By Suzanne Eaddy – Playgroup Co-ordinator
When Maria Montessori began her studies in education in 1897, she found there were no education programmes for children under the age of six. Her observations of young children led her to develop a system of education based on the natural way that children learn, and her first Casa Dei Bambini opened on 6/1/1907 with children aged two to six years old.
Today 0 to 3 years is generally considered a time when babies play while learning to walk and speak. Then they will attend a Kindy or Playgroup and begin their education at school, aged five. In the Montessori community this is a little different with playgroup, from a few months old, then preschool age three. So, within the Montessori community, when do we consider that education starts for our children?
At birth a baby is totally dependent; their nervous and skeletal systems are not fully developed so independent movement, self-care and communication are impossible. However, the baby’s senses are developed; sight, hearing, smell, feeling/ touch and taste. From birth the baby’s work is to develop physically and to learn about the environment, language/s and customs they have been born into. Montessori believed that the baby “works” at these tasks because he learns by doing things, by physically interacting with the environment. We cannot tell a baby how to walk or talk; the baby has to learn this himself.
The Montessori educational system is responsive to the “basic responses of human beings allowing their complete development and adaptation to their environment”. One of the difficult skills for a 0 to 3 Montessori parent or teacher is learning to leave a young child uninterrupted for as long as the child is concentrating on an activity. As adults we need to develop preceptorship skills; hands off, encouraging and intervening only if requested or required. It is fun to sit and play with a young child, however, we must remember:
“Concentration is the key that opens up the child to latent treasures within him” and
“Do not offer to help a child with a task that he believes he can complete”
Montessori developed theories of Planes of Development, Sensitive Periods and the Absorbent Mind. The first Plane of Development is ages 0 to 6 with sub-Planes of 0 to 3 and 3 to 6. From 0 to 3, children develop specific skills at certain times; crawling from 6 to 9 months, walking 9 to 13 months, i.e. during the Sensitive Periods.
A baby is born with no developed knowledge, memory or will power. The necessary organs develop and then the baby has to work to make them function:
“The child has a mind able to absorb knowledge. He has the power to teach himself”
While he is developing a memory, learning that objects have names and listening to sounds that will become words he is also developing his own personality and character which will be completed by age 3. Education and experience will allow further development to this core personality.
0 to 3 (Playgroup) is definitely the beginning of the Montessori education system…. : )