Montessori: Practical Life

The Montessori classroom is broken down into four major curriculum areas: Practical Life, Sensorial, Math and Language. In the classroom, no area is off limits for any child. Three year olds love math and kindergarteners love practical life! Today, let’s talk about practical life.

Practical life is practical! This area includes activities of daily living. Practical life activities may seem simple, but are incredibly valuable in supporting motor control, cognitive development, concentration and independence. Practical life activities support the sensitive periods for order, movement, sensory perception and even language! Practical life activities vary based on culture and environment. These activities give children a sense of confidence and belonging. Even the youngest member of a household can feel like a valuable, contributing family member through practical life activities. In the 1946 London Lectures, Dr. Montessori wrote: “It is interesting to notice that where life is simple and natural and where the children participate in the adult’s life, they are calm and happy.” The practical life curriculum is typically broken down into four main areas—control of movement, care of self, care of environment and food preparation.

Control of Movement: Activities in this area include things like dry and wet pouring, spooning, and tonging activities. These activities support fine motor control and isolate skills needed for larger practical tasks. For instance, a child will master using a spoon by spooning something dry before using a spoon to spoon out ingredients for baking. A child will master pouring with two pitchers before pouring for a larger task like table scrubbing or serving themselves a drink. This gives the child a sense of mastery in a way that is low stakes and builds confidence. When thinking through control of movement activities to put out, look beyond how cute the activity is. Ask yourself what skills are being mastered or if those skills could be practiced in a low stakes way as part of another activity that is actual practical.

Care of Self: This is pretty self explanatory. The care of self area provides children the opportunity to…you guessed it…care for themselves! This includes activities like nose blowing, buttoning, zipping, buckling, hand-washing, and nail scrubbing. The care of self area can be modified to meet your child’s specific needs. Have a child with glasses? Add in a glasses cleaning activity that can be utilized when needed.

Care of Environment: This area includes activities that care for the environment, whether that’s at home or school. Activities include dusting, sweeping, polishing and plant care. These activities can be modified based on interest and culture. I love plants and find myself adding several plant care activities both at home and in my classroom. Love to cook? Add in activities like oiling cutting boards. These activities should range from one step activities to activities with many steps. An activity like table scrubbing may include many items and several steps. Practicing activities with multiple steps supports motor development and important executive functioning skills.

Food Preparation: This is also pretty self explanatory. Like control of movement, food prep activities scaffold the skills children need to prepare food. Isolated activities like spreading, slicing, peeling and chopping are often introduced to give children a foundation with kitchen skills. If you want to get your child in the kitchen more often, start with some isolated food preparation activities like cheese grading, peeling or slicing.

Sensitive Periods: Sensory Perception

Sensitive periods inform so much of Montessori practices. Understanding the sensitive periods of early development can inform your parenting practices in positive ways. Sensitive periods occur exclusively in the first plane of development, which is from birth to around age 6. During sensitive periods, children experience an explosion in certain areas of their development. These bursts in learning support the development of characteristics that they will carry with them for the rest of their life. The sensitive periods are order, language, sensory perception and coordination of movement. You can read more of an overview for sensitive periods here.

The sensitive period for sensory perception occurs from birth to around age 4.5. Young children are absorbing sensorial impressions around them and refining their five senses (taste, smell, touch, hearing and sight). Montessori classrooms capitalize on this by providing a sensorially rich environment and a whole curriculum area that educates the senses. With each sensorial material in the classroom, the sense that is being refined is isolated. For example, the pink tower is a material designed to refine the visual sense. Each cube is the same color, only changing in size. This isolation helps draw the child’s focus to the size of each cube. Lessons that refine the tactile sense use blindfolds to draw the child’s attention it the tactile qualities of the material.

Young children are keen observers of their environment. The sensitive period for sensory perception allows the child to classify all the sensorial impressions they are observing and taking in. The classifications that are created during this time support the development of both the intelligence and the memory. Sensorial impressions are the concrete images of abstract concepts that will be learned later in life. In the classroom, we give sensorial impressions of land and water through the sandpaper globe. Later on in their education, they build upon this sensorial impression by learning more about geography. Sensorial education supports the child’s individual development and connects the child to the world around them.

Education of the senses is not limited to a Montessori classroom! In the kitchen, you can draw attention to the smells and tastes of different ingredients. Listen to the pitches of different birds when you are outside. Provide opportunities to explore different textures and give a name to them. “This feels bumpy.” “This feels soft.” “This feels scratchy.” Explore different shades of colors. Limit time on screens with and worksheet activities so children don’t miss out on the sensorial opportunities around them. Children are already taking in the sensorial impressions that surround them wherever they go. You can support this sensitive period by drawing attention to the qualities of the sensorial impressions around them.

Sensitive Periods: Coordination of Movement

Sensitive periods inform so much of Montessori practices. Understanding the sensitive periods of early development can support your parenting in so many positive ways. Sensitive periods occur exclusively in the first plane of development, which is birth to around age 6. During sensitive periods, children experience an explosion in certain areas of their development. These bursts in learning support the development of characteristics that they will carry with them for the rest of their life. The sensitive periods are order, language, sensory perception and coordination of movement.

The sensitive period for movement occurs from birth to around age 4.5-5. During this time, children are growing so much physically and mentally. The sensitive period for movement spans the development of all movement up to the refinement of fine motor skills.

The Montessori method supports the sensitive period for coordination of movement by providing opportunities for intelligent movement. In The 1946 London Lectures, Montessori said: “The problem is not to move, but to move in relationship with the intelligence.” (pg. 159). Intelligent movement is built into the Montessori classroom, from practical life all the way to distance games with math!

Maximum effort is an important part of the sensitive period for coordination of movement. A child’s work is maximum effort. Maximum effort explains the need to put their pants on backwards six times, the need to carry bags that weigh more than they do and the need to make six trips when one would do. Maximum effort explains your child doing things in the most physically difficult way possible! For young children, the doing is the crucial part of their development. The process of doing is how they learn. You can support your child’s sensitive period for coordination of movement by supporting their need to exert maximum effort. Find places in your day when they can take the long way to get from point a to point b. Plan for extra time to help them prepare meals or carry in groceries, even if it means the task itself takes longer. Give them opportunities to carry or push heavy loads. Create space in your routines that gives them the time to put on their shirt upside down and backwards before they get it right. Some days, it may feel impossible to fit in extra time for these things. Even just a few extra minutes to let them go at their own pace can support their sensitive period for coordination of movement.