The Montessori Method and home education

Home Education

Making the decision to home educating your child can be a huge step for parents. The reasons can vary from family to family. with my own family, we got a taste of home education during the covid-19 lockdown and I found it to be fantastic and stressful at varying times. It was fantastic as I could monitor what my son learnt and could fully see the extent of his own knowledge. It was great seeing how he absorbed anything put in front of him, however, it was also stressful when work needed to be completed for the teacher by a certain deadline and Jamie didn't want to do it. 

What is great about home education is that there are no deadlines you and your child can learn at your own pace and base your curriculum around their developing interests. This concept of following the child's interests is in line with the Montessori Method.

What is the Montessori Method?

The aim of the method is to enable you to raise your child as a whole person, not to develop one specific part of them. A child's early years are very important in building up the adult that they will then become. The focus is on the individual child, to help them become the best person they can be for the better of the society they will soon join. 

The method focuses mainly on birth to six although it does cater for older children but it is unfortunately not as widely adopted. 

How can I use it at home?

You can begin by implementing some of the principles such as organising and preparing the environment that your child will work in. Dr Montessori observed that children will work best when their environment is clean and tidy and items are easily accessible. 

Any furniture, tools and materials used should be child-sized on low shelves, easily seen and used and to put away. Any items should be made from natural materials.

Having accessible child-sized materials allows you to establish a routine of working on an activity and then replacing the materials when finished before moving on to the next activity.

Movement is also an important part of Montessori. This means that activities should involve movement in some way, whether that is using their hands or their whole bodies. At home this can involve simple everyday activities such as helping around the home.

But what about exams?

There are no rewards or grades and so this allows you and your child to focus on their likes and dislikes rather than needing to study a textbook to pass an exam. Children can also learn from each other, learning through observation rather than competing against each other for the highest grade. Learning through context is also emphasised. Rather than reading or watching how something is made, do it yourself!

The Montessori method works very well for home education as it lets you and your child be flexible with the curriculum. If I were to home educate Jamie full time then I would consider implementing some of the aspects of Montessori. Let me know with a comment if you use the Montessori method at home.