“ The world is your oyster, you are a pearl.” ~ Anonymous
Children are so innocent, and they need room to learn how to make good choices. There are many schools of thought on how to do this effectively.
Today we will discuss how to raise your child the Montessori way.
Mary Montessori is a physician who came up with a Montessori curriculum that teaches children how to learn to make choices for themselves, instead of adults directing their choices. Her training has formed a national accreditation, and many schools hire teachers who have gone through her rigorous training.
As where the school system is responsible for the way in which they administer education to your children, you can control what happens in your home. Montesorri techniques can be a useful resource to support you in an effort to raise emotionally resilient children.
There are many benefits to a Montessori school.
Here are 10:
- Focuses on Key Developmental Stages
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Encourages Cooperative Play
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Learning Is Child-Centered
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Children Naturally Learn Self-Discipline
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Classroom Environment Teaches Order
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Teachers Facilitate the Learning Experience
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Learning Method Inspires Creativity
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May be More Effective in Developing Certain Skills
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System is Highly Individualized to Each Student
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Curriculum Focused on Hands-On Learning
Just like Montessori schools teach children how to make choices for themselves at school, A Montessori home teaches children how to make choices for themselves at home. This is important, because children can easily make choices based off of fear if they are punished harshly for bad behavior. This doesn’t help children to learn why they are punished, because the motive for changing the behavior is fear of the punishment, not develop a desire to do the right thing. Teaching your children to learn how to make the right choice will help them in the long run as it teaches them to be morally grounded and emotionally resilient.
The way in which you discipline your children is a personal decision, but incorporating Montessori techniques will help your children learn how to make better choices.
First, instead of punishments, teaching your child about natural consequences helps them to be more prepared for the adult world. In other words, instead of punishing your children for doing something wrong, let them see the natural consequences of making bad choices.
For example, let’s say you ask your child to put away their toys. They choose not to do so and someone stepped over the toys and broke them. Now that toy has to get thrown away, because the toy is no longer useful to them while it is broken. If you spank the child for leaving the toy, they fear the spanking, not the natural consequence of keeping a messy environment.
To help your child learn to make good choices, they have to be free to roam. Therefore their environment, should be clean so that they know where to put things. That way, they can pick things up on their own initiative, interact with them, and put them back safely. This teaches them to clean behind themselves, instead of you cleaning up for them. To execute this, it might be easier to use shelves as opposed to boxes where things can be stored neatly and at a child’s eye level.
Finally, children should be tasked with some sort of responsibility where they can participate in doing household chores.
One example, might be working in the kitchen. To facilitate this, you should establish a routine, so the child will know what to expect regarding food. If a child knows that they will get hotdogs on Monday night, you can set out the bread and condiments to the side so that your child can put their own mustard and ketchup on the hotdog. When they are done, teach them how to store it in the refrigerator. That way, children begin to learn how to take initiative and to make choices based off of good habits that were introduced to them by you.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to life and parenting is no exception. But there are models of effective parenting that can help you to make the best choices for your child. If a Montessori home is something that you are interested in providing for your child, this should serve as a good resource to help you get started.
We have great therapists available to support you with this or other decisions regarding your child or children.