Brain Development & Montessori

Through the years, Montessori equipment has become an entity in itself. Attractively assembled, interesting to the eye, and very expensive, this equipment has become a focal point of classrooms and the idea of Montessori.

However, the original intention of the equipment was simply to use precisely-crafted materials that would allow children to employ their sensory abilities to learn. Using the senses of touch and sight, a child can order a set of ten knobbed cylinders that vary only by height. It is the process of trying to fit these cylinders into their holders that is the point of the exercise. Many teachers and parents mistakenly focus on having children succeed in the getting the cylinders into their holders and, unfortunately, lose focus on the key value of the exercise, namely, the process itself that is key to brain development!

So, forget about having your child "learn how to use the equipment" or "getting the exercise right" and let him or her use the equipment for it's original purpose.

Announcement: Two New Montessori DVD Programs

Our brand new Colors & Shapes DVD now includes a ton of new shapes such as the trapezoid, octagon, and rhombus along with both primary and secondary colors! A great new addition to your home classroom.

Plus, our first Level Two program, Tough Words, is also available. It introduces words that use ch, sh, th, ow, and other tough combinations! A super kid-friendly program that's great fun for all ages.

Read about our new Montessori DVDs here...

Plus, we have printable books for these new DVDs, too!

The Montessori Method by Maria Montessori: Online

Has everyone found this free digital version online?

If not, here's the link to A Celebration of Women Writers's posting of the book

The Montessori Method by Maria Montessori online

It's written in the language of the time, 1912, so some of the phrasing is a bit different, but it's super interesting for those of you who already know about Montessori and are curious about her work and method.

If you can get around the phrasing, you will find brilliant observations, pithy quotes, and lots of good ideas!

Sensorial: Knocking Down The Pink Tower

Here is a very pithy quote from Maria Montessori herself in her book "Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook" regarding the Pink Tower:

"Ten wooden cubes colored pink. The sides of the cubes diminish from ten centimeters to one centimeter.

With these cubes the child builds a tower, first laying on the ground (upon a carpet) the largest cube, and then placing on the top of it all the others in their order of size to the very smallest.

As soon as he has built the tower, the child, with a blow of his hand, knocks it down, so that the cubes are scattered on the carpet, and then he builds it up again. " (p. 72)

This makes a lot of intuitive sense! But it's not popular with Montessori schools -- a combination of the high cost of equipment and the general desire to keep kids quiet. Not such a big problem for many children, but it seems especially unfair for children who are especially active or physical.

So, quote Maria Montessori to your child's teacher next time. For all your Montessori homeschoolers out here, keep up the good work!

The book, Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook, is, incidentally quite a good bargain because the language is a bit old-fashioned, it has an unglossy jacket cover, and the photos are in black and white. Since such things matter tremendously in book sales, you can find a used copy very cheaply!

" Heart exam, EKG recommended before children get ADHD drugs"

This article from the AP reported on Yahoo caught our eye. Check out the full article here

Here are some key points made in the article:

"Children should be screened for heart problems with an electrocardiogram before getting drugs like Ritalin to treat hyperactivity and attention-deficit disorder, the American Heart Association recommended Monday.

We don't want to keep children who have this from being treated. We want to do it as safely as possible," said Dr. Victoria Vetter, a pediatric cardiologist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and head of the committee making the recommendation."

The article then goes on to say:

"The label warnings were added after a review by the Food and Drug Administration of its databases found reports of 19 sudden deaths in children treated with ADHD drugs and 26 reports of other problems including strokes and fast heart rates between 1999 and 2003. There were also reports of heart problems in adults; the committee didn't look at adults."

But...

"Dr. Steven Pliszka, a child psychiatrist at the University of Texas in San Antonio, is quoted as saying he is "baffled by the EKG recommendation." The article quoted him as saying "there's no evidence that sudden death is a bigger problem for children taking stimulants than for children who aren't taking the drugs."

Interestingly, the author also states that this psychiatrist has received research support or served as a consultant for makers of ADHD drugs.

We're not in the medical business here at Montessori House. Bits of the article just leapt out and we wanted to share them with our readers. The University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine is as well-known as our Johns Hopkins alma mater, so it's noteworthy that a pediatric cardiologist there has issued the statement she did.

As always, we'd love to hear from you!

Classroom Schedules: Montessori, Autism, Asperger's

Due to the cost of outdoor play areas, the extra staff needed to supervise children outdoors, and other practical administrative matters, the classroom schedule such as Maria Montessori proposed has been dramatically altered.

Nowadays, children spend a lot of time sitting still in the classroom. This can be an especially big disservice to children with Autism and Asperger's.

I find this original classroom schedule put together by Maria Montessori to be a fascinating contrast with classroom programs today!

