Dr. Maria Montessori (Maria Montessori) is an outstanding early childhood education thinker and reformer in the history of education, the first woman to study medicine, and the first female doctor of medicine in Italian history.
Maria Montessori is a world-renowned early childhood educator in the twentieth century. The unique early childhood education method she created has swept the entire Western world and has profoundly affected the education level and society of all countries, especially advanced countries in Europe and America.
Montessori for Infants and Toddlers
Dr. Maria Montessori knew that during the period from birth to age 3, your child’s brain develops more rapidly than at any other time, and more learning takes place than at any other stage of development. Yet many parents don’t seek out formal education until their children have passed the toddler age.
Recognizing the importance of these formative years, the Montessori approach to infants and toddlers supports starting earlier than that.
In a Montessori environment, your infant or toddler will be with teachers—loving, nurturing, and rigorously trained in child development—who create peaceful, supportive, and safe environments for our youngest children. In these spaces, a child’s natural passion for wonder, curiosity, exploration, independence, and discovery comes alive.
Beginning with Montessori
Montessori Infant & Toddler programs offer so much more than childcare. The classroom design fosters your young child’s emerging independence and desire for exploration. The environments are designed to promote your child’s growth in all areas of development. Additionally, Montessori Infant & Toddler programs provide support and guidance for families through programs that may include parent education and parent/child group experiences
What Will Your Child Learn?
During the first 3 years of life, your child develops more rapidly than at any other time. During this phase, your child absorbs large amounts of information from the environment through observation and experiences. These are the years that lay the foundation for later learning—and the stronger the foundation, the more the child will be able to build upon it.
Montessori Infant & Toddler programs offer a curriculum that emerges from each child’s unique skills and interests. Based on daily observations, teachers introduce new materials and activities that pique curiosity and stimulate learning. Learning objectives for your child at this age include developing skills such as language, concentration, problem-solving, visual discrimination, and physical coordination.
The routines of everyday living are the foundation of Montessori Infant & Toddler programs. Activities promote independence, order, coordination, and concentration, as well as support social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development. These learning activities include:
● Self-care: washing, dressing, toileting, and eating, according to each child’s individual capacity
● Care of the environment: cleaning, food preparation, and food service; plant care and animal care
● Large-motor activities (indoors and out): walking, climbing, running, jumping, balancing, climbing steps, and more.
● Fine-motor skills: reaching, grasping, picking up objects, transferring objects, using tools and utensils, doing artwork
● language: naming objects, describing actions and intentions, discussing pictures, conversation, music, and singing.
● Social skills: developing manners through interactions with peers, teachers, and adult-led small group games.
Montessori Learning Materials
While Dr. Maria Montessori did not develop learning materials for infants and toddlers, some have subsequently been designed in the spirit of her work. The materials go far beyond plastic squeak toys for chewing on and plastic blocks for banging together. Rather, they offer authentic and meaningful learning experiences.
The Montessori Classroom Environment for Infants & Toddlers
A Montessori environment for very young children gives your infant or toddler the freedom to safely explore and learn through discovery. The setting is calm, inviting, and homelike, with soft rugs, a rocking chair, books arrayed on low shelves, and toys in baskets. Colors are muted, the atmosphere peaceful. The space is organized, clean, and uncluttered.The classroom is a community in which respect for the independence and character of your child is paramount. Caregivers are consistently calm, gentle, soft-spoken, patient, and trusting. They demonstrate respect and compassion by using eye contact, kneeling to the level of the child, addressing your children by name, and speaking before touching or moving them. The result is a calm, soothing atmosphere in which consistent caregivers create an emotional haven for those in their care.Learning materials are easily accessible. These materials are designed to foster concentration, problem-solving, and a sense of achievement. Children select the material that interests them, use it for as long as they would like, clean it up (with assistance when needed), and make another choice.Equipment that supports gross and fine motor skills, such as Child-sized furniture, utensils, and other tools enables children to make independent choices and complete activities, which builds self-confidence, concentration, and critical thinking skills.
