Montessori Materials

In the Montessori approach to educating children, a different vocabulary is employed to describe what children do. As an alternative to playing, children work. And as an alternative to using toys, children make use of Montessori materials in order to master new capabilities and examine different elements of the world.

This alteration of vocabulary requires a little adjustment, but in the long run, adopting these different words for what children do leads to an entirely different perspective on how children grow and develop. Rather than approaching childhood as a time of innocence and no responsibility, it becomes, instead, a time of serious fun and continual improvement. Learning and play go together, but it helps to emphasize the learning and working half of the formula lest we mistake our kids' games for foolishness.

But so what do children do while they work? It all depends on the materials they're making use of, but generally, children are exploring their sensory capacities, learning and mastering language, expanding their numerical understandings and developing social awareness. All of these learnings occur side-by-side. It's impossible to isolate any given activity as just increasing a single developmental competency. This is all about holistic awareness--development of one capacity encourages many other capacities simultaneously. And the results speak for themselves: happy well-adjusted children growing into amazing human beings.

You can find many different materials that children can use to work and grow.

Some of the best are art materials because they encourage creativity and ingenuity. Young children get to create entire worlds by using their art supplies. Many Montessori materials are made out of wood or fabric and allow the child to explore all sorts of different sensations--from heavy to light, hard to soft and bright and dark. The differences between things lead to fresh understandings, and little ones giggle excitedly as they discover all kinds of different features of the world by using their materials.

Materials exist everywhere just waiting for youngsters to discover them.

Nature is great for this type of explorational experiential learning.

As children wander through Nature, they are repeatedly picking up twigs and leaves and bugs--and each of these aspects of the natural world shares profound lessons. Children love to read the book of nature.

In an era when so many children dwell continually indoors with eyes glued on a TV or computer screen, go against the grain by sending your children outside to do the hard work of exploring. Montessori seriously stresses time spent outside for youngsters of all ages for a very good reason: Nature has many lessons, and the natural world is uniquely suited to kids' natural curiosity. Not to mention the physical and mental health benefits that amass from lots of time passed outside in the clean air and warm sunshine.

Along with the materials you're able to find or create, needless to say, there are many other kinds of materials that children benefit from working with.

Wooden toys of all shapes and sizes are wonderful options--if you have ever visited a Montessori school, you've very likely seen all types of different wooden toys that the children love to play with. Wooden toys are incredibly genuine--they have weight, and they take up space. They reassure children with their mass and real-world significance. Children learn to respect these materials because they aren't plastic junk. High quality materials contribute amazingly to the positive development of children in almost every way.

Are you resistant to the idea that child's play can actually be serious work? Hopefully you're starting to see the value of the work little ones accomplish. This new frame of mind can absolutely effect the way you respond to your children while they're outside playing.

And if you are more conscious of the advantages of honest work with real materials, you will be able to equip your children much more effectively for maximum learning. Get them away from the TV and out of the house. Help your kids find some really deep work, and watch their amazing curiosity lead them on the journey of a lifetime.