“Education is a natural process carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening to words but by experiences in the environment.”
-Dr. Maria Montessori
The prepared environment is something unique and special to a Montessori classroom. Dr. Montessori designed work environments to encourage creativity, concentration, and independence. She believed everything should be beautiful for the child. Today, Guides spend countless hours sorting, organizing, and positioning various shelves and materials in the classroom before your child steps one foot through the door. And when the children do arrive, the responsibility becomes a shared one. The children, along with the teacher, work together to care for their sacred environment. Everything has a place and everything has order.
Well, we are home now. So how do we replicate even a portion of this? We don't have room for separate Language, Math, Geometry, History, Geography, Science, or Practical Life shelves. But with some creativity, we can prepare a home environment that will indeed support the Montessori principles.
Well, we are home now. So how do we replicate even a portion of this? We don't have room for separate Language, Math, Geometry, History, Geography, Science, or Practical Life shelves. But with some creativity, we can prepare a home environment that will indeed support the Montessori principles.
If you can, designate a special area for your child to work. Ideally, it is separate from where the family eats or plays. It can be a small table or a corner of a room- that's enough. In our house, it took some rearranging, but our home school work area is clearly delineated from the rest of the house. Our materials are there and stay there. This sets the tone for work and is not accessed unless we are "at school". As we wrap our brains around the next few months, and are all looking at more time in our homes than usual, I encourage you to do some thinking about this. Discuss the options with your children. Together, make a list of items needed...paper, pencils, art supplies, books, etc. And they can brainstorm a few jobs to help care for their new home school environment...table washing, sweeping, or dusting, for example. The more you involve the children, the more connected and responsible they will feel. Go ahead! Move some furniture around, rearrange some shelves, or empty some baskets. Have a little fun finding what works for your family.
The past several weeks have been a big adjustment and there wasn't much time to plan. We should give ourselves permission to pause and breath. Its not always easy, but the shift in mood that occurs when we allow ourselves to take a walk, play a game with our children, or to do something fun, is powerful. I have tested it myself. And when we remember to step back, we let in a growth mindset. And with this, we can prepare our home environments to best support the next few months of home learning. This sets up our children, and ourselves, for success.
The past several weeks have been a big adjustment and there wasn't much time to plan. We should give ourselves permission to pause and breath. Its not always easy, but the shift in mood that occurs when we allow ourselves to take a walk, play a game with our children, or to do something fun, is powerful. I have tested it myself. And when we remember to step back, we let in a growth mindset. And with this, we can prepare our home environments to best support the next few months of home learning. This sets up our children, and ourselves, for success.
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