Opening at Nine O'clock–Closing at Four O'clock

9-10. Entrance. Greeting. Inspection as to personal cleanliness. Exercises of practical life; helping one another to take off and put on the aprons. Going over the room to see that everything is dusted and in order. Language. Conversation period Children give an account of the events of the day before. Religious exercises. Note that religion and life in Italy during this time were closely intertwined

10-11. Intellectual exercises. Objective lessons interrupted by short rest periods. Nomenclature, Sense exercises.

11-11:30. Simple gymnastics: Ordinary movements done gracefully, normal position of the body, walking, marching in line, salutations, movements for attention, placing of objects gracefully.

11:30-12. Luncheon: Short prayer.

12-1. Free games.

1-2. Directed games, if possible, in the open air. During this period the older children in turn go through with the exercises of practical life, cleaning the room, dusting, putting the material in order. General inspection for cleanliness: Conversation.

2-3. Manual work. Clay modelling, design, etc.

3-4. Collective gymnastics and songs, if possible in the open air. Exercises to develop forethought: Visiting, and caring for, the plants and animals.

As soon as a school is established, the question of schedule arises. This must be considered from two points of view; the length of the school-day and the distribution of study and of the activities of life

Definitely not a day full of sitting indoors quietly!

The Value of Practical Life Exercises

In every new Montessori class, there are a few parents who wonder, "Why am I paying thousands of dollars a year for my child to learn how to polish shoes?"

Why indeed? Well, polishing shoes are part of the assortment of Practical Life exercises that are a staple in the Montessori classroom for children under six because these early years are the time in which the relationship between the brain and body needs intensive nurturing.

The fine motor skills, refined hand movements, hand-eye coordination, and gross motor skills practiced in these simple exercises are key to preparing your child for the next phase of life.

A Child's Environment: No TV in the Bedroom!

A key part of the Montessori method is the environment we provide for children, both at home and in the classroom. While child-sized furniture and a touchable home (meaning few or no items that require "Don't touch!") are staples of the concept, issues such as television in the bedroom are even more important. Just to get this straight, no television in your child's bedroom!

There is a pithy article by Tara Parker-Pope (March 4, 2008, NY Times online) with a few excellent discussions of data to back this up with scientific findings. Should Children Have Television in Their Bedrooms?

If television watching is an important staple of your home life, reap the benefits by making it family time...and remember to comment cynically on things onscreen that deserve it. Teaching your child how to manage his or her television time can best be shown by example. Watch your favorite family program or the news, look at your watch, and announce that the television has been on long enough!

Television also keeps the brain awake, so it is detrimental to your efforts to help calm your child before he or she reaches that magical bedtime hour. Even if everyone has been watching television, you can show your child how to wind down with a pre-bedtime hour of reading and a bath.

Autism and Asperger's: A Great Video and Article

Midway through this video, Amanda Baggs, the woman shown here, begins to speak using a voice synthesizer for her typing. Wait for her "translation". For those of you working with children with autism or asperger's, this is a must-see!



In "The Truth About Autism: Scientists Reconsider What They Think They Know" in Wired online by David Wolman on 02.25.08, there is a great quote:

Mike Merzenich, a professor of neuroscience at UC San Francisco, says the notion that 75 percent of autistic people are mentally retarded is "incredibly wrong and destructive." He has worked with a number of autistic children, many of whom are nonverbal and would have been plunked into the low-functioning category. "We label them as retarded because they can't express what they know," and then, as they grow older, we accept that they "can't do much beyond sit in the back of a warehouse somewhere and stuff letters in envelopes."

Does Montessori work for children with autism and Asperger's? I have never seen it work well in a classroom setting, but that may be because the constant movement and noise of children with autism and Asperger's leaves traditionally-trained Montessori teachers at a loss for what to do. For parents who are considering Montessori, this is definitely something to consider because traditional Montessori teacher training focuses on achieving a certain type of classroom environment, one with quiet and self-discipline that shows itself through lack of noise and absence of physical distractions. Obviously, if you watch the video, it would be a horrible disservice to children with autism and Asperger's, if you did try to enforce a standard Montessori classroom environment on them!

Montessori equipment and presentation methodology is, however, successful when presented differently with an open mind. (If anyone is looking for specifics, please post a comment and we'll respond.) For Sensorial material such as the Pink Tower or Colored Tablets, be ready for things to be handled and tasted. Expect the Pink Tower to be possibly destroyed after or before it is built. Did you know Maria Montessori intended the tower to be knocked over when it was finished being built? Montessori classrooms present a careful deconstruction of the tower these days...probably due to the price of equipment. What an unfortunate change!

