Montessori is an education to cultivate learning ability and habits.
First of all, before mentioning Montessori's specific educational environment, let's first understand what Montessori's educational goals are.
Montessori's educational thought is developed from maria montessori's educational thought, and its basic principle is "following children".
Unlike most pre-school education, which is about learning mathematical English and claiming to teach children how much basic knowledge, the most important aspect of Montessori education has nothing to do with the school. Montessori education pays attention to children's personal development and cultivates and promotes each child's perception of happiness and surprise. In the learning process of Montessori environment, children should enjoy the happiness of childhood, not how much academic knowledge they have mastered in advance, but also pay attention to their learning process.
Why is it so different from our old ideas? This is related to Montessori's educational ideas and goals. "This is an education that focuses on cultivating children's learning ability and study habits." Children who receive Montessori education will not improve their knowledge density by memorizing some formulas mechanically and writing words silently every day, but will explore and find answers by themselves in the Montessori education environment, and gradually master their unique learning ability, thus broadening their knowledge.
"In fact, in the kindergarten environment, children are not exposed to some basic concepts and slightly more difficult topics. Teach them to explore and learn freely, so their study habits, abilities and autonomy will be strong. Slowly, the advantages of our children will gradually emerge.
A prepared environment
"A prepared environment" is one of the characteristics of Montessori.
Montessori's understanding of a prepared environment is that children come here, get in touch with all conditions conducive to development, and promote children's independent learning and exploration to the greatest extent. In this quiet and orderly environment, there are many activities. Children can come and go freely, freely choose the jobs they have learned and practice at their own pace. Here, children experience freedom and learn self-discipline under the guidance of environment and teachers.
Its classroom is divided into seven areas, namely, living area, sensory area, language area, mathematics area, culture area, art area and reading corner. Various teaching AIDS have been prepared in various regions, so that children can freely choose "work".
In the living area, all kinds of cups, plates and bowls are made according to the size of children, rather than plastic utensils used by children to play at home. No, a child is holding a glass cup filled with water carefully for fear of breaking it. "This kind of environment can make children adapt to real life and exercise their independence.
Real appliances in the living area
The sensory area sounds a bit difficult to understand, but it is actually through various sensory teaching AIDS, such as color swatches with different colors and tasting bottles with different smells, that they can learn through their senses.
Next, let's learn about the math area and language area related to future study. As the name implies, these two areas are used to train children's math and language skills. Here, there will be all kinds of teaching AIDS for children to learn.
In the math area, there will be some colored beads, which are composed of 10, 100, 1000, etc. Children can count the number of beads one by one through their own vision and touch, and then gradually come into contact with larger cubes to understand mathematical problems in detail.
Similarly, children in language areas also contact the real content through vision and cooperate with learning. There is such a set of teaching AIDS in the language area. Different words correspond to different teaching modes. For example, "elephant" corresponds to the elephant model, and there will be a model next to different words for reference, which can help learning through multi-sensory forms.
Models and words in the field of language
There will be some cultural teaching AIDS in the cultural area, such as world map puzzles. Children can spell out the world map in their own unique way and learn some basic knowledge in the process.
Teaching AIDS in the field of culture
Generally speaking, the art district is where children draw. In this area, children can paint freely on their carpets.
Reading corner, as its name implies, contains many books, and children can freely consult and read what they want on the bookshelf here.
In short, children can learn all kinds of cultural knowledge, do complex arithmetic problems, name continents, know geometric shapes and write in Montessori environment. And get better growth.
Don't teach children what to do. Exploring by yourself is the key to learning.
In Montessori's class, learning is called "work". The main body of this "work" is children, and the teacher only plays a guiding role. -She is the designer of the learning environment, the provider of resources, the exhibitor of teaching AIDS, the recorder and observer of each child's growth and development, but she is not the publisher of the conclusion "1+ 1=2".
In the process of learning in Montessori environment, children will do their "work" over and over again, and in the process, they will discover and master the concepts contained in teaching AIDS.
Take Montessori's typical teaching aid "Pink Tower" as an example. The "pink tower" consists of ten pink cubes with decreasing side length. What children need to do is to build it into a tower in the order from big to small. When children "work" with this teaching aid, the teacher will not give guidance in any form, but the children will do it themselves. Maybe the child made a mistake the first time, the powder tower finally fell down, the second time, and the middle link went wrong. Such a free choice process will take a long time, but he can "touch" and think for himself, and finally master the abstract discrimination ability. You know, in this process, it depends on the children's own thinking.
