Maren Schmidt
Understanding Montessori: A Guide for Parents
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10% of author's royalties go to support Montessori teacher training.
What is Montessori Education?
Montessori education more than anything is about understanding and aiding the natural process of child growth and learning. The principles, methods, and materials used in Montessori education for over a hundred years are scientifically supported, researched and time-tested, plus based on common sense.
Understanding Montessori: A Guide for Parents seeks to help parents see the power that Montessori education holds for their children at all ages.
Understanding Montessori draws on the author’s twenty-five years of working with children to affirm what neuropsychologists are beginning to discover:
Research shows that children learn faster and more easily in a properly prepared Montessori classroom than in traditional schools. Montessori classrooms all over the world have proven that when implemented correctly Dr. Maria Montessori’s philosophy works for children at all socio-economic circumstances and levels of ability. Montessori education offers an unmatched complement of principles, methods and materials that work with the child’s developing mind in strong and compelling ways.
About the author: Maren Schmidt has been a Montessori parent, teacher, school founder and director. She has teaching credentials from the Association Montessori Internationale and a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland. Schmidt currently writes the award winning weekly column, Kids Talk.
Understanding Montessori: A Guide for Parents seeks to help parents see the power that Montessori education holds for their children at all ages.
Understanding Montessori draws on the author’s twenty-five years of working with children to affirm what neuropsychologists are beginning to discover:
Authentic Montessori education
is the most powerful way
for our children to learn.
is the most powerful way
for our children to learn.
Research shows that children learn faster and more easily in a properly prepared Montessori classroom than in traditional schools. Montessori classrooms all over the world have proven that when implemented correctly Dr. Maria Montessori’s philosophy works for children at all socio-economic circumstances and levels of ability. Montessori education offers an unmatched complement of principles, methods and materials that work with the child’s developing mind in strong and compelling ways.
About the author: Maren Schmidt has been a Montessori parent, teacher, school founder and director. She has teaching credentials from the Association Montessori Internationale and a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland. Schmidt currently writes the award winning weekly column, Kids Talk.
Buy from Montessori Services
Buy From Amazon
Buy From Barnes and Noble
E-Book Only $9.99
itunes
nook
kindle
Perfect For Your School! Volume discounts available. Contact Maren Schmidt for ordering information.
10% of author's royalties go to support Montessori teacher training.
"What a fabulous wealth of easy-to-read and understand information about the illusive Montessori approach to learning. This is a must read for all parents and guardians who have their children in Montessori schools or who are considering placing them in Montessori school."
Lorna McGrath
Tomorrow's Child Magazine
"An essential resource for every Montessori school...(a) basis for ongoing discussions within Montessori school communities, parent education programs and events."
Jim Fitzpatrick, Founder and Head of School
Santa Barbara Montessori School"What
makes this book stand out from other Montessori books for parents is that it
focuses on the principles and offers information so that you, the parent, can
make informed choices and decisions about your child and Montessori education."
Montessori Insights
The Magazine of the
Montessori Australia Foundation
"One unique aspect of this book is a thorough
checklist of what to look for when first visiting a school. Often parents are
overwhelmed when observing classrooms and meeting the principal and/or
teachers. It's hard to know what to be aware of and what questions to ask
without any prior experience. Schmidt expertly guides prospective Montessori
parents through this important stage."
Trevor Eissler
Author of Montessori Madness: A Parent to Parent Argument for Montessori Education
"The book also helps put right some of the many (often perpetuated) misconceptions about what Montessori is and isn't. Some Montessori principles are highlighted all testifying to the fact that the approach is much more than teaching. Topics such as the environment, the absence of grading, homework, etc. are addressed."
AMI Bulletin, Fall 2009
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From
Understanding Montessori: A Guide for Parents
Introduction
This book incubated in my nightstand drawer. My habit for many years has been to write goals and objectives and place them into my nightstand. As I transferred the accumulation of stuff from my old nightstand to a new one a few years ago, I discovered a goal written in 1996:
Help make Montessori education available to as many children as possible.
When I wrote this sentence in 1996, I was concerned about keeping tuition affordable at my school as we grew from twenty-eight students to almost a hundred students over the next twelve months. Reading this old goal in a different context made me think I had made no progress at all, as today as “many as possible” looks like millions.
Montessori education, more than anything, is about understanding and aiding the natural process of child growth and learning. The principles, methods, and materials used in Montessori education are scientifically supported, researched, and time-tested.
This goal took life again as I began to write a weekly newspaper column about child development, Kids Talk, seeking to communicate to adults the child’s point of view.
What my studies in brain and human development over the past five years illuminate, in conjunction with my twenty-five years of working with children, is this:
Montessori education encompasses a culture that is innovative, respectful of the child, peaceful, joyful, collaborative, child-centered, community-minded, developmentally exacting, and supported by research. Montessori classrooms include the outdoors and aid children in valuing and caring for the wonders of our Earth.
