Prepared Environment: Repetition

One of the trademarks of the Montessori environment is opportunity for repetition. Through observation, Montessori found that children naturally develop and learn when given opportunity for meaningful activity. A key to an activity being meaningful is repetition. A child must be able to repeat an activity as many times as they need to feel satisfied. This does NOT mean that they need to repeat an activity in order to master it. During the first plane of development (0-6), it’s all about process over product.

There are many opportunities for repetition in the Montessori classroom. There is also the gift of the uninterrupted three hour work cycle, which gives the children time to repeat an activity until they feel satisfied. Parents can support spontaneous activity at home by providing opportunities for repetition. Here are a few ways you can support repetition in the home:

• Provide open ended toys. Often, when a child has “mastered” a toy, they misuse it. Ever wonder why that light up toy laptop always gets misused or broken? Because they have used it, mastered it and cannot manipulate it. Toys that are designed to be manipulated offer endless opportunities to repeat activities.

• Provide practical life opportunities that can be repeated. Washing the windows can be repeated until a child’s heart is content. The same goes for spraying and wiping a table, and opening and closing containers.

• Provide low stakes ways for children to master skills. Putting a shirt on a chair to practice buttoning offers repetition and is a lot less frustrating than a child trying to practice by buttoning their own clothing.

• Cutting paper and stringing beads are simple art activities that encourage repetition and use items that you likely already have at home.

Montessori at Home: Spoken Language

The Montessori environment offers a language rich environment for young children. This language rich environment reaches beyond materials on the shelf. One of the most important aspects of the prepared environment is the adult themselves. Montessori stated over and over again that the adult is a part of the child’s prepared environment and must take the appropriate measures to prepare themselves.

The adult offers one of the most important components to the language rich environment: spoken language. From the moment a child walks into a classroom, from the eye contact they are met with to hearing their name spoken correctly to lessons with the geometry cabinet and reading shelf, the adult is providing a rich spoken language experience. In the classroom, children are given implicit and explicit lessons on speaking and listening. These lessons range from grace and courtesy lessons on how to listen when someone tells a story to command games that require a keen listening ear to play the game. Spoken language is one of the foundational elements of literacy. Research supports this. Children who have a strong vocabulary show greater ease in learning to read. Speaking and listening skills are vital to a strong foundation in literacy. Here are a few ways to engage your child with rich spoken language at home:

• Make songs and poems a regular part of your day.. Share simple nursery rhymes and songs from your own childhood. Children can learn new poems and songs with ease. When you introduce new songs and poems to your child, you will likely be met with delight.

• Listen intently to your child’s stories without giving correction. Ask clarifying questions when they are finished.

• Make mealtimes rich with conversation. Eat together at the table. Practice taking turns speaking and listening. Share stories from your day.

• Take some time to learn about their interests. Do they love giraffes? Do some research and introduce them to new vocabulary. Keep it causal and conversational.

• Tell true stories with a beginning, middle and ending every day. Even a simple story about your commute to work or a quick description about a bird you saw on your drive home will do. These details may seem boring, but your child will be riveted by the most mundane stories from your day.

• Read. This may be obvious, but there are tremendous benefits to reading to your child. Did you know that children who are already fluent readers still reap the benefits of being read aloud to?

Raise Good Humans Free Printable

I made this for my paper shop a few years back because I needed the reminder and thought I’d offer it here as a free printable. The hard follow through, the deep breaths required for gentle words when you’re frustrated. Good humans make all the hard parenting things worth it. This printable prints out to 8/5x11 and is designed to be cut into an 8x10 print. Pop in your name and email address and it will download right to your computer, ready to print.