Hello reader! Ready to start or improve your Montessori-friendly home? Here are 7 tips to help you make a Montessori-friendly home.
1. Practical Life Activities at home
Preparing activities with the purpose for your child to develop concentration, eye-hand coordination, small motor skills, and independence skills.
Here are some activity ideas to prepare lessons at home:
✔️Pouring
✔️Squishing
✔️Cutting
✔️Pasting
✔️Tracing
✔️Drawing
✔️Snapping
✔️Mixing
✔️Pinching
Find activities that are correct for your child's abilities. You can assess your child's abilities by observing your child's behavior, knowing your child's skills, and your child's likes and dislikes. Pay extra attention during the first time using preschool scissors. Observe how your child holds the scissors and if the scissors are a correct fit for the child. He or she may need to wait for the activity or may need another type of scissors.
2. Reachable Lessons
Our goal is for the children to be independent. The children are independent when they feel confident enough to do something without any help. (Heads up, LET THEM TRY!)
Putting things on their level, in small trays to make it easy enough to carry from the shelf to the table. Test out and practice your work before showing it to your child.
3. Consistency, Order, and Respect
I call it The COR heart! Practicing The COR heart gives your child the sense of security they need to thrive. Consistent rules and behavior in adults are important to continue a prepared Montessori environment at home.
Small children learn respect from the adult giving respect. One big part that I like to practice and always remind the families about is asking for things with your hand out instead of snatching them. If you practice this with your child, your child will imitate you.
Order in life, rules, behavior, and room will help your child understand what to expect next.
4. Guidance and Love
Like Maria Montessori said "We teach by teaching, not correcting", there's a lot of love and effort you are putting into your child. You might see yourself one day with a goal for the day but your child might have another plan for the day. Let's follow what your child is intrigued about and use that as a starting point to guide your child from there to where you want to go.
5. Nothing Time
Allow some time to just free play. Imagination, running, jumping, laughing, hugging, playing with dogs, going to the beach, and sitting on a bench together is part of who we are. Some people might see it as "doing nothing" but you are creating bonds and trusting with your child. Building trust with you is a necessary skill for your child's life.
6. Allow Mistakes
In the traditional system, they punish mistakes. In real life, we are afraid to make mistakes. What would be our life if we didn't experience any mistakes? We wouldn't learn🤷🏻♀️
So what can we do at home? If you spill something, this is how we clean it. We run and we fall, this is how we stand up. We break something, that is the natural consequence, this is how we fix it. Use it as a learning experience.
7. Limits
Always use common sense and boundaries depending on your child's skills. Allow mistakes within a limit. Depending on your child's age. Remember parents, you are the first educator. Don't intervene too fast, you might see the "I DID IT!" face! Which is so rewarding!
Whether you are a homeschooling parent, a parent who is starting your child in a Montessori school, or maybe a parent exploring your options about how to make a Montessori-friendly home, practice this at home, and don't forget to leave your comments or questions after trying these tips!