Prepared Environment
Developing and creating her personality is the task carried out by the child herself. It is challenging, delicate and unending work, but is always carried out with great joy when assisted by the unconscious powers with which nature graces the child during the first six years of life.
In a Montessori environment, the teacher prepares and presents the developmental materials needed for the child to carry out her great work, and offers them to the child in the form of presentations. The activities are freely chosen and repeated according to her needs.
Children function optimally in an environment prepared both physically and psychologically. The design of the environment is based on the principles of simplicity, beauty and order. It is bright, warm and inviting, filled with the key aspects of culture including language, plants, art, music, and books.
Montessori environments are organized to encompass a three-year age span, which allows younger children to experience the daily stimulation and guidance of older children, who in turn blossom in the responsibilities of leadership for those younger. It also helps to reinforce their own knowledge and understanding of concepts.
Since the basis of the Montessori approach is based on the observation that children learn most effectively through direct experience and the process of investigation and discovery, days are not divided into fixed time periods for each subject. Instead, the trained adult offers presentations of the materials either individually or in small groups. The children are then free to work with these materials as long and as often as necessary. The opportunities for freedom of choice, movement and communication help develop inner discipline. The child’s freedom to repeat an activity develops concentration, which Dr. Montessori says is the only true foundation for education.
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