Montessori at Home: Reading

Language is everywhere. Opportunities to support a child’s literacy development is all around, whether they are an infant or an emerging reader.

Within the context of Montessori, children read spontaneously and with joy. A quick online search can make a parent feel overwhelmed with all the activities built around teaching children how to read. Here are a few ways you can support your child’s literacy development at home:

• Play games with sounds. I Spy games with letter sounds help children understand that words are made from sounds. This will give them a strong foundation for when they are introduced to the graphic symbols. Children are naturally drawn to games with language. Simply rhyming words may seem boring to an adult, but an activity like this is very engaging to a young child and requires no materials.

• Offer rich vocabulary. Children have an unlimited capacity for language and no word is too big. Give a name for everything around you, from ingredients you are cooking with to flowers you come across outside. A strong vocabulary builds a strong foundation for reading.

• Give them opportunities to “write". In the classroom, we use a Movable Alphabet for children to express their thoughts before they master the mechanics of handwriting. At home, offer opportunities for your child to associate written words with meaning. Let them help with the grocery list. Let them write letters to friends and family. Even if they are only writing scribbles, they are associating written word with thought.

• Read! Read great books with your children every day. If your child is an emergent reader, let them read to you. Non-readers can read to you by interpreting the pictures and having a conversation about the story. This is called dialogic reading. Dialogic reading builds oral skills, increases vocabulary and supports print awareness.

Independent Play

Often, parents can feel like they are responsible for their child’s entertainment. Just a scroll through Pinterest or Instagram can make a parent feel like they need to set up engaging activities that span from wake up time to bed time. This can leave parents feeling drained and guilty. It’s ok for children to experience boredom! It’s ok for them to be responsible for their own fun. Independent play boosts confidence, supports cognitive development and creativity.

Here are a few tips to encourage independent play at home:

• Observe. When you notice your child is playing independently, what are they playing with? Take note of the things already in your environment that inspire independent play and build on it. Does your child play independently with art materials? Add some new art supplies to their stash. Does your child love to dress up and engage in imaginative play? Add a few new costumes to their collection.

• Take it slow. Start small by offering your child their own activity that they can work on right next to you. Use phrases like: “I’m doing my work while you do yours.” Build on your child playing right next to you to them playing across the room to them playing in their own space.

• Offer quality time. Before encouraging independent play, offer quality one on one time, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Read a book or play a game. Give lots of cuddles. Listen to their stories. Look into their eyes. This connection will make them feel more confident to venture off on their own.

Montessori at Home: Handwriting

A quick search on the internet or through a hashtag on social media will leave you drowning in a sea of Montessori at home ideas. Even as a trained Montessori educator, I find all the tips and tricks overwhelming. I wondered, with so many resources available online, if I should even bother adding my voice in to what can feel like a sea of noise for overwhelmed parents. But here we are.

The language curriculum is one of my favorite aspects of Montessori. I love the focus on exploration. I love the stories written by Dr. Montessori of the joy children experienced in the early children’s house of spontaneous writing and reading. I love hearing her talk about the ease that children find in learning these things that, in other educational contexts, have to be taught with drudgery or reward. I love seeing little hands trace cursive letters and write whole words with the movable alphabet.

Montessori’s views on handwriting are simple. Prepare the hand for writing without writing. That’s right. In Discovery of the Child, Montessori herself said: “Our children then learn to write, and also to improve their handwriting, without writing. Real writing is an experience, the outbreak of an inner impulse, an act in compliance with a higher activity. It is not an exercise.” (pg. 259).

So how did we get to where we are? What’s the why behind all the things that pop up when you search “Montessori handwriting worksheets” on Pinterest? Has the pressure from traditional education left us thinking that maybe indirect preparation isn’t enough? Do children today need these supplemental resources? Children experience what is called an explosion in handwriting. When they have sufficient indirect preparation, they burst into writing. When this happens, children write with joy. Here are just a few ways you can offer indirect handwriting support at home without the help of worksheets.

• Explore language. Rhyme together. Sing songs and recite poems. Play simple classifying games, like: “Let’s think of five kinds of fruit.” “Let’s say three types of flowers.”

• Play! Outside as much as possible! The more opportunities your child has for gross motor movement, the more they will be prepared to write with pencil and paper.

• Art! Drawing is a big part of handwriting development. In the classroom, the metal insets are used to support handwriting through drawing and filling in geometric shapes with coloring pencils. Montessori came to the conclusion that when children have the opportunity to draw different types of lines, they become more skillful and confident in the use of their hands (Discovery of the Child). Offering high quality art supplies like colored pencils, oil pastels, and charcoal pencils is a great way to support the development of handwriting at home. Add a ruler in for them to explore making different kinds of lines. Use clay as an opportunity to strengthen little fingers.

• Sensorially explore letter formations. Put salt, rice or cornmeal on a cookie sheet and let your child practice form letters. Draw letters in the dirt. Have them close their eyes and draw letters on their palms and on their back.