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saintanneshs
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| Posted: July 13 2007 at 12:40am | IP Logged
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I was wondering how you all manage the proper use of your Montessori Materials. How do you keep your creative little ones from say, using the cylinders to construct buildings? Or do you?
Following that question, is it okay for a child to use the Montessori manipulatives for something other than the intended purpose IF he has mastered the intended skill/concept? (I'm envisioning my 7 and 6yo building and such with the various materials intended for the 4 and 2yo, and kinda wanna have a plan of action for when this does happen.)
So what do you do when you see your kids using the materials for purposes other than what you've intended or the presentation was designed for (assuming that it's not anything destructive or disturbing to others)?
My instinct is to just let them create... is there something else I need to take into consideration?
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Kristine
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saintanneshs
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| Posted: July 13 2007 at 1:34am | IP Logged
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Oh, and I read the last thread about toys and Montessori materials in a combined playroom/schoolroom (thanks, Shawna for asking your question!) and I wanted to clarify that our "toys" would be put away during lesson time... BUT that I'm sensing that this will NOT stop my artistic 6yo from seeing the sensorial pompoms (for 4yo's Transferring exercise) as material for an on-the-floor mosaic. I can also see my 7yo spatial learner making sorted color trails across the floor with them...
so my question is more a sort of,
If they're learning (and creating) NOT destroying and disrupting, do you let them go? Or tell them to "use it for it's intended purpose OR go find another tray to work with"?
What would Maria Montessori do? (I'm so new at this! )
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Kristine
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marianne
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| Posted: July 13 2007 at 7:30am | IP Logged
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Good question! I just set up a little Montessori shelf in our school area and was wondering the same thing. I am big on letting the kids use their imaginations, and I suppose that as long as they are treating the materials with respect, and PUT THEM BACK in the proper place when finished with them, I will let them play. I'm very interested to hear what the real M experts would say on this one, though. I'm betting that Maria Montessori herself had a policy on free play with the materials - but I have no idea what that would be. And having this stuff in a home setting makes it a little different, too.
This reminds me of how my dd's long neglected doll house has turned into some kind of bizzare war command center for my ds' action figures. Spiderman has been seen scaling the walls, Rescue Heroes are walking around the kitchen. And here's one to make you cringe: I've found action figures in our Fontanini nativity scene at Christmas time, having been killed by the shepherd's staff, or horrors, vice versa. (I don't encourage that one at all, but they've gotten away with it.) Plastic dinosaurs lined up with the animals in the stable....
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Mackfam
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| Posted: July 13 2007 at 9:51am | IP Logged
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Hmmm....well, this is a gray area. As homeschoolers who are interpreting Montessori in our real homes we must find the solution that works best in our families.
Here's what I've found, and what I hope to enforce in our home. If it is a Montessori material, it has a purpose, and a place. It will never be loaded in a dump truck to be hauled throughout the house, never part of a bombing raid over our stairs, never launched out the back door at the elusive wasp. When a material is used, a mat, rug, or table will be involved first in order to signal to me and to siblings that someone is working with a material. At first, I will require that materials be used only in the way I have presented them. Now, here's the gray area, I do intend to extend some of the materials and their purpose - finding the surface area and volume of the Pink Tower cubes for instance. And, I've noticed that some connections happen quite spontaneously (like you mentioned Kristine with your artistic son lining up the puffs - that's something my 6yo ds would do too,) I do want to leave room for that.
I don't want to squelch imaginative play in any way in my home, but I am aware that all Montessori activities have a specific purpose and are meant to lay a foundation for a later skill. I'm pretty sure that Maria Montessori did not allow for any sort of "play" with the materials. They were intended to be the children's work. They had a specific purpose, and the children were taught to respect and use them for the intended work so that the connections that the materials were guiding the child to would be more obvious.
Please understand though, if my 10 yo asks to get out the movable alphabet and sound out a few multi-syllabic words, I'm going to say yes! If the kids want to use the color tablets to plan a color palette for a piece of artwork, I'm going to say yes! Does that make sense? I want the materials to be respected, and useful, and I'm open to non-intended uses after the material is thoroughly understood. 
I'm also open to changing my mind  if I see that I am not accomodating my children in some way. I need to be humble enough to see that I have provided a tool, and it needs to be used in "x" way, and not in the way that I had thought so perfect to begin with.
I hope I haven't been too ambiguous ladies. It seems there is a balance to be achieved - too much freedom = chaos, too much restriction = lost opportunities. Balance is in the middle.
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
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saintanneshs
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| Posted: July 13 2007 at 9:59am | IP Logged
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marianne wrote:
| Plastic dinosaurs lined up with the animals in the stable.... |
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Mackfam wrote:
| I hope I haven't been too ambiguous ladies. It seems there is a balance to be achieved - too much freedom = chaos, too much restriction = lost opportunities. Balance is in the middle. |
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Such wisdom!
I don't think you've been too ambiguous at all. I think it's good to set limits on the types of extensions allowed (maybe helping create that balance of freedom within limits?) and I appreciate your perspective!
Do you think that when you see the children starting to use the different materials for purposes other than intended (still using them "appropriately" but "creatively"), that maybe it's a signal to rotate the item out? Or should it be left in, so long as the child expresses an interest in it?
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Kristine
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Meredith
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| Posted: July 13 2007 at 10:28am | IP Logged
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Mackfam wrote:
Here's what I've found, and what I hope to enforce in our home. If it is a Montessori material, it has a purpose, and a place. It will never be loaded in a dump truck to be hauled throughout the house, never part of a bombing raid over our stairs, never launched out the back door at the elusive wasp. When a material is used, a mat, rug, or table will be involved first in order to signal to me and to siblings that someone is working with a material. At first, I will require that materials be used only in the way I have presented them. Now, here's the gray area, I do intend to extend some of the materials and their purpose - finding the surface area and volume of the Pink Tower cubes for instance. And, I've noticed that some connections happen quite spontaneously (like you mentioned Kristine with your artistic son lining up the puffs - that's something my 6yo ds would do too,) I do want to leave room for that.
I don't want to squelch imaginative play in any way in my home, but I am aware that all Montessori activities have a specific purpose and are meant to lay a foundation for a later skill. I'm pretty sure that Maria Montessori did not allow for any sort of "play" with the materials. They were intended to be the children's work. They had a specific purpose, and the children were taught to respect and use them for the intended work so that the connections that the materials were guiding the child to would be more obvious.
Please understand though, if my 10 yo asks to get out the movable alphabet and sound out a few multi-syllabic words, I'm going to say yes! If the kids want to use the color tablets to plan a color palette for a piece of artwork, I'm going to say yes! Does that make sense? I want the materials to be respected, and useful, and I'm open to non-intended uses after the material is thoroughly understood.
I'm also open to changing my mind if I see that I am not accomodating my children in some way. I need to be humble enough to see that I have provided a tool, and it needs to be used in "x" way, and not in the way that I had thought so perfect to begin with.
Balance is in the middle. |
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My sentiments exactly and how we approach the *materials use policy* here, beautifully laid out Jennifer!!
saintanneshs wrote:
| Do you think that when you see the children starting to use the different materials for purposes other than intended (still using them "appropriately" but "creatively"), that maybe it's a signal to rotate the item out? Or should it be left in, so long as the child expresses an interest in it? |
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YES!! I would have them choose something else and rotate that item out, or show them the extension, but keeping the item for it's specific intended purpose as a whole is ideal
This is where the organizing comes into play ladies, divide and conquer (the toys)
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Meredith
Mom of 4 Sweeties
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4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: Learning Materials, not Toys?
