Surprising ability to concentrate

Children of this age have a surprising ability to concentrate. Maria Montessori observed a little girl of four, much like this little girl, doing the cylinder blocks, this most interesting activity of taking the ten cylinders out, mixing them up and replacing them in the appropriate holes. Montessori watched in awe as the child repeated the entire operation forty-two times! Even when the rest of the class began to sing and to march around the classroom, the child remained fully engrossed in her work.

What is happening in this picture?

What is so fascinating in this seemingly simple exercise that the child repeated it over and over again?

What is so powerfully compelling?

1. This child is concentrating.
2. She is using her pincer grip to hold the knobs.
3. She is coordinating and controlling her movement.
4. She is determining relative size using eye-hand coordination.
5. She is ordering the cylinders from large to small, from left to right.
6. The cylinders are solid wood, allowing her to feel the weight differences corresponding to size.
7. The material answers her need for order
8. It allows for self-correction. If she places an inset in the wrong whole, no teacher has to tell her – she can see it with her own eyes and will experiment until she solves the dilemma.
9. This material is an external activity that corresponds to all of these internal developmental needs.
10. The opportunity to meet all of these needs is calming and satisfying.
11. Not every age child finds the cylinder block so especially attractive, but all young children, during sensitive periods for self-mastery in particular areas of development, seek out actions and activities that correspond with their development. That is the secret of why Montessori schools have been successful for nearly one hundred years and are still gaining adherents and credibility throughout the world.

Working to fulfill inner development

Maria Montessori was trained as a scientist. She observed children with an open mind, unprejudiced by educational dogmas of the day. When she saw instances of profound concentration and seemingly endless repetition, she began to realize that children were working to enhance their own development, not only to accomplish the outer goal of getting the cylinders in the correct hole or the blocks forming the right pattern.

When she saw the same materials attracting children of the same age on several continents, she realized that there were universal laws of development that drove the children. There were periods of special sensibility to areas of the environment that came and went with varying duration. She termed these sensibilities “sensitive periods.”

Maria Montessori on the Sensitive Periods

“A child learns to adjust himself and make acquisitions in his sensitive periods.” Here are two specific things occurring:

• First, the child is making adjustments to living here, in a physical body, on earth.
• Second the child is acquiring new skills. These acquisitions are actually neurological developments.

Montessori goes on: “These [sensitive periods] are like a beam that lights interiorly or a battery that furnishes energy.”The sensitive periods furnish energy to explore specific areas of the environment and to master certain skills. Montessori explains: “It is this sensibility which enables a child to come into contact with the external world in a particularly intense manner. At such a time everything is easy; all is life and enthusiasm. Every effort marks an increase in power.” It is very exciting to realize the ease with which the child can learn during one of these sensitive periods.

To learn more about the sensitive periods, go to Sensitive Periods for a general introduction.

In homes and schools throughout the world following Montessori principles, children at four and five learn to read and write with relative ease. Because there is a sensitive period at this time for these skills, and because Montessori provides appropriate materials for little hands, it is joyful and easy. They learn to count and work in the four operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

It is important to understand that in a well-run Montessori home or school classroom, these materials are demonstrated to children who are ready to receive them, and they choose to do them. A dynamic love of learning develops when children find materials in the environment that correspond with their sensitive periods for learning.

The drama of the sensitive periods

Maria Montessori called every sensitive period a drama: The essence of a sensitive period in human development is a drama of love between the child and its environment. The child experiences attraction to the environment for this to function properly. The sensitive periods function automatically under favorable conditions, but can be thwarted by lack of love or lack of appropriate experience in the environment.

Montessori goes on to talk about the rhythm of the sensitive periods in her poetic way. “When one of these psychic passions is exhausted, another is enkindled. Childhood thus passes from conquest to conquest in a constant rhythm that constitutes its joy and happiness.” Like waves in the ocean, one sensitive period follows another.

The word passion reminds us of the strength of these sensitive periods, as see in the wave. Children feel intense frustration when there is nothing in the environment upon which to work and exercise the sensitive periods. Young children need concrete materials to fully develop mastery during these periods.

