Montessori at Home! : The Complete Guide to Doing Montessori Early Learning Activities

761 Pages·2018·54.73 MB·English

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Montessori At Home!

A Complete Guide to Doing
Montessori Early Learning Activities at Home
With 3-6 Year Old Children

Third Edition

By John Bowman

montessoriathomebook.com
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Montessori at Home!

©2013 John E. Bowman

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, whether by
graphic, electronic, mechanical, visual, recording, or by any other information storage and retrieval system by
anyone, except the purchaser for their own personal use, without prior written permission from the author.
ISBN number 978-0-9891768-0-4

Published by:
Montessori at Home!
Bradenton, FL

Order online: montessoriathomebook.com
Questions & support:
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Table of Contents

Introduction 4
Using this PDF eBook 7
Quick Start Guide 8
Maria Montessori and Early Childhood Education 9
Using Montessori Principles in Parenting 35
Parent's Guide To Using Learning Materials at Home 62
Practical Life 111
Sensorial 173
Art and Music 247
Digital Life 260
Science 272
Mathematics 349
Reading and Writing 394
Printables 435
~ 4 ~ Introduction

Introduction

Welcome to a new adventure in parenting. I invite
you to use this book to better understand your
preschool age child and help her realize more of her
potential. The activities shown here can have a
dramatic positive effect on a young child’s growth
and development.
Shutterstock

It has been well over a century since Dr. Maria Montessori created the first Prepared
Environment for 2-6 year olds. The approach she called a ‘Help to life’ is carried on in over
20,000 Montessori schools spread all over the world.
Montessori preschools are wonderful, but not all children can
attend one. If you understand and apply the principles of
Montessori, your child can have many of the benefits of a
Montessori school right at home. Wonderful learning materials
can be made using common items you may already have, or
which can be easily obtained. This book will show you how to put
Montessori concepts into practice in your home; and how to
provide your 2-6 year old with a wealth of excellent early learning
activities and experiences.

Photo above: Sorting activity, Julie Josey
You do not need to be a trained Montessori teacher to help your
child develop strong brain architecture, a positive self-image, and
skills that will give him a head start for success in school. Read the
information and follow the directions here and you will see your
child respond. Do activities in a spirit of fun and discovery, letting
your child explore freely. Many of the best learning moments
happen quite by accident. Photo at left: Letter Tracing, Julie Smithey
~ 5 ~ Introduction

Early learning is not done according to rigid schedules. Young
children should have fun and the freedom to choose what they
want to do and for how long. Montessori is all about following
the child. If you and your child are having fun and your child is
eager to learn and do more, you are on the right track. Be
patient, be positive, and encourage your child’s efforts.
The primary benefits of early learning activities happen inside a
child. The first six years of life are a unique time of incredibly
rapid brain development. The brain architecture your child is
building is fluid and rapidly changing. Every experience opens
Photo: Pouring, Julie Josey new brain nerve pathways.
In my younger years, I was privileged to create Montessori Prepared Environments and
help children use them. Like all Montessori Teachers, I watched children develop very
rapidly when they have access to these experiences. My goal now is to show parents how
to incorporate Montessori principles and activities into their family life. Many of these
activities may seem very simple at first. It may take a leap of faith to see what they can do
for your child. I encourage you to take that leap, create different activities, and watch for
the spark of interest and focused attention that means you have hit the mark. When your
child starts using activities regularly, she will surprise you.

There are many fabulous Mom Blogs with pictures and accounts of Montessori activities
done at home. You will find photos from many of them in the pages here. They often show
incredibly crafty materials of all kinds and can sometimes be intimidating. "Where do I
start? How do I find the time to make all these things? I'm not terribly crafty, how can I
do Montessori activities at home? How can I organize all this information?"
These are questions many parents have. Rest assured, any Mom or Dad who sincerely
wants to help her child learn can do the activities in this book. Young children are not
impressed by incredible crafts. They just want to get their hands on activities and get
started. It is easy to make very nice materials using common items. This eBook will show
you how. All the information you need is organized here in an easy to read and use eBook
you can refer to for years as your child grows. To get started, read the early chapters and
use the Quick Start Guide on page 8. By the way, Dads can do Montessori at home, too!
Parental and work roles have evolved. Dads can be excellent home teachers. Your kids will
love sharing experiences with you. They are only kids once!
~ 6 ~ Introduction

Parents often ask, "What are the essential things I need to remember when doing
learning activities at home?" Here are some core Montessori principles to keep in mind:
• Early learning should be a natural, fun process of exploration, discovery, and
gradual mastery of skills. Pressure and stress have no place in early learning.
• Read the first chapters to see what it's all about and what materials will probably be
appropriate for your child. Make different materials available, observing your child
for sparks of spontaneous interest and focused attention. That spark is like starting
a campfire - small at first, but with the proper encouragement it becomes a flame.
As your child finds more materials of interest and spends time using them, his
ability to concentrate will improve. This is the key to Montessori.
• Allow your child uninterrupted time to work with and repeat favorite activities.
• When your child masters an activity or skill, provide something slightly more
challenging.
• When your child shows a spontaneous interest in numbers and words, start the
Math and Reading Sequences.
• Follow your child's interests from day to day. Montessori is about following the
inner teacher in each child that guides their development. We don't make lesson
plans to decide what children should learn and when. Instead, we encourage
children to trust themselves and their own instincts, interests, and abilities.
Montessori creates confident, independent people who welcome new challenges.
Will every activity go perfectly? Of course not. They don't in Montessori schools, either, so
don't worry. Preschoolers are in a unique time of life, enjoy it with them. As long as you
are trying new things, giving your child the freedom to follow her interests, and having
fun, you are on your way. When your child has frequent opportunities to find materials
that arouse his spontaneous interest and attention, he will surprise you.

