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Montessori At Home

Here are 10 things you can try at home to apply Montessori principles.

1. Slow down — plan less, explore life with your child at a slow pace, and allow time for movement, conversation and gaining cooperation.

2. Respect the child — speak and listen to your child as you would like to be spoken too.

3. Hands on learning — provide concrete experiences for them to make discoveries by themselves, look things up at the library.

4. Follow the child — ask ourselves, “what are they interested in right now and how can I provide opportunities to follow this interest?”

5. Include them in daily life — young children like to be involved in food preparation, setting the table, cleaning, doing laundry, doing the shopping and more.

6. See things from the child’s perspective — to understand our child’s behaviour and acknowledge their feelings.

7. Use alternatives to bribes, rewards and punishments — move from extrinsic motivators to ways to work with our child and solve problems together; instead of time out, we help them calm down, then make amends.

8. Observe objectively rather than making assumptions or judgements — look how they move, the communication they make, the activities they are working to master, their social interactions, and how they eat/sleep.

9. Be the guide — we are the adult guiding them (give as much help as needed and as little as possible) rather than being their boss (do as I say) or being their servant (I’ll do everything for you).

10. Prepare ourselves — to look after ourselves to have patience, to fill our own bucket, to understand our own triggers, and find ways to come back to calm when needed.

Resources

Montessori At Home

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