Unfortunately, less than five percent of the children in the United States have an opportunity for a Montessori learning experience. I believe if parents understood the mightiness of Montessori education for their children and their families, they would find ways to create authentic Montessori education for their children, be it private, public, parochial, or home schools.
My daughter, Dana, and I conceived this book in February 2006, and together wrote eight chapters. We didn’t find a method to have both of our voices in the book without creating a disjointed style. Dana’s influence is here in her research with young parents, visiting classrooms, and helping me understand the needs of this new generation of parents. My voice and experience certainly dominate this book, but you should hear Dana’s voice in the background asserting, “Mom, be sure to make this point.”
This book is for parents. It’s not meant to be a comprehensive study of Montessori education geared for teachers and administrators or a scholarly footnoted work, though I hope teachers and administrators will find the book helpful. This book expresses my understanding and experience of using Montessori principles for over twenty-five years. Others may have different experiences and perceptions. I share what worked for me.
My goal for this book is to help parents have a clear and concise resource for understanding Montessori educational principles and for finding a school situation, Montessori or not, that meets their family’s needs. Parents are on the front lines of life, rearing children to become adults, taking care of their own parents, building careers, contributing to society through their work, and much more. The information in this book is my way of helping parents make informed decisions when time is in short supply.
Too many grandparents have commented to me, “I wish I had known about Montessori education when my children were little.” This book, I hope, will help parents understand the choices they have for educating their children.
As a guide for the future Dr. Maria Montessori, the Italian physician who developed Montessori education through her philosophy, methods and materials, asked us not to look to her, but to look at the child. Observing our children and helping our children meet their needs is the crux of Montessori education. Seeking and seeing the true nature of the child may be our most powerful help to all life on our planet.
By assisting a child we help parents and support families. As families are strengthened, our communities, our countries and our world become healthier places to live.
Look at the child. It is where everything begins.
Maren Schmidt
January 2009
Understanding Montessori: A Guide for Parents
Introduction
This book incubated in my nightstand drawer. My habit for many years has been to write goals and objectives and place them into my nightstand. As I transferred the accumulation of stuff from my old nightstand to a new one a few years ago, I discovered a goal written in 1996:
Help make Montessori education available to as many children as possible.
When I wrote this sentence in 1996, I was concerned about keeping tuition affordable at my school as we grew from twenty-eight students to almost a hundred students over the next twelve months. Reading this old goal in a different context made me think I had made no progress at all, as today as “many as possible” looks like millions.
Montessori education, more than anything, is about understanding and aiding the natural process of child growth and learning. The principles, methods, and materials used in Montessori education are scientifically supported, researched, and time-tested.
This goal took life again as I began to write a weekly newspaper column about child development, Kids Talk, seeking to communicate to adults the child’s point of view.
What my studies in brain and human development over the past five years illuminate, in conjunction with my twenty-five years of working with children, is this:
Authentic Montessori education
is the most powerful way
for children to learn.
is the most powerful way
for children to learn.
Montessori education encompasses a culture that is innovative, respectful of the child, peaceful, joyful, collaborative, child-centered, community-minded, developmentally exacting, and supported by research. Montessori classrooms include the outdoors and aid children in valuing and caring for the wonders of our Earth.
Unfortunately, less than five percent of the children in the United States have an opportunity for a Montessori learning experience. I believe if parents understood the mightiness of Montessori education for their children and their families, they would find ways to create authentic Montessori education for their children, be it private, public, parochial, or home schools.
My daughter, Dana, and I conceived this book in February 2006, and together wrote eight chapters. We didn’t find a method to have both of our voices in the book without creating a disjointed style. Dana’s influence is here in her research with young parents, visiting classrooms, and helping me understand the needs of this new generation of parents. My voice and experience certainly dominate this book, but you should hear Dana’s voice in the background asserting, “Mom, be sure to make this point.”
This book is for parents. It’s not meant to be a comprehensive study of Montessori education geared for teachers and administrators or a scholarly footnoted work, though I hope teachers and administrators will find the book helpful. This book expresses my understanding and experience of using Montessori principles for over twenty-five years. Others may have different experiences and perceptions. I share what worked for me.
My goal for this book is to help parents have a clear and concise resource for understanding Montessori educational principles and for finding a school situation, Montessori or not, that meets their family’s needs. Parents are on the front lines of life, rearing children to become adults, taking care of their own parents, building careers, contributing to society through their work, and much more. The information in this book is my way of helping parents make informed decisions when time is in short supply.
Too many grandparents have commented to me, “I wish I had known about Montessori education when my children were little.” This book, I hope, will help parents understand the choices they have for educating their children.
As a guide for the future Dr. Maria Montessori, the Italian physician who developed Montessori education through her philosophy, methods and materials, asked us not to look to her, but to look at the child. Observing our children and helping our children meet their needs is the crux of Montessori education. Seeking and seeing the true nature of the child may be our most powerful help to all life on our planet.
By assisting a child we help parents and support families. As families are strengthened, our communities, our countries and our world become healthier places to live.
Look at the child. It is where everything begins.
Maren Schmidt
January 2009
