COLEGIO MONTESSORI DEL CAMPESTRE Bilingual preschool / 477 840 0101 / 477 718 68 77
Guide to parents about Montessori preschool
El PROPÓSITO DE LA EDUCACIÓN MONTESSORI La Dra. Montessori sostenía que ningún ser humano puede ser educado por otra persona. Cada individuo tiene que hacer las cosas por sí mismo porque de otra forma nunca llegará a aprenderlas. Un individuo bien educado continúa aprendiendo después de las horas y los años que pasa dentro de un salón de clase porque está motivado interiormente por una curiosidad natural, además del amor al aprendizaje. La Dra. María Montessori pensó, por lo tanto, que la meta de la educación infantil no debe ser llenar al niño con datos académicos previamente seleccionados, sino cultivar su deseo natural de aprender. Este propósito se alcanza de dos maneras en el aula Montessori: primero, permitiendo que cada niño experimente la alegría de aprender por sí mismo en lugar de ser obligado; y segundo, ayudándolo a perfeccionar todas sus aptitudes naturales para aprender, para que así esta habilidad esté presente al máximo en futuras situaciones de aprendizaje. Los materiales Montessori tienen este doble propósito al largo alcance, además de sus propósitos inmediatos de dar información al niño.
LA IMPORTANCIA DE LOS PRIMEROS AÑOS En “La mente absorbente” la Dra. Montessori escribió: “El periodo más importante de la vida no es la edad universitaria, sino la primera edad; esto es, el periodo entre su nacimiento y la edad de los seis años. En este periodo se forma la inteligencia del hombre, su gran atributo. Pero no solo su inteligencia, sino la totalidad de sus poderes psíquicos. A ninguna otra edad el niño necesita más de una guía inteligente, y cualquier obstáculo que impida su trabajo creativo, disminuirá la oportunidad de que este alcance su perfección”. Estudios psicológicos recientes han confirmado las teorías de la Montessori. Después de analizar varios de esos estudios, el Dr. Benjamín Bloom de la Universidad de Chicago escribió en “Stability and Change in Human Characteristics” (Estabilidad y Cambio de las Características Humanas): “Desde el momento de la concepción hasta la edad de los 4 años, el individuo desarrolla un 50 % de su inteligencia madura; de los 4 a los 8 años el niño desarrolla otro 30%... Esto nos da una idea del crecimiento acelerado de la inteligencia en los primeros años de vida y de la posible gran influencia del medio ambiente en este desarrollo”. El Dr. Bloom está de acuerdo con la teoría de la Dra. Montessori, que afirma: “El medio ambiente tendrá un impacto máximo durante el período de mayor crecimiento de una característica específica”. Citemos un ejemplo muy extremo: una dieta de hambre no afectará la altura de un muchacho de 18 años, pero sí podría dañar severamente el crecimiento de un bebé de un año de edad. Ya que el 80% del desarrollo mental de un niño ocurre antes de que cumpla los 8 años, la importancia de tener condiciones favorables durante estos años es innegable.
AT WHAT AGE? Although the age to enter school for the first time varies from school to school, a child can start in a Montessori school as soon as their parents observe a need to leave their home and live in an enriching environment outside the home. The child will begin with the simplest exercises based on activities that all children enjoy. The material that the child uses will help him develop his concentration and work habits, which he will need to perform more advanced exercises at 5 or 6 years old. The entire program of a child's learning in a Montessori school is structured with a purpose. Therefore, optimal results cannot be expected if a child misses the first years of the school year, or is removed before completing the basic materials already mentioned. Parents must understand that a Montessori school is not a daycare center, nor a kindergarten that prepares the child in the traditional way; Rather, it is a unique cycle of learning that is designed to take advantage of a child's sensitive years up to age six, when he or she can absorb information from a rich environment. By persisting in his individual interest within the Montessori classroom, the child acquires an enthusiasm for learning at a very early age, which is the key to his training.