You will need to take care that small pieces of equipment, such as the Golden Beads, do not get choked upon, but generally good quality material can take a bit of a beating.

I think this video is wonderful because it reminds us not to judge what we do not know.

Elementary School: Vocabulary and Reading

As you progress from Montessori projects for children under the age of six to more advanced work, it can be harder to make and find material, so we have included a few of our favorite links:

Oxford English Dictionary's Word Stories
The word stories are wonderful to read aloud to your child or a group of children in a class. They are also good for children to read independently.

Teachit's Poetry Page
This is a resource site for parents, teachers, and older children. There are links to well-known poems, so it's a convenient source.

Merriam-Webster Online
Show your children how to find reliable resources for facts online. Merriam-Webster or similarly reliable online dictionary sites are invaluable for independent study. Younger children can look up words from a word list and older children can do more difficult projects such as researching word etymologies.

Montessori Elementary School: Grammar Boxes

Grammar Boxes are a staple piece of equipment in the Montessori Junior Class.

If you are homeschooling your child, you definitely need a set of these.

That said, this is a perfect DIY project, so here are the photos for reference and inspiration!

Teachers: You can keep your Grammar Box content fresh by letting older children create new sets of cards for rotation into the boxes. This lets older children practice and review basic skills in a fun and enjoyable way, too.

Photo credit: Nienhuis Montessori

Math Problems: Making Material for Multiplication

In response to a comment on our earlier blog that asked about dealing with two unit multipliers:

When you are working with a problem that involves inches and feet (or centimeters and meters), create a visual representation of the problem. For example, how many times does 10,000 square inches go into two square feet? If your child is having trouble seeing what is happening, create grids on Excel (or with grid math paper) and make grids for square inches and square feet that your child can physically handle and move around.

You can create grids that represent 1,000, 100, 10, and 1 square inch each (so you do not have to make 10,000 tiny squares!)

If your child is just starting to learn how to multiply single digit numbers (for example, 8 x 5), start with the Montessori Multiplication Board:

Photo: Nienhuis Math Equipment at www.Nienhuis.com

If you look at the board's layout, the problem was 2 x 5 -- children mark 2 places on the top of the board, put down 5 beads for each place, and count the result. This hands on practice helps children internalize exactly what happens for equation, allowing them to make the transition to solving written equations quickly and easily.

Questions? Please let us know!

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Giving Disorganized Boys the Tools for Success? Start Earlier!

Reading the January 1st online edition of the New York Times, I was struck by Alan Finder's article "Giving Disorganized Boys the Tools for Success" and the ages of the children in the article. If you haven't read it, the article is definitely worth a read. Even if your child is still a toddler or, perhaps, especially if your child is still a toddler, the article has some valuable points.

From a Montessori perspective, we'd say this is what happens when you do not foster independent activities and thought at an early age. For those of you who haven't read the article, there is a new business involving consultants who work with teen boys (and some girls) to get them organized in life. From helping them sort the materials in their backpacks to figuring out how to apply to colleges. The consultant's work sounds very solid and good, but why is it needed ...

Those of you who subscribe to our weekly curriculum guides will have already noted the importance Montessori places on independent action, whether for a toddler choosing a piece of equipment to handle or a third-grader deciding how to best choose an essay topic.

Many parents, teachers, and schools look for the perfect fix. That combination of curriculum and material that will yield the best results. Montessori teachers frequently find themselves in a bind. Why is it important for a three or five year old to learn how to guide his or her morning activities independently? Why don't we just direct them to finish the most projects the fastest way possible so they can move on to the next level?

What goes missing from the observation is that we are teaching the children. They are learning how to make solid choices independently (It's not as if a Montessori classroom gives playing in traffic as an option.... children make choices between such topics as math, sensorial development, fine motor skill exercises, language, reading, writing, physical exercises, music, and art)

A few tips to start:

1. Streamline your home (or classroom) environment so your child can reach everything safely, work at a child-sized table or desk, and have a place for equipment, toys, and clothing. Your child should be able to use his or her belongings and then put them away easily (no jumping up to put them in the top of the closet or in an overstuffed toy chest).
   
2. Is your child's room jam packed with toys and junk after the holidays? Work with your child to discard, give to charity, and organize. If your child's room is a disaster, he or she will not have a chance to get organized mentally.
3. If you are homeschooling children under seven, set up an easy-to-follow schedule starting with getting up and getting dressed, meals and snacks, outdoor play, and quiet indoor activities and study. Leave three hour blocks for indoor work, do not break them up into 45 minute segments as schools are prone to do.
   
