Montessori Contradicts?

[TheyCan]

I noticed that many people on this forum stated they apply Montessori principals.  I just finished reading the intro sections of "Basic Montessori" and the approach seems in total contradiction to the Doman concepts.  Apparently, everything is based of of Montessoir's three stages of learning.  She believes that learning is NOT the acquisition of anything new.  The book states "" The 'learning' itself is the act of joining or connecting these previous acquistions in such a way that they are bound together by use of meaning, and so that they have a place in a larger system of uses or meanings." 

The entire Montessori method - the activites, the materials - everything is based of off this.  Everything is slowly bulit on and allows the child to makes meaningful connections in their brain. 

My question to those who follow/believe Montessori (not just have a low shelf in their house...) - Wouldn't this lead you to believe that a child would forget everything in the flash cards???  If there's no meaningful connection, why would a baby's brain keep information such as "world leaders" or the "periodic table of elements"????  Wouldn't it all be forgotten in due time because the brain doesn't need it/ make sense of it??

Thanks for your thoughts!!!  There's so much to sort through out there!!

[waterdreamer]

For me there are good and bad things when it comes to Montessori. I don't believe in having my child scrub a chair with a toothbrush, or anything like that. However allowing a child to explore nature or having everything kid size is great. The idea that your child does not need tons of fancy tools, but instead providing toys to expand their mind. Not replacing toys that are broken to teach the child to take care of there things. i think Montessori provide lots of good ideas but like everything should be taken with a grain of salt. Use what you can and discard what your can't or don't agree with.
I consider myself a Doman parent, however, I do test my child. If I don't I know he doesn't fully pay attention. But I do it in a respectful way. I don't retire words the same way Doman does, I retire them when my son proves he knows them. I mix Applied Behavioral Analysis with Doman style with lots of sucess, and most people would think they do not mix.
Its all about taking the best ideas out of many methods to create something wonderful for our children
Best of luck

[hypatia]

I don't much at all about Montessori, although I am learning lots from this forum.
But I let my daughter do what she's inspired to, even if it means more stress or mess for me. E.g at 9 months she was showing a lot of interest in eating with the spoon, so I let her do it. Not at every meal and not completely on her own either (I fill the spoon most of the time and let her feed herself)
She's been imitating me with the broom, she cleans after she's add her meal and herself (i give her a cloth and instructions 'wipe your mouth', 'wipe the table' etc..)
Granted, she doesn't do a great job yet. But I know she loves being independent, to a certain extend.

[mother of faith]

We use some montesorri activities that I have made myself, but as far as believing in the 'Montesorri' way we do not, however we incorrporate some of the ideas or activites for hands on learning. Our school is based on the hands on approach, not a believe, but we base our stories  from the Holy Bible is what I am trying to say. We individualize our curricula to fit the child not the teacher , but what is best for the child. Every child is different so we make each curricula for each child differnet of course staying in the guidelines of the families wishes. We may use a text book for one but the internet for the other. We may use hands on for one child but for the other needs structure and worksheets, etc. Sometimes I think families put a standard or a routine of teaching or their way of teaching but really we need to study to see what method works the best for each child. Maybe the ones who believe the montesorri way faithfully can answer your questions. Those where Montesorri all the way and that doesn't incorprate anything else.

[KL]

I think a good person to comment on this would be Pamela Hickein, co-founder of Right Brain Kids.  She applied right brain methods during her time as a Montessori school teacher.  I'll drop them a line - hopefully we'll get some input on this very interesting question!

[nhockaday]

I was thinking the same thing. It seems that she has successfully fused Montessori, Doman and Shichida into one.

[patreiche]

Well Colin is learning by the Doman method. He is now being sent to a preschool for social interaction. His preschool is very structured but they have kid size toilet and sink etc. I do notice that kid size items are extremely important to making the child feel a part of things and to want to use the item. It depends on your child whether free learning or structure is best for them. If your child wants to learn on their own, I think a Montessori environment is great. But if your child is a challenge to teach, I think more structure is required. But I do agree to some extent if you teach them a topic and do not reinforce it in their everyday lives you are wasting your time. I do believe they need to see the relevance of the material or the connection and use it to remember it.

[Frukc]

I have opinion
I prepared presentations about the most common birds and their calls as well about the most common butterfly species. I know these species myself and we can meet them in our surrounding. Child learned very easy. There were meaningful connections - we saw, discussed and enjoyed these species and their habitats. Then I showed to my child also pictures (and voices) of species which I do not recognize myself. I hoped that my child will be more clever as I am, and she will tell me what are these species flying and singing around and that was a failure. She did not recognise any of these species which I could not show her in nature.