Sample sensitive periods for 3 to 6 year-olds

Language development

• In the first year a perceptual map of spoken sounds is established in the brain.
• Children speak in complete sentences by three and vocabulary expands to the degree that children hear words spoken in the environment.
• Children perfect proper word order (syntax) and use of tenses just by hearing the language spoken around them and to them.
• Children are interested in learning to write at about age four.
• Most children spontaneously show an interest in learning to read around age four or five.
• A deep interest in grammar and word origins begins at age six or seven.
• Children can learn perfect pronunciation of foreign languages when early exposure takes place.

Sense of order – from eighteen months to four years

• 3 to 6 year-olds are exquisitely sensitive to order in their environment and often cry out in frustration if things are not the way they are “supposed to be.”
• Children desire to keep order, especially if we demonstrate a simple pattern of using materials and putting them away when we are finished.

Coordination of movement

• Once basic movements are established, 3-6 six-year-olds love activity such as the balance beam, carrying objects and movement games that challenge them to further coordinate their movement.
• There is a powerful impetus for fine motor skills such as holding a pencil.

Sensory development

• Children learn best when they use their hands.
• The hands function as a powerful pathway to the brain.
• Montessori recommends that we “never give more to the eye and the ear than we give to the hand.”

Interest in small objects

• Children like to handle small objects. When past the stage of putting everything in their mouths and it becomes safe, small objects are useful for strengthening eye-hand coordination.

Basic concepts in mathematics and music

• The latest scientific research indicates that the period from birth to four is most important for developing foundational concepts of number and pattern.
• Children who are exposed to as little of one year of concrete math materials in preschool are found to be ahead of their peers all the way through high school.
• Music uses nearly the same neural structure as mathematics and has sensitive periods for development of basic music from three to ten.
• Children exposed to music before age seven are virtually the only individuals, (including career musicians) who develop perfect pitch.
• Early keyboard and singing experience dramatically increases a child’s spatial intelligence.

The Right tools at the right time

During sensitive periods opportunity exists for optimal development, when it is easy to learn. Learning during the sensitive period is as thorough and complete as it ever can be. Without the right stimulation at the right time, the child’s development suffers what Maria Montessori called a dropped stitch. The garment of the child’s development is not quite as strong and well-developed as it might have been.

But for some sensitive periods, it is far more urgent that stimulus is present – it is virtually a case of ” use it or lose it .” (See Parents’ Place , What You Need to Know about Your Child’s Brain for details.)

Educational significance of sensitive periods

One of Montessori’s most valuable contributions is her understanding of the educational value of the sensitive periods. When the education of children is based on and organized around the sensitive periods, children work with an enthusiasm and sustained interest that is truly amazing. Their development is strong and steady.

Maria Montessori proposes that we prepare an environment where the child educates himself through materials that correspond to his sensitive periods.

This can be as simple as having puzzles and bead stringing when your child begins to want to handle small objects.

It can mean offering a small broom and dust cloth for your child to accompany you when you clean.

It can mean you provide movable letters for which you teach the sounds, so the child can begin to build words.

Your child’s internal fires of development literally use an external activity to promote and facilitate its development and expansion.

Learning that takes place during the sensitive periods is powerful and long lasting. It is powerful because it is inwardly driven rather than outwardly imposed. It is long-lasting because in their early years children are forming themselves out of the raw material of their experiences. When they form themselves and build their brain with ample connections from enriched experiences, they have the apparatus they need for a productive future.

Suggestions for further reading:

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E.M. Standing

Montessori: The Science behind the Genius by Angeline Stoll Lillard

Montessori Today by Paula Polk Lillard

The Secret of Childhood by Maria Montessori

The Absorbent Mind by Maria Montessori

The Child in the Family by Maria Montessori
(out of print, but a jewel if you can find it.)

The Formation of Man by Maria Montessori

Any other books by Maria Montessori

This is the period when children develop logical thinking skills. They have to think and consciously study in order to learn. During the stage of the absorbent mind, learning happened almost automatically through exposure, but the reasoning mind needs to be consciously engaged in the learning process.

