My first experience of Montessori was 13 years ago, when searching for early childhood education for my daughter. I visited countless preschools, daycares and centres, looking for a suitable place for my baby girl. During my travels I came across a Montessori preschool. Oblivious at the time to the Montessori philosophy, I entered an atmosphere of warmth and quiet learning.  I noted the environment, set up with shelves lining the walls, each activity on its own tray or basket, in its own special place. The children were happy and busy on the floor, or at child-sized tables, counting out beads and matching coloured tablets. Like little bees, the classroom was busy, yet peaceful and there was a buzz of learning evident in the air.
 
The teachers were discreet, but nurturing. The classroom itself beautifully prepared, attractive and enticing. I almost wanted to come here myself and relive my early childhood!  Well, since that initial visit, I myself have become a Montessori-trained teacher, preparing an environment conducive to children’s learning and development. Montessori is more than just early childhood education.  The learning that occurs in a Montessori classroom is food for the soul and the spirit, nourishing each child individually and holistically.

All of my children have attended Montessori and as a parent, I have lived firsthand with the benefits of Montessori education, carrying the philosophy over into our home environment and daily routines.

For a long time now, my children have had shelves similar to the Montessori classroom in their bedrooms and our living room. This is where their books and favourite puzzles live, always in sight and easily accessible, displayed neatly and attractively.  This seems to me so much more appropriate than large toy boxes, with just a few items at the top visible and the rest buried.

It still amazes me that even my youngest child will arrange his activities perfectly at the end of the day, without being asked and with a carefulness that is innate, as his self-discipline and attention to detail is evident. This is further proof that the Practical Life skills children learn in the Montessori classroom are vital for independence and the organisational development that is integrated in our daily lives.

I have watched my children colour code their matchbox cars, seriate their dolls from biggest to smallest and make shapes from lego – announcing proudly “Look Mum, I made an ellipse”. Only a Montessori child would have such extensive shape and language knowledge!

My own children continue to grow with a sense of order and belonging. They are interested in special topics where their creative thinking and deep layers of analytical thought are evident. They are tidy, respectful, courteous, and have an innate love of learning. They are Montessori children.
 

Until recently, independence was not an attribute I readily associated with babies.  It has been a fascinating journey recognising and observing the growth of independence in my son Jasper, reflecting on how this has been fostered, and noticing the complementary relationship between independence and the development of concentration. 

From early on we have enabled and encouraged Jasper to spend uninterrupted time alone.  At nearly 8 months, he exhibits independence by enjoying long periods of his own company, entertaining himself.  Upon wakening, either in the morning or from a nap, Jasper happily spends at least 30 minutes - before needing our company or assistance – ‘chatting’ verbosely to himself, practising his leg lifts, eating his toes, watching his mobile, wrestling teddy bear, and more recently crawling out of bed to explore further afield. 

As we go about our day, I am conscious of enabling Jasper to further develop his independence by standing back - giving him time and space to explore and problem solve.  This is surprisingly more challenging to do as a parent than a teacher.  It was rewarding recently to observe Jasper fling an object out of reach, and after much reaching, grunting and shuffling, to figure out that if he pulled handfuls of blanket towards him, the object would come too!  It is delightful to see Jasper’s concentration and persistence (important attributes for successful learning) developing as a further consequence of providing this unimpeded environment.  Furthermore I am conscious to balance sensory stimulation and avoid sensory overload to protect his concentration.

It is from such episodes as described above that Jasper gains confidence in his abilities, and becomes a confident, capable explorer and adventurer, open to new experiences and people, and able to overcome inevitable frustrations along the way.

Twelve years ago my daughter Jaimee-Lee was born, followed  six years later by her brother Tully.  When Jaimee-Lou and then Tully came into our lives my partner and I asked ourselves what we could do as parents, to enable our children to grow up to be themselves, to have a respect for the environment from a sense of connection to the world around them and their place in it, to have an intrinsic belief in their own and others worthiness, to be honest, capable and a positively contributing members of society. These were values we placed high on our list of ‘must haves’.

