At present, there are more and more only children in China.
Children have all kinds of unhealthy psychological and behavioral deviations, such as: self-centeredness, lack of care for others, fear of hardship, strong dependence, lack of sense of autonomy and responsibility, lack of awareness of innovation and accepting challenges, psychological fragility, and inability to withstand criticism and setbacks. Mixed-age class education provides a healthy environment for children to grow up, and activities with older children provide opportunities for children to experience social roles, creating a good environment for children to feel accepted, cared for and supported. The guidance of older brothers and sisters avoids a single rigid form of preaching.
In Montessori mixed-age education activities, children are willing to communicate with others, learn to help each other, cooperate and share, and improve their ability to solve problems, which is conducive to the formation of children's sound personality.
Sociality has been fully developed.
Nowadays, in social circles similar to their own age, it is difficult for children to understand what is humility and what is mutual concern. Montessori mixed-age classes often give children of all ages a chance to play and live together, which naturally forms the relationship between brothers and sisters. Some parents worry that their children are too old to stay with them and hinder their intellectual development; Some parents think that children are too young to keep up with older children, which will lead to a sense of loss, dependence and inferiority. In fact, in Montessori mixed-age classes, older children will ask themselves to be brothers and sisters everywhere, and gradually forget their special self-centered position at home. Younger children have worship psychology and will obey the requirements of their older brothers and sisters with gratitude. Older children don't do everything like their parents do. They let younger children do some small things that they can, such as collecting toys together. If you don't listen, you won't be allowed to participate in the activity. This is the saddest punishment. To this end, children must be obedient and dare not lose their temper and threaten adults like at home. Let the communication skills of children of different ages be exercised, and at the same time let the children's language develop.
In Montessori mixed-age classrooms, when children don't know how to choose a job, older children will spontaneously say, Come and work with me and I'll teach you. When a job is attractive, children will also say: Can I join? Children's hearts are closer than those of adults, and there is a spiritual infiltration between them. Children can get inspiration and role models from older children's work, learn to get along with others through experience, know how to wait, take turns and not disturb others, and learn many things that adults can't teach him in words. Older children are respected in the teaching process, and can analyze, synthesize, reorganize and summarize their knowledge, improve their ability and realize their value. He will spontaneously ask himself to give children a more positive behavior demonstration. Older children will also take care of their younger brothers and sisters in life, and their organizational and leadership skills can be brought into play and cultivated. Like a family, they feel the affection and friendship between their peers and live in a warm collective. In Montessori mixed-age classrooms, children study alone and they all have jobs. In this process, there are many ways to learn: look at other people's works or participate in other people's works with permission, learn from each other, learn from teachers and learn from themselves. Therefore, mixed-age education is conducive to children's active learning, to meeting the needs of children's individual development, and to the development of children's overall quality.
In a word, the mixed-age form of Montessori education provides an opportunity and environment for children of different ages to fully understand themselves, others and enhance communication and interaction, and fundamentally creates space for the development of children's interpersonal intelligence and self-knowledge intelligence. In Montessori mixed-age education, whether it is individual education or group activities, children's superior intelligence is used to promote the development of their potential to be developed, and cooperative learning is carried out through the complementary education mode of multiple intelligences, taking into account the development of children's self-confidence, compassion and sense of responsibility.
Moral sense is a good place for moral education.