CHILDREN WORKING The Montessori classroom is undoubtedly the child's world, proportionate to its size, pace, and interests of each boy and girl from three to six years old. It is designed to make them feel comfortable, giving them freedom in an environment prepared with attractive materials. These materials are placed on low shelves to make them easy for even the smallest children to access. The tables and chairs in the classroom can be moved from one side to the other, thus allowing them to be arranged according to the activities taking place. The children also work on small mats on the floor, where they feel very comfortable. Montessori materials in the classroom can be divided into three main groups: Practical Life Exercises, which are what children from one year old and three years old begin with; Academic Materials, which awaken the child's interest in reading, arithmetic and geography.
CHILDREN'S BEHAVIOR In a Montessori classroom there is always constant activity, since the use of materials requires various movements, such as: walking, carrying, pouring, speaking, and in particular the constant use of the hands. However, all activities are directed towards respect for the guide, respect for the work of colleagues, and respect for the materials themselves. Dr. Montessori never equated good behavior with silence and immobility. Self-discipline, he noted, must be acquired gradually through absorption in purposeful work. When a child does not behave well in the classroom, the guide helps him choose the work that most absorbs his attention.
UN AMBIENTE SIN COMPETENCIA La Dra. Montessori creía que la competencia en la educación se debería introducir solo después de que el niño ya tuviera confianza en el uso de conocimientos básicos. La Dra. Escribió: “nunca hay que dejar que el niño se arriesgue a fracasar hasta que tenga una oportunidad razonable de triunfar”.
THE EXERCISES OF PRACTICAL LIFE Dr. Montessori wrote: “The child's job is to create the man he will become. An adult works to perfect the environment, but a child works to perfect himself.” This distinction can be illustrated if we imagine two people on the beach on a hot day. One of them is a man trying to fill a barrel with sand; and the other is a child filling and emptying a bucket with sand. If someone approached the man offering help, he would gladly give up the shovel, but if it comes to helping the child, it would be useless. He will cling more to his shovel, because the work he does can only be done by himself. Through constant repetition of certain movements, the child strengthens his muscles, perfecting his coordination and gaining confidence in a particular skill. Nobody tells the child that he has to fill the bucket with sand; he does it directed by an innate natural force. Using the child's natural inclinations, Dr. Montessori structured several classroom exercises that help satisfy the child's need for purposeful activity. For these exercises, she used objects familiar to the child, such as: buttons, brushes, dishes, water and many things that a child recognizes from his experiences at home.
SENSORY PREPARATION FOR WRITING Many sensory exercises, by their very nature, contain indirect preparation for academic learning. For example, a child who has learned to listen carefully will be able to notice the subtle differences in letter sounds. Geometric materials are also of great importance because they help the child concentrate on different shapes.
WRITING At some point during the years a child spends in a Montessori classroom, something extraordinary happens. After working for a while with Metallic scraps and Sandpaper letters, the day comes when the child can form words with his pencil. Montessori called this phenomenon: “the explosion of writing.” When writing begins in this spontaneous way, the child saves himself many tedious hours of forced effort. Writing is fun because he already has control; The repetition he needs to develop cleanliness and style does not tire him.
READING DEVELOPMENT Little by little the child learns more complicated words, words with two and three syllables, working with a variety of reading exercises that offer him the opportunity to choose between them and not through the monotonous representation of just one. The child also has at his disposal a wide variety of books that will help him practice reading. Each child is encouraged to read about things that interest them, while continuing to follow their own pace. Some children start reading at age 4, others at age 5, and some up to age 6. Age is not as important as the right moment in which each child begins to read. If a child starts too early, he or she may not be given the freedom to continue. If he is forced to wait, his period of interest passes, and he loses that golden opportunity when he feels driven by his natural enthusiasm.
GEOGRAPHY, GRAMMAR, BOTANICS AND HISTORY. THE PUZZLE MAPS The Montessori classroom offers many opportunities for young children to expand their knowledge during the years when they are motivated by spontaneous interest. Puzzle maps are one of the most popular classroom activities. The maps are made of wood, quite large and each part has a knob on its surface to facilitate its placement within the corresponding frame. At first, children use the maps simply as puzzles.
THE TIMELINE Montessori offers children a concrete presentation of the history of the timeline. The timeline is a very long strip of paper that can be unrolled and spread on the living room floor. The line is divided into segments that represent the different consecutive periods of history. Children select photographs in which historical events are represented and place them in sequence on the Timeline.
