🌈The MONTESSORI method: CREATIVE and AUTONOMOUS children! By Matteo from Mind Parachutes🌈

For once, the theme of the video will be the personal development of children, rather than that of adults!

The idea of addressing this topic came after discussions with Myriam, a long-standing member of the Mind Parachutes community, as well as founder of Montessori Family, a website specializing in Montessori materials, which boasts over 100,000 visits a month. "L'enfant", written at the beginning of the 20th century, is Maria Montessori's reference book.

In her opinion, every child has a very important and difficult task to accomplish: that of building the man or woman he or she will become. And not just from a physical point of view, but also (perhaps above all) from a psychological one.

The adult's intelligence, creativity and confidence will be the result of the child's work, experiences and conquests. Adults often have the impression that they are the ones who have to build the child: by passing on (and sometimes forcing) their knowledge and know-how.

However, Maria Montessori suggests that the work of building is the child's own: no one else can do it for him or her. Learning to walk, talk and manipulate, as well as thinking and becoming independent, are innate processes in every child.

To educate, therefore, does not mean to do everything in the child's place, nor to limit oneself to a passive role; but to accompany children in their own development, and to provide them with an environment that encourages these processes.

Development takes place in periods, accompanied by special sensitivities, with the aim of acquiring a specific character. Once the character has been developed, the corresponding sensitivity disappears.

These phases are characterized by exceptionally intense interest on the part of the child, who performs the associated activities with the lively enthusiasm, joy and happiness typical of childhood. Often, what we call tantrums are warning signs that the child, on the way to a sensitive period, is constrained by environmental brakes or an inadequate relationship with adults.

This causes him to react in ways that are painful, violent and incomprehensible to adults.

In fact, as soon as we understand and address the underlying unmet need, the disturbances and tensions immediately disappear. Another characteristic aspect of sensitive periods is the need to repeat the same exercise over and over again, until, inexplicably for an adult, children end the exercise visibly satisfied and full of energy. During these moments, children, even at a very young age, are capable of extreme concentration.

Repetition of the exercise, simply for the pleasure of mastering its execution, has become a key principle in the Montessori method. A second principle is that of free choice: faced with potential activities to be carried out, children are able to clearly express particular, specific interests, and this desire to exercise and learn is an impulse common to all children.

For a child's healthy development, in addition to the environment, the adult's attitude and state of mind play a key role, more so than the acquisition of specific knowledge. An overly directive stance deprives children of the freedom they need to explore the environment and make their own experiences.

This doesn't mean that we have to fall into other extremes - the adult does play an active role, but he or she must do so with humility, aware that unconscious beliefs and prejudices sometimes prevent us from understanding the child's true needs and behaviors. If you'd like to learn more about the method, please contact us,

I highly recommend reading her book, or visiting the Montessori Family website.

See you soon for new ideas! "

Matteo from Mind Parachutes

✅ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw6QERlD_3aPlWaPAE3wTMw ✅

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