For those who are familiar with the Montessori method, perhaps the book will not evoke strong emotions, but for those like me who have never heard of it before, but are serious about the issue of the early development of their baby, take note.
What does "Montessori method" mean?
Montessori is the name of the young Italian woman who actually founded this method. The essence of the method is to observe the child, follow him, his interests, not teach, but guide.
The book is written in simple, understandable language. Are given practical advice, how to provide your child with the best environment at home, how to turn everyday activities into exciting activity, how to deal with a child from what is in the arsenal.
The main idea of the book is how to help a child grow into an independent, self-confident person.
Each section, each chapter begins with a new spread.
I won’t write much about the content, just a few words about the format of the book.
Coated paper, good quality photos.
Pages: 192
Size: 23.8 x 19 cm
Price. 861 rub. (bought in February 2017)
Place of purchase Online store [link]
I deliberately bought the paper book, and not the electronic version. The publication was worthy and lived up to expectations. It’s in a prominent place, so I can re-read the chapter that interests me at any time. I recommend!
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Every mother wants her baby to develop correctly and in a timely manner. And I'm no exception! From the early childhood I studied with Veronica using one method or another, including the method of Maria Montessori. Of course, our classes cannot be called full-fledged classes that are offered in specialized development centers, but I took some elements and games from the methodology and my daughter enjoyed playing them, and still plays to this day.
Therefore, I was interested in reading the new product from the publishing house “MYTH. Childhood" - "Montessori Encyclopedia". The book's author, Tim Selding, was himself a Montessori student and later became a Montessori teacher. In addition, he raised his children according to the principles of Montessori pedagogy. Those. This is a practicing teacher, so the book contains many examples of games and activities with a child and little theory. The text is complemented by beautiful photographs that clearly depict what is being described. The book is very interesting to read and you immediately want to go and play with your daughter!
Personally, I learned a lot of new things from the book, since I did not thoroughly study the methodology and was only superficially familiar with it. In addition to describing the Maria Montessori teaching method itself, the book contains a lot of information about Everyday life together with children, about raising children, about proper organization spaces of the house. Those. This is a practical guide for home settings, not Montessori classrooms. Which, in my opinion, is not unimportant, since there is plenty of information about Montessori classes on the Internet, but there is practically no information on how to apply the method at home.
The book will be of interest to young or future parents who want to raise their child as an individual, respect him as an individual, give the child freedom of movement by organizing a safe environment at home, and help the child become independent and successful.
In the book you will find information on how to communicate with your baby from birth to 5 years. How to develop a child’s hearing, vision, taste, touch and smell. How to organize a space for a baby so that it is convenient for him to do anything on his own and much more.
A separate chapter in the book is devoted to the home atmosphere. Because it is at home, in the family, that the baby learns good behavior and politeness. The author tells how to behave during children's tantrums and even how to avoid problems when putting the baby to bed. A positive approach to discipline and teaching order is explored in detail.
An entire chapter of the book is devoted to research into the surrounding world. It talks about walking on fresh air, about caring for plants and animals. About how to make an ordinary walk in the forest exciting and educational for your child.
There are also several outdoor games for a group of children on the theme of the world around them. For example, the food chain game explains the basic concept of a balanced ecosystem.
In the chapter " Best time for study" talks about speech development, a little about mathematics for children and about experiments at home.
The Montessori Encyclopedia even has a Montessori-inspired birthday celebration script.
And at the end of the book it talks about how to choose the “right” Montessori school if you liked the ideas from the book and wanted to send your child to a Montessori class.
The book has a hard laminated cover, coated paper, high quality printing. Photo in the book excellent quality and there are a lot of them.
If you are interested in the Montessori method, you can purchase the book at online store "Labyrinth" or at publisher's website.
Sincerely, Svetlana Ivanova
The main idea is that life is a holiday.
Tim Seldin
The Montessori method is conquering the world by leaps and bounds. More and more often I come across Montessori websites, books and materials. I am also very happy that the MIF publishing house published the “Montessori Encyclopedia” by Tim Seldin, president of the Montessori Foundation. Now I have this book too!
