Montessori Pedagogy Blog

Cultural geography is about more than where things are located on the earth. It's about what life is like all over the world. How do people live? What do we have in common? What is different?

If we really want to show children about life on different continents, we need to show them the SAME kinds of life on each continent. That means we show them a school on every continent, fishing on every continent, a wedding on every continent, a market on every continent, etc. 

Okay, sorting is fun. I admit it. I feel a strange sort of joy when I can organize things. Although I don't always do it in a timely fashion, having those piles of laundry folded Maria-Kondo-style in little piles on my bed gives me such a sense of satisfaction.

And yes, sorting is a key skill children develop in early childhood. Sorting games guide children to group things into categories. In literacy research, we call this developing 'gist.' When we get the gist of something, we understand the basics about how it is connected with other similar concepts. 

Think about all the different collections of things we have in our homes and schools. We have collections of pencils, different types of papers, types of chairs, types of brushes, types of cups, and the list goes on and on. Learning how to organize items by similarities and differences is not only important for cognitive development, but inherently interesting for young children. They want to figure out what goes together.

Here are some of our favorite sorting activities for early childhood. 

A few months back, Julia had the honor of being asked to speak with the Montessori Early Learning Foundation in South Africa. The amazing people that attended lifted Julia up with their positive energy and thoughtful questions. 

Here is a recording of their conversation. They covered some pretty killer topics including:

• Emotions and learning
• Neuroplasticity (use it or lose it)
• Dynamic development of skill/knowledge
• The necessity of processing time
• Executive function development/Freedom with limits
• Stress & resilience
• Protective and risk factors
• Negativity bias and positivity
• Adaptation and social cognition

This talk is worth the time. Get some lemonade, gather a few friends, and enjoy!

Shouldn't we show children the big, cut-out alphabet first? We say no! ⁠

Why? Because whenever we introduce a new activity, we want to isolate the difficulty. If we add one new challenge each time, we increase the chances that the child will succeed. When we use the cut-out alphabets, we're adding in several new difficulties all at once.

When Juneteenth became a US Federal holiday, I wondered if I should add it to the list of Maitri Learning holidays. I had never celebrated Juneteenth and all I knew was that it marked the day when the last slaves (theoretically) were freed in the US. That was back in 1865 in Galveston, Texas, two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

But, of course, there is what is said and there is what is done. 

Montessori and Juneteenth

A core aspect of the scientific Montessori pedagogy is that we adults are aiding children towards independence. This means we are preparing them for increasing levels of freedom from day one.

But freedom is not willy nilly. It doesn't mean children can do whatever they want with no boundaries. Independence and true freedom must entail responsibility. Slavery, of course, is in direct opposition to these ideals. 

Since I first did my AMI Montessori training, back in the 90s, people have been asking, "But aren't children different today than they were when Maria Montessori first developed her method?" The answer is a resounding YES!  

In some ways, children are most certainly different today than they were even five years ago because we humans are biologically programmed to adapt to our culture: our time, place, and group. But that is actually not news. Humans have been doing this since we became a species. 

What teachers are reporting now is that children seem to have:

• Weaker social skills
• Less language (vocabulary and expressive ability)
• More difficulty regulating their emotions

There is nothing as beautiful as the sound of a young child speaking. They are just learning how to articulate, choose the words that make sense, and put those words together in a logical order. It is easy to want them to stay that precious forever! But of course, our job is to prepare them for life and aid their developing independence. But how do we do that and when? 

The truth is that young children (before age six) are in a sensitive period for language development. They are eager and interested not only in learning the names of everything they see, but also in learning what the heck those little squiggly lines (you know, the ones we look at when we read) are all about!  When they are as young as 2.5 to 3 years old, they become keenly interested in learning to distinguish all the sounds within every word, the sounds that letters make, and how those sounds fit together. 

So, the time is ripe to support their natural interest! Just as when they were younger, we continue to offer them the best spoken language possibilities we can by reading aloud together, reciting tongue twisters and poems, singing, telling stories, listening to music, and more. But, as children grow, they can also benefit from specific materials designed to not only build their vocabulary, but to inspire them to express their thoughts.

We hear a lot of talk about the Montessori materials, but what exactly are those materials? How do we determine if something "qualifies" as Montessori or not? 

There is actually a list of characteristics that must be considered when creating a Montessori material. Dr. Montessori developed this list because she knew that science is always advancing. The materials she developed in the early 1900s would necessarily need to evolve as our understanding of the world and human development grew.

Do you want more high-quality research on Montessori? The Montessori Research Pool can help! Through a collaborative effort, a new, University-based Montessori Research Pool has been created.

How to be included

If you are interested in participating in Montessori research, you can become part of the Montessori Research Pool by filling out this form! We are looking for Montessorians from all walks of life, with or without a training credential. If you are involved in Montessori in some way, we'd love to include you!

Note: Signing up does not mean you will be included in a research study; it just gives researchers a way to contact you and request your participation. You can opt-out at any time.

Why we need this

There is a tremendous need for more high-quality Montessori research. The Montessori Research Pool will allow researchers to find a broad range of participants that precisely match their study’s focus (e.g., parents, homeschoolers, people working with dementia, early childhood, adolescence, in public/private schools, administrators, etc.). 

How you can help spread the word

Please include this sign-up link in your communications and share the QR code in your presentations. Together, we can create the foundations researchers need to delve deeper into the Montessori method!

Details 

The database will be managed by the University of Wisconsin, River Falls. Researchers can gain access to the database by presenting their ethics board (IRB) approval to the University.

Interested researchers should contact montresearch@uwrf.edu  

At the AIMS (Association of Illinois Montessori Schools) conference this past weekend, I was honored to meet with about 500 educators and administrators and teach about where Dr. Montessori's theory on the planes of development meets our current understanding of neurodevelopment.

The weather was a bit tentative for travel before I left, so I pre-recorded my talk in case the snow and ice prevented me from physically making it there. Luckily, my travels went smoothly but since I had this recorded anyway, I figured I might as well share it with you!

The key stages of child development in Dr. Montessori's view are divided as follows: