A program that meets your child’s developmental needs should encourage learning that continues naturally outside school hours. As a parent, visit the library, community events and places that feed your child’s desire for knowledge. Model pursuing your own hobbies or ones as a family. Cultivate critical thinking skills even as you watch a play or television show and research those questions.
My goal as a Montessori teacher is to spark that desire for knowledge. Dr. Montessori (the first Italian female doctor in the early 1900s developed an educational philosophy and materials) instructed her teachers with “The secret of good teaching is to regard the child’s intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination.” (To Educate the Human Potential)
One thrill this past week was when a first grader at Indiana Montessori Academy shared his findings on sugar cane. As they drove to school he had satisfied his curiosity by googling the topic on his mom’s cell phone. What questions is your child asking? How can you support that process?
