Montessori Preschool Programs: Preparing Your Child This Summer
If you're hoping to enroll your child in a Montessori preschool program in the fall, you can begin preparing them to succeed this summer. Here are some learning and socializing techniques used by Montessori preschool programs that you can try at home this summer.
A Life of Learning
Montessori teaching philosophies are based on experiential and organic teaching practices. This means learning by doing and incorporating learning into real-life situations.
Organizing: At their core, more academic skills are built on organization. Montessori programs encourage children to organize their environment. For instance, you can begin helping a child learn basic arithmetic by having them count, divided, and categorize the things they interact with every day. You can turn mealtime or playtime into micro sessions of counting and sorting. If your child is eating a snack, ask them to separate the items they're eating on their plate. Once they've separated their foods, you can ask them a series of probing questions. How do the snack items differ from each other? How many snack items are on each side of their plate? You can use the same technique for toys as well. This learning technique can also be used to encourage your child to clean up the messes they create.
Movement: Montessori programs focus on functional learning. For instance, your child might learn phonics, shapes, colors, and other concepts through physical movement. One fun game to play this summer is the vowels and consonant game. Begin by dividing a space into halves. Next, designate each side of the space for vowels and consonants. The object of the game is to move between the designated halves of the space based on the letters you call out. Montessori preschool programs use these same types of concepts to reinforce the learning activities and skills children learn in the classroom.
A Social Space
Montessori programs believe in helping children develop emotional and social intelligence. Having your preschooler practice socializing skills at home can give them a head start when they arrive at preschool.
Emotional Empathy: Children often struggle to empathize with their peers. You can have them practice emotional empathy by role-playing with them. For instance, have your child assume the role of an adult in a situation where a student is being bullied. How would your child handle the situation if they were able to take a leadership role? This type of role-playing is an important part of many Montessori preschool learning programs.
Reach out to a teacher at a Montessori preschool for more information.
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