HOW CHILDREN LEARN The use of Montessori materials is based on the child's particular aptitude for learning; Dr. Montessori identified her aptitude as “The Absorbent Mind.” In her writings, she frequently compared the young mind to a sponge. A child's mind literally absorbs information from the environment. The process is particularly evident in the way a two-year-old child learns his native language without any formal instruction and without the conscious and tedious effort that an adult must make to master a second language. Acquiring information in this way is a natural and wonderful activity for the little one, since they use all their senses to investigate their surroundings. The child retains this ability to learn until the age of seven. Dr. Montessori deduced that his experiences could be enriched in a classroom where he could manipulate materials that provide him with a basic education. For more than 60 years, the Montessori theory has been proven that a young child can learn to read, write and calculate in the same natural way as he or she learns to walk and talk. In a Montessori classroom, the material invites the child to learn in this way on his or her own and when he or she is ready. Dr. Montessori emphasized that the hand is the child's main teacher. For the child to learn there must be concentration, and the best way for the child to concentrate is by focusing his attention on the work he does with his hands. (An adult who purposelessly works on several things at once is a consequence of lack of practice with concentrating on a given job.) The entire Montessori classroom material team allows the child to reinforce their impressions, inviting them to use their hands to learn.
SENSITIVE PERIODS Another observation of Dr. Montessori, which has been reinforced by modern research, is the importance of sensitive periods in early years learning. Sensitive periods are periods of intense fascination with learning a particular skill or characteristic such as going up and down stairs, putting things in order, counting, or reading. It is easier for a child to learn something during the corresponding sensitive period than at any other time in his life. In Montessori, this opportunity is taken advantage of, allowing the child freedom to individually select activities that correspond to his or her own periods of interest.
THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER The Montessori classroom has no front, nor a desk for the teacher as a focal point of attention, because the stimulus to learn comes from the entire environment. Dr. Montessori always referred to teachers as “guides” and their role differs considerably from that of the traditional teacher. Above all, she has to be a great observer of each child's individual interests and needs, and her daily work is guided by her observations. The guide demonstrates the correct use of materials. Carefully observe each child's progress by keeping a record of their work. It is trained to recognize when the child is ready to receive a new lesson. Sometimes the guide has to divert the child's attention to material that he has chosen and that is out of his level; and other times you will have to encourage him when he is hesitant to work with certain material. When the child makes a mistake. This process follows the principle that Dr. Montessori pointed out: the child learns through experience.
¿POR QUÉ EDADES DIFERENTES EN UNA MISMA AULA? El aula Montessori le ofrece la oportunidad de escoger entre una gran variedad de materiales graduados; es decir, los materiales presentan diferentes dificultades conforme se va avanzando en sus presentaciones. El niño va aprendiendo, lo cual lo va llevando de un nivel de dificultad a otro. El tener niños de 3 a 6 años de edad juntos, permite que el niño más pequeño tenga una serie de modelos graduados a imitar, y que los niños mayores tengan la oportunidad de reforzar sus propios conocimientos ayudando a los más pequeños.
ACCOMMODATION OF DIFFERENT SKILLS The individual use of materials allows for varied pacing that accommodates the many levels of skill or knowledge within the classroom. A small or slow child can work for many weeks with the same material without slowing down other classmates. More advanced children, in the same classroom, can move from one material to another quickly, thus avoiding the boredom of waiting for others to catch up. High-achieving children are constantly motivated by the wide variety and multiple uses of materials. It is a well-established fact that preschool children mature at different stages and their periods of preparation for academic subjects vary greatly. Some children in the Montessori classroom begin to read and calculate at a very early age, when their interest is stimulated and when materials are at hand. However, this is not a norm among very young children, nor was it with Dr. Montessori. His ideal was for the learning experience to happen naturally and with pleasure at the right time for each child. “It is true that we cannot create geniuses.” Dr. wrote, “we can only give each individual the opportunity to satisfy his or her potential so that he or she is an independent, secure, and balanced human being.”