Montessori teaching aid "Pink Tower"
The principle of "let children learn by themselves and judge by themselves" is simple, but not everyone can do it. "Some parents often complain that children should ask their parents everything, whether it is study, life or various problems, or even when they grow up. I don't know that the source of such problems lies in parents themselves. When a child is very young, adults are used to telling him that this should not be like this and that should be like this. Over time, children get used to not thinking.
I have encountered such a situation in a classroom where parents of children are open to observation.
At that time, a girl was concentrating on completing the teaching aid of "cylindrical socket". This teaching aid consists of ten wooden cylindrical grooves and cylinders. What the child has to do is to put all ten cylinders into the corresponding grooves. "When the girl was working, her father sat by and watched, but in a short time, her father couldn't hold back: every time the girl picked up a cylinder and put it in the groove of the cylinder, her father said,' Don't want this' and' Change it'. After that, we found that when she picked up the teaching aid, she would look up at her father, as if asking if it was this.
Montessori teaching aid "cylindrical socket"
Freedom is limited under the rules.
Seeing this, you may think that Montessori education is to let children play and study freely, but it is not. In the environment of Montessori education, children must play freely while observing "rules" and "order".
Every Montessori classroom operates on the principle of "limited freedom".
Every classroom has basic rules, which are based on Montessori's core idea of respecting individuals and the environment.
Most of the regulations here are about students' personal habits and upbringing. For example, suppose a child wants to play with the teaching AIDS of the pink tower, while another child is still "working", so he needs to wait by.
"This kind of' waiting' is what we want our children to learn in Montessori education. When another child is working, the child can only wait, but there is nothing to do during the waiting period except watching what other children are doing. So this period of time has become a learning process. He can see the process of other children's work and then simulate it with his own thinking. When it's his turn, he can verify his ideas through practice and wait to cultivate the child's good character. "
This is only one aspect of the rule. In Montessori's class, there are many such rules about children's habits and upbringing that need to be followed. For example, when the teacher is chatting or busy with children, other students should pat the teacher on the shoulder when they want to find the teacher, and then wait quietly for the teacher to finish; For example, children never touch teaching AIDS that they have not taught themselves, because they know that the rules are not allowed.
Under the premise of following the rules, children can choose the teaching AIDS that they are interested in and have learned, and do their homework at their own pace. Of course, they can also do it alone or in cooperation with others. On the other hand, teachers can decide which children are suitable for learning new activities or new teaching AIDS by observing them in class. The purpose is to encourage children to study independently and strike a balance between individual study and group cooperation.
How to create a Montessori environment at home
After knowing the Montessori concept and basic rules, how can parents absorb this concept into practice and decorate a Montessori environment for their children at home?
The family environment should be orderly.
The order here is very simple, which can be understood as follows: all kinds of furnishings in the home should be arranged in a certain "order"
For example, many parents put their children's toys in one basket, but this is not right. Children's different toys should be placed in different categories, and different cars, building blocks and puzzles can be placed separately. In this way, after the children play, they will pack up their things and put them back in their original places.
It is also important for children to have a certain "order" in their daily lives. At school, it will be stipulated when to eat and when to go out to play, so that children have a certain concept of time; But at home, there is no fixed schedule, and he sometimes plays with one thing for a long time, which is also wrong. Let him know when to do what.
Decorate the Montessori room
There is a very important point in Montessori's philosophy: let children do what they want. So in Montessori's room, the child's bed should be very low, so that he can get out of bed and do what he wants when he wakes up.
In addition, some toys, small cabinets and clothes should be placed within the reach of children as far as possible, so that children can touch them themselves, thus cultivating their independence. For example, a child's wardrobe can be designed with a shorter pole, so that he can choose and hang clothes by himself instead of asking his parents for help.
Similarly, if you want to hang pictures in the room to cultivate children's artistic sense, you should also put the pictures as parallel as possible to the children's line of sight.
Kitchen design
If possible, parents can design a child's "mini" kitchenware next to the kitchen, let him wash the small bowls and cups by himself, and cultivate his independent ability.
Putting some small mops and dustpans in the corner of the kitchen is also a good way to cultivate children's hand-eye coordination and independence. First, parents can teach their children how to mop the floor and clean the table. After teaching, he knocked over the water and saw that the table was dirty, so he could handle it by himself.
You can design some special methods or tools for children to do.
In fact, there is no specific standard for Montessori environment, and parents can design it according to their children's characteristics.
For example, for very young children, the steps of wiping the table by themselves, such as fetching water, foaming and drying, are complicated. Parents can simplify the steps and let the children simply wipe the table with a piece of cloth; You can also buy a small spray bottle and teach your child to clean the glass. These are small details in life, but parents can assign some simple tasks, and often do them themselves after teaching.