How do I know if the toy I am buying is Montessori aligned? Here’s what you need to know to make your own Montessori activity.
Ok, so if you’re reading this, I am willing to bet you’re in one of 2 categories – parents or educators. Either way, I am also pretty sure you have heard of Montessori and have an idea of what it is and maybe you are interested in using it with your children or students.
When I type Montessori into Google, I see some materials that Montessori designed herself, some classrooms, wooden furniture and lots of rainbow wooden toys. Not bad, and a somewhat true depiction of what Montessori actually is. Yes, Montessori classrooms are going to have wooden furniture as it helps to create a calm atmosphere and isn’t typically brightly coloured leading to overstimulation. Yes, there is a preference to using natural materials in activities, as this reflects true life (e.g. Montessori settings and homes might use real china and glass for mealtimes). However, does that means that plastic is evil and must never be touched? Nope. Does this Google search also mean that we should fill our spaces with rainbow toys? Also nope.
When I search Montessori on Amazon though – wowie. There’s a lot of things there that are just not it. I’m not saying they are BAD, I’m saying lots of companies have cottoned on to the fact that Montessori is popular in parenting and home educating circles and slapped the name on everything they can. I think this is exploitative of the parents who are doing their best to provide for their children in the best way possible, but are short on time to be able to delve further into Montessori.
The other reason I am keen to share this with you is because I know from my work that you can combine Montessori materials with other resources that she didn’t design herself, and still follow the basic principles. I will say it a thousand times – Montessori is NOT all about the stuff and the pretty shelfies. It is so much more important to understand the philosophy and the reasons behind why things are done the way they are. ANYWAY, without further ado – on with the tips! A Montessori activity should:
They are often made of natural materials. Doesn’t mean they have to be.
The activity should clearly teach the child one thing. The reason Montessori is so effective at teaching children is that it isolates the thing that is being taught. For example: the sandpaper numbers. The intention is to help a child to recognise and name the numerals. Nothing else. So, you’ll see that they are all the same colour, all the same size and font. We don’t want to, or need to distract the child with anything else because we want them to focus on the numerals. And by the way, they WANT to focus on the numerals. Despite what we think, they do not need multicoloured toys with cute characters on them to want to learn. It’s within us to want to learn and find out more.
A Montessori activity should have a control of error. This is where the child can begin to start to assess themselves. If an activity is asking a child to match the letters to the initial sounds of the objects in front of them, and they get to the end and they are left with a zebra and the letter t – they know something has gone a bit skewiff along the way and they need to go back and check. The control of error can be built in like the above example – or you may create a control card for them to self check against.
Now take a moment to think what this does for the child. They do not need to ask an adult to check for them. They can do this themselves. This is fantastic for their confidence and self esteem. And it means they are more likely to try again, and keep problem solving for themselves!
It will have 1 direct aim (as we talked about above) but many, many indirect aims. For example: the child needs to move the marbles onto the suckers on the foot shape. This is intentionally tricky. The direct aim here, is to develop their steady hand and fine motor skills. The indirect aims – concentration, resilience, perseverance and I am sure there are a lot more too.
Everything they need to successfully complete the Montessori activity should be there for them. Ever got to the end of a big puzzle that you spent ages working on, put a lot of effort into – and the last piece was missing? So Frustrating. You may get upset or cross. Now imagine you are a child and a similar thing had happened. You will have those same feelings, but you may not understand that it isn’t anything you have done wrong. You may start again thinking you had made a mistake, only to have the same thing happen. You may start to think you just can’t do this and you aren’t very clever. So if you need them to match the objects to the number 1-9 – make sure there are 45 objects. No more, no less. (It is one of my favourite bits of pointless information that 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9 = 45).
The activities should use concrete materials and be hands ON. It is the best way to ensure deeper learning and understanding. I wrote a whole blog about just that one thing – you can read it here. (By the way, the above image is an activity called the binomial cube and it teaches the very basics of algebra! In a 3-6 year old classroom. Yep. Montessori is that cool.)
If you like what you have read here, I would love for you to take a look at some of my resources that you can download to get you started. I am forever beavreing away, trying to make more and more things you can use at home to get playing and learning in a Montessori way with your children at home, but not break the bank buying the actual materials. You can find them here.
Until next time,