Are you looking for ways to incorporate Montessori methods within your home during quarantine? With the world in such turmoil, moms are striving to find ways to keep their children busy, educated, and active.
The Montessori Method is an excellent way to do this. Montessori is a child-led approach that involves activities that continuously builds upon itself. I’m a significant fan of Montessori for preschoolers.
The Montessori method is one of the best educational systems for preschoolers. I whole heartily agree that children gain a lot from growing up within a Montessori prepared environment than a traditional one.
Doing Montessori with preschoolers offers many positive aspects. For instance, preschoolers learn practical life tasks, holistic education, academics, along with a positive social element.
With more and more moms doing homeschool and working from home, it can get overwhelming for anyone that might be interested in incorporating Montessori methods into their lessons. Here are few easy ways you can get started on the path to making your home environment into a Montessori for Preschoolers Haven.
1. Make Space
First and foremost, you need to make space for your child. If you’ve been thinking about Spring cleaning, then the time is now. Your preschooler’s new prepared environment should promote meaningful tasks, learning, and support independence.
This is the perfect reason to start decluttering. The most crucial thing in decluttering for Montessori learning is moving and making space for your child. Specifically, Limiting the number of available toys to play with, sorting toys by category, and setting up some open shelves.
Indeed, my motto is the simpler, the better. It’s evident your child is a member of the family and desires to be considered a contributing member. So get moving! Allow your home to have space for your child to be able to explore safely and develop.
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2. Routine
Having a routine is significant in making your home perfect for Montessori learning for your preschooler.
Having a Montessori Schedule to keep you on track is a game-changer. I’m a procrastinator, so having a schedule that forces me to adhere to it is vital.
So figure out what works for your family. If your child currently attends a Montessori School, they’re already familiar with time blocks to allow full concentration and time working through their work.
3. Get in the Right Mindset
Doing Montessori is easier said than done, especially if you’re not in the right frame of mind. You have to know your reasons for doing it.
- Why do you prefer the Montessori Method?
- Are you interested in doing Montessori homeschooling?
- Do you want to supplement during quarantine cause your child typically attends a Montessori school?
It’s essential to have goals and a plan. It’s so easy to get room envy when you’re seeing everyone’s pictures, but Montessori is more than fantastic toys. You need to be sure you can follow through with the learning.
Related: Montessori Essentials for Toddlers
4. Your Capacity
Another key element to make Montessori for your preschooler at home easier is to get realistic. You should be aware of your capacity to be a guide and guide your child through the work. Do you have the time and interest in improving your understanding of Montessori learning to help facilitate your child’s education?
You need to learn the Montessori methods, and there is no way around it. I’ve tried winging it, and I just ended up confusing my child. You want to make Montessori easier? Then you need to learn at least the basics. Especially, if you’re going to implement Montessori at home for your preschooler.
5. Resize
Another critical aspect in making creating a Montessori environment at home easy is to resize. This complements my first point about making space. Yes, you want to make space, but you also want to make sure that that space fits your preschooler’s personality and needs.
As well as being age-appropriate for your Montessori preschooler. That may mean selecting a kid-sized desk with kid-sized chairs so your child can work more comfortably. It could also include using shelves that are convenient for your child to utilize without standing on a step stool or ladder.
Therefore, learn your child’s needs and adapt the space to those needs. It’s important to remember the surroundings of a preschooler in a Montessori prepared environment should allow for activity. The easiest way I can explain this is just to make sure you have accessible age-appropriate materials at your child’s eye level.
Now, I don’t think you should go out and replace your entire house to get child-sized things today. You may have to purchase a few shelves, but for the most part, get creative and try to use what you have. If your budget-conscious, don’t worry; creating the perfect prepared environment can be done gradually.
Now, if you have a bit of extra money to splurge on creating your space, then consider the personality of your child. If you have a child that’s a future chef, then you may want to invest in food preparation materials so that they can help with dishes, food preparation, cooking.
6. Involve your Preschooler
As parents, we sometimes forget to count our preschoolers as meaningful and productive members of the home. It’s your child’s home as well, so start involving your child in home related tasks.
In other words, cleaning dishes, sweeping the floor, tidying up the living space, making the bed, prepping dinner, etc. However, make sure what your asking isn’t a dreaded chore. We want the children to enjoy the experience and make them excited to help out.
Second, involve them in your tasks that are important to your lively hood. For instance, if you own a family farm or work from home business. You can include your child in age-appropriate responsibilities that will allow them to feel like they are a part of something. In this case, it would be feeding the animals, collecting chicken eggs, etc.
Along the same lines, it’s vital for children to feel like they can contribute to something. Unlike traditional education, where we tend to exclude our kids in tasks, in Montessori education, we don’t exclude our kids from this type of learning because we want them to prepare for real life.
7. Know your Child’s Personality
When organizing your space, don’t forget to consider your preschooler’s personality. Be intentional when creating a prepared environment or space. Consider your child’s age and developmental state.
For instance, You don’t want to have lots of Montessori material with small pieces if you have a crawling Montessori child. If you have an older child and crawling Montessori child, you may want to have containers to store away beads and small learning objects for safety.
On another note, you may have a child that loves to cook. So you may consider having more Montessori material that will complement their interests. Maybe your preschooler loves math; you may have materials that help facilitate their interests.
8. Make Montessori Your Own
It’s so easy to see all the fantastic Montessori photos and be a little envious of other spaces. Then we desire to replicate them, not realizing that it may not fit with our own family life. You have to make Montessori your own, don’t copy. Get creative and apply your twist.
So stop stressing about copying what you see and do your own thing. Does your child already attend a Montessori school? Then figure out how you can create a space that will complement what they are learning within their school environment.
Although you may not necessarily want to have the same activities and material, you may wish to have ways to complement these materials. Why? Well, you want Montessori school to remain unique, and you want your kids to be excited about going every day. You also don’t want them to be confused about the processes for each activity.
If your doing the same Montessori work at home, then more than likely, your processes at home will be different than the processes at school. That can be confusing for a child. So try to come up with new, creative, and fun ways to Montessori at home.
9. Montessori for Preschoolers is all Process
Montessori is all about processes, so you must be willing to learn them or create your own. Maria Montessori based Montessori methods on her observation of children learning processes.
Now, as I’ve mentioned, using the same school activities, but a different process isn’t recommended. It can be confusing to Montessori students who attend school with trained teachers.
So try to make your process the same if you intend to use the same activities. Otherwise, create something fun and different.
Are you in need of some more ways to make Montessori at home flourish? Sign up for the Montessori Learning Center to you can get the help you need to successfully Montessori at home.
Conclusion
Montessori learning for preschoolers within the home has been life-changing for us. The Montessori approach is one of the best systems for educating preschoolers. It has made such a difference in son, and we highly recommended starting at a younger age.
We’ve been practicing Montessori for the last three years, and we think it’s the best way to go for toddlers and preschoolers. With that said, we completely understand that starting Montessori at home can be overwhelming, especially if your brand new to Montessori.
I recommend just taking your time; you don’t have to do all the things. Especially if your child already attends a Montessori school. You can just work on practical living tasks, as your child will do just fine. So don’t guilt yourself, there’s a lot involved with Montessori. Just do what you can and what your child has an interest in.
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