Montessori Materials Quotes

Because the materials selected for a specific purpose such as food preparation are set on a tray in order and sequence of use, from left to right and top to bottom, the child mentally incorporates this precise order it becomes part of his functional intelligence

After you have planned each detail of an activity, organized a tray of materials, and practiced with them, you can model a cycle of activity with the child. Do so very slowly and methodically, pausing briefly after each step. Your child wants to imitate you but his thinking skills are limited. He relies on habit, pattern and repetition.

...Montessori decided her teachers must each write their own textbook based on their own understanding of Montessori education... her own personal guidebook to refer to, revise, and add to throughout her teaching career. ...By writing her own guidebook, the Montessori teacher is forced to think through her personal approach to the materials and the children on a deeper level than if she were merely handed someone else's answers. This policy of asking each teacher to state her own understanding of Montessori philosophy is consistent with a philosophy and method of education that asks children to discover their own answers, instead of expecting to appropriate and substitute someone else's experiences for their own.

Montessori believed that if children were exposed to a safe, experiential learning environment (as opposed to a structured classroom), with access to specific learning materials and supplies, and if they were supervised by a gentle and attentive teacher, they would become self-motivated to learn. She discovered that, in this environment, older children readily worked with younger children, helping them to learn from, and cooperate with, each other. Montessori advocated teaching practical skills, like cooking, carpentry, and domestic arts, as an integrated part of a classical education in literature, science, and math. To her surprise, teenagers seemed to benefit from this approach the most; it built confidence, and the students became less resistant to traditional educational goals. Through this method, each child could reach his or her potential, regardless of age and intellectual ability.

Montessori classrooms emphasize self-directed learning, hands-on engagement with a wide variety of materials (including plants and animals), and a largely unstructured school day. And in recent years they’ve produced alumni including the founders of Google (Larry Page and Sergey Brin), Amazon (Jeff Bezos), and Wikipedia (Jimmy Wales). These examples appear to be part of a broader trend. Management researchers Jeffrey Dyer and Hal Gregersen interviewed five hundred prominent innovators and found that a disproportionate number of them also went to Montessori schools, where “they learned to follow their curiosity.” As a Wall Street Journal blog post by Peter Sims put it, “the Montessori educational approach might be the surest route to joining the creative elite, which are so overrepresented by the school’s alumni that one might suspect a Montessori Mafia.” Whether or not he’s part of this mafia, Andy will vouch for the power of SOLEs. He was a Montessori kid for the

Essentials:   Child-size table Child-sized chairs, one for each of your children and at least one or two more for guests A low bookcase or cubicle. Your child should be able to easily see and reach anything on top of this piece of furniture. IKEA is a fantastic place to pick up things like this! Age appropriate items for chosen Montessori activities. A more detailed list of activities and supplies will be provided later in the book. Several rubber storage containers or other storage devices. These do not need to remain in your schooling area; in fact it is recommended that they be removed. You will want to give your child a limited choice of several activities in their workspace, and have the supplies accessible to them. You will likely have many activities that you want to try or a supply of materials that do not fit the current activity choices. Since too many choices and too much clutter will over-stimulate the young mind, you will want a place to store your materials until they are ready to be rotated into use.   Helpful Items:   Extra bins, baskets and trays. Colorful, realistic, stimulating decorations for the area. A work rug.

I believe that in the Montessori environment children learn through using their 5 senses and working with their hands. It is important to supply children with materials that allow self-correction, develop fine motor skills, represent reality (e.g. book with realistic characters), and encourage diversity.

First and foremost, the child must have respect for the materials in the learning environment. Each item has a purpose in the space. Unless you are encouraging imaginative play during free-play time, it is important that the child understand that each object is only to be used for the designated activity. Your child will have free choice of activities. If they choose an activity, they use the materials properly. All materials must be returned and cleaned up when finished.

The needed materials for each specific activity are gathered together on a tray for the child. This preselection by the adult is necessary because, as we have noted, the child has an absorbent mind rather than a reasoning mind. Before the age of six, the child cannot reason through what materials he will need and know where to find them.

The truth is that when a free spirit exists, it has to materialize itself in some form of work, and for this the hands are needed. Everywhere we find traces of men's handiwork, and through these we can catch a glimpse of his spirit and the thoughts of his time. —Maria Montessori

If a child starts attending a Montessori preschool program, I’d advise against replicating the Montessori materials at home so that they will stay engaged at school. Instead we can continue Montessori at home by including the child in daily life and making sure they have time for unstructured play, opportunities to create, time outdoors, and time for rest. They will continue to practice skills through practical life, arts and crafts, movement and music, and books.

Maria alerta sobre el exceso de estímulos, porque considera que demasiado material puede confundir. No le gustan los juguetes, que le parecen desorientadores, porque sugieren que el niño ha de distraerse, y en cambio ella quiere facilitar la concentración.

It is important that we do not provide adult-made models, coloring books or sheets, or prepared "color-in" papers. Never show a child how to draw or paint something—like a flower or a house; the child will often simply repeat and repeat what you have shown. Famous artists like Paul Klee and Pablo Picasso worked for many years to achieve the originality, spontaneity, and childlike qualities that our children all possess naturally. The best we can do for our children is to prepare a beautiful environment, provide the best materials, and get out of the way.

Education is to guide activity, not repress it. Environment cannot create human power, but only give it scope and material, direct it, or at most but call it forth; and the teacher's task is first to nourish and assist, to watch, encourage, guide, induce, rather than to interfere, prescribe, or restrict

The child should be permitted to choose what he wants to work with and to repeat or stop as he pleases. However, each task must be completed before the material is returned to its place. He must not be allowed to stop simply because he has lost interest. Perseverance is a good lesson in self-discipline.

After this study of the methods in use throughout Europe I concluded my experiments upon the deficients of Rome, and taught them throughout two years. I followed Séguin's book, and also derived much help from the remarkable experiments of Itard. Guided by the work of these two men, I had manufactured a great variety of didactic material. These materials, which I have never seen complete in any institution, became in the hands of those who knew how to apply them, a most remarkable and efficient means, but unless rightly presented, they failed to attract the attention of the deficients.