I have been attending my natural parent play group on a weekly basis and much of the discussion lately has been about schooling. This is something I have not thought of in detail mostly because I figured it was a long time off. Well the more we have talked about it, the more I realize that school really isn’t that far off and I should at least begin to look into options for Connor.
As children, my siblings and I attended Montessori for pre-school and kindergarden. Mostly I remember really enjoying my schooling during my short time at Montessori and of course the story about my dad having to sell his motorcycle to send me to preschool!
Montessori is one of the schooling styles that we have talked about during the play group. The Montessori style of learning is a self-directed type of learning, that creates a setting that allows children to enjoy learning. Tests and grades are discouraged and teachers reports are based on observations of the child. ”Montessori teachers do evaluate children’s progress: when giving lessons, through ongoing observations in the classroom, by examining the products of their work, and by going over the Work Journal. It is simply not often obvious to children that they are being evaluated, since they are not given grades, praise, or other tokens of evaluation.” (wikipedia)
Learning levels are different for each individual, hence the self-directed learning. Children are not only given the opportunity to learn at their own pace, but they are encourage to learn by doing and touching. As children learn and make mistakes they are able to correct their own mistakes, rather than being corrected by a teacher. I remember specifically the science experiments from my time at Montessori. We were encouraged to pour an mix colored water (as I remember it) to our heart’s content. Each child picked his or her activity as the teacher observed.
Dr. Maria Montessori, an Italian educator, founded the learning style and opened her first school in 1907 in Rome. ”Dr. Montessori recognized that self-motivation is the only valid impulse to learning. Children move themselves toward learning. The teacher prepares the environment, offers activities, functions as a reference person and exemplar and observes the child constantly in order to help the process of ‘learning how to learn.’ But it is the child who learns, motivated through the work itself, to persist in a chosen task.”
What is your understanding of the Montessori Learning style? Have you had an experience with a Montessori education?
