All year long, we’ve been expanding our outdoor classroom, and this month was no exception. We’ve brought outside a full compliment of Practical Life materials for kids of all ages. These activities, such as pouring water, spooning rice, watering the flowers and sweeping (both practice and actual) are things that we do every day.
These are activities that need to be learned, and practiced. For one thing, to be able to dress oneself, pack and unpack your lunchbox and clean up after oneself are all activities that build independence and with independence comes self-confidence. But to Dr Montessori, these are also skills which will serve on well later on, not just practically, but also academically. The logical sequencing necessary to sew or clean a table is a necessary in order to decode the letters on a page into sentences and stories, or to compile numbers in basic arithmetic.
Under the urge of nature and according to the laws of development, though not understood by the adult, the child is obliged to be serious about two fundamental things… the first is the love of activity… The second fundamental thing is independence.
Dr Maria Montessori
