Montessori Focus: The Prepared Environment

Today's post is on child education. For those who are not child-friendly people, I will strongly encourage you to stop reading so as not to be bored by my child talk! *oh dear, I'm sounding like such a boring housewife mother... tsk tsk*

I'm a big fan of the montessori way of educating children. Aiden goes to a montessori preschool in Japan and at home, we have also created a montessori environment where he is free (and safe) to explore and learn. In montessori, this is called "the prepared environment". For the benefit of those who are not familiar with the montessori philosophy, here are some pointers on the definition and features of a prepared environment.

Principle
The key concepts of Montessori are communicating respect for the individual child, the importance of freedom of movement to aid the child's physical and cognitive development, and allowing children to participate in daily routines of self care and care of the environment to assist learning and the development of independence. It is believed that children learn through their senses. And they learn by watching and re-applying their new found knowledge by moving around without inhibitions.

Safety
Attention must be paid to the safety of the environment. When there are no fears of danger, children are free to explore.

A place in every room
Have a corner in every room for the child's personal belongings (which explains why my son has got toys, books etc, everywhere in our house)

Others

• Shelves should be low so that the child knows how to get his toys and books, and where to pack them away when he is done.
• The child's bed should be low so that he can climb in and out of it without any help.
• A child -size table and chair in the main play area for the child to do art and craft work. This is to prepare them for future learning at school and to develop good posture that aid concentration.
• Have several stools in the house for the child to use to turn on the lights and wash their hands at the sinks. This is to foster independence.
• Place the child's utensils in low drawers so that he knows where to get them. Again, this foster independence.
• Have a place (wall or door) where the child can put up his drawing or artwork. This help to instil a sense of pride in them for their own achievements.
  

So anyway, our nightly routine involves getting Aiden to tidy up the living room by packing his toys away and putting them in the labelled drawers of his toy shelf (Montessori philosophy – assuming responsibility) before he goes to bed. But the other night, he was taking his own sweet time and after about 101 times of telling (sometimes yelling) him to put the toys away, we gave him an ultimatum –

“PACK UP YOUR TOYS NOW OR I WILL NOT READ YOU ANY BOOKS FOR BED!”

He got his act together immediately and this was what we got.



He was already out of sight by the time we noticed this mess that was transferred from the floor to the top of his shelves.

I guess we still have a looong way to go....