[TheyCan]

Thank you for the responses!  I would absolutely LOVE to hear Pamila Hickein's input since she must have drawn a conclusion about this topic in her research. 

Frukc - Thank you for sharing your experiences!  If that's true, that's very very important insight. 

A concrete answer to this will totally change how I teach things and the order in which I teach things. Many of the "offical" Doman bit cards that I bought have flowers, birds etc that you would never see where I live.  I don't want to keep spending my time (and money...) on them if it's totally pointless and I can focus on things my son can actually encounter.  I guess I've felt it was implied that babies had the ability to remember things long term if it was presented to them.  What has actually been stated is that baies can learn anything - but we need to go back and clearly define "learn"......

I now know Montessori's definition of "learn", what is Doman's?

[saniso]

That was my query a few months ago and I have modified my EK method e.g using cards or LR for only those categories in which my child shows interest--so this is child -centered in some way.  For my child ,I have delineated between experiential learning /concept learning  (montessori way) and academic learning (Doman/LR ) I find both of them to be great. Doman learning makes it easier for them to grasp those concepts . For e.g: My child loves continents, she knows their names. She can randomly point them on the globe (not correctly all the time) She learnt these first through Doman method.  When she is begining to understand the Concept of globe , she can concentrate on that as she already nows the other parts on the globe. IMO , academic learning works together with conceptual learning.

 Montessori starts with self care (where the emphasis is on appropriate sized equipment, showing them how to do things, care of environment, care of objects which are being used ) , then it progresses to concepts: language,maths,geography, nature, senses, all of which is eventually academic in nature. Maria Montessori's preliminary work was with children aged 3-6 yrs . The later progression(beyond 6 yrs) , I think , was an extension of these concepts .

I am not a montessori trained teacher but this is what I gathered from a  few books which I read. Any true-Montessori followers , I apologize if I have said anything incorrect.

[Frukc]

Any learning is good, even if it is totally inapplicable - because it develops memory and ability to concentrate. But it can be boring, and I prefer to have fun with learning  
About our butterflies. My child did not recognize species I do not know myself - but anyway we had good time while watching pictures. They were like paintings. Or mandalas - the same shape with changing colours. May be it was good for photographic memory.

Doman method is much easier than Montessori because every parent cen learn it in short time, and do not need special education and equipment. I hope to join Doman teaching and Montessori concept of self-care.

[Tamsyn]

I suppose I'm one of the parents who simply have a low shelf, mirror, and kid sized furniture for my children.  The biggest thing I don't like about Montessori's philosophies is that she was a socialist.  Just be aware of that.  I picked that up when I read "The Absorbent Mind".  I love the Montessory tools and I think that she has a lot to offer, so like others on the forum, I say take what you want and leave the rest.

[mmom]

Hi everyone,
Am new here. The word "Montessori" attracts me. I send my son to a full montessori school when he was 2y.o. Am very happy with his progress. He is so independent and matured for his age. He helps up a lot in the house. Before this, I was very protective, hey...pls dont this, you will hurt yourself, now, I dont. I'll let him do it on his own pace (with minimal supervision) and he feels is loved and being positive, "he can do it".

Besides of montessori curriculum, I also send my son to Shichida and TweedleWink. After attending it quite sometime, I realised there's pro and cons of these programs and curriculum.

My personal experience tells me no matter how good is your child in IQ, EQ and SQ, somehow he/she still needs to have proper skills to take care of themselves. This is where montessori comes in. By allowing to do some house chores, also can boost up your child motor and gross skills, self importance to the family as he is contributing, confidence and learning from mistakes and being indepence. Your child will survive in any environment.

As for academic, social and etc we may look at enrichments programs like SM and Tweedlewink. One golden rule, anything that was conducted with your child in a fun way will be right brain. In shichida centre, we were exposed to various activities. These activities are not all right brain. This goes the same in tweedlewink.

For those of you who would like to have montessori curriculum in the house I would suggest you let your little one helps up. Dont underestimate their capability. You can ask them to help you to sweep, pour the water into cup, fold clothes. Praise them for their effort and always tells them how to improve (with love). At the same time you can conduct the SM and tweedlewink during these activities. Example, after folding the clothes (dont need to be 100% folded by a child)..we can play photographic game with them, which one did you fold first? what are the clothes colours that you can see...guess how many unfolded.
You can also ask your child to help you up in doing laundry. In SM they drew a washing machine and clothes, ask the child to imagine that's a real machine. They helped up and wash the clothes with their mom. This is to input the info into the child brain..1) process taken in doing the laundry, how many clothes you remember have put in...at the same time we can do math with them..counting...

Ya, before you start any activity with them you can always do positive affirmation with them and conclude it with a 8 seconds hug.

Montessori curriculum is wide. Choose a montessori curriculum that suits your child.

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