Applying Montessori Ideas When Reading with Your Child

Montessori centres everywhere are helping children learn through Montessori methods, which have been in use for over 100 years. The idea that children can have a high contribution to starting their learning experiences is why Montessori education programs are so popular today.

While Montessori learning is important for your children, you don’t necessarily have to put them in a Montessori school. Montessori concepts can be taught at home and apply a few ideas while reading with your child. Take a look at how:

1. Connect book concepts with real-life experiences: We come across various concepts and ideas while reading. We highly believe that books help us live a better life. Children’s books often come with morals, which can be discussed as the book/story finishes.

In your daily conversation, you can use the new vocabulary that you both learned in the book. While it might not be effective at first, repeatedly using it will make your children automatically add that to their vocabulary.

2. Don’t associate rewards with reading: Many parents give cash prizes to their children for reading or reaching a reading milestone. Some others take their children to their favourite food place as a reward. You can also find various programs that provide incentives to children for reading.

But Montessori learning doesn’t encourage the idea that getting rewarded is why children read rather than the appreciation for reading.

3. Keep firm guidelines around reading: Reading needs focus and attention. To build the same, firm guidelines are important. For example, while interactive reading is effective, talking or interrupting reading sessions constantly is not. It is also considered bad manners to interrupt other people while reading.

Montessori concepts help people read with freedom but a freedom that comes with limits. While interrupting a reading session, incorporate guidelines like raising a hand or asking politely to be excused.

4. Practice repeat reading

Repeat reading is totally popular in Montessori learning methods. Children love to read the same material repeatedly too, and one of such reading times could be used for read-aloud. Repeated reading helps children remember the story's moral or the important parts. Children don’t have to read them back-to-back, and it can be over weeks, months, or even years.

5. Leave the choice to your children

Your children cannot choose to buy books for themselves because they are children and don’t know whether a book is appropriate for them. But they can choose what to read from the books you deem fit for them.

With the experience of choosing books, your children will learn what their favourite type of story is or why they like a certain style. Eventually, they will be able to pick books from the library.

Conclusion

Rise Montessori Nursery is a childcare in Pinner that teaches Montessori ways to teach the children. Their teaching ways are backed by various new developments in early childhood research. Their teaching philosophy is based on the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum.