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Montessori Material
The Montessori Material was developed and compiled by Maria
Montessori herself. After many years of careful study and observation
of the children in her schools, she put together materials that
fully stimulate the child's inner desire to learn and become
more independent from the adults around him.
Montessori studied the educational materials used by Jean Itard
and Edouard Seguin. These materials stimulate the child's five
senses: tactical, visual, olfactory, auditory and gustatory.
Montessori incorporated their ideas into her own apparatus and
designed other material in addition.
Montessori's curriculum consists of Practical Life; Sensorial;
Mathematics;Language and Culture. Materials have been designed
for each of these areas.
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Each of the material has direct-and indirect aims and prepares
the child for later skills in life. For example, learning to
build the Pink Tower, ten pink blocs of decreasing size, in
Sensorial not only teaches the child how to build a tower
but also prepares for later reading and writing skills by developing
the child's fine motor skills such as the pincer-grasp. These preparations may be physical or psychological, such as:
developing the child's gross and fine motor skills, hand eye
coordination, independence and concentration, but also self-esteem,
social skills and the intellect. The Montessori material is
designed in simple fashion, leaving out any unnecessary and
obstructing aspects such as colors or their aesthetic parts.
Each activity therefore, identifies a single, particular quality
such as taste or color, for the child to focus on. The material
also contains a built-in Control-of-Error. This control-of-error
may be visual, such as s : The Knobbed Cylinders which fit perfectly
in their designated hole, if the cylinder is placed incorrectly,
the child can see it and the exercise cannot be finished until
it is corrected. The child is able to see the final result whether
the activity is done correctly or not. This leaves the child
free from the teacher's correction and supervision, developing
the child's independence and inner desire to practice and improve
the exercise.
The Practical Life Activities are the first materials introduced
to the child. They will help the child to settle-in to his new
environment and start him on the path to independence. It provides
the child with real-life activities such as washing hands or
tying shoelaces. The exercise teaches independence, for example,
by being able to dress oneself or pouring his own juice from
a jag into a glass. Independence also leads to positive self-esteem.
Unfortunately, Montessori materials are very expensive, but
you can design your own activities base on Montessori theory
with materials from recycle bins or Dollar Stores.
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