We also wanted them to experience an education where individual learning needs could be not only recognised but catered for in the classroom.  We found the perfect match to our core parenting beliefs in the philosophy of Dr. Maria Montessori.  By practising her ideals of grace and courtesy, by being respectful of our environment and all it contains, we are able to observe, through this approach to parenting, our children leading a life where it is possible for the ideals we first visualised to be adopted.

There are many times when I have witnessed examples of these values in action. The consideration and care with which my children and their friends treat each other is an obvious one.  Tully loves it when the “girls” as he calls Jaimee-Lou’s friends come to play. For 12-year-old girls this mostly involves a LOT of chatting, around a multitude of topics, whilst trying on clothes and doing each other’s hair, as well as being willing participants in some of Tully’s leisure pastimes.  Evidentially Lego and fashion can co-exist quite comfortably.

 By no means am I trying to paint the picture of a utopian Montessori home life;  every day my husband and I must ‘‘practise what we preach’’, however this is made relatively easy by being part of a Montessori community of families of students, students and teachers who embrace and support our own ideals.

We heard about Montessori when our eldest son, Taylor was three years old.  We went along for a look and were immediately impressed by the quiet classroom and the mutual respect that was shown by both the teachers and the children.  We enrolled and we have been hooked on the Montessori approach to life ever since.

When our second son, Brandon was born we decided that Montessori was the only education for our children. It was easy for us to make the decision to continue their Montessori education in the primary classes at Nova Montessori School in Christchurch.

We love that our children are involved in self-directed learning and are able to make free choices about what they learn, whilst at the same time being offered a rich curriculum of mathematics, language, history, geography, geology, botany, physics, chemistry and the newest field of earth systems science.  The children also have a very positive view of themselves thanks to the respect that they are shown by their teachers.

When I explained to my children what I was writing, they wanted to contribute as they had “reflections” to share.  Brandon says that the teachers are friendly and make school fun.  Taylor points out that there are never bullies at school and it’s easy to make friends as it’s a small school.  He also says that he thinks it’s “cool” to work with the equipment like the checkerboard and test tube division.

Occasionally, friends whose children go to traditional schools, challenge us on our decision for sending our children to a Montessori school.  At first this caused us to question our choice of education for our children. We were learning too and didn’t always have the “right” answers. We now know how fortunate we are to have discovered this wonderful education.  Our children are very happy and have a love of learning, which we can only attribute to the Montessori approach.  We now tell our friends that we have no doubts whatsoever that Montessori is meeting the needs of our children, and we will continue with Montessori for as long as we can.

When our eldest daughter, Keziah, was quite young I remember my sister telling me about Montessori.  It was a brief conversation but the impression I was left with was that Montessori children are independent learners and that thought has always stayed with me.

Montessori was always in the back of my mind as the best choice but we kept an open mind as we looked at quite a few different centres for Keziah as she neared her third birthday. There was a “Montessori” preschool practically just down the road from us so, as far as proximity went, this would’ve been my first choice.  But when we visited one afternoon to take a look around, the children were all watching television!  We visited a few other non-Montessori centres but were unimpressed with what I can only describe as chaos.  The children seemed to be doing whatever they wanted but with no real purpose and the noise – how anyone could learn with that amount of noise, I have no idea!

Then we came to see Wonder Years Montessori Preschool and it was like coming home.  We felt welcome and as though we belonged.  We instantly knew this was the place for our daughter and it confirmed to me what I’d always secretly known – that Montessori was the right path for our family.  The children were quietly and busily going about their work.  The head teacher showed us all the materials and explained how they work.  We were so excited about what our daughter would be learning and the manner in which she’d be doing so.  It all just made complete sense.  Wonder Years is much further from our home than all the other centres we visited but we feel it’s worth travelling that distance, knowing that Keziah is getting the best education possible.