John Bowman
~ 7 ~ Using This PDF eBook

Using this PDF eBook

First, save a copy to a flash drive, external backup drive, or to another computer if you have one.
This way, you will always have a copy. Your computer probably has a pdf reader. If not, download
a free one here.

On a desktop or laptop
• On the left is an icon that lets you see all the pages as thumbnail images in a vertical row on
the left. You can scroll through these to get to the page you want.
• Below that icon is another one that will let you choose a chapter. Click on that chapter and
the pages for that chapter appear as thumbnails so you can move through them.
• You can enter a specific page number in the box on top, press enter, and you will go right to
that page.
• Other options are lined up at the top for increasing or decreasing the size of the document,
printing, etc.

On the iPad
• If you downloaded to your iPad, click the window with arrow icon and choose 'Open in
Safari'. Once the book has downloaded, choose 'Open in iBooks'. The eBook will now be a
part of your PDF Collection in iBooks. If you downloaded to your computer and want to
move the book onto your iPad, click the link above for instructions.

On a Kindle Fire HD
• The Kindle Fire appears on windows explorer or Apple Finder as a storage device, just like
a USB flash drive or other peripheral device. Drag the file to it and drop it. On some
Kindles, the book will appear under 'documents'.

On a Google Nexus tablet
• Watch this video. You can also install Dropbox on your PC and tablet and use it to
transfer the file. With Wifi File Transfer you can do this over your home wifi network.
• Download the Adobe Reader or ezPDFReader apps and open them to read the book.
~ 8 ~ Quick Start Guide

Quick Start Guide

There is a lot of information here, and Montessori does take some explaining and
understanding. That doesn't mean you can't get started pretty quickly. Use this guide for
doing your first activity:

1. Read the first three chapters. This is the basic information you should be aware of
before you start doing Montessori activities. It won't take long, I promise.
2. Check out pages 70-72 and page 75. This will help you narrow down your search for a
first activity. Start with a simple Practical Life or Sensorial activity. Look over the
activities in this eBook with your child and let her choose one she is interested in.
Let her help you get the materials together and prepare. Montessori is about
following the child, so this will be good practice.
3. Have your child make a work area. Let your child lay down a placemat at a table or a
small rug on the floor as a work area, depending on the type of activity you've
chosen. This will be a great introduction to the Activity Cycle (page 84).
4. Let your child bring the activity to the work area and use it. Give her a quiet little
demonstration if needed and then turn the activity over. Let her use it as long or
short a time as she likes. Don't worry if this trial run ends pretty quickly. There will
be plenty of time for things to click when your child gets used to this.
5. When your child is finished, have him put the mat or rug away, then let him pick a place in
his room to place the material. If you're not quite comfortable with this yet, or don't
have a spot in your child's room, tell your child you will keep the material on a shelf
in the kitchen or somewhere else so she can use it again when she wants to.
6. When you can, set up low shelves in your child's room or elsewhere to display her
materials for easy access (see pages 76-81). Get a small table and chair.

Follow these steps with each new material.
Soon, you will have a great home Montessori school.
People will be asking you how you did it!
~ 9 ~ Maria Montessori and Early Childhood Education

Maria Montessori &

Early Childhood Education

“The most important period of life is not the age of university studies

but the first one, from birth to the age of six. For that is when man’s
intelligence itself, his greatest instrument, is being formed.”
Maria Montessori

“Early environments and experiences have an exceptionally strong
influence on brain architecture.”
The Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University
~ 10 ~ Maria Montessori and Early Childhood Education

Dr. Maria Montessori 1870 - 1952

Today we understand that young children are in their most
formative years. We know children learn rapidly from birth
to age six, and realize the importance of early childhood
education. We buy learning toys, download educational iPad
apps, visit Mom Blogs for activity ideas, and try to help our
children understand their world. Day care is not enough; we
want preschool activities for our children.

How did we get here? One woman, Dr. Maria Montessori,
started it all. Beginning around 1900, she developed a new, radical view of early
childhood as the most important period of human development. She gave the world a
new understanding of young children and what they need to develop optimally and
realize more of their true potential. She created a unique approach to doing this that has
been used in over 20,000 Montessori schools with great success for over a century.
This book will help you use the Montessori approach at home.

Montessori’s Observations of Children
In 1900, young children were considered to be cute, sometimes
misbehaving little curiosities that were to be mostly seen and not
heard. Then Dr. Maria Montessori turned her attention to them.
Her observations, methods, and materials totally changed the way
we look at young children and defined the fields of early childhood
development and education for future generations.
Maria Montessori was the first woman to receive a medical degree
in Italy’s history. She started working with children with learning

and other disabilities. Trained as a scientist, Montessori began
observing the children to see what she could learn. These children had been written off as
unable to learn; but Montessori achieved remarkable results. Since her methods worked