Montessori environment and its components

Maria Montessori is the first Italian woman who invented her own system of teaching children at the beginning of the 20th century. The essence of her method can be described in five words: "Help me do it myself."

Montessori believed that every child from birth strives for knowledge. All the parents and teachers need to do is to create a developing environment and teach children to use objects and let them choose how and how long to play with them.

Every parent can make a house a "developing environment" to become a Montessori from the start - it is enough to allow the child to fully participate in the life of the family: to cook, clean, repair, do handicrafts, take care of plants and animals. It is better if the objects that they use are not toys, but real, just  comfortable for kids to hold.

If we talk about the classic playroom in Montessori schools, then it is divided into several zones: natural science, practical life montessori zone, sensorial montessori zone, linguistic and mathematical ones. All toys are positioned so that the child can pick them up and put them back in place. There is only one thing of each category: thus children, if there are several of them, learn to negotiate and wait for their turn, and the autodidacticism of the subject is preserved. That provides principles for independent play in the montessori classroom, in which no one interferes, prompts or corrects.

But what if we talk about the Montessori environment in our house? It is better if the child has their own separate room. There is an opinion that it is impossible to create an ideal Montessori environment in the house, but it is possible to promote the development of a child through the principles of Montessori, introducing elements of the environment into their daily life.

One of the possible options is the arrangement of their room according to the principles of Montessori teaching, which include not only the location of objects, but also special educational montessori furniture. Wooden beds can become such furniture. Moreover, the bed becomes not a place of confinement, where the children are taken to so that they do not interfere or are “safe”, but a place from which they can crawl out on their own, if there is no longer a need for sleep. When a bed with legs and a lattice is used, the child has neither the opportunity to make active movements in it, nor to feel the edge and develop an instinct for self-preservation. When the baby learns to crawl, it will be able to crawl onto the montessori bed on its own, as well as crawl out of it. By giving this freedom of action (that is a crucial factor in montessori for infants), we contribute to the formation of the child's correct attitude to sleep. Sleep is a non-binding procedure, it is a natural process that a child goes through when experiencing fatigue. 

If you take into account all the details and build a real environment for the development of the child, you will be able to see the result in a few months. Your child will become more independent and disciplined.