The Montessori method is based on the principle that children are natural learners who are motivated by their own curiosity and desire to explore. Montessori Guidespot is the perfect place to start your research into Montessori education. Our articles and guides will introduce you to the key principles of Montessori
The bathroom is the room in most homes most completely designed for adults. The sink is at elbow height. The light switch is shoulder height. The soap dispenser requires adult grip strength. And somehow we expect a two-year-old to learn independence in there. The Montessori approach to the bathroom is not about buying a curated … Read more
When I was pregnant with my first, I spent weeks on Pinterest looking at nurseries. Every room I saved had a crib as the centerpiece, a mobile hanging above it, toys piled in a corner, and wall art at adult height. It looked beautiful. It was also, I later realized, designed almost entirely for me … Read more
When my son was about 20 months old, a well-meaning relative told me he was “behind” on potty training. He was not behind. He was not trained yet. There is a difference, and that difference is the whole point of the Montessori approach to toilet learning. The Montessori world uses the term “toilet learning” deliberately. … Read more
STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), is often presented as a modern reform of schooling: a response to the 21st-century economy, a corrective to passive, test-focused classrooms. What rarely gets said is that Maria Montessori built most of what STEM describes into her method in 1907, without the acronym and before any of us … Read more
The three-period lesson is deceptively simple. Three phrases, three stages, one quiet interaction between an adult and a child. Yet nearly every parent and new Montessori teacher makes the same mistakes with it: rushing the second period, correcting errors instead of restating, moving to recall before the child is ready, or using it for too … Read more
The most common description of a Montessori teacher is “a guide, not an instructor.” That phrase appears in nearly every introduction to the method, and it is accurate as far as it goes. But it obscures something important, a Montessori teacher is not less active than a conventional teacher. They are active in entirely different … Read more
If you search “Montessori and creativity,” most of what you find is the same claim on repeat: the Montessori method fosters creativity because it gives children freedom. That is true, but it is also incomplete. Freedom without structure is just chaos. What actually makes a Montessori environment generative for creative thinking is more specific, more … Read more
My daughter was two years old when she started speaking in full sentences. She had not been taught grammar. Nobody had sat her down with rules. She had simply lived in a household where people spoke French, and she had absorbed it. Effortlessly. Completely. In a way that no adult learner of French ever manages, … Read more
My son went through a phase at 22 months where I could not change the order of anything without a full breakdown. Same plate. Same cup. Same chair. Same route from the bedroom to the kitchen. If the slippers were on the wrong side of the bed, he would cry until they were put back. … Read more
I used to rotate our toys every Sunday. Methodically, by the book. Bag in, bag out, fresh shelf, note in the journal. My son walked in, looked at the shelf, and went straight to the kitchen to open and close cabinet doors for twenty minutes. The shelf sat untouched. That is when I understood the … Read more