While adjusting a hectic schedule to accommodate the slower pace of a child-and suppressing one's own natural instinct to show love by doing everything for that child-can feel both frustrating and counterintuitive to a parent, the child, over time, can only benefit. Honoring it, as a parent, can mean stepping back and allowing children both the time and the means to do as much as they can for themselves. Defined by one educator as “the freedom to use all the skills and capacities” children have “even though they may not yet be perfected,” (Helfrich, 1) functional independence directly influences the emergence of positive self esteem. Maria Montessori describes this as an innate characteristic of childhood: something which, unless they are interfered with, all children desire and work toward with unrelenting determination (Montessori, 1995, 83-84). The most significant step a parent can take to support Montessori education at home is to understand and respect a child's quest for independence. By choosing to bring Montessori practice into their homes parents can, simply, make the transition into the school years a more straightforward affair for their children. Continuity is particularly vital in early childhood, since young children have not yet learned to compartmentalize their experiences instead, they experience life as one comprehensive whole (Helfrich, 1).

Montessori education is, in turn, strengthened when parents incorporate elements of the philosophy and practice into their homes. Alice Pilkey, Assistant Teacher (Redondo Beach)Ī Montessori classroom is designed to provide continuity for children by reflecting their home environments, particularly through the exercises of practical life.

Supporting Montessori Education at Home Written by: Ms.

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