Maria Montessori identified three primary developmental drives of the elementary years. First, the child develops a voracious appetite for facts. Second, the child enters a period of moral formation and begins to ask questions about right and wrong. Third, his imagination becomes his most powerful learning tool. To feed this hungry mind and active imagination, Maria Montessori suggests that children need a vision of the whole universe starting with the solar system, the history and geography of the earth. Only a vision of the universe offers a framework for understanding all of the component parts. On the moral level, it helps children begin to understand that they are part of an integrated whole.

Montessori offers an exciting idea for guiding education: “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. Our aim therefore is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his inmost core.” (Montessori, 1967, pg. 15)

Although Montessori elementary has a strong focus on academic achievement, Maria Montessori believed that education is much more than a curriculum of information. When interest has been aroused in some area of the curriculum, children work of their own volition, for the love of learning, rather than to meet requirements. They are engaged in self-development as well as passing tests. This is the genesis of lifelong learning. Once they penetrate deeply into one area, children can more easily see connections and find new interests in other areas of the curriculum.

The Montessori elementary program is both broad and deep in its scope. Many children enter the elementary program from Montessori preschool where they have already learned basic literacy and math skills. With this foundation, children continue to learn increasingly more difficult reading, writing and math skills and apply them in ongoing projects.

Maria Montessori understood that the work of the child is essential to all humanity; this work is the construction of the man or woman of tomorrow. She observed and identified the natural characteristics of young children:

1. Spontaneous interest and deep concentration
2. Desire for purposeful movement
3. Love of repetition
4. Love of order
5. Desire for freedom of choice
6. Preference of work to play
7. Indifference to rewards or punishments
8. Love of silence
9. Sense of personal dignity
10. Early interest in reading and writing
11. Spontaneous self-discipline
12. Interest in the cosmos and the interrelation of all things

Montessori designed a “prepared environment” that offers children the opportunity to freely develop these characteristics, which represent the developmental needs of this age period. This Montessori prepared environment offers activities and hands-on materials that correspond to these needs. The environment is structured around four avenues of learning.

• Control of movement through the exercises of practical life
• Sensory education
• Language
• Math

Control of movement through the exercises of practical life

Children in this stage of development have a strong drive for purposeful movement. In Montessori classrooms around the world, you will find materials to help children coordinate and control their movements. For example, there is a set of dressing frames for learning to zip, snap, button, buckle etc. Children also pour, cut, fold, scoop, clean and sweep. These simple “practical life” activities lead to concentration, coordination of movement, independence and the internal sense of order.

Sensory Education

Children of this age are also very drawn to activities that engage the five senses. Montessori materials are designed to clearly isolate specific concepts such as length, weight, shape, size and color. Children learn to compare and contrast using their senses of smell, taste, touch, sight and hearing.

Language

During this period, children have an innate desire to learn new words, so vocabulary is presented with new materials and books every day. Maria Montessori also discovered that children age three and four are vitally interested in learning to read and write. The Montessori Method provides a sequence of simple steps that gently guides children to early reading and writing mastery.

Math

Maria Montessori developed a sequence of concrete materials that illustrate basic mathematical concepts. Hands-on experiences with these materials lead children to an understanding of numbers, the decimal system and four operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Maria Montessori had a profound respect for the child’s uniqueness and for what she called the “inner teacher,” the internal knowing of what is necessary for the next steps in development. In the Montessori prepared environment, children are free to choose the work that most appeals to them. When children select material that corresponds to their inner development, there is a magical focus of energies in genuine concentration. This concentration leads to strong internal growth and development and a remarkable peace and joy.

Whether your child is in a Montessori school or not, learning about these principles can help you better meet the developmental needs of your child.

Development of Movement

• Movement and physical development have specific sensitive periods.
• Birth to age four is the crucial time.
• Movement starts early in the womb, beginning in the seventh week, peaking at fifteen to seventeen weeks when the neurological wiring is being developed.

After birth it takes up to two years for the neurons in the cerebellum, which control movement, to fully mature.

• A child simply cannot sit, crawl, stand or walk until the cerebellum reaches a certain critical mass of development.
• The development of coordination and locomotion is far more standardized and controlled by primary brain development than the highly individualized uses of the hand.
• The hand can develop more varied activities, and this development takes place under the direction of the conscious will.

