Last night, a sort of light bulb went on in my head. I have been doing a lot of reading and research lately about home based preschool for Dylan, and for the past couple of days I have been looking at a lot of information about the Montessori method of schooling. In fact, I am beginning to get a very strong feeling that I am going to go that route with Dylan’s home based preschool experience.
The light bulb went on when I realized that the environment in which Montessori education, whether at a school or in a home, takes place is a key component of the education itself. The environment is designed with the child in mind, and the child takes his cues from that environment. I looked at many pictures of Montessori home environments, and while we have some elements of them in our own home, I realized that much of the way our home is set up is not conducive to helping Dylan learn to do things himself.
For example, he is always asking me where this toy or that toy is. He does not always play with his toys, and they are in large bins in our play room. He also often dumps the toy bins all over the floor. All of these things may be associated with the way in which the toys are stored. It is possible that if I change our playroom around and keep toys on shelves instead of in large bins, that Dylan might learn to take one toy or activity off of a shelf, play with it, and then put it away. I could place Dylan’s toys on higher shelves and Blake’s toys on low shelves, so that each of them can see their toys and get to them when they want them instead of trying to pick through or dump out a huge bin to look for something. This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as the potential that I see for changing our lives for the better by making some changes to the way that our home is set up. I can quite honestly say that I am very much inspired by what I am learning, and I am eager to make a plan for how we can accomplish those changes.
Of course, before I go out and Montessori – ify my entire house, I might want to test drive the idea with Dylan. There is a Montessori preschool in town, and I had not thought to visit it because we are going to do preschool at home. However, in keeping with the Montessori principle of observing the child to see how he learns, I think that a visit is in order. We will get to see what a Montessori environment looks like, and I will be able to observe whether that environment appeals to him.
Photo courtesy of mychildcenteredlife.blogspot.com.