EJERCICIOS SENSORIALES Un niño pequeño se enfrenta al mundo que le rodea usando constantemente todos sus sentidos. Para examinar un objeto nuevo, un bebé lo mira, lo toma entre sus manos para sentir su textura y su peso, lo agita, lo chupa, o hasta trata de morderlo. Utiliza naturalmente todos sus poderes de observación. La Dra. Montessori pensó que este era el tiempo ideal para darle al niño material que le ayudará a agudizar sus sentidos, permitiéndole así entender las muchas impresiones que recibe por medio de ellos. Los materiales sensoriales en el aula Montessori ayudan al niño a estar alerta a los detalles que le ofrecen; primero, sensaciones muy contrastantes, tales como rojo y azul, y después varias sensaciones graduadas, como diferentes tonalidades de azul. El material le ayuda a conocer lo que es rojo y azul, a entender el concepto azul, y finalmente a reconocer el color azul. Cada material sensorial aísla una cualidad definida, como color, peso, forma, textura, tamaño, sonido, olor, etc. Cada uno de los materiales enfatiza cada cualidad en particular, disminuyendo o eliminando otras diferencias. Aunque los cilindros de sonido son todos del mismo tamaño, la misma forma, el mismo color, y la misma textura, se diferencian únicamente por los sonidos que emiten cuando el niño los agita.
APRENDIENDO A ESCRIBIR Para poder escribir, el niño debe desarrollar una doble habilidad. Debe memorizar la forma de las letras y sus sonidos correspondientes, además de desarrollar la habilidad muscular necesaria para controlar el lápiz. Para aclarar esta distinción, pongamos atención a lo que sucede si una de estas fases no se perfecciona. Un niño quiere escribir dado. Tiene un buen control de su mano, pero su conocimiento de las letras es todavía un poco débil y escribe babo muy claramente. Ahora, si un niño sabe todas las letras perfectamente, pero su mano todavía no tiene el control que requiere, quiere escribir dado, pero escribe babo. Algunas veces, el aprender ambas habilidades al mismo tiempo puede crear en el niño frustración y desesperación. Es muy difícil para él tratar de aprender a escribir una letra al mismo tiempo que está aprendiendo a mover el lápiz para configurar la letra. Los materiales que la Dra. Montessori diseño ofrecen al niño la oportunidad de aprender la forma y sonidos de las letras de una manera completamente independiente del perfeccionamiento de la habilidad motora. Por lo tanto, el niño en el aula Montessori aprende a escribir no solo escribiendo, sino realizando un número de actividades estructuradas con propósito, que preparan al niño directa e indirectamente para la escritura.
WORD CONSTRUCTION Dr. Montessori stated that the young child has a natural sensitivity to language development, which continues in the years following learning his or her native language. The 3, 4, 5 and 6 year old has a real fascination with words, both spoken and written. This fascination often allows children to begin reading and writing before the age at which they are traditionally taught.
GRAMMAR MATERIALS In the Montessori classroom, grammar is introduced to the child through small games that teach him that nouns are the names of objects; Adjectives describe the noun or noun, and verbs are words that describe action.
INTRODUCCION A LAS MATEMÁTICAS Un niño puede aprender conceptos matemáticos básicos de dos maneras: una, utilizando materiales concretos durante los años en que disfruta su manipulación, o dos por medio de métodos abstractos cuando entre a la primaria. La Dra. Montessori demostró que, si un niño tiene acceso al equipo de materiales de matemáticas en sus primeros años, puede asimilar fácilmente muchos conceptos y cálculos matemáticos. De otra forma, estos mismos conceptos y cálculos se tendrán que aprender repitiéndolos hora tras hora de una manera completa, abstracta.
WHY LEARN AT SUCH AN EARLY AGE? Many parents wonder why Montessori introduces grammar, geography, and mathematics to children ages 3 to 6. The reason is that children this age absorb many difficult concepts if they are presented with them.
AND AFTER MONTESSORI?
After preschool, many parents choose to send their children to first or second grade in a traditional school.
The habits and skills that a child develops in a Montessori school will help him or her throughout life. They will help you work more effectively , observe carefully, and concentrate more effectively wherever you go.
Live the Montessori experience!
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