A gentle beginning to independence

Building Community

Equally important to the physical environment (the classroom and the materials), is the psychological and social environment we provide for the children. The adults in each community must be the very best models of language, movement, and social relationships.

The multi-age community also allows children to learn a great deal from one another. The young child who first enters the community benefits from having peer role models in the classroom, while the oldest children have the opportunity to experience being a leader and a helper.

The classroom is a place of respect. Everything is child-sized—from the custom-made tables and chairs to the shelves, vases, plates and utensils, and even toilets. In an environment that offers such appropriately-sized opportunities, children are expected to take on greater responsibilities for taking care of themselves and others.

Gaining Independence

The Freethinking School supports the drive towards independence: “Help me do it myself.” Children gravitate toward activities that develop motor skills: running, carrying, climbing, or swinging; grasping knobs, wielding shovels, handling paintbrushes, or petting animals. Control of their own bodies heralds a control of self, including the ability to dress, eat, and toilet independently.

Children in the Freethinking School communities are at an age where they are learning to do more and more for themselves. We support their quest towards independence by allowing the child to do all they are capable of doing. Our environments are laid out to support this desire for autonomy, with child-sized furniture and activities specifically designed for independent practice.

A young child’s brain is growing at a tremendous pace. Just look at language development. Within six years, children develop from infancy (from the Latin for, literally, “not speaking”) to fluency in their native language; few adults can claim such speed or success!

Both Dr. Montessori’s observations and modern brain imaging show that the young child’s brain is a source of enormous potential and promise, where neural pathways in regular use are reinforced and those ignored or neglected are pruned away. Each of those brain connections is a platform for future learning. Shouldn’t we make sure children have as varied and stimulating an environment as possible, to give scope to all their talents?

“Children can do much more than we expect.”

Gross Motor Development

Children between the ages of 1.8 and 3 years spend much time working on the refinement of movement. In the Montessori Toddler Program, movement is encouraged and constant. Much learning takes place through movement in the development of muscular memory. Many activities are designed to promote movement in the setup and performance of the work.

The activities of practical life are those that are common in daily activities that all human beings do for their own well-being and for the care of their environment. Just as the child absorbs the language around them, they also absorb these activities from the environment around them and then decide to imitate the adult and reproduce the activity.

The Next Step

When they are ready, in terms of personal independence and social readiness, students move up from the Montessori Toddler Program to the Montessori Primary Program (ages 3 to 6).