Movement and tummy time

For the young child, maximum time on the floor on the tummy is one of the best gifts a loving adult can give. Glenn Doman, from the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, researched childcare practices around the world and discovered an amazing correlation. The more babies were held and carried, the lower the IQ. The more babies were given time on their tummies to explore their environment, the higher the IQ.

Why time on the tummy is so important

To function properly, the brain’s two hemispheres need to be well connected.

• Cross-pattern movement, as in creeping and crawling, effectively helps the hemispheres form these crucial connections.
• Every time the child moves an arm or leg, a signal goes to the motor cortex of the brain. The more such signals are sent to the brain, the stronger the connections and the more fluid the movement.
• A safe, comfortable and attractive environment with objects that stimulate interest will enhance development.
• General rule of thumb: the more free movement a baby has on his tummy, the greater the brain development.

Movement and Montessori

Dr. Maria Montessori developed an entire method of education for infants and toddlers as well as older children, based on movement. In her observations of children, she saw that they were always moving, always exploring with hands, mouth, eyes and ears. Her conclusion was that movement is the law of the child’s being and the way to his brain is through his hands.

In Montessori classrooms and homes established on the principles of learning through movement, children can learn to coordinate movement, develop clear sensory impressions, read, write and do math operations through simple hands-on activities.

Movement and the law of maximum effort

By age two-and-one-half, children demonstrate what Maria Montessori calls the “law of  maximum effort,” which means they can easily and joyfully take long walks. It is a great time for walks to explore the environment.

During this time, children develop the ability to walk and carry things at the same time. They display a need to flex the muscles of their new development.

In the next period of life, from three to six, children will pass through a more extended period of coordination of movement and its application to deliberate tasks. They will learn to skip, hop, pour their own juice, button their own buttons and learn many things to become more independent and participate more fully in daily living and playing.

Language

A series of vital sensitive periods occur for the acquisition of oral language and, specifically, the ability to reproduce the sounds of language.

• Neurological wiring for the recognition and production of speech sounds is established in the first year.
• Your child learns to reproduce the sounds of his mother tongue.
• If your child hears several languages, he will retain the ability to hear and formulate the speech sounds of each of those languages.
• Once neurological wiring is complete, the more words the child hears, especially in the 2nd year, the more words he will know and the more easily he will learn more words.
• Exposing your baby to lots of oral language is one of the best investments you can make in his future development.

Babies, toddlers and order

Babies and toddlers are very sensitive to order. Keep a rhythm to your day. This does not mean you have to operate on a strict schedule, but keep daily activities such as lunch, nap, dinner, bath, story and bedtime in the same basic order.

During these early years children depend on external order to assist them in developing mental order. It is not the best time to move or rearrange your house. If you do, be aware your child may need a little extra comforting to get familiar with new surroundings.

Emotional development

These early years are also the time for intense bonding with parents and close caregivers. Babies learn the give and take of human relationships in the first months of cooing back and forth with mom and dad. Researchers have determined that babies actually initiate much of the communication between parent and child.

Your responsiveness to your child’s attempts to communicate builds his self-confidence that he is worthy of care, his exploration is worthy of respect and that his ideas are worthy of being listened to. It also helps the child build and express complex ideas — in other words, to think.

There is also a sensitive period for developing self-control which occurs in the first year of life. Every time caregivers pick up a crying baby and pat her and help her calm down, they assist the development of the neural network for self-control.

Babies who are left to cry for long periods of time often develop into individuals with little or no self-control. Authors Robin Karr-Morse and Sharon Wiley explore neglect and abuse of young children as the root cause of violence in their book Ghosts from the Nursery (1997.)

Sensitive period for math concepts

While the importance of the early years for movement and language is widely known, a more surprising sensitivity is for math.

The brain has a sensitive period from birth to four years for setting patterns that will

• assist in lifelong mathematical ability.
• Toddlers exposed to simple math concepts do better in math later in school.
• Mathematics is like a language. The more children are exposed to it in natural living situations, the more they become adept in thinking mathematically.

The infant and toddler years are exciting times for children, alive with many vital sensitive periods. When we understand the compelling needs at each stage of development, we are better able to provide the external environment and materials they need to carry out their development.