And I must say that the book is very good. In it you will not find strict recommendations, ultimatums or rules. But you will find ease! Exactly the same freedom, lightness and inspiration that are needed to raise happy children. The book is imbued with the philosophy of the method and respect for the baby’s personality from the very first days of life. She instills confidence in parents, and as for me, this is the very feeling that many people lack modern parents, especially mothers.
I was also pleased with the clear and high-quality photographs and the abundance of real examples.
After reading the book, you will understand:
- What space should surround a newborn baby, and what room will be comfortable for an inquisitive, maturing three-year-old to grow up in?
- How to teach a child to dress independently with the help of proper organization of the environment.
- How kids explore the world and how to most naturally develop their natural abilities.
- How to unobtrusively instill in your child a love of cleanliness and order.
- What developmental stages does a child go through on the way to reading, counting and other complex skills?
- How to communicate with a child so that this communication is as useful as possible for both the baby and his parents.
- How to tune in and become those very “Montessori parents”.
- What are some ways to instill good manners in your child?
The book is easy to read and I really like it, because not all parents have the time and desire to read complex books on pedagogy and child psychology. After reading the chapter, you will probably note for yourself points that you can change today in your home, activities, and relationships with your baby. Moreover, all decisions will not be from a feeling of guilt, but from inspiration. Agree, the difference is huge!
Quotes from the book “Montessori Encyclopedia”:
- “Maria Montessori believed that a child who feels respected and confident in his abilities is more emotionally prosperous than one who is simply loved and cared for.”
- “Adorn the walls with children's art, placing them at about the child's eye level as he grows up and begins to walk.”
- “One of our goals is to develop in a child the ability to appreciate beautiful things from the very beginning. early age and at the same time instill a love of order. Carefully arrange the toys not in the drawer, but on the shelves. If a toy has many small parts, store them together in a basket.”
- “Being free to explore your bedroom if your parents have taken care of safety is much more fun than being locked in your crib.”
- “Look at the bathroom through your baby's eyes to understand how to organize everything so that he can use it without any problems.”
- “Attach a cork board to the wall, not high from the floor, so that the child can hang his work there.”
- “Music should be an important part of a child’s daily life.”
- “It is important to develop a child’s sensory experience. I do not believe that we can physically improve the functioning of any sense organs through training, but I am convinced that we can help the baby learn to more consciously see, hear, smell, touch, and feel tactilely. The entire Montessori classroom is dedicated to the development of sensory experiences.”
- “The best way to encourage a child to try something new is to show him what to do clearly and slowly, as simply as possible, so that he can understand everything. Then give him time to try it himself, make his mistakes and correct them. Try to look at the world through the eyes of a child. By setting clear boundaries for him and providing gentle guidance, you will help him learn to act independently and provide the self-respect and self-confidence that comes with independence.”
- “Why buy a child a toy kitchen if he wants to help his parents with a real one? I'm not advocating letting a three-year-old play with a carving knife or stove, but there are plenty of safe activities in the kitchen that a toddler can do if parents teach them.”
- “A child’s library must have colorful books about plants, animals and nature. Many children enjoy finding photographs of flowers or plants they have seen in the garden in the pages of books.”
As you can see, the book is full of practical and very practical recommendations that can be easily implemented at home and in any situation. And in general, it is about the fact that it is not expensive materials, some complex knowledge, and so on, but a fairly simple way of life that allows you to raise children in a favorable atmosphere.
I continue to be inspired by the book and come up with new activities, forms of working together with children and, of course, educational materials that can be used. I also quietly dream of a small, tender bundle that I can carry in a sling, for which I can make rustling toys and tactile toys and watch my first attempts at crawling, my first steps. Tell me, where are the children in such a hurry? Why do they grow up so quickly that you don’t even have time to come to your senses?
To regularly receive interesting and useful things to do with your children, feel free to!”
We wish you pleasant reading and new parental discoveries!
Lida, hello.
I don't know how deeply you are familiar with the Montessori system. I am going to teach my child at home using this system at home myself (partially, of course), so now I am very actively studying it in all possible sources. I also came across the fact that many books are written for parents who seem to have been born yesterday, and this is the first book they read about child development. After the first few pages it becomes boring - we’ve all been doing this for a long time, everyone writes about it anyway.
I haven’t read this book, it’s probably also highly adapted for parents, I’ll pick it up from the library for interest in the original.
