Montessori Preparing the Environment
Preparing the Environment
Constant preparation and adaptation of the environment to the ever-changing needs and tendencies of growing children is essential in the Montessori method of raising and educating children. The first consideration is physical safety, and then the proper support for free movement, exploration, making choices, concentrating, creating, completing cycles—all of which contribute to the optimum development of the child.
Natural materials instead of plastic, and attention to simplicity, muted colours, plants, beauty, all contribute to the mental and physical health of both the child and the adult. To show respect for the developing sense of beauty, to aid the growing independence, and to inspire the child to activity, we choose the best of everything for the environment.
Age 3-6:
Children at this age often prefer to work on the floor instead of at a table—on rugs or pieces of carpet that can be rolled up or put out of the way when not in use. This marks the workspace just as would a table.
In the classroom and in the home toys, books, and materials are attractively on natural wood or white shelves according to subject—language, math, geography, history, science, music, and art. Each object has a special, permanent place so that children know where to find it and where to put it away for the next person when finished. Tables and chairs that support proper posture are important at every age.
Age 6-12:
At this age the child engages in many projects and needs a place, such as a clipboard, or a special cubby or shelf, to keep work. He needs the choice of spaces for silence or talking as each child has different needs for concentration and work.
Whereas at age 3-6 the world was brought into the house of children, now the child begins to go out into the world, for field trips such as shopping at the grocery store for a cooking project, getting office supplies for the classroom, interviewing subjects for history projects, or visiting museums, and so forth. And so the preparation of the environment includes more experience in the outside world.
The Environment & the Mind
Everyone at every age is affected by their environment. Habits of organizing the environment reduce stress and aid the development of an organized, efficient, and creative mind. The Chinese art of placement, or Feng Shui, teaches that clutter, even hidden under a bed or piled on the top of bookcases, is bad for a person.
A child who joins in the arrangement of an environment, at school or at home, and learns to select a few lovely things instead of piles of unused toys, books, clothes, etc., will be aided in many ways with this help in creating good work habits, concentration, and a clear, uncluttered, and peaceful mind.
Role Modelling
The adult model is always the most important element in the environment. It is from observing what we do, not what we say, that the child will learn.