Montessori at Home

A few tips about reinforcing your child’s

Montessori education at home

A word of warning: purchasing the same Montessori materials that you child has at school for your home can, and most likely will, cause your child to become bored with the materials and reject the materials in both locations.  Montessori specific materials are also used in very specific ways to promote learning and also care of those materials.  Letting a child misuse Montessori materials will also adversely affect the child’s school experience and education.

Practical life activities are perhaps the most effortlessly integrated into daily life at home. Here are some activities your child can help with around the house but keep in mind- they will not do it perfectly, they are learning and will make mistakes and messes, they also may not follow through and finish an in depth activity.

• Sorting laundry
• Matching socks, etc.
• Folding/rolling towels-Montessori children practice rolling rugs daily & are inclined towards rolling towels too. A basket of hand towels rolled in the bathroom can be space for them to practice this inclination.
• Feeding pets-Getting a simple container with a scoop/cup so your child can scoop food and pour it into the bowl on their own.
• Giving pets water/watering plants. Get a small pitcher for children to use and fill 1/3 of the way at first for minimal chance of spills.
• Washing the table/other surfaces
• Dusting
• Setting the table-Silverware and napkins are easy for children to put out on the table and are unbreakable.You can print out an image of a table setting for your child to look at and follow.
• Passing/serving food-Even something as simple as sprinkling Parmesan cheese on their own pizza (and yours too) or spooning out vegetables.
• Mixing, measuring, stirring, etc. in food prep. Mashing potatoes or avocado for guacamole.

Adding Parmesan cheese to pasta.

Flower arranging for the living room.

Sensorial activities at home are generally incorporated with blocks, stackers, matching games, and other great educational toys available in stores.  Check out U.S. Toy Store at 103rd and State Line (Kansas City, MO) for great educational toys and materials.

Language is a very important area.  Putting your child’s coloring pages, a coloring page you print off, a letter handwritten on a piece of paper on the refrigerator is a great way to reinforce the letter of the week.  You can discuss the letter while cooking meals/eating breakfast.  enchantedlearning.com has some great free printouts.  You can always check Alpha’s main bulletin board or calendar (available on the website) about which letter we are studying.  Be careful of the resources you choose- children need to learn the lowercase letters because those are more common but many learning activities/toys have only upper case.  Just try to make sure you are going over the lower case as much as possible with your child.  Also make sure if your child is old enough to start writing activities that they are practicing with the first letter capitalized and the subsequent letters lower case, this is VERY hard to “unlearn” once learned incorrectly.  Here are some more early language activities to do at home:

• Flashcards are great for some kids, try to make it fun and not a "drill".
• Scavenger hunt things that begin with a certain letter.  Either have the child find the items on their own or suggest items ("b"- "lets find bear") for younger children.
• Get/make a name tag for your child's room or door- even for younger children.  If they see their name on the door ("Ryan", not "RYAN"- not in all caps!) they will get used to the way their name looks.  Later you can work on the first letter and then the subsequent letters.
• Do table setting name tags and have your child match the name to that person's spot.
• Make a matching letters work for younger children like below. You can use laminated paper with magnets glued on the back like this one or just cardstock/thick material so it's easy to pick up.

Children learn language by listening. When you are talking they are listening.  Use proper grammar and manners to help your child learn them his/herself. Children will more easily pick up “please” and “thank you” when they hear you use the words regularly, especially when you are talking to them.  Read, read, read and let the child look at the words as you read.  Limit or cut out television entirely.  The American Academy of Pediatrics (see /www.healthychildren.org) “recommends limited television for children- and discourages it altogether for children under age 2” (Some-TV-Shows-are-Bad-for-Their-Brains)  “No more than one to two hours per day of educational, nonviolent programs...” (Where-We-Stand-TV-Viewing-Time) are the current recommendation but they are also finding that certain cartoons “fast-paced” cartoons (see first link) are seen to adversely effect children’s cognitive abilities.  The less children watch television and instead play, color, help out around the house the more they are actively developing their brains.

Math can be incorporated throughout your daily activities.  Count everything you can- if you can touch it as you count to show the relationship between physical objects and the numbers that great!  Or just count the train cars, the number of grocery bags, the number of eggs you add to the cookies, etc.  Start simple with whatever your child knows, most children by age two will know 1 & 2.  Add in 3 and when they can count 3 items move onto 4, so on. You can make things like below that the child can do: