Content

Obedience

Obedience is an act of will and develops gradually, showing itself 'unexpectedly at the end of a long process of maturation.' (Montessori, 1967, p...

Points of Interest

Montessori realised that if children spent too long a time on a complex task or failed to master the necessary details, the exercise would cease to interest...

Prepared Environment

The Montessori classroom is an environment prepared by the adult for children. It contains all the essentials for optimal development but nothing superfluous...

Presentation

The adult in a Montessori environment does not teach in the traditional sense. Rather she shows the child how to use the various objects and then leaves her...

Psychic Embryo

The first three years of life is a period of mental creation, just as the 9 months in utero is a period of physical creation. The brain awaits experience in...

Repetition

The young child's work is very different from the adult's. When an adult works, he sets out to accomplish some goal and stops working when the object...

Sensitive Periods

Young children experience transient periods of sensibility, and are intrinsically motivated or urged to activity by specific sensitivities. A child in a...

Sensorial Materials

The sensorial materials were created to help young children in the process of creating and organising their intelligence. Each scientifically designed material...

Simple to Complex

A principle used in the sequence of presentations in a Montessori classroom. Children are first introduced to a concept or idea in its simplest form. As they...

Socialisation

'The process by which the individual acquires the knowledge and dispositions that enable him to participate as an effective member of a social group and a...