Montessori from the Start: The Child at Home, from Birth to Age Three

For guidance we can turn to the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D. Csikszentmihalyi characterizes these moments of intense absorption as “flow.”* Montessori called such experiences in children “the child’s work,” because in this process she believed children were constructing themselves.

Montessori’s educational formula is a simple one consisting of but three elements: the prepared adult, the prepared environment, and freedom with responsibility.

In the following months, I discovered that Montessori education is about much more than freedom for children. It requires a prepared teacher who understands how children develop and who is experienced in establishing a structured environment that meets their needs at each successive age. The children are not “free to do as they like,” as I had assu

All of these behavioral tendencies—exploration, orientation, order, abstraction, imagination, manipulation, exactness, repetition, control of error, perfection, and communication—operate throughout our lives. However, they manifest themselves differently as we grow older.

the end of a counter or on the wall, we hang other materials for daily clean up: a small broom, dustpan and dust broom, wet mop (with bucket below), and towel for drying the floor. A wash cloth is a good size for a child to use as a towel. †The parent introduces these items—broom, dustpan, mop, and towel—one at a time to the child over a period of

The first environment to prepare for practical-life exercises is the kitchen.

We need to be able to give our full attention and energies to the new task at hand: assisting the development of a new self in the first days of life.

Our goal is a teachable child who is able to collaborate with the adult in discovering the world.

We lay a foundation for an understanding, so important in a healthy adjustment to life, that physical presence is not essential to trust and a feeling of oneness with loved ones.