The sensitive periods first observed by Maria Montessori in the early years of the last century are being verified in this new century by scientists. Sensitive periods demonstrate neurological growth and represent a timetable of stages of human development. When we provide external activities that correspond to the internal development of sensitive periods, we see happy children who are developing their maximum potential.

Learn more about the Sensitive Periods

Recommended reading:

Nurturing Your Baby’s Soul, by Elizabeth Clare Prophet, with Dr. Joye Bennett and Nancy Hearn

Understanding the Human Being, by Silvana Q. Montanaro, M.D.

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work , by E.M. Standing

The Secret of Childhood by Maria Montessori

The Absorbent Mind by Maria Montessori

One- and two-year-olds love familiar toys and unstructured activities such as blocks, cars and trucks, dolls and doll clothes, clay and finger paint. They love to take long walks and to explore their outdoor environment. Toddlers can walk surprising distances when they are allowed to walk at their own pace.

Toddlers also love activities that have a defined purpose:

• Puzzles
• Counting materials
• Vocabulary lessons
• Fine motor activities such as pouring water or using tongs
• Arts and crafts to teach children specific skills, including scissors, paint, crayons, glue and paper

With practice and gentle reminders two-year-old children can be taught and expected to choose and carry a lesson to a table or rug, work on one lesson at a time and return a lesson to its place when finished. They can successfully understand many important social concepts:

• Waiting for someone else to finish their turn
• Watching but not touching someone else’s work
• Sharing with friends

In the properly prepared environment (where developmental needs are adequately met with interesting activities), toddlers often work on a lesson with focused concentration for long periods of time, repeating the activity again and again until they are satisfied.

Young children often work side by side without engaging in conversation or play. This is known as parallel play. As the child gets older, he becomes more social and enjoys playing with other children. He becomes better able to understand and show respect for others by using a quiet voice and not disturbing the work of others.

Maria Montessori identified the primary developmental drives for ones and twos as:

• Coordination and control of movement
• Language acquisition and development
• Internalization of a logical sense of order

Montessori recommended a simple environment to offer children experiences in all of these areas. Children have a powerful tendency to repeat activities that engage their attention. It is this repetition that promotes independence, coordination, concentration and calm behavior, even in very young children. It is important not to intervene when you observe your child concentrating on an activity, particularly to offer unnecessary assistance.

The following story demonstrates our need to recognize and understand the developmental tendencies of young children.

This story illustrates that the prepared environment includes the adult who recognizes the child’s needs and tendencies. When we allow the child to repeat seemingly inconsequential actions stemming from a developmental need, we nurture optimal development.

Over­whelm­ing evidence, such as that found in Thomas Verney’s remarkable book, The Secret Life of the Unborn Child , demonstrates that the child before birth is conscious, aware and receptive. The pre-born child is an intelligent, conscious, highly competent person, seeking relationships, learning language and search­ing for love and affection from his or her parents.

Most of us do not consciously remember events that happened before the age of three or four. Because of that, scientists and psychologists made assump­tions that there are no memo­ries or psycho­logically significant events during this period.

What is she remembering?

Age-regression studies of human memory, however, clearly tell us that we all can remember what it was like in the womb, as well as the thoughts and feelings of our parents about our impending arrival.

Because of the assumptions that there is no active psychological processing in the first years, as recently as fifty years ago, infants were operated on without anesthetics. Because of these assumptions, the unborn have been largely left alone in the womb, bereft of heart-felt contact from their parents. Think of being alone in a room for six, seven or eight months without emotional­ contact or mental stimu­lation, and then at birth being snatched from your mother, whisked off to a cold metal scale and a nursery with scarce­ly a thought about how you might feel about it all. It is not a comforting picture.

The miracle of development occurs hidden within the woman’s body. What kinds of influence do we have? What role can education possibly play? The answer to that question depends on how we define education. Dr. Maria Montessori, Italy’s first woman physician and one of the great educators of the twentieth century, defined educa­tion very broadly as “Help to life.”

