count to 1000, they have the focus to learn that the cube root of 1000 is 10 and the square root of 100 is 10.

Let me end with this.  Sorry for babbling.  The materials have multiple levels of purpose.  There are countless unobvious purposes for the materials.  I had a girl come to us once who was 4 1/2 and she grabbed her pencil with her whole hand - like someone much younger would.  I tried once to show her how to hold it and it did not work.  So I showed her the cylinder blocks.  First I showed her just one and she found it too easy.  Then I got out all four and took all the pieces out (that is 40 pieces).  She loved putting it back together.  What people might not realize is the k***s on the cylinders are designed so that the natural way to hold them is to use a pencil grib.  Every day, for 3 days, she chose those cylinder blocks.  On the 3rd day, I showed her how to hold a pencil and she never had any problems with it since.

Answer 2

My 3 year old goes to a Montessori school and it's absolutely amazing.  The environment is completely at her level, the materials teach basic sensory, language, and quantitative skills.  The social enviroment is what she has benefited from the most; the older children are role models and tutors to the younger children and self-discipline is expected from all children.

The Montessori education is well worth the money.