4. Show your child how to prepare easy and healthy snacks such as sliced apples with cheese or celery with peanut butter. Once your kitchen is set up for children with low tables and child food on a low shelf in the fridge, let your child decide when he or she needs a snack. Let your child make the snacks instead of shoving the food in front of them and exhorting them to eat. Children adore being able to do things on their own and they'll be delighted to make snacks for everyone to share.
5. Healthy food. If your child eats sugary breakfast cereal in the morning, you'll have to drug them with ritalin to get them to sit still. No, we're not advocating ritalin. Get rid of the "super chocolate chip frosted flakes" cereal. Same goes for snacks and other meals. No soda, either!
   

Montessori Classroom Setup: Environment and Art

An inspiring quote from Maria Montessori in her 1912 book, The Montessori Method!

“Above the blackboards are hung attractive pictures, chosen carefully, representing simple scenes in which children would naturally be interested. Among the pictures in our "Children's House" in Rome we have hung a copy of Raphael's "Madonna della Seggiola", and this picture we have chosen as the emblem of the "Children's Houses" (a long very paragraph, continued on our site).

“The children, of course, cannot comprehend the symbolic significance of the "Madonna of the Chair", but they will see something more beautiful than that which they feel in more ordinary pictures, in which they see mother, father, and children. And the constant companionship with this picture will awaken in their heart a religious impression.”

Remember that the context of this quote was Italy in the early 1900s, when religion was a part of everyone’s daily life. Whether your family is religious or not, we find this quote extraordinary because it shows the deep thought that Dr. Montessori gave to the artwork she chose for her first classroom.

Independent Work in the Montessori Classroom

When we speak of independent work for three year olds, many teachers in traditional classrooms look dismayed. They assume that our Montessori classrooms must be full of chaos and disaster. Nothing could be further from the truth!

In the Primary class (ages 2 1/2 to 5), children sit together in the morning circle to have brief discussions about their weekends and the coming day, and then go about their morning activities of choosing material with which they would like to work.

New material is presented to a single child or group of children, depending on the type of material. Once children see how the material is used, they will work with it independently on their own whenever they decide they want to do a particular exercise.

A point of fascination for visitors is often the fact that children choose to do serious work. Left to their own devices, they do not choose to finger paint all day! Rather, work with the Movable Alphabet (for writing leading to reading), long addition with the Golden Beads, or sensorial material such as the Red Rods prove most popular.

If you are working with your child at home on the weekends, homeschooling, or just want to add a bit of Montessori to your daily life, try introducing new things in a simple way and set material up so that it is child-friendly, and let your child take the lead in deciding what to do at home.

Child-friendly options can be as easy as making sure your child can reach everything he or she needs to make basic snacks in the kitchen or putting small sturdy steps up to the washing machine, so your child can put in a small load of things.

Questions? Send in a comment and let us know!

Montessori Method Chinese Language for Children

We are announcing our new Chinese language program for children that is designed using by bilingual Montessori teachers using the Montessori Method for teaching language. to young children.

Our goal for the program is to spark your child's natural love of learning and curiosity about language and writing.

Children absorb languages, tones, and accents easily and quickly, so we have tailored the program around this focus.

This is a brilliant and easy-to-use program with which we have had lots of success with children between the ages of 2 to 15.

The key features of the program include:

1. Beginning vocabulary words that build up issue by issue to create compound words and key phrases
2. Step-by-step phrase building presented using a Montessori approach to language.
3. Self-practice material even for the youngest of students.
4. Tones and pronunciation designed to help children soak in native-speaker level accuracy.
5. Notes for Mom and Dad, so you can work with your child whenever you want. No experience with Chinese needed.
   

Price: US$39.99 a year for monthly subscription.

Learn more about our Mandarin Chinese program for children!

A Book Discussion: Montessori Methodology in Her Own Words

In 1914, Dr. Montessori wrote a guidebook to teaching the Montessori Method. The book has remained useful and relevant even after all these years, especially for parents and teachers new to Montessori.

One of the most interesting features of the book is that Dr. Montessori's discussion of teaching and methodology leaves lots of wiggle room in the presentation, unlike many of the new explanations of Montessori education that focus on minutia and exact use of materials.

The introduction to the book details some of the formative discussion about Montessori and he methodology, which will be interesting to those of you looking into how Montessori education got to be the way it is and how her view of the development of the child is expressed in the classroom and teacher training.

Since this is basically Dr. Montessori's book for beginners, she avoids extraneous discussion and dives useful detail and instructions for teaching. This includes advice and step-by-step details for all areas of the curriculum including motor education, sensory education, language and knowledge of the world, freedom and independence (very interesting), writing, reading of music, arithmetic, and moral factors.

The black and white photos in this book are charming, showing children using original material. You will notice that the material and classroom setup really have not changed much!

If you are thinking about using Montessori in a classroom or homeschool setting, this book is a definite must read!