Who is Maria Montessori?

Montessori boils down to one key concept: children explore and learn at their own pace with spontaneous interest.

While she learned and gained her degrees, she worked with and observed many disabled and mental asylum children who struggled. Finding that they lacked stimulation and engagement in everyday life, she provided hands on activities to gain their interest. The results were immediate. Those that had the materials and resources she had provided were successful in growing and learning.

In 1907 she opened her first school in Rome for low-income children. She provided nontraditional learning materials: tables, clothes, cleaning equipment, a garden, kitchenettes, stoves, chairs and a blackboard. Essentially, her students learned by playing.

Many criticized Montessori’s approach towards learning and her classroom. They questioned how “playing around” could teach anything since it did not produce “standard results” as common schools at that time did. But her method grew and flourished as the years went by, gaining popularity in not only Europe but in America as well.

Her child-centered learning style is now very popular and highly sought after education method across the world. While you will mostly find Montessori schools for early childhood and early elementary, there are some that flourish as middle school and highschool ages as well. Whether sending your child to a Montessori school or bringing Montessori into your everyday homeschool, there are many benefits to this free style method of learning.

Learn more about Maria Montessori and her methods here.

What is Montessori Method?

It is an informal method of teaching in which the child learns without much structure or dictation. Essentially, the child learns what they are interested in. It is child-led. They are provided a room with resources and activities and then can choose and enjoy those activities throughout the day without being “told” what specifically to do. It is a free way of learning in which many hands-on materials are provided and then the child questions and enjoys as they go.

For older students Montessori means many concrete materials to learn their subjects of math, reading, writing etc. Many focus on “everyday” skills or Home-Ec style to learn about life and take responsibility for their own learning.

How to Teach Montessori in Your Homeschool

If you plan to teach your children using the Montessori method, one thing must be clear before you start: this is not a traditional method. There is no specific “book and paper” to purchase and then use. It is more about you as the parent/guardian creating the environment intentionally based upon your lifestyle and what you have learned from the Montessori method research.

You won’t be able to just “buy” a set of books and start immediately. This is an immersive ongoing method that includes many avenues and angles. It’s more about guiding learning using your environment and concrete materials.

There are websites to help you get started and to use methods that others have to give you a starting point but overall it is a set up as you design and intend.

How to Start:

• Research it
• Check your state regulations
• Gain materials
• Prepare the environment

Create stations or cycles for the materials being learned – Example: Low shelving, small tables and many age appropriate accessible plastic and toy concrete materials.

If using a specific curriculum to guide you, have it prepared and researched so the child has all the materials they need to explore and learn. Here’s a SAMPLE of a curriculum.

The Main elements of Montessori:

Language Arts – Example: Reading a story aloud to child, having child work on poetry with you or journaling about what they liked in the story.

Math – Example: blocks, comparing different sets of items, skip counting, grouping shapes into amounts, puzzles and measuring water into different buckets.

Science – Example: Exploring leaves and sticks, playing with baking soda and vinegar to observe reactions, magnets, volcano, sink and float with boats and water.

Social Studies – Example: Dress up as a firefighter, police officer, create a voting station, study and play with a globe.

Practical Life Skills – Example: Learn to sew and create your own blanket/pillow or anything they like, cook and bake, button clothes, set the table, pour liquids.

The Pros and Cons of Montessori

Pros: Flexible and hands on learning that is fun and engaging for younger children and those that are restless and needs more hands on concrete materials to learn.

Cons: Expense for the multiple materials and time spent researching and planning the room/environment.

How to Informally Integrate It

If you are unable to incorporate a full style Montessori teaching method, the beauty of this method is that you can incorporate it in other ways.

For example: you can provide your younger child sections of the day to have intentional play with a kitchenette, chores, cleaning and playing with letters.

How to save costs for early childhood by:

1. Purchase a toy kitchenette and play food
2. Purchase a few play outfits with hats and costumes (maybe even a Halloween costume or get hats from a local thrift store)
3. Gather buckets and spoons to measure
4. Use everyday kitchen items like baking soda and salt or water to mix
5. Purchase magnet or plastic letters and numbers
6. Blocks
7. A number chart and calendar
8. Dry erase board and markers
9. Shelf with books as a children’s library
10. A broom and swiffer mop
11. Use free resources and prompts like this website that shows lesson plans

How to save costs for elementary and highschool by:

1. Integrate hands on science experiments with the texts you have
2. Provide paints and art materials and encourage any design they want
3. Give the child a topic and let them use books and technology to learn about it
4. Meet with leaders or local officials to learn about civics and politics
5. Provide geography and language resources to connect with the texts they learn

Overall Concept & Final Thoughts

While Montessori is often associated with early childhood age because of the hands-on and play items of the method, you can integrate concrete learning materials for older students.

Many students and most children are concrete thinkers for a long time. This means that experiences and material such as math blocks, experiments and creating are key to learning. They can be most beneficial to gain more in depth understanding of a concept. It can be used in pieces and slowly added as the child ages.

More Resources:

• How To Homeschool Montessori Style | Homeschooler Pro
• Welcome to NAMC Teacher Training – North American Montessori Center
• Homeschool Methods 101: Exploring the Montessori Homeschool Method – Homeschool Planet
• The Top 5 Places for Montessori Homeschool Curriculum + Homeschooling Tips — The Montessori-Minded Mom
• Montessori Creative Skill-Building Bundle – Little Learners Toys
• https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/thats-so-montessori-196