Montessori has helped us as parents to realise that children need to be treated as equals.  They don’t enjoy being patronised, just as adults don’t.  They need to have some responsibility by making their own choices.  We set firm boundaries for our children but allow them plenty of freedom within those boundaries.

Even though other parents may not understand why we choose Montessori and why our children will start primary school at age six, we know that we have made the right decision.  It’s like we’re putting our children into a big Montessori machine and we can’t wait to see how they come out at the other end!
 

Our first child Ethan was born in November 2002 and we had never heard of Montessori, but we are fortunate enough to have a Montessori preschool around the corner from us.  I enrolled Ethan and he started in June 2005 and finished at the end of 2008.

Over the past four years we have thoroughly embraced the Montessori philosophy of learning alongside Ethan.  The Montessori approach has become a way of life for our family not just a preschool for our children. 

There are many different positive aspects of the Montessori culture to appreciate, and your focus changes to appreciate the different aspects as your child passes through the developmental stages from a three year old to a six year old.  What I appreciated at three years old is still just as valuable, but looking over the shoulder of a now six-year-old son, we can see many other principles, that we might not have understood at that time, now bearing fruit.

What we have most vaIued about Montessori has been the foundation of learning that has been laid that will serve Ethan not only for his school education, but for a lifetime; the ability to concentrate in seeing a task through to its conclusion, order, and the beginnings of critical thinking which will all contribute to a long standing love of learning.

I was reminded of this recently on a recent visit back to our Montessori preschool.  Ethan went in and quietly observed the environment, questioned any changes to the head teacher, spoke confidently with interest, and was eager to choose a piece of work, although it was the end of his school day. When we got home Ethan told me he was going do some ‘maths work’.  He pulled out a long roll of teller’s paper and completed a number scroll as far as the paper would allow (1 – 774).  He was clearly proud of this when finished, and it reinforced that foundation of learning, setting himself a task, concentrating on the task until completion (or as far as the paper would allow) and then, to any mother’s delight, tried to explain his work to his nine-month-old brother.
 

When I was pregnant I read Montessori from the Start – Montessori at Home from Birth to Three by Paula Polk Lillard which is a fantastic support for Montessori parents; a book that you can go back to time and time again. I was also introduced to Pikler philosophy which sits so well with Montessori’s respect of children and having the right environment for infants to blossom without the aid of ‘contraptions’.

Right from the start I have given my son Manaaki the freedom and choice to explore in a safe prepared environment and introduced him to lots of experiences.  He is now 16 months old and such an independent and confident boy.

A few months ago Manaaki was having a’ no nappy time’ when he suddenly disappeared from the room and returned with a packet of baby wipes, he opened the flap, took one out and started to wipe the floor. I then saw that he had gone for a wee and was cleaning up! What an absorbent mind!

It has been a real help to me to know other Montessori teachers who were mothers. I have often emailed them for advice on the different stages that Manaaki was going through; this has made all the difference and kept me strong through some of the challenging times!

My son, Alec is nearly three. He has been raised in a very strongly Montessori-oriented environment, as his mother is a Montessori teacher. From birth Alec’s room was organised with child-sized furniture and a low bed so that he could come and go from by himself.  I got a seat that enabled Alec to join us at the table when he could sit; he drank from a glass, cut fruit with a real knife as early as a year.

Alec particularly loved the pouring exercises that were presented to him in the Montessori way; on a mat from the very beginning and later when he was sitting at the table. We provided Alec with a variety of activities in a simply organised sunroom with low shelves so he could access what he wanted independently. 

In these simple ways he was immersed in Montessori right from the start. 

These influences have improved my experience of parenting by making him very independent at a young age. Alec has developed great dexterity with wonderful co-ordination; he is able to easily help himself (and expects to!) and is capable of focussed, self-initiated activity. 

I believe our Montessori approach at home has made the parenting experience more valuable and enjoyable for me also.