There's a subject that has been playing on my mind for a few weeks since I read a discussion on a Montessori Facebook page. People were talking about the appropriate use of Montessori materials and what children should and shouldn't be allowed to do with them. Some people felt that we should stick rigidly to the presentations and extentions. Others had decided that children should be allowed a certain amount of freedom as long as they didn't misuse the equipment. This got me thinking about my own practice and what Maria Montessori intended.
As a home based Montessori practitioner, the children in my care range in age at the moment from eighteen months to six. This presents it's own logistical problem as I don't want to set out activities that are too challenging for the youngest child but have to make sure that the older children don't get bored. Throughout the process of choosing which exercises to put on the shelves, as I don't have the space to have everything displayed, I constantly observe how the children have used the previous activities. This is when I discovered something totally unexpected. Every child was at least six months further along than I had thought and I had been putting out a lot of the later Practical Life and Sensorial exercises. This threw up a new question; how exactly was each piece of equipment being used? Generally speaking, I don't do Practical life presentations unless I see a child struggling with how things should be used, allowing them full autonomy, so were the children misusing the equipment? Were the children sticking to the presentations being shown to them in other areas of the curriculum?
First I decided to observe our newest and youngest. She has only been with us since September, doing one day and week, and then in November changed to three days a week. It was incredibly interesting to watch her. She still needs a little direction to finish the work cycle, returning her activity to the shelf, but I left that to my assistant so that I could observe. She chose pouring beans, pouring them from one jug to the other for a minute or so. She then poured the beans onto her hand, letting them fall onto the tray with a clatter. I indicated to my assistant not to redirect, to let the little one continue with her investigation. She put all the beans back into the jug and poured them onto her hand again. She continued to do this a few more times, and once she had finished, decided she was going to see what else she could have a look at. She was brought back to the table and asked if she was finished with the pouring activity. She said she was so my assistant told her that it would be lovely if she could tidy up the tray so that someone else could use it. She was happy to do as she was asked with a little help from the adult.
I also decided to observe another child who has only been with us since September and who is only comes for a day and a half. He is four and has been in a regular daycare setting since he was a baby and now attends a school nursery when he is not with us. My expectation was that he would not have any respect for the Montesoori materials or have any desire for the work cycle. However, on the day that I decided to observe him, he chose to work with the magnets. I had not shown him how to do the exercise but chose to step back and observe what he would do. He manipulated the iron filings for a few minutes and then a different, more determined, look came over his face. He pushed his chair in and took the magnets with him. I followed him into the next room and watched as he touched the magnets to different objects made of different materials. When he realised that he magnets would stick to certain metallic objects he sought out similar things to stick them to. He was asked by one of the children what he was doing and instead of telling her, he offered her one of the magnets and said to her 'Watch!' The two of them then explored the environment, seeking out anything metallic.
On another day, a child who has been with me since he was a baby and is now almost four took out the Pink Tower and Broad Stair. Having built the wall extention, he decided to see what else he could create with them. He didn't allow the cubes to topple and was respectful of the materials, but wasn't following any of the extentions I had shown him.
