Montessori from the Start: The Child at Home, from Birth to Age Three

by Paula Polk Lillard

Montessori stated that nothing should be given to the brain that is not first given to the hand.

hand brain

abstract ideas and information of every possible kind should be given to the young child first in concrete form to be held, discovered, and explored. From this initial insight into the development of intelligence in young children, based on practical experience with children in extreme conditions, came all the Montessori materials so widely acclaimed today.

concrete form

The first grouping involves answering the question, what is out there? It includes exploration, orientation, and order.

explaination iruentaition order

A second grouping helps us deal with the results of our explorations: what might I do with what is there? Our propensity to abstract thought and our imaginations allow us to make new creations from what we find and see around us.

results

The third grouping is the largest and involves the crucial transition from dream to reality: how can I carry out my abstract ideas? To make this leap, human beings are given five key behaviors: manipulation, exactness, repetition, control of error, and perfection.

to true

exploration, orientation, order, imagination, exactness, repetition, control of error, manipulation, perfection, and communication.

all

independence, coordinated movement, language—language

language

independence, coordinated movement, language, and will.

four key

In creating an environment that encourages concentration, it is important to remember that if the child becomes conscious of anything other than the task at hand, his concentration is broken. By

concentration

allowing the child a view of the entire room from where he was placed would be helpful.

sleep spot

seeing the room.

A mobile hung from the ceiling eight to ten inches from his eyes and changed as he becomes familiarized with it, would give a focal point of interest in the earliest months.

hung

Allowing the possibility of movement into the entire room would open a whole world of interest.

movement

sleeping, changing, feeding, and being active—so

four major areas

infants bed

infants bed

The goal is to create a home life that is not overly serious and is filled with joyfulness and spontaneity.

joyfulness

rotation and new challenge are important as parents determine her environment on a weekly or monthly basis.

challenge

everything that adults give to the young child for sensorial exploration should represent the real world.

Hence, the first mobile portrays flat, black-and-white geometric shapes and reflected light from a glass sphere. Subsequent ones are introduced in ordered sequence: three octahedrons of colored metallic paper, ideally each in a primary color; five Styrofoam balls covered with embroidery thread in gradations of the same color and hung in ascending order from darkest to lightest; stylized paper figures of light metallic colored paper that move with the slightest current of air; and, finally, stylized wooden figures painted in pastel colors.

A wooden ring about three inches in diameter with a thickness of half an inch is ideal.

Rattles

Repetition of the familiar is essential for developing focus and true knowledge at every stage of development.

“measuring spoon,” “spatula,” “brush,”

Best of all, Nienhuis, a manufacturer of Montessori materials, makes excellent wooden toys that aid the development of the hand for children of six months and older (Nienhuis, 320 Pioneer Way, Mountain View, CA 94041-1576, http://www.nienhuis.com/).

By eight or nine months, your baby can explore putting a wooden egg in a cup and a wooden cube in a box.