Montessori Insight for Toddlers: "Following the Child"

Maria Montessori’s revolutionary approach to supporting early childhood was introduced in 1907 with the central purpose of providing children with Education for Life. She advocated for nurturing the child in the critical years of formation of personality from 0 to 6 years old. In Toddlerhood, the child is developing physical, emotional and cognitive skills through movement, language and the interaction with the environment and engagement with the adults. In the Toddlers Classroom, children have opportunities to have hands-on concrete experiences, to enrich their senses that feed their intelligence, and to expand their potential through work with interesting activities. It is through the maximum effort of trying to take action by themselves that children strengthen their skills. The impact and control of their own body and mind that they gain through repetition, in addition to the freedom of choice that they exercise each day, feeds back to their self-confidence, which is the core to a happy and kind human being.

“The most important part of life is not the age of university studies, but… the period of birth to age six. For that is the time when a man’s intelligence, his greatest implement, is being formed” – Maria Montessori

What are the characteristics of a Montessori environment that responds to the needs of the Toddlers?

Following the Child:

In a Montessori Young Children’s Community at school, we have a child-led approach, which focuses on “following the child”, which means observing and understanding his/her needs and following his/her interests by providing beautiful, organized, suitable, rich, carefully prepared, meaningful and age appropriate activities for each child.

Multi-aged Group:

The family-like classroom environment is formed by multi-age children, since younger children want to learn from the older ones, and the older ones can exercise leadership by teaching younger ones kindly and serve as role models. Children live in social cohesion as a community that works together and takes turns to help each other, representing what a real society looks like.

Order and Consistency:

Order is the basis of safety for the young child, who finds comfort and reassurance when having access to the same materials in the same sequence each day. This translates into a sense of control and predictability which helps mental organization and future development of logic. In the Toddlers Classroom, the activities are orderly displayed and their attractiveness speaks to the child, inviting him/her to manipulate the materials and explore while acquiring skills both directly and indirectly. The consistency of the routine and adults are also key to this order, which is internalized by the child.

Collaboration with Adult:

The collaboration with the adults that children experience in the classroom is the foundation for love and respect between human beings. It also becomes the wings for independence, which children develop through time and as they acquire more confidence in their own skills. Montessori envisioned an education that would set the children free to become who they really are and who can act upon themselves following their thoughts and different ways of expression. To achieve this, independence is a prerequisite, since without independence, there is no real freedom. Early childhood is where the journey to independence begins, and toddlerhood is when the child expresses a strong desire to self-affirm and “do it by myself”.

Maximum Effort in Work:

Our Montessori environment gives children the opportunity for self-directed learning and purposeful activity, allowing them to lead, choose, explore and repeat. The adults step back when the children are engaged constructively and offer guidance as needed. Children are seen working at a low table or on a work rug on the floor, using one activity at a time, and taking turns.

Which ideas can families try at home?

- Give some time every day for your child to choose what he/she would like to do.
- Have a limited amount of activity/toy choices and rotate them periodically.
- Choose activities that are reality based and made of natural materials, and avoid plastic and electronics, to provide your child with the best sensorial experiences and invitations to be hands on.
- Help your child’s independence by placing each activity on a designated tray/basket.
- Remember order is extremely beneficial to children’s development at this age: place each item in its own place on an accessible shelf.
- Provide clear activity spaces, such as an individual table or small rug.
- Show your child how to put things away in their place and make clean up part of the process of learning.

Here is a video which showcases the amazing value of the toddler “Child’s Work”: https://vimeo.com/121147413. Enjoy and get inspired!