It must be remembered that Montessori was the first to propose an approach that was revolutionary for its time. And all the classes, manuals, small tables, etc. in modern kindergartens - she started it. These are echoes of her system, which everyone else borrowed (and it’s good that there is no patent, the system is distributed freely). You need to understand how to choose a Montessori school, they are really very different, depending on the teachers, management, etc.
Books for teachers, if you come across teachers’ diaries, books by Fausek, etc., are completely different from books for parents. I learned the philosophy and meaning of the system from teachers through webinars, it was much clearer and more intelligible, so I skim through the first parts of the books. I'm interested in the practical part, and it's just incredible. No other kindergarten will not offer this, only classic Montessori of good quality.
Example: Space education - at the age of 6, children are told stories about the beginning of beginnings, the Big Bang, after which there are stories about the origin of life, and so on. After each story, a long practical part begins, children write their own reports (starting from 6 years old) and perform in front of classmates (children 6-9 years old). Knowledge is presented in a system from the general to the specific: the origin of everything, space, planets, then comes the Earth, continents, countries, animals, humans, society, body structure, cells, etc., the list is far from complete and may not be correct ok a little. Each year of study, elements are added to this system, everything is considered in more detail, according to the child’s interest. Children bury themselves in encyclopedias and study a ton of literature. The child develops a holistic view of the world, new knowledge is placed in the appropriate order. I think this is very valuable.
I can write the same poem for you about teaching mathematics (everything is done through the hands, fingers, an amazingly logical and simple system that gives a deep, versatile understanding of the subject), reading (in general education kindergartens and schools, ordinary children without developmental disabilities and by the time they reach graduation grades sometimes cannot read ! I’ve never heard of this in Montessori) - children write books starting from three years old(a word and a picture on each page to begin with), first they will satisfy their interest in writing. You have probably noticed how, around the age of three, all children want to write letters everywhere, and then “suddenly” they can read.
Well, also, Montessori was not a supporter of any games with aids (feed the caterpillar, string butterflies on a wire according to the colors, etc.). All her manuals are simple, they are about the essence of the subject and action. The child forms a concept about color, becomes interested and takes colored tablets. I was interested in the figures - no pictures with clowns + put circles in place of the nose, pompom, etc., but just a board with holes for the circles different diameters. This is very important point, the child learns to see the essence and be interested in the action itself, and not in the surroundings and game moments. And he’s interested!
This, unfortunately, is a popular misconception - to call Montessori aids different variations of aids and toys that have little to do with them. She used wood because there was no plastic back then, and wood transfers heat and has different weight(like, for example, all the bricks of the Pink Tower), that is, it is much richer sensorially than plastic. Well, the quality of the materials must be excellent, so children learn to appreciate durable, impeccably made, high-quality things (plus, most materials are not painted), and not one-day, cheaper plastic fakes.
Well, in the end, if you are still reading, I can say that it was after the webinars about the Montessori system that I changed a lot in my relationship with children and my approach to education. Jacket on the floor - why not? We often put him on the sofa, but when a one and a half year old baby proudly shouts “himself!” and actually puts on the jacket himself, happily demonstrating his ability to everyone, this is worth a lot. Or when children pour their own soup and therefore eat to the last spoon because they themselves decided how much they want to eat. When I was a child, when I was three years old, I didn’t take my plate to the sink myself. It’s clear that I learned this at the age of five without any problems, but the approach changes the outlook on the child’s life as a whole, that’s what I’m talking about.
We decided not to pay for the children’s education, but to actively study with them ourselves. We live in Los Angeles and it is clear that the choice of kindergartens and schools here is huge. If I were working and we went the other way, I would try to send the children to a good and proper Montessori kindergarten or school, because the children’s eyes sparkle there when they study. They do what they want in terms of learning, teachers only guide them and follow them. They really choose what they want to teach. Because of this freedom of choice, the thirst for learning and hunger for knowledge never disappears. And in regular school with copybooks, desks and alignment against the wall, with shouts from teachers (maybe they scared me in vain with an American public school, I don’t know), with comparison with those lagging behind (in Montessori, children in a class can be at completely different levels in mathematics, for example, but are actively learning from each other, the more capable have the opportunity to learn faster) the craving for education is fought off almost immediately and for a long time, although not for everyone.