How can we help life during the prenatal stage? How can we remove potential obstacles? How can we best cooperate with the forces of nature in the development of a strong person? Dr. Montessori believed that there are laws of life. As parents and educators, we do well to learn them and be obedient to them. These laws govern when certain sensitive periods in development come to the fore. A good example is when a child starts to babble. The energy of life is on the vocal cords and short of drastic measures such as taping a child’s mouth shut, we cannot start or stop the babbling. So we smile at the child and babble back — assuring that the child learns that his babbling will lead to communication. When we are obedient to the sensitive periods, we simply make certain our children have the experiences and materials at hand to develop the function associated with that specific sensitive period.

What laws of life may operate during the prenatal period? A key question is whether the child is conscious in the womb. Does he have a sense of identi­ty? Does he have a memory? Stop and think for a moment. If the child is conscious at birth, he didn’t suddenly become conscious in the birth canal, since premature babies born at seven and even five months are also con­scious when they are born. So when does it start? Brain research suggests six months of gestation, perhaps earlier.

Thomas Verney writes in his book, The Secret Life of the Unborn Child , “The unborn child is a feeling, remember­ing, aware being, and because he is, what happens to him-what happens to all of us-in the nine months between conception and birth molds and shapes person­ality, drives and ambitions in very important ways.” (1981, p. 15). Michael Gabriel, psychologist and author of Voices from the Womb says, ” My work has convinced me that our awareness begins much further back than psychologists once believed, and that human consciousness extends beyond the limits of the five senses and the brain.” (1992, p. 11).

In this section of our website, we will offer ongoing investigation into the prenatal period and how we can work with our unborn children in the most effective way.

She repeatedly said that she had not discovered a method of education, but rather the true nature of the child and his immense powers of development. She based her system on observations of children freely working and playing in learning environments she created, rather than on pre-conceived ideas of children and their development. “No one could have foreseen that children had concealed within themselves a vital secret capable of lifting the veil that covered the human soul, that they carried within themselves something which, if discovered, would help adults to solve their own individual and social problems.” (Montessori, 1966, pg.8)

Maria Montessori understood that the work of the child is essential to all humanity; this work is the construction of the man or woman of tomorrow. She observed and identified the natural characteristics of young children:

1. Spontaneous interest and deep concentration
2. Desire for purposeful movement
3. Love of repetition
4. Love of order
5. Desire for freedom of choice
6. Preference of work to play
7. Indifference to rewards or punishments
8. Love of silence
9. Sense of personal dignity
10. Early interest in reading and writing
11. Spontaneous self-discipline
12. Interest in the cosmos and the interrelation of all things

Maria Montessori developed what is now called the “Montessori Method” from her deep respect for these essential characteristics. She created a systematic approach to help each child fulfill his unique potential.

Montessori’s essential ideas of education are vastly different from the common conception of education as a curriculum of facts and information. She believed that education’s true role was as “help to life.” Central to her method is the prepared environment that allows each child to move at his or her own individual pace. She defined education as “external support for the soul in progress of its evolution.”

During more than forty years of working with children, Montessori wrote over a dozen books and gave thousands of lectures on child development. Montessori focused first on the young child from three to six years. She later explored and developed programs for infants and toddlers and for elementary school children. In her later years she outlined a program for adolescents and touched upon the developmental needs of the college-age student.

In this section of Pathway for Families, you will find regularly updated articles that introduce Montessori’s vital contributions to the field of education for children of all ages and stages of development.

What are these laws of development?

• There are successive stages the child passes through.
• Each stage has its unique characteristics that require specific environment and kinds of teaching.
• Each stage has one thing in common: each has its sensitive periods , or particular times when the child is attracted to certain activities in order for specific development to occur.

What is a sensitive period?

What exactly is a sensitive period?

• A special sensitivity that arouses a strong spontaneous desire to learn and master some skill or concept.
• A period of transitory and varying duration.
• A time especially devoted to the acquisition of a particular trait.
• Once that trait is acquired, the sensitivity disappears.

Adults have no direct influence on these periods. We cannot encourage them to begin nor can we command them to stop. All we can do it prepare an environment that encourages and nurtures spontaneous development.

A classic example of a sensitive period is the child acquiring speech.

