Using Montessori at home

     The return on your investment in Montessori will be enhanced if there is a consistency between your home and your child's classroom. This does not mean putting Montessori materials in your living room. It means taking the Montessori perspective. With this perspective your attitudes, your pace, your expectations and the limits you establish for your child will be in keeping with the principles that came from her lifelong observation of the nature of children. To gain this perspective you can attend parent information sessions at your child's school, and read related books and articles such as Montessori Insights for Parents of Young Children by Aline D. Wolf.

What Happens After Montessori?

   Many parents ask how their child can make a successful transfer from Montessori to a traditional school. This is a very common parental concern whether the child transfers at age six, age nine or age twelve.

     To facilitate the transfer, good communications between the Montessori school to the traditional schools in a community must be maintained. Montessori parents and teachers can visit the traditional school and prepare the child for whether will be different. Teachers from traditional schools can be encouraged to visit the Montessori classes to observe the level of academic work.

    Any good teacher will meet a child at that child at that child's own level of development and make t necessary allowances for what has already been achieved. It is important for parents to monitor their child's work in the new academic situation and to keep in close contact with their child's teachers. Parents and teachers working together can insure that the child will continue the love of learning acquired in Montessori.

    The habits and skills that a child develops in a Montessori class are good for a lifetime. They will help him to work more efficiently, to observe more carefully and to concentrate more effectively, no matter where he goes. If he is in a stimulating environment, whether at home or at school, his self-education-which is the only real education-will continue.