If you are thinking about what and how you can teach your child while raising him, and what habits you can gain while raising him, you should take a look at this article. In this article, where we brought together information about Montessori education, we touched on what Montessori education is, its benefits and purposes, and application methods. Read on now and benefit from the perspective of this educational approach in your relationship with your child!
1. What is Montessori education?
Montessori education is created by taking into account the child’s individual skills, interests, learning speed and character traits. This education gives the child the opportunity to make choices and creates the space to determine his own actions.
Montessori education practices are determined by making use of observations about what children like and dislike. For example, we can say that the applications that children do not like are the following.
Rewards and punishments
Programmed education by family or teacher
Teacher desk and group lessons
As for the applications that children prefer, we can list the following.
Making their own choices and controlling their own mistakes
Having social relations and environments where they can establish themselves
Neat, clean and quiet environment
A disciplinary environment where they do not stand still and decide what to do and how
Repeating the exercises
Montessori education is also organized according to these observations.
2. How is Montessori education applied?
We have identified some topics about the Montessori education approach that we can examine from different perspectives.
Montessori sleep training:
According to Montessori education, once your baby reaches a certain size, for example, when he is 6 months old, you should choose a mattress. The reason for this is that it is thought that the bars with the bars restrict the freedom of the babies and make it difficult for them to fall asleep.
He recommends that you not put your baby to sleep in the stroller or even let him fall asleep at night outside of his own bed as much as possible.
It is also important that you do not disturb your baby’s sleep hours, even the reasons such as being a working parent or coming late at night do not change this situation.
Montessori toilet training:
You should observe your child and try to understand whether he is ready for toilet training. You shouldn’t try to take off her diaper and make her go to the potty before she’s ready, and you shouldn’t be stubborn about it. Let us remind you that hurrying or being late can cause problems in your child’s development.
You should not tie a diaper to your child when he starts toilet training. Do not forget to be prepared for possible accidents!
Let’s say he missed the kid’s pee or poop. You should never punish him, make fun of him or get angry.
Does your child like to hear stories from you? If your answer is yes, you can turn this into an advantage for toilet training. For example, while you are telling him a story or reading a book, you can talk about the toilet of his favorite heroes and turn the stages of going to the toilet into a fairy tale.
Montessori sensory training:
It’s time for a section about the Montessori schools your child will attend, as well as the education you will give. Sensory training! With this training, the child’s capacity to understand the subtle differences between stimuli is developed. For this purpose, materials that will enable the child to learn by seeing, hearing, touching, feeling and acting are used. These materials are suitable for the child’s shape, size, color, texture, taste, etc. It is designed to understand concepts and the relationships between them. Montessori educational materials designed for different senses allow the child to use it freely in accordance with his own development level.
For example, we can explain one of the methods used to develop the sense of smell with the Montessori method of training the senses: The teacher goes out to the garden with the children. Children look at the scent of many flowers. At this time, the names and names of the smelled flowers are also taught to the children. Then the group of children, including the child, is blindfolded and asked to guess which flower it is by smelling the flowers. Thus, a much more effective learning process is created.
Montessori language education:
In Montessori language education, it is thought that writing skills develop before reading. In the Montessori education method, children learn the sounds of the letters before they learn the names of the letters in order. This is thought to make it easier to read. For this, the following steps are followed.
Children touch the sandpaper letters. Sandy letters attract children’s attention and make them wonder what it is.
They are asked to produce words using envelope cards.
Children learn by seeing the spelling of items in the classroom.
For writing exercises, paperless activities and language development exercises are done.
By the way, let’s add the following about the schools that provide Montessori education.
Montessori Education offers an environment prepared from montessori materials, where the child can make choices according to his or her individual interest and inclination. In Montessori schools, children work with whatever material they want, whenever they want, wherever they want.
Children are given the opportunity to repeat as many times as they want. The early learner will be able to move on to a new work because everyone has a different rhythm in learning.
3. Why is Montessori education important?
Below, we have listed the reasons why the Montessori method is useful.
Based on the child’s interests and skills, beyond the plans and rules determined by parents and teachers, it both facilitates the child’s learning and turns learning into an enjoyable one.
The child learns to do his own work as much as possible. In this sense, getting a Montessori education develops a sense of independence in the child who does their own work without needing anyone.
The fact that parents do not do the little things that the child can do for him contributes to the child’s making his own decisions, creating options for himself, and as a result, the development of a sense of responsibility.
4. When does Montessori education start?
Montessori education starts from the moment a child is born. From the moment you hold your baby in your arms, you can support his brain and intelligence development. The baby is open to all the stimuli around him, especially until he is 3 years old. For this reason, you can ensure that your baby, who follows everything and learns quickly, has a more effective learning process by supporting his/her learning during these periods.
5. What is the basis of Montessori education?
Montessori education basically focuses on the formation of personality. In this sense, while raising your child, you, as a parent, must first act on the basis of this perspective: My child has unique characteristics, interests and curiosities! I shouldn’t compare him to other kids.
We also recommend that you implement these two items.
You should allow your child to work wherever and whenever they want. In these studies, the child should have the opportunity to repeat as many times as he/she wants.
You have to raise your child in a way that he can find his own fault. Self-correction without the need for approval and correction will both increase his awareness and enable him to become independent.
6. How should a children’s room be according to the Montessori method?
Here are some Montessori methods to consider when arranging your child’s room.
You need to create a space where the child can move freely.
You should include low and open shelves that your child can easily organize and use without needing you.
Toys stuffed into a huge toy basket will be perceived as a mess for the child. You should stop keeping toys together like this.
You can place a box in your child’s room where materials such as paper, pens and paint are placed side by side.
You shouldn’t let your child’s books and pictures on the walls become too many to be distracting.
Having a mirror in the room is important in terms of observing the change in the child’s body.
Having a clothes hanger and light switch on your child’s height will be useful for him to be able to do his own work.