He will begin when he is ready and once he begins, no amount of cajoling will cause the child to remain silent. He cannot stop because he is acting in accord with the very rhythms and cycles of the force of life. The child will pay particular attention to the human voice and mimic the sounds he hears. By babbling millions of sounds, he will eventually acquire speech. That speech will be whatever language the people around him speak, no matter how simple or complex it may be.

Recognizing sensitive periods

• You can recognize a sensitive period occurring when you see child your child developing a passion for a certain toy or activity.
• He may be trying to acquire balance and is drawn to walk on the cracks of sidewalks, or along the curb.
• She may be drawn to pick up small objects of any kind to develop the pincer grip.
• Your child will spontaneously repeat the activity again and again until one day the cycle is finished.
• The activity may not seem to be particularly meaningful to you, but it fulfills some area of mental or physical development and aware parents and caregivers will permit the activity.

When the acquisition has been attained, the action or material that facilitated the development

loses its fascination. The Montessori system is based on providing materials to suit these sensitive periods of spontaneous interest. You can do this at home too.

Missing a sensitive period by having no external activity to match internal development is like dropping a stitch in knitting.

If you drop a stitch, your garment is not as strong or beautiful as it might have been. More important than the eventual degree of perfection that may be reached, is the warping of being that occurs when a sensitive period is ignored or in some way blocked.

What happens when a sensitive period is blocked?

Maria Montessori believed that when a sensitive period is blocked, the child reacts to defend his internal growth and integrity.

Montessori explains that these examples of tantrums are the expression of alarm and the defense of inner development. The soul cries out in the only way it knows. The tantrum stops as soon as the possibility exists of satisfying the need.

“If during his sensitive stage a child is confronted with an obstacle to his toil, he suffers a dis turbance or even warping of his being , a spiritual martyrdom that is still too little known, but whose scars are borne unconsciously by most adults.”

Capricious tears?

Another example Montessori wrote about relates to a powerful desire for order, based on the child’s need to get oriented in the environment. There was a little toddler who loved her bath. The child was accustomed to being bathed in the family’s large kitchen sink. One day a babysitter bathed the child in the sink as she had been instructed. The child got hysterical. When the mother and sitter discussed it, they discovered that the mother always had her daughter seated facing the faucet, while the babysitter had placed her facing away from the faucet. This was enough to violate the toddler’s sense of order and she screamed in protest.

Fortunately, the sensitive periods are not always so dramatic! They can be almost unnoticed when the child’s environment adequately corresponds to his inner needs.

Psychological and educational value of the sensitive periods

Maria Montessori was the first to discover both the psychological importance and the overall importance to human development of the sensitive periods. When education is organized around the developing sensitive periods, children learn effortlessly with a sustained interest and enthusiasm almost unbelievable to observe. These sensitive periods relate to movement, language, math, sensory input, social graces and more.

This five-year-old chose to spend several hours doing this math work.
Why would he have done all this work without a powerful internal impetus?

The idea is to provide a prepared environment containing external activities that coincide with the needs of internal development. The child is permitted to freely choose his activities. As the “great match” of external activity with internal impetus occurs, the child’s every effort brings an increase in power . We often fail to recognize the significance and potential of these periods. Perhaps it is because we take for granted the stupendous progress we see children making every day.

The child’s work

The quality of the child’s work during the sensitive periods is far different than our work. We work to get the job done, whereas the child works because it provides inner satisfaction. He works because of the sheer joy of self-development.

Galvanized by our commitment to study the spiritual truths of the ages and to explore ways to apply them practically in our daily lives, we meet virtually throughout the year to pursue specific goals and prepare for our bi-annual retreats. We welcome young adults to join us and share their passion for spiritual bonding in friendship and service.

SUMMER RETREAT for KLF

To register for the retreat: Download the forms.

By May 31, email the forms to KLFRetreats@tsl.org.

Please print originals and bring to the retreat.

Questions?

Email KLFRetreats@tsl.org or

Call Customer Service at 800-245-5445

Mini-Retreats are being planned!

Discover the joy of sharing a retreat experience with like-minded souls

Learn relevant and practical spiritual advice through lessons and discussions

Participate in decree sessions and a service project

Work towards creating a shared vision and goals for this group

Indulge your inner child with fun physical activities

For more information, please contact klfretreats@tsl.org